were three
centuries ago, this reverence for the departed assumes an even deeper and
more serious character. Mr Richard Liebich (_Die Zigeuner_, _Leipzig_,
1863), tells us that in his country their most sacred oath is _Ap i
mulende_!--by the dead!--and with it may be classed the equally
patriarchal imprecation, "By my father's hand!"

Since writing the foregoing sentence a very remarkable confirmation of
the existence of this oath among English Gipsies, and the sacredness with
which it is observed, came under my own observation. An elderly Gipsy,
during the course of a family difficulty, declared to his sister that he
would leave the house. She did not believe he would until he swore by
his dead wife--by his "_mullo juvo_." And when he had said this, his
sister promptly remarked: "Now you have sworn by her, I know you will do
it." He narrated this to me the next day, adding that he was going to
put a tent up, about a mile away, and live there. I asked him if he ever
swore by his dead father, to which he said: "Always, until my wife died."
This poor man was almost entirely ignorant of what was in the Bible, as I
found by questioning him; but I doubt whether I know any Christian on
whom a Bible oath would be more binding than was to him his own by the
dead. To me there was something deeply moving in the simple earnestness
and strangeness of this adjuration.

The German, like the older English Gipsies, carefully burn the clothes
and bed of the deceased, and, indeed, most objects closely connected with
them, and what is more extraordinary, evince their respect by carefully
avoiding mentioning their names, even when they are borne by other
persons or are characteristic of certain things. So that when a Gipsy
maiden named Forella once died, her entire nation, among whom the trout
had always been known only by its German designation, Forelle, at once
changed the name, and, to this day it is called by them _mulo
madscho_--the dead fish,--or at times _lolo madscho_--the red fish.

This is also the case among the English Gipsies. Wishing to have the
exact words and views of a real Rommany on this subject, I made inquiry,
and noted down his reply, which was literally as follows:--

"Avali; when Rommany chals or juvos are mullos, their pals don't kaum to
shoon their navs pauli--it kairs 'em too bongo--so they're purabend to
waver navs. Saw don't kair it--kek--but posh do, kenna. My chavo's nav
was Horfer or Horferus,