e from the Gorgios of Europe.
It is really extraordinary that all the philologists who have toiled to
derive the word _zingan_ from a Greek or Western source have never
reflected that if it was applied to the race at an early time in India or
Persia all their speculations must fall to the ground.

One last word of John Nano, who was so called from two similar Indian
words, meaning "the pet of his grandfather." I have in my possession a
strange Hindu knife, with an enormously broad blade, perhaps five or six
inches broad towards the end, with a long handle richly mounted in the
purest bronze with a little silver. I never could ascertain till 1 knew
him what it had been used for. Even the old ex-king of Oude, when he
examined it, went wrong on it. Not so John Nano.

"I know well enough what that knife is. I have seen it before,--years
ago. It is very old, and it was long in use; it was the knife used by
the public executioner in Bhotan. It is Bhotani."

By the knife hangs the ivory-handled court-dagger which belonged to
Francis II. of France, the first husband of Mary Queen of Scots. I
wonder which could tell the strangest story of the past!

"It has cut off many a head," said John Nano, "and I have seen it
before!"

I do not think that I have gone too far in attaching importance to the
gypsy legend of the origin of the word _chen-kan_ or _zingan_. It is
their own, and therefore entitled to preference over the theories of mere
scholars; it is Indian and ancient, and there is much to confirm it.
When I read the substance of this chapter before the Philological Society
of London, Prince Lucien Bonaparte,--who is beyond question a great
philologist, and one distinguished for vast research,--who was in the
chair, seemed, in his comments on my paper, to consider this sun and moon
legend as frivolous. And it is true enough that German symbolizers have
given us the sun myth to such an extent that the mere mention of it in
philology causes a recoil. Then, again, there is the law of humanity
that the pioneer, the gatherer of raw material, who is seldom collector
and critic together, is always assailed. Columbus always gets the chains
and Amerigo Vespucci the glory. But the legend itself is undeniably of
the gypsies and Indian.

It is remarkable that there are certain catch-words, or test-words, among
old gypsies with which they try new acquaintances. One of these is
_kekkavi_, a kettle; another, _chinamangri_,