So general is this jealous feeling, that all knowledge of the language will frequently be disowned, and I have often known gypsies intentionally misinform non-gypsies by supplying wrong words; for instance, I heard a gypsy tell an inquiring gorgio that the word “match” was “yog cosh” in gypsy. Upon analyzing this and finding it signified “fire stick,” the information would be accepted as correct, until it was discovered that it also meant a firebrand, and that there is a very different genuine Romany word denoting this specific match and nothing else. The true Romanichal prides himself on his knowledge of the tongue, which, when well spoken, he designates “deep” Romany, and I have known real exponents of it in descendants of the old, old gypsies who have been described, with some little exaggeration, perhaps, as having been “as black as the ace of spades”; at the same time, I am acquainted with other families who are much darker-complexioned than many Hindoos, whose Romany is comparatively meagre. Apropos of the suspicious reticence of the gypsy, I recollect that while in the hop gardens, a man came one day to the spot where a gypsy girl and I were picking, and having heard a little of our conversation, came nearer and said— “I say, I should like to learn Romany.” [Illustration: “BEAUX YEUX.”] The girl replied, “Oh, would you—why it would take you ever so long. That’s true, isn’t it?” she added, turning to me for confirmation of the statement. Undaunted, he returned to the charge— “Well, can you tell me the best way to learn?” “Yes,” replied my companion without a moment’s hesitation, “marry a gypsy girl,—if she’ll have you.” Upon looking into this, and reading between the lines, the objection the gypsies have to the acquirement of their language by any one whom they do not credit with some degree of blood relationship is quite evident. On another occasion I happened to be chatting with about half a dozen gypsies, when a person who was not a gypsy joined the group. This was a signal for a woman near me to come close and whisper— “Kekko rokkra it, mush” (don’t talk it), and I discovered later that the new-comer was one who had picked up a little of the language and was most anxious to learn more. Although the behaviour of the gypsies towards the man was politeness itself, no more Romany was spoken until he was out of earshot.