Book of the Wisdom of the Egyptians

The Book of the Wisdom of the Egyptians - that's the title of this small story found in "Romano Lavo-Lil" by George Borrow. It's a wonderful collection of sayings, stories, anecdotes, and explanations. Enjoy!

• The young people often ask: What good is there in the Romany tongue? I answers: Ye are all fools! There is plenty, plenty of good in it, and plenty, plenty of our people would have been transported or hung, but for the old, poor Roman language. A word in Romany said in time to a little girl, and carried to the camp, has caused a great purse of money and other things, which had been stolen, to be stowed underground; so that when the constables came they could find nothing, and had not only to let the Gypsy they had taken up go his way, but also to beg his pardon.
• His term of transportation has now expired, and it were but right in him to come home, if it were only to take care of his poor old wife: she has been a true, true wife to him, and I don't believe that she has taken up with another man ever since he was sent across.
• When one's pitched up one's little tent, made one's little fire before the door, and hung one's kettle by the kettle-iron over it, one doesn't like that an inspector or constable should come and say: What are you doing here? Take yourself off, you Gypsy dog.
• On the first Friday of July, before the public-house called the Bald-faced Stag, on the hill above the town of the great tree in the Forest, you will see many Roman people, men and women, lads and lasses.
• Do you know my old friend Mr. Stanniwix, the old gentleman that wears a pigtail, and made fourteen thousand pounds by smuggling?
• He went on talking and talking foolishness till I said to him: If you goes on in that 'ere way I'll hit you a hot 'un on the nose.
• You ask me what are patrins. Patrin is the name of the signs by which the Gypsies who go before show the road they have taken to those who follow behind. We flings handfuls of grass down at the head of the road we takes, or we makes with the finger a cross-mark on the ground, we sticks up branches of trees by the side the hedge. But the true patrin is handfuls of leaves flung down; for patrin or patten in old Roman language means the leaf of a tree.
• The true way to be a wise man is to hear, see, and bear in mind.
• The man who has not the whip-hand of his tongue and his temper is not fit to go into company.
• The Bill to take up the no-man's lands (comons), and to make the poor people die of hunger and cold, has been flung out of the House of Commons.
• The name they gives her is "Luck in a basket," because she carries about a basket, which every night, when she goes home, is sure to be full of stolen property.
• This here, brothers, is the title of a book, the head-work of an old king of Roumany land: the Tribunal, or the dispute between the wise man and the world: or, the death-sentence passed by the soul upon the body.
• When the rope was about his neck they brought him his pardon, and let him go; but from that day he would wear a neck-kerchief no more, for he said it brought to his mind the rope about his neck.
• Jack Cooper could read enough to know all that was upon the milestones and the sign-posts.
• Roman way to cook a fowl is to do it up with its feathers in clay, and then to put it in fire for a little more than half an hour. When the clay and the burnt feathers are taken from the fowl, the belly cut open, and the inside flung out, 'tis a food good enough for a queen to eat without salt.
• When the Gentile way of living and the Gypsy way of living come together, it is anything but a good way of living.
• He told me once that when he was a chap of twenty he killed a Gentile, and buried the dead meat under ground. He was taken up for the murder, but as no one could find the cold meat, the justices let him go. He said that the job did not sit heavy upon his mind for a long time, but then all of a sudden he became sad, and afraid of the dead Gentile's ghost; and that often of a night, as he was coming half-drunk from the public-house by himself, he would look over his right shoulder and over his left shoulder, to know if the dead man's ghost was not coming behind to lay hold of him.
• Do you know the Gypsy way of taking the hand?
  Aye, aye, brother.
  Show it to me.
  They does it so, brother.
• A tramp has more fun than a Gypsy.
• You have heard the word pazorrus. That is what is called by the Gentiles "trusted," or in debt. In the old time the Roman who got from his brother money or other things on trust, and did not pay him again, could be made to work for him as horse, ass, or wood cutter for a year and a day. At present the matter is not so. If a Roman got money, or other things, from my hand on credit, and did not repay me, how could I make him labour for me as horse, ass, or stick-cutter for one day, not to say for a year?
• Do you call this a fair? A very pretty fair is this: you might put it all into your pocket.
• It is not a wise thing to say you have been wrong. If you allow you have been wrong, people will say: You may be a very honest fellow, but are certainly a very great fool.
• Where are you living?
  Mine is not living; mine is staying, to say the best of it; I am a traveller, brother!
• When Roman people speak to one another, they say brother and sister. When parents speak to their children, they say, my son, or my daughter, or my child, gorgiko-like, to either. When children speak to their parents, they say, my father, or my mother.
• My father, why were worms made? My son, that moles might live by eating them. My father, why were moles made? My son, that you and I might live by catching them. My father, why were you and I made? My son, that worms might live by eating us.
• All farmers are fools. When they hear a citizen in the country say: That's a fine horse! they say: 'Tis no horse, 'tis a mare; whether the thing's a horse or not. The simpletons don't know that a mare's a horse, though a horse is not a mare.
• No one like Gypsy Will's wife for dancing in a platter.
• When Constance Smith died, she was a hundred ten years old.
• Do you know Mrs. Cooper?
  I knows her very well, brother.
  Do you like her?
  I loves her very much, brother; and I have often, often said to the other Gypsies, when they speaking ill of her: She's a gentlewoman; takes care of all of you; if it were not for her, you would all go to the devil.
  What does she do for a living?
  She tells fortunes, brother; she tells fortunes.
  Is she a good hand at fortune-telling?
  There's no Roman woman under the sun so good at fortune-telling as Mrs. Cooper; it is impossible not to have your fortune told by her; she's a true witch; she takes people by the hand, and tells their fortunes, whether they will or no.
• 'Tis no use to go seeking after Gypsies. When you wants to see them 'tis impossible to find one of them; but when you are thinking of other matters you see plenty, plenty of them.
• I will swear neither falsely nor truly against any one; if they wishes to find out something, let them find it out themselves.
• If he had been transported for a great robbery, I would have said nothing; but it makes me mad to think that he has been sent away, all along of a vile harlot, for the value of three-and-sixpence.
• When he had committed the murder he made haste, and ran into the wood, where he hid himself in the hollow of a great old tree; but it was no use at all; the runners followed his track all along the forest till they came to the tree.
• How many fortunes have you told to-day?
  Only one lady's, brother; yonder she's coming back; I knows her by the black lace on her gown.
  How much money did she give you?
  Only one groat, brother; only one groat. May the devil run away with her bodily!
• Hear the words of wisdom which Mike the Grecian said to Mrs. Trullifer: Mrs. Trollopr, you must live by your living; and if you have a pound you must spend it.
• Can you speak Romany?
  Aye, aye, brother!
  What is
  Weshenjuggalslomomengreskeytemskeytudlogueri?
  I don't know what you say, brother.
  Then you are no master of Romany.

