The Gipsies Advocate | Page 3

of whom have long resided in India, fully supports this opinion. And, indeed, persons who have not travelled on the Asiatic Continent, but who have seen natives of Hindostan, have been surprised at the similarity of manners and features existing between them and the Gipsies. The Author of this work once met with a Hindoo woman, and was astonished at the great resemblance she bore in countenance and manners to the female Gipsy of his own country.
The Hindoo Suder delights in horses, tinkering, music, and fortune telling; so does the Gipsy. The Suder tribes of the same part of the Asiatic Continent, are wanderers, dwelling chiefly in wretched mud-huts. When they remove from one place to another, they carry with them their scanty property. The English Gipsies imitate these erratic tribes in this particular. They wander from place to place, and carry their small tents with them, which consist of a few bent sticks, and a blanket. {14} The Suders in the East eat the flesh of nearly every unclean creature; nor are they careful that the flesh of such creatures should not be putrid. How exactly do the Gipsies imitate them in this abhorrent choice of food! They have been in the habit of eating many kinds of brutes, not even excepting dogs and cats; and when pressed by hunger, have sought after the most putrid carrion. It has been a common saying among them--that which God kills, is better than that killed by man. But of late years, with a few exceptions, they have much improved in this respect; for they now eat neither dogs nor cats, and but seldom seek after carrion. But in winter they will dress and eat snails, hedge-hogs, and other creatures not generally dressed for food.
But the strongest evidence of their Hindoo origin is the great resemblance their own language bears to the Hindostanee. The following Vocabulary is taken from Grellman, Hoyland, and Captain Richardson. The first of these respectable authors declares, that twelve out of thirty words of the Gipsies' language, are either purely Hindostanee, or nearly related to it.
The following list of words are among those which bear the greatest resemblance to that language.
Gipsy. Hindostanee. English. Ick, Ek, Ek, One. Duj, Doj, Du, Two. Trin, Tri, Tin, Three. Schtar, Star, Tschar, Four. Pantsch, Pansch, Pansch, Five. Tschowe, Sshow, Tscho, Six. Efta, Hefta, Sat, Seven. Ochto, Aute, Eight. Desch, Des, Des, Ten. Bisch, Bis, Bis Twenty. Diwes, Diw, Day. Ratti, Ratch, Night. Cham, Cam, Tschanct The sun. Panj, Panj, Water. Sonnikey, Suna, Gold. Rup, Ruppa, Silver. Bal, Bal, The hair. Aok, Awk, The eye. Kan, Kawn, The ear. Mui, Mu, The mouth. Dant, Dant, A tooth. Sunjo, Sunnj, The hearing. Sunj, Sunkh, The smell. Sik, Tschik, The taste. Tschater, Tschater, A tent. Rajah, Raja, The prince. Baro, Bura, Great. Kalo, Kala, Black. Grea, Gorra, Horse. Ker, Gurr, House. Pawnee, Paniee, Brook, drink, water. Bebee, Beebe, Aunt. Bouropanee, Bura-panee, Ocean, wave. Rattie, Rat, Dark night, Dad, Dada, Father. Mutchee, Muchee, Fish.
This language, called by themselves Slang, or Gibberish, invented, as they think, by their forefathers for secret purposes, is not merely the language of one, or a few of these wandering tribes, which are found in the European Nations; but is adopted by the vast numbers who inhabit the earth.
One of our reformed Gipsies, while in the army, was with his regiment at Portsmouth, and being on garrison duty with an invalid soldier, he was surprised to hear some words of the Gipsy language unintentionally uttered by him, who was a German. On enquiring how he understood this language, the German replied, that he was of Gipsy origin, and that it was spoken by this race in every part of his native land, for purposes of secrecy. {16}
A well known nobleman, who had resided many years in India, taking shelter under a tree during a storm in this country, near a camp of Gipsies, was astonished to hear them use several words he well knew were Hindostanee; and going up to them, he found them able to converse with him in that language.
Not long ago, a Missionary from India, who was well acquainted with the language of Hindostan, was at the Author's house when a Gipsy was present; and, after a conversation which he had with her, he declared, that, her people must once have known the Hindostanee language well. Indeed Gipsies have often expressed surprise when words have been read to them out of the Hindostanee vocabulary.
Lord Teignmouth once said to a young Gipsy woman in Hindostanee, Tue burra tschur, that is, Thou a great thief. She immediately replied; No--I am not a thief--I live by fortune telling.
It can be no matter of surprise that this language, as spoken among this people, is generally corrupted, when we consider, that, for many centuries,