The English Gipsies and Their Language Part 12

He killed both of us. A sarcastic expression.

_I d.i.c.ked their stadees an langis sherros_.

I saw their hats on their heads. Apropos of amazement at some very ordinary thing.

_When you've tatti panni and rikker tutes kokero pash matto you can jal apre the wen sar a grai_.

When you have brandy (spirits), and keep yourself half drunk, you can go through the winter like a horse.

CHAPTER VIII. INDICATIONS OF THE INDIAN ORIGIN OF THE GIPSIES.

Boro Duvel, or "Great G.o.d," an Old Gipsy term for Water--Bishnoo or Vishnu, the Rain-G.o.d--The Rain, called G.o.d's Blood by Gipsies--The Snow, "Angel's Feathers."--Mahadeva--Buddha--The Simurgh--The Pintni or Mermaid--The Nag or Blind-Worm--Nagari and n.i.g.g.e.ring--The Nile--Nats and Nautches, Naubat and n.o.bbet--A Puncher--Pitch, Piller and Pivlibeebee--Quod--Kishmet or Destiny--The Koran in England--"Sa.s.s"-- Sherengro--Sa.r.s.erin--Shali or Rice--The Shaster in England--The Evil Eye--Sikhs--Stan, Hindostan, Iranistan--The true origin of Slang--Tat, the Essence of Being--Bahar and Bar--The Origin of the Words Rom and Romni.--Dom and Domni--The Hindi tem--Gipsy and Hindustani points of the Compa.s.s--Salaam and Shulam--Sarisham!--The Cups--Women's treading on objects--Horseflesh--English and Foreign Gipsies--Bohemian and Rommany.

A learned Sclavonian--Michael von Kogalnitschan--has said of Rommany, that he found it interesting to be able to study a Hindu dialect in the heart of Europe. He is quite right; but as mythology far surpa.s.ses any philology in interest, as regards its relations to poetry, how much more wonderful is it to find--to-day in England--traces of the tremendous avatars, whose souls were G.o.ds, long ago in India. And though these traces be faint, it is still apparent enough that they really exist.

One day an old Gipsy, who is said to be more than usually "deep" in Rommany, and to have had unusual opportunity for acquiring such knowledge from Gipsies older and deeper than himself, sent word to me, to know if "the rye" was aware that Boro Duvel, or the Great G.o.d, was an old Rommany expression for water? I thought that this was a singular message to come from a tent at Battersea, and asked my special Gipsy _factotum_, why G.o.d should be called water, or water, G.o.d? And he replied in the following words:

"Panni is the Boro Duvel, and it is Bishnoo or Vishnoo, because it pells alay from the Boro Duvel. '_Vishnu is the Boro Duvel then_?'--Avali.

There can't be no stretch adoi--can there, rya? Duvel is Duvel all the world over--but by the right _formation_, Vishnoo is the Duvel's ratt.

I've shuned adovo but dusta cheiruses. An' the snow is poris, that jals from the angels' winguses. And what I penned, that Bishnoo is the Duvel's ratt, is puro Rommanis, and jinned by saw our foki." {110}

Now in India, Vishnu and Indra are the G.o.ds of the rain.

The learned, who insist that as there ought to be, so there must be, but a single source of derivation for every word, ignoring the fact that a dozen causes may aid in its formation, will at once declare that, as Bishnoo or Vishnoo is derived from the old Gipsy Brishni or Brschindo, and this from the Hindu Barish, and the Sanscrit Varish or Prish, there can be "no rational ground" for connecting the English Gipsy word with the Hindu G.o.d. But who can tell what secret undercurrents of dim tradition and vague a.s.sociation may have come down to the present day from the olden time. That rain should be often called G.o.d's blood, and water bearing the name of Vishnu be termed G.o.d, and that this should be regarded as a specially curious bit of Gipsy lore, is at any rate remarkable enough.

As for the Gipsies in question ever having heard of Vishnu and other G.o.ds (as a friend suggests to me), save in this dim tradition, I can only say, that I doubt whether either of them ever heard even of the apostles; and I satisfied myself that the one who brought the secret had never heard of Joseph, was pitiably ignorant of Potiphar's wife, and only knew of "Mozhus" or Moses, that he "once heerd he was on the bulrushes."

Mahadeva, or Mahadev, exists apparently in the mouth of every English Gipsy in the phrase "Maduveleste!" or, G.o.d bless you. This word Maduvel is often changed to Mi--duvel, and is generally supposed to mean "My G.o.d;" but I was once a.s.sured, that the _old_ and correct form was Ma, meaning great, and that it only meant great in connection with Duvel.

