M. Paspati satisfactorily proved that the wandering tribes of the Romá, _e.g._ the wild Zapáris or Dyáparis (Szapary?),[122] have preserved in Rumelia the _langue mère_ of their ancients, whereas the “domigence,” the sedentary dwellers in cities and towns, have “falsified” the tongue. The same is said by the Bedawin concerning the “Jumpers of Walls,” the settled Arabs. This part of the subject leads to notices of Gypsy tales and legends, in which, by the way, Gypsies rarely figure, and to other productions of _la pauvre Muse tsigane_. After some discursive matter, our critic passes from M. Paspati to M. Bartalus, who has quoted from certain very rare tracts (_La Véritable origine, etc._, A.D. 1798 and 1800) on the rise of the Gypsy nation. The _Bohémiens_, it appears, are descendants of Cham or Ham, “which is admissible”; and, like their brethren, they were damned by Noah. But, on the destruction of the Plain cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, Adama and Saboim--Segor being honourably excluded--Zoar and its inhabitants were saved because they harboured one Lot. The lands, however, were assigned to this “patriarch”; and the Hamites, being dispersed, became Gypsies. Once more that myth of Noah!--for how much false anthropology is it not responsible? Again, we do not fail to meet another old friend. The wicked king of Egypt appears in a famous “Pharaoh Song,” whilst in Iceland he gave his name to a cavalry of seals. The oath formula of the Hungarian Gypsies prescribed by the courts was: “As King Pharaoh was engulfed in the Red Sea, so may I be accursed and swallowed up by the deepest abyss if I do not speak the truth! May no theft, no traffic, nor any other business prosper with me! May my horse turn into an ass at the next stroke of his hoof, and may I end my days on the scaffold by the hands of the hangman!”[123]