The Book of Vagabonds and Beggars, with a Vocabulary of Their Language
History
The Book of Vagabonds and Beggars, with a Vocabulary of Their Language
Begging -- Germany; German language -- Slang; Wayfaring life -- Germany
Beware, likewise, of the doctors who travel up and down the country,
and offer theriack and roots, and make much ado about themselves, and
especially some blind doctors. One called Hans of Strasburg, has been a
Jew, and was christened at Strasburg at Whitsuntide; years ago his eyes
were bored out at Worms, but he is now a physician, and tells fortunes,
and travels from place to place, and cheats and defrauds every body.
How? I need not say, I could tell well enough.
_Item_, beware of the JONERS (gamblers) who practice BESEFLERY with the
BRIEF (cheating at cards), who _deal_ falsely and _cut_ one for the
other, cheat with BÖGLEIN and SPIES, pick one BRIEF (card) from the
ground, and another from a cupboard; they cheat also with the REGERS
(dice); with _hearts_, the _chest_, in _taking off_ and in _laying on_,
with METZES, STABS, GUMNES, PRISSING, with the _four knaves_; they use
LOE MESS (bad coins), or LOE STETTINGERS (bad florins), and make use of
many other rogueries, such as _drawing out_, the _rot_, _the stake_,
&c., which I had better not explain, for your own good.
And these same knaves eat and drink always at such houses as are called
the Stick, which means they never pay the landlord what they owe him,
but when they leave there “sticks” mostly something to them which
commonly departs with them.
_Item_, there is yet another sort among the land-strollers. These are
the _tinkers_ who travel about the country. They have women (WEIBER)
who go before them and sing and play; some go about full of mischief,
and if thou givest them nothing, one of them mayhap will break a hole
in thy kettle with a stick or a knife to give work to a multitude of
others.
_Et sic de aliis._
[Illustration]
¶ THE THIRD PART OF THIS
LITTLE BOOK IS THE
VOCABULARY.
_ADONE_, God. _Hebrew_, ADHONAIY, the Lord, _i.e._ God.
_ACHELN_, to eat. _Hebrew_, AKÁL.
_ALCHEN!_ to go.
_ALCH DICH!_ go! or, go quickly!
_ALCH DICH ÜBERN BREITHART!_ go far away! remove to a distance!
_ALCH DICH ÜBERN GLENZ!_ go far away! remove to a distance!
_BARLEN_, to speak. _French_, PARLER.
_BESCHÖCHER_, tipsy. _German_, BESOFFEN, drunken, inebriated.
_BETZAM_, an egg. _Hebrew_, BEYTZAH.
_BLECH_, a BLAFFART,—an obsolete coin containing 48 hellers.
_German_, BLECH, a thin piece of metal.
_BLECHLEIN_, a kreuzer,—a smaller coin than the preceding,
containing 8 hellers. _German_, BLECHLEIN, the diminutive of BLECH.
_BÖLEN_, HELSEN,—probably the _German_, HALSEN, to embrace any one,
to jump at one’s neck (HALS); also to veer.
_BOPPEN_, to lie; be placed or situated.
_BOSS_, or BETT, a house. This term would seem to be from the
_Hebrew_, BETH, a house. Bo, or BOS, is a common prefix in the old
_Cornish_, and signifies a house, as BOSCAWEN, BOSPIDNICK.
_BOSS DICH!_ hold thy tongue!
_BOSSHART_, meat. The _Hebrew_, BÁSAR, signifies flesh.
_BOSSHART-VETZER_, a butcher. _Hebrew._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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