makes you think that I want sense?"

"That, being so old, you can't yet guide yourself!"

"I can read Dante, Jasper."

"Anan, brother."

"I can charm snakes, Jasper."

"I know you can, brother."

"Yes, and horses too; bring me the most vicious in the land, if I whisper
he'll be tame."

"Then the more shame for you--a snake-fellow--a horse-witch--and a lil-
reader{162b}--yet you can't shift for yourself. I laugh at you,
brother!"

"Then you can shift for yourself?"

"For myself and for others, brother."

"And what does Chikno?"

"Sells me horses, when I bid him. Those horses on the chong {162c} were
mine."

"And has he none of his own?"

"Sometimes he has; but he is not so well off as myself. When my father
and mother were bitchadey pawdel, which, to tell you the truth, they
were, for chiving wafodo dloovu, {163a} they left me all they had, which
was not a little, and I became the head of our family, which was not a
small one. I was not older than you when that happened; yet our people
said they had never a better krallis to contrive and plan for them, and
to keep them in order. And this is so well known, that many Rommany
Chals, {163b} not of our family, come and join themselves to us, living
with us for a time, in order to better themselves, more especially those
of the poorer sort, who have little of their own. Tawno is one of
these."

"Is that fine fellow poor?"

"One of the poorest, brother. Handsome as he is, he has not a horse of
his own to ride on. Perhaps we may put it down to his wife, who cannot
move about, being a cripple, as you saw."

"And you are what is called a Gypsy King?"

"Ay, ay; a Rommany Kral."

"Are there other kings?"

"Those who call themselves so; but the true Pharaoh is Petulengro."

"Did Pharaoh make horse-shoes?"

"The first who ever did, brother."

"Pharaoh lived in Egypt."

"So did we once, brother."

"And you left it?"

"My fathers did, brother."

"And why did they come here?"

"They had their reasons, brother."

"And you are not English?"

"We are not Gorgios." {163c}

"And you have a language of your own?"

"Avali." {164a}

"This is wonderful."

"Ha, ha!" cried the woman, who had hitherto sat knitting, at the farther
end of the tent, without saying a word, though not inattentive to our
conversation, as I could perceive, by certain glances, which she
occasionally cast upon us both. "Ha, ha!" she screamed, fixing upon me
two eyes,