The Gipsies Advocate | Page 3

eye, mouth, hands, ancle, and quickness of manners,
strongly indicative of Hindoo origin. This is more particularly the case
with the females. Nor is the above mere assertion. The testimony of the
most intelligent travellers, many 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