From the observations of Frederic Drew (The Northern Barrier of India, London, 1877) there can be little doubt that the Dom, or DÛm, belong to the pre-Aryan race or races of India. “They are described in the Shastras as Sopukh, or Dog-Eaters” (Types of India). I have somewhere met with the statement that the Dom was pre-Aryan, but allowed to rank as Hindoo on account of services rendered to the early conquerors. Up-stairs in this gentleman’s dialect signified up or upon, like top Pidgin-English. Puccasa, Sanskrit. Low, inferior. Given by Pliny E. Chase in his Sanskrit Analogues as the root-word for several inferior animals. A Trip up the Volga to the Fair of Nijni-Novgovod. By H. A. Munro Butler Johnstone. 1875. Seven Years in the Deserts of America. In Old English Romany this is called dorrikin; in common parade, dukkerin. Both forms are really old.
Flower-flag-nation man; that is, American. Leadee, reads. Dly, dry. Lun, run. Diamonds true. O latcho bar (in England, tatcho bar), “the true or real stone,” is the gypsy for a diamond. Within a mile, Maginn lies buried, without a monument. Mashing, a word of gypsy origin (mashdva), meaning fascination by the eye, or taking in. Goerres, Christliche Mystik, i. 296. 1. 23. The Saxons in England, i. 3. Peru urphu! “Increase and multiply!” Vide Bodenschatz Kirchliche Verfassung der Juden, part IV. ch. 4, sect. 2. The Past in the Present, part 2, lect. 3 Yoma, fol. 21, col. 2. Zimbel. The cymbal of the Austrian gypsies is a stringed instrument, like the zitter. Crocus, in common slang an itinerant quack, mountebank, or seller of medicine; Pitcher, a street dealer. A brief resumÉ of the most characteristic gypsy mode of obtaining property. Lady, in gypsy rani. The process of degradation is curiously marked in this language. Rani (rawnee), in Hindi, is a queen. Rye, or rae, a gentleman, in its native land, is applicable to a nobleman, while rashai, a clergyman, even of the smallest dissenting type, rises in the original rishi to a saint of the highest order. This was the very same affair and the same gypsies described and mentioned on page 383 of In Gypsy Tents, by Francis Hindes Groome, Edinburgh, 1880. I am well acquainted with them. Primulaveris: in German SchlÜssel blume, that is, key flowers; also Mary’s-keys and keys of heaven. Both the primrose and tulip are believed in South Germany to be an Open Sesame to hidden treasure. Omar KhayyÁm, Rubaiyat.
Johnnykin and the Goblins. London: Macmillan. Vide Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xvi. part 2, 1856 p. 285. Die Zigeuner. The Dialect of the English Gypsies. I beg the reader to bear it in mind that all this is literally as it was given by an old gypsy, and that I am not responsible for its accuracy or inaccuracy.
Literally, the earth-sewer. Kali foki. Kalo means, as in Hindustani, not only black, but also lazy. Pronounced kaw-lo. Gorgio. Gentile; any man not a gypsy. Possibly from ghora aji “Master white man,” Hindu. Used as goi is applied by Hebrews to the unbelievers. Romeli, rom’ni. Wandering, gypsying. It is remarkable that remna, in Hindu, means to roam. Chollo-tem. Whole country, world. There is a great moral difference, not only in the gypsy mind, but in that of the peasant, between stealing and poaching. But in fact, as regards the appropriation of poultry of any kind, a young English gypsy has neither more nor less scruple than other poor people of his class. Man lana, Hindostani: to set the heart upon. Manner, Eng. Gyp.: to encourage; also, to forbid. Chovihan, m., chovihani, fem., often cho’ian or cho’ani, a witch. Probably from the Hindu ’toanee, a witch, which has nearly the same pronunciation as the English gypsy word. Travels in Beloochistan and Scinde, p. 153. English gypsies also call the moon shul and shone. Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, by Dr. Henry Rink. London 1875, p. 236.
