Gypsy repentance for stolen hens is not worth much. (Old German Saying.)
The Romany chi
And the Romany chal
Love luripen
And lutchipen
And dukkeripen
And huknipen
And every pen
But latchipen
And tatchipen.
The gypsy woman
And gypsy man
Love stealing
And lewdness
And fortune telling
And lying
And every pen
But shame
And truth.
Pen is the termination of all verbal nouns.
(George Borrow, Quoted from memory.)
It’s a winter morning.
Meaning a bad day, or that matters look badly. In allusion to the Winters, a gypsy clan with a bad name.
As wild as a gypsy.
Puro romaneskoes. (In the old gypsy fashion.)
Sie hat ‘nen Kobold. (“She has a brownie, or house-fairy.”)
“Said of a girl who does everything deftly and readily. In some places the peasants believe that a fairy lives in the house, who does the work, brings water or wood, or curries the horses. Where such a fairy dwells, all succeeds if he or she is kindly treated” (Korte’s “German Proverbs”).
“One can well see what spirit was his sire.” In allusion to men of singular or eccentric habits, who are believed to have been begotten by the incubus, or goblins, or fairies. There are ceremonies by which spirits may be attracted to come to people in dreams.
“There was a young man who lived near Monte Lupo, and one day he found in a place among some old ruins a statue of a fate (fairy or goddess) all naked. He set it up in its shrine, and admiring it greatly embraced it with love (ut semen ejus profluit super statuam). And that night and ever after the fate came to him in his dreams and lay with him, and told him where to find treasures, so that he became a rich man. But he lived no more among men, nor did he after that ever enter a church. And I have heard that any one who will do as he did can draw the fate to come to him, for they are greatly desirous to be loved and worshipped by men as they were in the Roman times.”
The following are Hungarian or Transylvanian proverbs:—