A curious ill.u.s.tration of a lost word returning by chance to its original source was given one day, when I asked a Gipsy if he knew such a word as Buddha? He promptly replied, "Yes; that a booderi or boodha mush was an _old_ man;" and pointing to a Chinese image of Buddha, said: "That is a Boohda." He meant nothing more than that it represented an aged person, but the coincidence was at least remarkable. Budha in Hindustani really signifies an old man.

The same Gipsy, observing on the chimney-piece a quaint image of a Chinese griffin--a hideous little goblin with wings--informed me that the Gipsy name for it was a Seemor or Seemorus, and further declared that the same word meant a dolphin. "But a dolphin has no wings," I remarked.

"Oh, hasn't it?" rejoined the Gipsy; "its _fins_ are its wings, if it hadn't wings it could not be a Seemor." I think I recognise in this Seemor, the Simurgh or Griffin of Persian fable. {112} I could learn nothing more than this, that the Gipsy had always regarded a dolphin as resembling a large-headed winged monster, which he called a Seemor.

NAG is a snake in Hindustani. The English Gipsies still retain this primaeval word, but apply it only to the blind-worm. It is, however, remarkable that the Nag, or blind-worm, is, in the opinion of the Rommany, the most mysterious of creatures. I have been told that "when a nag mullers it's hardus as a kosh, and you can pogger it like a swagler's toov," "When a blind-worm dies it is as hard as a stick, and you can break it like a pipe-stem." They also believe that the Nag is gifted, so far as his will goes, with incredible malignity, and say of him--

"If he could d.i.c.k sim's he can shoon, He wouldn't mukk mush or grai jal an the drum."

"If he could see as well as he can hear, he would not allow man or horse to go on the road."

The Hindi alphabet Deva Nagari, "the writing of the G.o.ds," is commonly called Nagari. A common English Gipsy word for writing is "n.i.g.g.e.ring."

"He n.i.g.g.e.red sar he could pooker adree a chinamangree." The resemblance between _nagari_ and _n.i.g.g.e.r_ may, it is true, be merely accidental, but the reader, who will ascertain by examination of the vocabulary the proportion of Rommany words unquestionably Indian, will admit that the terms have probably a common origin.

From Sanskrit to English Gipsy may be regarded as a descent "from the Nile to a street-gutter," but it is amusing at least to find a pa.s.sable parallel for this simile. _Nill_ in Gipsy is a rivulet, a river, or a gutter. Nala is in Hindustani a brook; nali, a kennel: and it has been conjectured that the Indian word indicates that of the great river of Egypt.

All of my readers have heard of the Nautch girls, the so-called _bayaderes_ or dancing-girls of India; but very few, I suppose, are aware that their generic name is remotely preserved in several English Gipsy words. Nachna in Hindustani means to dance, while the Nats, who are a kind of Gipsies, are generally jugglers, dancers, and musicians. A _natua_ is one of these Nats, and in English Gipsy _nautering_ means going about with music. Other attractions may be added, but, as I have heard a Gipsy say, "it always takes music to go _a-nauterin_' or _n.o.bbin_'."

_Naubat_ in the language of the Hindu Nats signifies "time, turn, and instruments of music sounding at the gate of a great man, at certain intervals." "n.o.bbet," which is a Gipsy word well known to all itinerant negro minstrels, means to go about with music to get money. "To n.o.bbet round the tem, bosherin'." It also implies time or turn, as I inferred from what I was told on inquiry. "You can shoon dovo at the wellgooras when yeck rakkers the waver, You jal and n.o.bbet." "You can hear that at the fairs when one says to the other, You go and n.o.bbet," meaning, "It is your turn to play now."

_Nachna_, to dance (Hindustani), appears to be reflected in the English Gipsy "nitchering," moving restlessly, fidgeting and dancing about.

n.o.bbeting, I was told, "_is_ nauterin'--it's all one, rya!"

_Paejama_ in India means very loose trousers; and it is worth noting that Gipsies call loose leggings, trousers, or "overalls," peajamangris. This may be Anglo-Indian derived from the Gorgios. Whether "pea-jacket"

belongs in part to this family, I will not attempt to decide.

