he early star, but my
informant could not give me its exact sound. _Dood of the sala_ is the
common name for Venus. Sunrise is indicated by the eccentric term of
"_kam-left the panni_" or sun-left the water. "It wells from the waver
tem you jin," said my informant, in explanation. "The sun comes from a
foreign country, and first leaves that land, and then leaves the sea,
before it gets here."

When a Gipsy is prowling for hens, or any other little waifs, and wishes
to leave a broken trail, so that his tracks may not be identified, he
will walk with the feet interlocked--one being placed outside the
other--making what in America is very naturally termed a snake-trail.
This he calls _sarserin_, and in Hindu _sarasana_ means to creep along
like a snake.

Supposing that the Hindu word for rice, _shali_, could hardly have been
lost, I asked a Gipsy if he knew it, and he at once replied, "_Shali giv_
is small grain-corn, werry little grainuses indeed."

_Shalita_ in Hindustani is a canvas sack in which a tent is carried. The
English Gipsy has confused this word with _shelter_, and yet calls a
small or "shelter" tent a shelter _gunno_, or bag. "For we rolls up the
big tent in the shelter tent, to carry it." A tent cloth or canvas is in
Gipsy a _shummy_, evidently derived from the Hindu shumiyana, a canopy or
awning.

It is a very curious fact that the English Gipsies call the Scripture or
Bible the _Shaster_, and I record this with the more pleasure, since it
fully establishes Mr Borrow as the first discoverer of the word in
Rommany, and vindicates him from the suspicion with which his assertion
was received by Dr Pott. On this subject the latter speaks as follows:--

"Eschastra de Moyses, l. ii. 22; [Greek text], M.; Sanskrit, castra;
Hind., shastr, m. Hindu religious books, Hindu law, Scripture,
institutes of science (Shakespeare). In proportion to the importance of
the real existence of this word among the Gipsies must be the suspicion
with which we regard it, when it depends, as in this instance, only on
Borrow's assertion, who, in case of need, to supply a non-existing word,
may have easily taken one from the Sanskrit."--_Die Zigeuner_, vol. ii.
p. 224.

The word _shaster_ was given to me very distinctly by a Gipsy, who
further volunteered the information, that it not only meant the
Scriptures, but also any written book whatever, and somewhat marred the
dignity of the sublime association of the Bible and