A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy Language — John Shaqi
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
And yet it is singular that, if the Gipsies are met in the streets of a
town, or any considerably frequented place, people will, in passing
them, edge off a little to the side, and look at them with a degree of
interest, which, on ordinary occasions, the Gipsies will but little
notice. But if a person of respectable appearance will scrutinize them
in an ominous way, they will observe it instantly; and, as a
swell-mobsman, on being stared at by a detective, on the mere suspicion
of his being such, generally turns the first cross street, and, in
turning, anxiously looks after his enemy, who, after calculating the
distance, has also turned to watch his movements, so the Gipsy will
become excited, soon turning round to watch the movements of the object
of his dread; a fear that will be heightened if any of his band has been
spoken to. And such is the masonic secrecy with which they keep their
language, that should they at the time have rested on the road-side, and
the stranger assume the most impressive tone, and say: "_Sallah, jaw
drom_"--(curse you, take the road), the effects upon them are at first
bewildering, and followed by a feeling of some dire calamity that is
about to befall them. When any of the poorest kind can be prevailed upon
to express a candid sentiment, and be asked how they really do get on,
they will reply, "It's only day and way we want, ye ken--what a farmer
body ne'er can miss; foreby selling a spoon, and tinkering a kettle now
and then."
In viewing the effects of civilization upon a barbarous race, we are
naturally led to confine our reflections to some of the instances in
which the civilized race has carried its influence abroad to those
beyond its pale, to the exclusion of those instances, from their
infrequency of occurrence, in which the barbarous race, of its own
accord or otherwise, has come within its circle. There are but two
instances, in modern times, in which the latter has happened, and they
are well worthy of our notice. The one is, the existence of the Gipsies,
in the very heart of civilization; the other, that of the Africans in
the various European settlements in the New World; and between these a
short comparison may be instituted, although at the risk of it being
deemed a digression.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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