Living constantly among the vulgar and uneducated, it is not to be wondered at that the English Gipsies should have often given a vulgar English and slangy term to many words originally Oriental. I have found that, without exception, there is a disposition among most people to promptly declare that all these words were taken, "of course," from English slang. Thus, when I heard a Gipsy speak of his fist as a "puncher," I naturally concluded that he did so because he regarded its natural use to be to "punch" heads with. But on asking him why he gave it that name, he promptly replied, "Because it takes pange (five) fingers to make a fist." And since _panja_ means in Hindustani a hand with the five fingers extended, it is no violent a.s.sumption to conclude that even _puncher_ may owe quite as much to Hindustani as to English, though I cheerfully admit that it would perhaps never have existed had it not been for English a.s.sociations. Thus a Gipsy calls a pedlar a _packer_ or _pack-mush_. Now, how much of this word is due to the English word pack or packer, and how much to _paikar_, meaning in Hindustani a pedlar? I believe that there has been as much of the one as of the other, and that this doubly-formative influence, or _influence of continuation_, should be seriously considered as regards all Rommany words which resemble in sound others of the same meaning, either in Hindustani or in English. It should also be observed that the Gipsy, while he is to the last degree inaccurate and a blunderer as regards _English_ words (a fact pointed out long ago by the Rev. Mr Crabb), has, however, retained with great persistence hundreds of Hindu terms. Not being very familiar with peasant English, I have generally found Gipsies more intelligible in Rommany than in the language of their "stepfather-land," and have often asked my princ.i.p.al informant to tell me in Gipsy what I could not comprehend in "Anglo-Saxon."

"To pitch together" does not in English mean to stick together, although _pitch_ sticks, but it does in Gipsy; and in Hindustani, _pichchi_ means sticking or adhering. I find in all cases of such resemblance that the Gipsy word has invariably a closer affinity as regards meaning to the Hindu than to the English, and that its tendencies are always rather Oriental than Anglo-Saxon. As an ill.u.s.tration, I may point out _piller_ (English Gipsy) to attack, having an affinity in _pilna_ (Hindustani), with the same meaning. Many readers will at once revert to _pill_, _piller_, and _pillage_--all simply _implying_ attack, but really meaning to _rob_, or robbery. But _piller_ in English Gipsy also means, as in Hindustani, to a.s.sault indecently; and this is almost conclusive as to its Eastern origin.

It is remarkable that the Gipsies in England, or all the world over, have, like the Hindus, a distinctly descriptive expression for every degree of relationship. Thus a _pivli beebee_ in English Gipsy, or _pupheri bahim_ in Hindustani, is a father's sister's daughter. This in English, as in French or German, is simply a cousin.

_Quod_, imprisonment, is an old English cant and Gipsy word which Mr Hotten attempts to derive from a college quadrangle; but when we find that the Hindu _quaid_ also means confinement, the probability is that it is to it we owe this singular term.

There are many words in which it is evident that the Hindu Gipsy meaning has been shifted from a cognate subject. Thus _putti_, the hub of a wheel in Gipsy, means the felly of a wheel in Hindustani. _Kaizy_, to rub a horse down, or sc.r.a.pe him, in the original tongue signifies "to tie up a horse's head by pa.s.sing the bridle to his tail," to prevent his kicking while being rubbed or 'sc.r.a.ped. _Quasur_, or _kasur_, is in Hindustani flame: in English Gipsy _kessur_ signifies smoke; but I have heard a Gipsy more than once apply the same term to flame and smoke, just as _miraben_ stands for both life and death.

Very Oriental is the word kismet, or destiny, as most of my readers are probably aware. It is also English Gipsy, and was explained to me as follows: "A man's _kis.m.u.t_ is what he's bound to kair--it's the kis.m.u.t of his see. Some men's kis.m.u.t is better'n wavers, 'cos they've got more better chiv. Some men's kis.m.u.t's to bikin grais, and some to bikin kanis; but saw foki has their kis.m.u.t, an' they can't pen chichi elsus."

In English, "A man's destiny is what he is bound to do--it is the fate of his soul (life). Some men's destiny is better than others, because they have more command of language. Some are fated to sell horses, and others to sell hens; but all people have their mission, and can do nothing else."

_Quran_ in the East means the Koran, and quran uthara to take an oath. In English Gipsy kurran, or kurraben, is also an oath, and it seems strange that such a word from such a source should exist in England. It is, however, more interesting as indicating that the Gipsies did not leave India until familiarised with Mohammedan rule. "He kaired his kurran pre the Duvel's Bavol that he would jal 'vree the tem for a besh." "He swore his oath upon G.o.d's Breath (the Bible) that he would leave the country for a year." Upon inquiring of the Gipsy who uttered this phrase why he called the Bible "G.o.d's Breath," he replied naively, "It's sim to the Duvel's jivaben, just the same as His breathus." "It is like G.o.d's life, just the same as His breath."

It is to be observed that _nearly all the words which Gipsies claim as Gipsy_, _notwithstanding their resemblance to English_, _are to be found in Hindustani_. Thus _rutter_, to copulate, certainly resembles the English _rut_, but it is quite as much allied to _rutana_ (Hindustani), meaning the same thing. "Sa.s.s," or sauce, meaning in Gipsy, bold, forward impudence, is identical with the same English word, but it agrees very well with the Hindu _sahas_, bold, and was perhaps born of the latter term, although it has been brought up by the former.

