A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy LanguageSimson, Walter
History
A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy Language
Simson, Walter
Romanies; Romanies -- Languages
The whole of her
habiliments were very substantial, with not a rag or rent to be seen
about her person. [She was sometimes dressed in a green gown, trimmed
with red ribbons.] Her outer petticoat was folded up round her haunches,
for a lap, with a large pocket dangling at each side; and below her
cloak she carried, between her shoulders, a small flat pack, or pad,
which contained her most valuable articles. About her person she
generally kept a large clasp-knife, with a long, broad blade, resembling
a dagger or carving-knife; and carried in her hand a long pole or
pike-staff, that reached about a foot above her head.
It was a common practice, about the middle of last century, for old
female Gipsies of authority to strip, without hesitation, defenceless
individuals of their wearing-apparel when they met them in sequestered
places. Mary Yorkston chanced, on one occasion, to meet a shepherd's
wife, among the wild hills in the parish of Stobo, and stripped her of
the whole of her clothes. The shepherd was horrified at beholding his
wife approaching his house in a state of perfect nakedness. A Jean
Gordon was once detected, by a shepherd, stripping a female of her
wearing-apparel. He at once assisted the helpless woman; but Jean drew
from below her garments a dagger, and threw it at him. Evading the blow,
the shepherd closed in upon her, and struck her over the head with his
staff, knocking her to the ground. Another Gipsy of the old fashion, of
the name of Esther Grant, was also celebrated for the practice of
stripping people of their clothing. The Arabian principle, expressed in
these words, on meeting a stranger in the desert, "Undress thyself--my
wife, (thy aunt,) is in want of a garment," is truly applicable to the
disposition of the old female Gipsies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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