The Pocket George Borrow | Page 2

. Lavengro A lad, who twenty tongues can talk . . . Romantic Ballads "He is a great fool" . . . Romany Rye I informed the landlord . . . Romany Rye "When you are a gentleman" . . . Romany Rye I was bidding him farewell . . . Romany Rye At the dead hour of night . . . Lavengro I should say . . . Lavengro To the generality of mankind . . . Lavengro I cannot help thinking . . . Lavengro O, Cheapside! . . . Lavengro Oh, that ride! . . . Lavengro Of one thing I am certain . . . Lavengro My curiosity . . . Bible in Spain The morning of the fifth of November . . . Wild Wales "Good are the horses of the Moslems" . . . Bible in Spain "The burra," I replied . . . Bible in Spain I was standing on the castle hill . . . Lavengro In Spain I passed five years . . . Bible in Spain On the afternoon of the 6th of December . . . Bible in Spain I know of few things . . . Bible in Spain It was not without reason . . . Bible in Spain Apropos of bull-fighters . . . Bible in Spain The waiter drew the cork . . . Romany Rye Leaving the bridge . . . Lavengro I went to Belle's habitation . . . Romany Rye I found Belle seated by a fire . . . Lavengro I put some fresh wood on the fire . . . Lavengro After ordering dinner . . . Wild Wales The strength of the ox . . . The Targum I began to think . . . Romany Rye On I went . . . Romany Rye As I was gazing . . . Wild Wales "Pray, gentleman, walk in!" . . . Wild Wales Now, real Republicanism . . . Romany Rye "Does your honour remember?" . . . Wild Wales I was the last of the file . . . Wild Wales For dinner . . . Wild Wales Came to Tregeiriog . . . Wild Wales The name "Pump Saint" . . . Wild Wales After the days of the great persecution . . . Zincali

GEORGE BORROW SELECTED PASSAGES
It is very possible that the reader during his country walks or rides has observed, on coming to four cross-roads, two or three handfuls of grass lying at a small distance from each other down one of these roads; perhaps he may have supposed that this grass was recently plucked from the roadside by frolicsome children, and flung upon the ground in sport, and this may possibly have been the case; it is ten chances to one, however, that no children's hands plucked them, but that they were strewed in this manner by Gypsies, for the purpose of informing any of their companions, who might be straggling behind, the route which they had taken; this is one form of the patteran or trail. It is likely, too, that the gorgio reader may have seen a cross drawn at the entrance of a road, the long part or stem of it pointing down that particular road, and he may have thought nothing of it, or have supposed that some sauntering individual like himself had made the mark with his stick: not so, courteous gorgio; ley tiro solloholomus opre lesti, you may take your oath upon it that it was drawn by a Gypsy finger, for that mark is another of the Rommany trails; there is no mistake in this. Once in the south of France, when I was weary, hungry, and penniless, I observed one of these last patterans, and following the direction pointed out, arrived at the resting-place of 'certain Bohemians,' by whom I was received with kindness and hospitality, on the faith of no other word of recommendation than patteran. There is also another kind of patteran, which is more particularly adapted for the night; it is a cleft stick stuck at the side of the road, close by the hedge, with a little arm in the cleft pointing down the road which the band have taken, in the manner of a signpost; any stragglers who may arrive at night where cross-roads occur search for this patteran on the left-hand side, and speedily rejoin their companions.
By following these patterans, or trails, the first Gypsies on their way to Europe never lost each other, though wandering amidst horrid wildernesses and dreary denies. Rommany matters have always had a peculiar interest for me; nothing, however, connected with Gypsy life ever more captivated my imagination than this patteran system: many thanks to the Gypsies for it; it has more than once been