existence the tent. This he does in, his Appendix to the Romany Rye; and it is nearly all that can be drawn from his writings on the Gipsies, in regard to their future history (Ed., p. 523).

We have already seen how a writer in Blackwood's Magazine gravely asserts, that, although "Billy Marshall left descendants numberless, the race, of which he was one, was in danger of becoming extinct;" when, in fact, it had only passed from its first stage of existence--the tent, into its second-tramping, without the tent; and after that, into its ultimate stage-a settled life. We have likewise seen how Sir Walter Scott imagines that the Scottish Gipsies have decreased, since the time of Fletcher, of Saltoun, about the year 1680, from 100,000 to 500, by "the progress of time, and increase in the means of life, and the power of the laws." Mr. Borrow has not gone one step ahead of these writers; and, although I naturally enough excuse them, I am not inclined to let him go scot-free, since he has set himself forward so prominently as an authority on the Gipsy question (Ed., p. 447). It would be a treat to have a treatise from Mr. Borrow upon the Gipsy race dying out by "changing its habits," or by the acts of any government, or by ideas of "gentility" (Ed., p. 450).

If there is little reason for thinking that the Gipsies left India owing to the cruelties of Timour, there is less for supposing, as Mr. Borrow supposes, that their being called Egyptians originated, not with themselves, but with others; for he says that the tale of their being Egyptians "probably originated amongst the priests and learned men of the East of Europe, who, startled by the sudden apparition of bands of people foreign in appearance and language, skilled in divination and the occult arts, endeavoured to find in Scripture a clue to such a phenomenon; the result of which was that the Romas (Gipsies) of Hindostan were suddenly transformed into Egyptian penitents, a title which they have ever since borne in various parts of Europe." Why should the priests and learned men of the East of Europe go to the Bible to find the origin of such a people as the Gipsies? What did priests and learned men know of the Bible at the beginning of the fifteenth century? Did every priest, at

that time, know there even was such a book as the Bible in existence ? The priests and learned men of the East of Europe were more likely to turn to the Eastern nations for the origin of the Gipsies, than to Egypt, were the mere matter of the skill of the Gipsies in divination and the occult arts to lead them to make any inquiry into their history. When the Gipsies entered Europe, they would feel under the necessity of saying who they were. Having committed themselves to that point, how could they afterwards call themselves by that name which Mr. Borrow supposes the priests and learned men to have given them? Or, I should rather say, how could the priests and learned men think of giving them a name after they themselves had said who they were? And did the priests and learned men invent the idea of the Gipsies being pilgrims, or bestow upon their leaders the titles of dukes, earls, lords, counts and knights of Little Egypt? Assuredly not; all these matters must have originated with the Gipsies themselves. The truth is, Mr. Borrow has evidently had no opportunities of learning, or at least has not duly appreciated, the real mental acquirements of the early Gipsies; an idea of which will be found in the history of the race on their first general arrival in Scotland, about a hundred years after they were first taken notice of in Europe, during which time they are not supposed to have made any great progress in mental condition. What evidently leads Mr. Borrow and others astray in the matter of the origin of the Gipsies, is, that they conclude that, because the language spoken by the Gipsies is apparently, or for the most part, Hindostanee, therefore the people speaking it originated in Hindostan; as just a conclusion as it would be to maintain that the Negroes in Liberia originated in England because they speak the English language! (Ed., p. 39).

Mr. Borrow gives a very interesting and, on the face of it, reliable account of a visit he paid to Yetholm, to "interview" the Queen of the Scottish Gipsies. The first woman he accosted denied the impeachment that she was a Gipsy, by saying, “Na, na, sir ! I am the bairn of decent parents, and be

long not to Kirk Yetholm, but to Haddington" (p. 308). She, however, gave him this sage counsel:"I wish to caution you when you get to the speech of the queen, not to put any speerings to her about a certain tongue or dialect which they say the Gipsies have. All the Gipsies become glum and dour as soon as they are spoken to about their language, and particularly the queen. The queen might say something uncivil to your honour, should you ask her questions about her language" (p. 311).

