"I well remember that on more occasions than one, when a schoolboy, I have turned and worn my coat inside out in passing through a wood in order to avoid the 'good people.' On nutting days, those glorious red-letter festivals in the schoolboy's calendar, the use pretty generally prevailed. The rhymes in the text are the English formula" ("Denham Tract"). He's got Pigwiggan. "Vulgarly called Peggy Wiggan. A severe fall or somerset is so termed in the B'prick. The fairy Pigwiggan is celebrated by Drayton in his Nymphidia" ("Denham Tract"). To which may be added a few more from other sources. Do what you may, say what you can, No washing e'er whitens the black Zingan. ("Firdusi.") For every gypsy that comes to toon, A hen will be a-missing soon, And for every gypsy woman old, A maiden's fortune will be told. Gypsy hair and devil's eyes, Ever stealing, full of lies, Yet always poor and never wise. He who has never lived like a gypsy does not know how to enjoy life as a gentleman. I never enjoyed the mere living as regards all that constitutes ordinary respectable life so keenly as I did after some weeks of great hunger, exposure, and misery, in an artillery company in 1863, at the time of the battle of Gettysburg. Zigeuner Leben Greiner Leben. (Gipsy life a groaning life. Korte's "Sprichwörter d. D.") Er taugt nicht zum Zigeuner. Spottisch vom Lügner gesagt weil er nicht wahr-sagt. (Korte, "Sprichwörter.") "He would not do for a gypsy." Said of a liar because he cannot tell the truth. In German to predict or tell fortunes also means to speak truly, i.e., wahr = true, and sprechen = to speak. Gypsy repentance for stolen hens is not worth much. (Old German Saying.) The Romany chi And the Romany chal Love luripen And lutchipen And dukkeripen And huknipen And every pen But latchipen And tatchipen. The gypsy woman And gypsy man Love stealing And lewdness And fortune telling And lying And every pen But shame And truth. Pen is the termination of all verbal nouns. (George Borrow, Quoted from memory.) It's a winter morning. Meaning a bad day, or that matters look badly. In allusion to the Winters, a gypsy clan with a bad name. As wild as a gypsy. Puro romaneskoes. (In the old gypsy fashion.) Sie hat 'nen Kobold. ("She has a brownie, or house-fairy.") "Said of a girl who does everything deftly and readily. In some places the peasants believe that a fairy lives in the house, who does the work, brings water or wood, or curries the horses. Where such a fairy dwells, all succeeds if he or she is kindly treated" (Korte's "German Proverbs"). "Man siehet wohl wess Geisters Kind Sie (Er) ist."