gst them; a coko would then put a stick in
Ursula's hand, who would then get up and go to the young fellow, and say,
'Did I play the . . . with you?' and were he to say 'Yes,' she would
crack his head before the eyes of all."

"Well," said I, "Ursula, I was bred an apprentice to gorgio law, and of
course ought to stand up for it, whenever I conscientiously can, but I
must say the gypsy manner of bringing an action for defamation is much
less tedious, and far more satisfactory, than the gorgiko one. I wish
you now to clear up a certain point which is rather mysterious to me. You
say that for a Romany chi to do what is unseemly with a gorgio is quite
out of the question, yet only the other day I heard you singing a song in
which a Romany chi confesses herself to be cambri {302b} by a grand
gorgious gentleman."

"A sad let down," said Ursula.

"Well," said I, "sad or not, there's the song that speaks of the thing,
which you give me to understand is not?"

"Well, if the thing ever was," said Ursula, "it was a long time ago, and
perhaps, after all, not true."

"Then why do you sing the song?"

"I tell you, brother: we sings the song now and then to be a warning to
ourselves to have as little to do as possible in the way of acquaintance
with the gorgios; and a warning it is. You see how the young woman in
the song was driven out of her tent by her mother, with all kinds of
disgrace and bad language; but you don't know that she was afterwards
buried alive by her cokos and pals, in an uninhabited place. The song
doesn't say it, but the story says it; for there is a story about it,
though, as I said before, it was a long time ago, and perhaps, after all,
wasn't true."

"But if such a thing were to happen at present, would the cokos and pals
bury the girl alive?"

"I can't say what they would do," said Ursula, "I suppose they are not so
strict as they were long ago; at any rate she would be driven from the
tan, {303} and avoided by all her family and relations as a gorgio's
acquaintance, so that, perhaps, at last, she would be glad if they would
bury her alive."

"Well, I can conceive that there would be an objection on the part of the
cokos and batus that a Romany chi should form an improper acquaintance
with a gorgio, but I should think that the batus and cokos could hardly
object to the chi's entering into the honourable estate of wedlock with a
gorgio."

Ursula was silent.

"Marriage is an honourable estate