A maiden’s fortune will be told.
Gypsy hair and devil’s eyes,
Ever stealing, full of lies,
Yet always poor and never wise.
He who has never lived like a gypsy does not know how to enjoy life as a gentleman.
I never enjoyed the mere living as regards all that constitutes ordinary respectable life so keenly as I did after some weeks of great hunger, exposure, and misery, in an artillery company in 1863, at the time of the battle of Gettysburg.
Zigeuner Leben Greiner Leben. (Gipsy life a groaning life. Korte’s “Sprichwörter d. D.”)
Er taugt nicht zum Zigeuner. Spottisch vom Lügner gesagt weil er nicht wahr-sagt. (Korte, “Sprichwörter.”)
“He would not do for a gypsy.” Said of a liar because he cannot tell the truth. In German to predict or tell fortunes also means to speak truly, i.e., wahr = true, and sprechen = to speak.