ose
blue eyes and light hair indicate no trace of Oriental blood, may not be
a _churdo_, or _pash-ratt_, or half-blood, or _half-scrag_, as a full
Gipsy might contemptuously term him, but he may be, of his kind, a
quadroon or octoroon, or he may have "gipsified," by marrying a Gipsy
wife; and by the way be it said, such women make by far the best wives to
be found among English itinerants, and the best suited for "a traveller."
But in any case he has taken pains to pick up all the Gipsy he can. If
he is a tinker, he knows _Kennick_, or cant, or thieves' slang by nature,
but the Rommany, which has very few words in common with the former, is
the true language of the mysteries; in fact, it has with him become,
strangely enough, what it was originally, a sort of sacred Sanscrit,
known only to the Brahmins of the roads, compared to which the other
language is only commonplace _Prakrit_, which anybody may acquire.

He is proud of his knowledge, he makes of it a deep mystery; and if you,
a gentleman, ask him about it, he will probably deny that he ever heard
of its existence. Should he be very thirsty, and your manners frank and
assuring, it is, however, not impossible that after draining a pot of
beer at your expense, he may recall, with a grin, the fact that he _has_
heard that the Gipsies have a queer kind of language of their own; and
then, if you have any Rommany yourself at command, he will perhaps
_rakker Rommanis_ with greater or less fluency. Mr Simeon, in his
"History of the Gipsies," asserts that there is not a tinker or scissors-
grinder in Great Britain who cannot talk this language, and my own
experience agrees with his declaration, to this extent--that they all
have some knowledge of it, or claim to have it, however slight it may be.

So rare is a knowledge of Rommany among those who are not connected in
some way with Gipsies, that the slightest indication of it is invariably
taken as an irrefutable proof of relationship with them. It is but a few
weeks since, as I was walking along the Marine Parade in Brighton, I
overtook a tinker. Wishing him to sharpen some tools for me, I directed
him to proceed to my home, and _en route_ spoke to him in Gipsy. As he
was quite fair in complexion, I casually remarked, "I should have never
supposed you could speak Rommany--you don't look like it." To which he
replied, very gravely, in a tone as of gentle reproach, "You don't look a
Gipsy yourself, sir; but you know yo