, such as Nats, the roving
Banjaree, Thugs, &c., all of which have left unmistakable traces on the
Gipsies, from which I conclude that at some time when these pariahs
became too numerous and dangerous there was a general expulsion of them
from India. {124}

I would call particular attention to my suggestion that the Corn of India
is the true parent of the Rom, because all that is known of the former
caste indicates an affinity between them. The Dom pariahs of India who
carry out or touch dead bodies, also eat the bodies of animals that have
died a natural death, as do the Gipsies of England. The occupation of
the Domni and Romni, dancing and making music at festivals, are
strikingly allied. I was reminded of this at the last opera which I
witnessed at Covent Garden, on seeing stage Gipsies introduced as part of
the fete in "La Traviata."

A curious indication of the Indian origin of the Gipsies may be found in
the fact that they speak of every foreign country beyond sea as the Hindi
tem, Hindi being in Hindustani their own word for Indian. Nothing was
more natural than that the Rommany on first coming to England should
speak of far-away regions as being the same as the land they had left,
and among such ignorant people the second generation could hardly fail to
extend the term and make it generic. At present an Irishman is a _Hindi
tem mush_, or Hindu; and it is rather curious, by the way, that a few
years ago in America everything that was _anti_-Irish or native American
received the same appellation, in allusion to the exclusive system of
castes.

Although the Gipsies have sadly confounded the Hindu terms for the
"cardinal points," no one can deny that their own are of Indian origin.
Uttar is north in Hindustani, and Utar is west in Rommany. As it was
explained to me, I was told that "Utar means west and wet too, because
the west wind is wet." _Shimal_ is also north in Hindu; and on asking a
Gipsy what it meant, he promptly replied, "It's where the snow comes
from." _Poorub_ is the east in Hindustani; in Gipsy it is changed to
porus, and means the west.

This confusion of terms is incidental to every rude race, and it must be
constantly borne in mind that it is very common in Gipsy. Night suggests
day, or black white, to the most cultivated mind; but the Gipsy confuses
the name, and calls yesterday and to-morrow, or light and shadow, by the
same word. More than this, he is prone to confuse almost all opp