The next woman, with blue eyes, "who had had her eye on his honour for some time past," was related to the queen, and as indignantly denied the impeachment that she was not a Gipsy. She conducted him to her majesty, who said, "I am a Gipsy, and a real one; I am not ashamed of my blood (p. 315). As usual with the race, she denied all knowledge of the language, till she was nettled into admitting it. Af ter finding that it was safe to talk to him on Gipsy matters," she was willing to do it as long as he liked. and added::

"I am now ready to talk to you as much as you please about Nokkum words and matters, for I see there is no danger. But I tell you frankly that had Inot found that you knew as much as, or a great deal more than, myself, not a hundred pounds, nor indeed all the money in Berwick, should have induced me to hold discourse with you about the words and matters of the Brown Children of Kirk Yetholm" (p. 318).

Mr. Borrow then goes on to say :'I soon found that her knowledge of Romany was anything but extensive; far less so, indeed, than that of the commonest English Gipsy woman.

I should say that the sum total of her vocabulary barely amounted to three hundred words [a very unreliable estimate, after a short, or comparatively short, interview, for we are not told how long it lasted]. Even of these there were several which were not pure Gipsy words; that is, belonging to the speech which the ancient Zingary brought with them to Britain. Some of her bastard

Gipsy words belonged to the cant or allegorical jargon of thieves" (p. 319). "After all, her knowledge of gentle sneezeď at " (p. 322). Romany was not altogether to be "She said that slight as I might consider her knowledge of Romany to be, it was far greater than that of any other Gipsy

on the Border, or indeed in the whole of Scotland; and that, as for the Nokkums, there was not one on the Green who was acquainted with half-a-dozen words of Romany [all these assertions would require to be proved], though the few words they had [doubtless, more than five, although she said that not one of them had six] they prized high enough, and would rather part with their hearts' blood than communicate them to a stranger * (p. 321).

*Of the Gipsy language at Yetholm, Mr. Baird, the minister of the parish, wrote, in 1840, thus:

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It farther appears from these specimens of words and expressions used by the Yetholm Gipsies, that they have by no means a complete language, but that they are in the habit of connecting their own words by the pronouns and other smaller words of our language. It is a secret with them; all of them will at first positively and repeatedly deny that they have any language peculiar to themselves. It was only by some management that I obtained from them the list I have now given. The children, however, are known to speak it when they imagine no one overhears them. this branch of knowledge. The grownTheir parents carefully instruct them in up Gipsies also, when they are a little off their guard-on the occasion of any of their merry-meetings, for instance-frequently converse, in the hearing of others, in their strange jargon."

It is not likely that of the children above referred to (or such like them), "there was not one on the Green who was acquainted with half-a-dozen words of Romany in 1866, when they arrived at ages ranging from thirty to forty years. Mr. Baird had good opportunities for judging of this subject; and it is not to be thought of that these children should have lost the language at the time Mr. than five, words they had they prized so Borrow visited them, when the five, or less highly that they would "rather part with their hearts' blood than communicate them to a stranger." And the queen's

knowing more Gipsy than anyone in Scotland," must be received with the same reserved consideration.

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On parting with her, she said she would be delighted to have him call on her the following day, the request being his. "On going, however, on the following day, which was Sunday, I found the gardengate locked and the window-shutters up, plainly denoting that there was nobody at home" (p. 326). She had evidently got frightened at her indiscretion, as is always the case with the Scottish Gipsies, and spread the alarm and fled, leaving "some o' her laddies" to watch the intruder. "Seeing some men lying on the hill, a little way above, who appeared to be observing me, I went up to them for the purpose of making inquiries. They were all young men [the oldest not more than three-and-twenty], and decently, though coarsely, dressed. None wore the Scottish cap or bonnet, but all the hat of England" (p. 326). "I greeted them civilly, but received no salutation in return" (p. 327). Then he tried them with two catch-words, which were answered, in both instances, by a turn-up of the nose, as the queen told him would be the case. Good-day, said I, and turned away. I received no counter-salutation" (p. 328).

