doing penance, by a seven years' wandering, for the sin of their
forefathers, who of old had refused hospitality to the Virgin and Child.
They did not speak truth, however; the name they bore, Zingary, and
which, slightly modified, is still borne by their descendants in various
countries, shows that they were not from Egypt, but from a much more
distant land, Hindostan; for Zingaro is Sanscrit, and signifies a man of
mixed race, a mongrel; whilst their conduct was evidently not that of
people engaged in expiatory pilgrimage; for the women told the kosko
bokht, the good luck, the _buena ventura_; kaured, that is, filched money
and valuables from shop-boards and counters by a curious motion of the
hands, and poisoned pigs and hogs by means of a certain drug, and then
begged, and generally obtained, the carcases, which cut up served their
families for food; the children begged and stole; whilst the men, who it
is true professed horse-clipping, farriery and fiddling, not unfrequently
knocked down travellers and plundered them. The hand of justice of
course soon fell heavily upon them; men of Egypt, as they were called,
were seized, hung, or maimed; women scourged or branded; children
whipped; but no severity appeared to have any effect upon the Zingary;
wherever they went (and they soon found their way to almost every country
in Europe), they adhered to their evil practices. Before the expiration
of the fifteenth century bands of them appeared in England with their
horses, donkeys and tilted carts. How did they contrive to cross the sea
with their carts and other property? By means very easy to people with
money in their pockets, which the Gypsies always have, by paying for
their passage; just as the Hungarian tribe did, who a few years ago came
to England with their horses and vehicles, and who, whilst encamping with
their English brethren in the loveliest of all forests, Epping Wesh,
exclaimed "Sore si mensar si men". {0a}

The meaning of Zingary, one of the names by which the pseudo-penitents
from Lower Egypt called themselves, has been given above. Now for that
of the other, Romany Chals, a name in which the English Gypsies delight,
who have entirely dropped that of Zingary. The meaning of Romany Chals
is lads of Rome or Rama; Romany signifying that which belongs to Rama or
Rome, and Chal a son or lad, being a Zingaric word connected with the
_Shilo_ of Scripture, the meaning of which may be found in the Lexicon of