I, ‘I’ll keep my own word, which is much the prettiest—spaeing! spaeing! why, I should be ashamed to make use of the word, it sounds so much like a certain other word;’ and then I made a face as if I were unwell. ‘Perhaps it’s Scotch also for that?’ ‘What do ye mean by speaking in that guise to a gentleman?’ said he, ‘you insolent vagabond, without a name or a country.’ ‘There you are mistaken,’ said I; ‘my country is Egypt, but we ’Gyptians, like you Scotch, are rather fond of travelling; and as for name—my name is Jasper Petulengro, perhaps you have a better; what is it?’ ‘Sandy Macraw.’ At that, brother, the gentlemen burst into a roar of laughter, and all the ladies tittered.” “You were rather severe on the Scotchman, Jasper.” “Not at all, brother, and suppose I were, he began first; I am the civilest man in the world, and never interfere with anybody, who lets me and mine alone. He finds fault with Romany, forsooth! why, L—d A’mighty, what’s Scotch? He doesn’t like our songs; what are his own? I understand them as little as he mine; I have heard one or two of them, and pretty rubbish they seemed. But the best of the joke is, the fellow’s finding fault with Piramus’s fiddle—a chap from the land of bagpipes finding fault with Piramus’s fiddle! Why, I’ll back that fiddle against all the bagpipes in Scotland, and Piramus against all the bagpipers; for though Piramus weighs but ten stone, he shall flog a Scotchman of twenty.” “Scotchmen are never so fat as that,” said I, “unless, indeed, they have been a long time pensioners of England. I say, Jasper, what remarkable names your people have!” “And what pretty names, brother; there’s my own for example, Jasper; then there’s Ambrose and Sylvester; {46a} then there’s Culvato, which signifies Claude; then there’s Piramus—that’s a nice name, brother.” “Then there’s your wife’s name, Pakomovna; then there’s Ursula and Morella.” “Then, brother, there’s Ercilla.” “Ercilla! the name of the great poet of Spain, how wonderful; then Leviathan.” “The name of a ship, brother; Leviathan was named after a ship, so don’t make a wonder out of her. But there’s Sanpriel and Synfye.” “Ay, and Clementina and Lavinia, Camillia and Lydia, Curlanda and Orlanda; wherever did they get those names?” “Where did my wife get her necklace, brother?” “She knows best, Jasper. I hope—” “Come, no hoping! She got it from her grandmother, who died at the age of 103, and sleeps in Coggeshall churchyard. She got it from her mother, who also died very old, and who could give no other account of it than that it had been in the family time out of mind.” “Whence could they have got it?” “Why, perhaps where they got their names, brother. A gentleman, who had travelled much, once told me that he had seen the sister of it about the neck of an Indian queen.”