Dr A. F. Pott remarks of the German Gipsy word _schetra_, or violin, that he could nowhere find in Rommany a similar instrument with an Indian name. Surrhingee, or sarunghee, is the common Hindu word for a violin; and the English Gipsies, on being asked if they knew it, promptly replied that it was "an old word for the neck or head of a fiddle." It is true they also called it sarengro, surhingro, and sh.o.r.engro, the latter word indicating that it might have been derived from sherro-engro--_i.e_., "head-thing." But after making proper allowance for the Gipsy tendency, or rather pa.s.sion, for perverting words towards possible derivations, it seems very probable that the term is purely Hindu.

Zuhru, or Zohru, means in the East Venus, or the morning star; and it is pleasant to find a reflection of the rosy G.o.ddess in the Gipsy _soor_, signifying "early in the morning." I have been told that there is a Rommany word much resembling _soor_, meaning the early star, but my informant could not give me its exact sound. _Dood of the sala_ is the common name for Venus. Sunrise is indicated by the eccentric term of "_kam-left the panni_" or sun-left the water. "It wells from the waver tem you jin," said my informant, in explanation. "The sun comes from a foreign country, and first leaves that land, and then leaves the sea, before it gets here."

When a Gipsy is prowling for hens, or any other little waifs, and wishes to leave a broken trail, so that his tracks may not be identified, he will walk with the feet interlocked--one being placed outside the other--making what in America is very naturally termed a snake-trail.

This he calls _sa.r.s.erin_, and in Hindu _sarasana_ means to creep along like a snake.

Supposing that the Hindu word for rice, _shali_, could hardly have been lost, I asked a Gipsy if he knew it, and he at once replied, "_Shali giv_ is small grain-corn, werry little grainuses indeed."

_Shalita_ in Hindustani is a canvas sack in which a tent is carried. The English Gipsy has confused this word with _shelter_, and yet calls a small or "shelter" tent a shelter _gunno_, or bag. "For we rolls up the big tent in the shelter tent, to carry it." A tent cloth or canvas is in Gipsy a _shummy_, evidently derived from the Hindu shumiyana, a canopy or awning.

It is a very curious fact that the English Gipsies call the Scripture or Bible the _Shaster_, and I record this with the more pleasure, since it fully establishes Mr Borrow as the first discoverer of the word in Rommany, and vindicates him from the suspicion with which his a.s.sertion was received by Dr Pott. On this subject the latter speaks as follows:--

"Eschastra de Moyses, l. ii. 22; [Greek text], M.; Sanskrit, castra; Hind., shastr, m. Hindu religious books, Hindu law, Scripture, inst.i.tutes of science (Shakespeare). In proportion to the importance of the real existence of this word among the Gipsies must be the suspicion with which we regard it, when it depends, as in this instance, only on Borrow's a.s.sertion, who, in case of need, to supply a non-existing word, may have easily taken one from the Sanskrit."--_Die Zigeuner_, vol. ii.

p. 224.

The word _shaster_ was given to me very distinctly by a Gipsy, who further volunteered the information, that it not only meant the Scriptures, but also any written book whatever, and somewhat marred the dignity of the sublime a.s.sociation of the Bible and Shaster, by adding that "any feller's bettin'-book on the race-ground was a _shasterni lil_, 'cos it's written."

I have never heard of the evil eye among the lower orders of English, but among Gipsies a belief in it is as common as among Hindus, and both indicate it by the same word, _seer_ or _sihr_. In India _sihr_, it is true, is applied to enchantment or magic in general, but in this case the whole may very well stand for a part. I may add that my own communications on the subject of the _jettatura_, and the proper means of averting it by means of crab's claws, horns, and the usual sign of the fore and little finger, were received by a Gipsy auditor with great faith and interest.

To show, teach, or learn, is expressed in Gipsy by the word _sikker_, _sig_, or _seek_. The reader may not be aware that the Sikhs of India derive their name from the same root, as appears from the following extract from Dr Paspati's _etudes_: "_Sikava_, v. prim. 1 cl. 1 conj.

part, siklo', montrer, apprendre. Sanskrit, s'iks', to learn, to acquire science; siksaka, adj., a learner, a teacher. Hindustani, seek'hna, v.a., to learn, to acquire; seek'h, s.f., admonition." I next inquired why they were called Seeks, and they told me it was a word borrowed from one of the commandments of their founder, which signifies 'learn thou,'