Next day there was to be a fair held near Kelso, to which he went, "determined to be even with her," as he felt sure of meeting her there; but he made a mistake if he imagined she would look "black-affronted," after giving him the slip, for they "met in the most cordial man

"After the smirks, smiles, and salutations were over, I inquired whether there were many Gipsies in the fair. Plenty,' said she, plenty Tates, Andersons, Reeds, and many others. That woman is an Anderson-yonder is a Tate,' said she, pointing to two comRomany? said I. No,' said she, mon-looking females. Have they much scarcely a word.' 'I think I shall go and speak to them,' said I. Don't,' said she; they would only be uncivil to you. Moreover, they have nothing of that kind-on the word of a rawnie, they have not’” (p. 330).

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She had doubtless got frightened at the idea of him compromising her with the other Gipsies at the fair, and letting the cat out of the bag, and as a last resource, to decoy him away from them, added, "on the word of a rawnie," that they had none of the language, after she had said that they had scarcely a wora of it. She could easily be excused for playing him hukni, or false, after being trapped into divulging her language; and if she did it once, she could do it again, notwithstanding Mr. Borrow being satisfied to the contrary. The publication of the "interview" should also extenuate the trifling offence, if offence it was. If the Gipsies can be excused for promising a thing and “belying it" in a whisper to themselves, it is when their language is in consideration, for that is the last thing they will generally give to a stranger.

Both the queen and her relation that conducted Mr. Borrow to her he says, had blue eyes, which does not seem to have struck him as anything odd when found in the head of a Gipsy. Of the queen he says:—

[standards and tastes differ], had much of the appearance of one of those Irish girls, born in London, whom one so frequently sees carrying milk-pails about the streets of the metropolis" (p. 329). The two Gipsy women whom the queen pointed out to him at the fair he describes as "common-looking females." And the young men, who had evidently been set to watch the "tall lusty man, with a skellying look with the left eye" (p. 322), that entered the village, firing off Gipsy words right and left-so different from the ordinary visitors, who generally come in companies, with females among them-he describes thus:

"Their countenances were rather dark, but had nothing of the vivacious expression observable in the Gipsy face [they were lying on their bellies, occasionally kicking their heels into the air'], but much of the dogged, sullen look which makes the countenances of the generality of the Irish who inhabit London and some other of the large English towns so disagree able" (p. 327). "They were a hard, sullen, cautious set, in whom a few drops of Gipsy blood were mixed with some Scottish and a much larger quantity of low Irish. Between them and their queen a striking difference was observable. In her there was both fun and cordiality [and doubtless plenty of sullenness and revenge, had they been called forth]; in them not the slightest appearance of either [for they were perhaps ready to fly at him, like so many tigers, whatever frolic or devilment they might indulge in at other times].* What

* The first woman Mr. Borrow spoke to said of old Will Faa's house:-"It still is an inn, and has always been an inn; and though it has such an eerie look, it is sometimes lively enough, more especially after the Gipsies have returned from their summer excursions in the country. It's a roaring place then. They spend most of their sleight-o'-hand gains in that house" (p. 309). [Considering what is popularly understood to be the natural disposition and capacity of the Gipsies, we would readily conclude that to turn innkeepers would be the most unlikely of all their employments; yet that is very common. Mohammed said, "If the mountain will not come to us, we will go to the

was the cause of this disparity? The reason [and a very odd one indeed] was, they were neither the children nor the grandchildren of real Gipsies, but only the remote descendants, [and, paradoxiing allegiance to a Gipsy queen], whereas cal as it may appear, still Gipsies, ownshe was the granddaughter of two genuine Gipsies, old Will Faa and his wife [of both of whose pedigrees he is doubtless ignorant], whose daughter was her mother; so that she might be considered all but a thorough Gipsy [even with her she was a 'mumping woman' or a true blue eyes, and his asking her whether Gipsy]; for being by her mother's side a Gipsy, she was of course much more so than she would have been had she sprung from a Gipsy father and a Gentile mother; the qualities of a child, both mental and bodily, depending much less on the father than on the mother [saying nothing of the special Gipsy training the child receives from its mother and her relations, before its earliest recollection, as described in the Disquisition on the Gipsies, pages 379381]. Had her father been a Faa, instead of her mother, I should probably never have heard from her lips a single word of Romany [did he never know a case of the kind?], but found her as sullen and inductile as the Nokkums [or Gipsies] on the Green [for what reason?], whom it was of little more use questioning than so many stones+” (p. 328).

mountain." The Gipsies say, "If we do not go to the people, the people must

come

to us;" and so they open their houses of entertainment (Ed., p. 467).]

