iny is better than others, because they
have more command of language. Some are fated to sell horses, and others
to sell hens; but all people have their mission, and can do nothing
else."

_Quran_ in the East means the Koran, and quran uthara to take an oath. In
English Gipsy kurran, or kurraben, is also an oath, and it seems strange
that such a word from such a source should exist in England. It is,
however, more interesting as indicating that the Gipsies did not leave
India until familiarised with Mohammedan rule. "He kaired his kurran pre
the Duvel's Bavol that he would jal 'vree the tem for a besh." "He swore
his oath upon God's Breath (the Bible) that he would leave the country
for a year." Upon inquiring of the Gipsy who uttered this phrase why he
called the Bible "God's Breath," he replied naively, "It's sim to the
Duvel's jivaben, just the same as His breathus." "It is like God's life,
just the same as His breath."

It is to be observed that _nearly all the words which Gipsies claim as
Gipsy_, _notwithstanding their resemblance to English_, _are to be found
in Hindustani_. Thus _rutter_, to copulate, certainly resembles the
English _rut_, but it is quite as much allied to _rutana_ (Hindustani),
meaning the same thing. "Sass," or sauce, meaning in Gipsy, bold,
forward impudence, is identical with the same English word, but it agrees
very well with the Hindu _sahas_, bold, and was perhaps born of the
latter term, although it has been brought up by the former.

Dr A. F. Pott remarks of the German Gipsy word _schetra_, or violin, that
he could nowhere find in Rommany a similar instrument with an Indian
name. Surrhingee, or sarunghee, is the common Hindu word for a violin;
and the English Gipsies, on being asked if they knew it, promptly replied
that it was "an old word for the neck or head of a fiddle." It is true
they also called it sarengro, surhingro, and shorengro, the latter word
indicating that it might have been derived from sherro-engro--_i.e_.,
"head-thing." But after making proper allowance for the Gipsy tendency,
or rather passion, for perverting words towards possible derivations, it
seems very probable that the term is purely Hindu.

Zuhru, or Zohru, means in the East Venus, or the morning star; and it is
pleasant to find a reflection of the rosy goddess in the Gipsy _soor_,
signifying "early in the morning." I have been told that there is a
Rommany word much resembling _soor_, meaning t