Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 05
History
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 05
Literature -- Collections
"All the appearance of one!" said Antonio; "and is she not really one?
She knows more crabbed things and crabbed words than all the Errate
betwixt here and Catalonia. She has been amongst the wild Moors, and can
make more _draos_, poisons, and philtres than any one alive. She once
made a kind of paste, and persuaded me to taste, and shortly after I had
done so my soul departed from my body, and wandered through horrid
forests and mountains, amidst monsters and _duendes_, during one entire
night. She learned many things amidst the Corahai which I should be
glad to know."
"Have you been long acquainted with her?" said I. "You appear to be
quite at home in this house."
"Acquainted with her!" said Antonio. "Did not my own brother marry the
black Calli, her daughter, who bore him the _chabí_, sixteen years ago,
just before he was hanged by the Busné?"
In the afternoon I was seated with the gipsy mother in the hall; the two
Callées were absent telling fortunes about the town and neighborhood,
which was their principal occupation.
"Are you married, my London Caloró?" said the old woman to me. "Are you
a _ro_?"
_Myself_--Wherefore do you ask, O Dai de los Calés?
_Gipsy Mother_--It is high time that the _lacha_ of the _chabi_ were
taken from her, and that she had a _ro_. You can do no better than take
her for _romi_, my London Caloró.
_Myself_--I am a stranger in this land, O mother of the gipsies, and
scarcely know how to provide for myself, much less for a _romi_.
_Gipsy Mother_--She wants no one to provide for her, my London Caloró:
she can at any time provide for herself and her _ro_. She can
_hokkawar_, tell _baji_, and there are few to equal her at stealing _à
pastesas_. Were she once at Madrilati, where they tell me you are going,
she would make much treasure; therefore take her thither, for in this
_foros_ she is _nahi_, as it were, for there is nothing to be gained:
but in the _foros baro_ it would be another matter; she would go dressed
in _lachipé_ and _sonacai_, whilst you would ride about on your
black-tailed _gra_; and when you had got much treasure, you might return
hither and live like a Crallis, and all the Errate of the Chim del Manró
should bow down their heads to you. What say you, my London Caloró;
what say you to my plan?
_Myself_--Your plan is a plausible one, mother, or at least some people
would think so; but I am, as you are aware, of another _chim_, and have
no inclination to pass my life in this country.
_Gipsy Mother_--Then return to your own country, my Caloró; the _chabí_
can cross the _paní_. Would she not do business in London with the rest
of the Caloré? Or why not go to the land of the Corahai? In which case I
would accompany you; I and my daughter, the mother of the _chabí_.
_Myself_--And what should we do in the land of the Corahai? It is a poor
and wild country, I believe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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