What is Cauring?

Cauring is an old gypsy trick - here's how it works:

The Gypsy has some queer, old-fashioned gold piece; this she takes to some goldsmith's shop, at the window of which she has observed a basin full of old gold coins, and shows it to the goldsmith, asking him if he will purchase it. He looks at it attentively, and sees that it is of very pure gold; whereupon he says that he has no particular objection to buy it; but that as it is very old it is not of much value, and that he has several like it.

"Have you indeed, Master?" says the Gypsy; "then pray show them to me, and I will buy them; for, to tell you the truth, I would rather buy than sell pieces like this, for I have a great respect for them, and know their value: give me back my coin, and I will compare any you have with it."

The goldsmith gives her back her coin, takes his basin of gold from the window, and places it on the counter. The Gypsy puts down her head, and pries into the basin. "Ah, I see nothing here like my coin," says she. "Now, Master, to oblige me, take out a handful of the coins and lay them on the counter; I am a poor, honest woman, Master, and do not wish to put my hand into your basin. Oh! if I could find one coin like my own, I would give much money for it; barributer than it is worth."

The goldsmith, to oblige the poor, simple, foreign creature (for such he believes her to be), and, with a considerable hope of profit, takes a handful of coins from the basin and puts them upon the counter.

"I fear there is none here like mine, Master," says the Gypsy, moving the coins rapidly with the tips of her fingers. "No, no, there is not one here like mine - kek yeck, kek yeck - notone, not one. Stay, stay! What's this, what's this? So se cavo, so se cavo? Oh, here is one like mine; or if not quite like, like enough to suit me. Now, Master, what will you take for this coin?"

The goldsmith looks at it, and names a price considerably above the value; whereupon she says: "Now, Master, I will deal fairly with you: you have not asked me the full value of the coin by three three-groats, three-groats, three-groats; by trin tringurushis, tringurushis, tringurushis. So here's the money you asked, Master, and three three-groats, three shillings, besides. God bless you, Master! You would have cheated yourself, but the poor woman would not let you; for though she is poor she is honest": and thus she takes her leave, leaving the goldsmith very well satisfied with his customer - with little reason, however, for out of about twenty coins which he laid on the counter she had filched at least three, which her brown nimble fingers, though they seemingly scarcely touched the gold, contrived to convey up her sleeves.

This kind of pilfering is called by the English Gypsies cauring, and by the Spanish ustilar pastesas, or stealing with the fingers. The word caur seems to be connected with the English cower, and the Hebrew kãra, a word of frequent occurrence in the historical part of the Old Testament, and signifying to bend, stoop down, incurvare.

From: Romano Lavo-Lil

What is The Hukni?

The hukni is an old Gypsy trick - here's how it works:

The Gypsy makes some poor simpleton of a lady believe that if the latter puts her gold into her hands, and she makes it up into a parcel, and puts it between the lady's feather-bed and mattress, it will at the end of a month be multiplied a hundredfold, provided the lady does not look at it during all that time. On receiving the money she makes it up into a brown paper parcel, which she seals with wax, turns herself repeatedly round, squints, and spits, and then puts between the feather-bed and mattress - not the parcel of gold, but one exactly like it, which she has prepared beforehand, containing old halfpence, farthings, and the like; then, after cautioning the lady by no means to undo the parcel before the stated time, she takes her departure singing to herself:

O dear me! O dear me!

What dinnelies these gorgies be.

The above artifice is called by the English Gypsies the hukni, and by the Spanish hokhano baro, or the great lie. Hukni and hokano were originally one and the same word; the root seems to be the Sanscrit huhanã, lie, trick, deceit.

From: Romano Lavo-Lil