hey first entered Europe, the gypsies were full of these
legends; they told them to everybody; but they had previously told them
to themselves in the form of the Indian sun and moon story. This was the
root whence other stories grew. As the tale of the Wandering Jew
typifies the Hebrew, so does this of the sun and moon the Romany.

A GYPSY MAGIC SPELL.

There is a meaningless rhyme, very common among children. It is repeated
while counting off those who are taking part in a game, and allotting to
each a place. It is as follows:--

"Ekkeri akkery u-kery an
Fillisi', follasy, Nicolas John
Queebee-quabee--Irishman.
Stingle 'em--stangle 'em--buck!"

With a very little alteration in sounds, and not more than children make
of these verses in different places, this may be read as follows:--

"'Ekkeri, akai-ri, you kair--an.
Filissin follasy. Nakelas ja'n.
Kivi, kavi. Irishman.
Stini--stani--buck!"

This is nonsense, of course, but it is Romany, or gypsy, and may be
translated:--

"First--here--you begin.
Castle--gloves. You don't play. Go on!
_Kivi_--kettle. How are you?
_Stini_--buck--buck."

The common version of the rhyme begins with:--

"_One_ 'eri--two-ery, ekkeri--an."

But one-ry is the _exact_ translation of ekkeri; ek or yek being one.
And it is remarkable that in

"_Hickory_ dickory dock,
The rat ran up the clock;
The clock struck _one_,
And down he run,
_Hickory_ dickory dock."

We have hickory or ekkeri again, followed by a significant _one_. It may
be observed that while, the first verses abound in Romany words, I can
find no trace of any in other child-rhymes of the kind. It is also clear
that if we take from the fourth line the _ingle 'em_, _angle 'em_,
evidently added for mere jingle, there remains _stan_ or _stani_, "a
buck," followed by the very same word in English.

With the mournful examples of Mr. Bellenden Kerr's efforts to show that
all our old proverbs and tavern signs are Dutch, and Sir William Betham's
Etruscan-Irish, I should be justly regarded as one of the too frequent
seekers for mystery in moonshine if I declared that I positively believed
this to be Romany. Yet it is possible that it contains gypsy words,
especially "fillissi,' follasy," which mean exactly _chateau_ and gloves,
and I think it not improbable that it was once a sham charm used by some
Romany fortune-teller to bewilde