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He

The probability mentioned by Mr. Borrow would be to the contrary. says that Thomas Herne, whose mother was a Gentile of Oxford," when ninetytwo years of age, "could not talk much Gipsy, but understood almost all that I said to him (p. 157). "His face was as red as a winter apple, and his hair was rather red than grey" (p. 155). His son, aged seventy, was in one of the caravans; and of his grandson, aged thirty-five, who was also " around," nothing is said beyond his being "a good-looking and rather well-dressed man, with something of a knowing card in his countenance (p. 159). The old man admitted he was a half-and-half, but "seemed to be rather ashamed of being of Gipsy blood" (p. 157), and “ never had any particular liking for the Gipsy manner of living," although he had followed it all his life, excepting when fourteen years in the militia. This

These Scotch Gipsies seem to have ruffled Mr. Borrow's feathers considerably. He calls them a “hard, sullen, cautious set," whom he could not pump; yet he gives them credit for good manners, for he says that as he went down the hill, there was none of the shouting and laughter which generally follow a discomfited party" (p. 328). They were doubtless glad to see him leave the village, after causing the flight of the queen from it.

There is a good deal to be said in regard to Mr. Borrow's visit to Yetholm. He arrived there "late in the afternoon, at the commencement of August, in the year 1866." | The first woman he spoke to took leave of him " to boil water for her tea;" and the next one he saluted with, "A fine evening." By the time he was presented" to the queen it was probably seven o'clock, and ten when he left her; and if we allow an hour for general conversation, we would have two hours for the Gipsy language, one half of which was in all probability taken up by Mr. Borrow himself.* How, then, did he arrive at the conclusion that the sum total of her vocabulary barely amounted to three hundred words ?" If she had given him them, one after the other, so that he could count them, she would have yielded him five words per minute. But she evidently did not do that, the conversation apparently taking a different turn. His estimate of her language, so far as the number of her words was concerned, was doubtless a vague conjecture. He certainly furnishes no data to

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enable us to take his view of the question.

No sooner had Mr. Borrow entered the village than he was watched and approached. "Come to see the Gipsy town, sir?" said the first woman, before she had been spoken to. "Does your honour know who once lived in that house? . . That man, your honour, was old Will Faa." The other woman, who was a Gipsy, and related to the queen, and "had her eye on his honour for some time past-expecting to be asked about the queen, for scarcely anybody comes to Yetholm but goes to see the queen "-looked up when addressed, and asked, “Come to see the town? . . . and I suppose come to see the Gipsies, too?" with a half smile. "Many gentle folks from England come to see the Gipsy queen of Yetholm. Follow me, sir. The first woman said that the queen was "led about the town once a year, mounted on a cuddy [donkey], with a tin crown on her head, with much shouting, and with many a barbaric ceremony; . . and some go so far as to say that they merely crowned her queen in hopes of bringing grist to the Gipsy mill" (p. 310). The "calling" of the queen (whose name, I believe, is Esther Blythe) is, therefore, to make herself agreeable; although it could, perhaps, be said of her, that she is like a cat's paw-all velvet, or all claw. "She came towards me with much smiling, smirking, and nodding, as if I had known her for three-score years" (p. 314). But when he addressed her in Gipsy, she exclaimed, in an angry tone, 'Why do you talk to me in that manner, and in that gibberish? I don't understand a word of it" (p. 315). And then she said to him :"You pretend to understand the Gipdo not, I sy language: if I find you will hold no further discourse with you; and the sooner you take yourself off the better. If I find you do, I will talk with you as long as you like" (p. 316). Now, I have but

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