A “ROMANCHAL”
The silk handkerchief is occasionally worn as a shawl by the women-folk, and, in event of the sun’s rays becoming uncomfortably hot, it is wrapped around the head in a style not inappropriately called by them an “Italian cap.” I was once arranging to photograph a Romany girl, when her companion, who happened to be a very-much-alive gypsy, appropriated my velvet focussing cloth and forthwith made for herself therewith an Italian cap. I have ever since regretted I did not manage without the cloth and photograph her and the impromptu head-dress.
Some of the girls and younger women have a pretty habit of wearing flowers in the hair,—small sprays of foliage being used when flowers are not obtainable,—thereby reminding one of a similar custom of the natives of Tahiti, who, however, go a step further and wear a flower inserted in a small hole in each ear in addition to those in the hair.
It is a noteworthy fact that whenever Romany women purchase jewellery, articles of distinctly Oriental design, or having an Oriental or quaint appearance, are almost invariably selected.
Brooches, which are fine examples of cameo sculpture, are occasionally seen being worn by them, and as these are mostly Italian productions they may have been procured during a sojourn in that country; but it is more likely they have been purchased in England, as they were at one time in great demand and many thousands were imported.
Certain features of the gypsy dress remind one of that of the coster, the large hat with its “fevver” being the heart’s desire of gypsy Fenella and coster ’Arriet alike; with regard, however, to the dress of the male gypsy, little need be said, but that the coster delights more in display than does our present-day gypsy; even the gypsy of a few years since, in his full array of silver buttons, was dressed modestly in comparison with the barbaric pearly rig-out of the coster. In the way of head-gear, the Romany chal usually prefers a cloth cap or a slouch hat, albeit a large, high-crowned straw hat may be occasionally found among horse-dealers and children. Among Romany folk, then, love of finery and display would appear to be the exclusive privilege of the female gypsy. I have seen silver umbrella handles mounted and worn by them as brooches, half-crowns as brooches to keep an apron string in place, bones which are considered lucky mounted in silver and worn on the breast, and so on. One of the first questions one asks of another when inspecting jewellery is—“Is it silver?”
