(I thanked him, said good day and went along the road to my tent.)
“Will mande dick tuti collico sorlo?
“I dick’d tuti collico sarla but tuti kekko dick mande.”
(Shall I see you to-morrow morning?
I saw you yesterday evening but you didn’t see me.)
“Here’s to the Romany Rye; he’s kek a cooromengro, but a mush that jins what we pens. He’s kek a killimengro, but a tatcho Romano.”
(Here’s to the gypsy gentleman; he’s not a fighting man, but knows just what we say. He’s not a dancing fellow, but one of the gentleman gypsies.)
Among the mongrel gypsies and Chorodies a good deal of slang is interposed throughout their talk, and they appear to be unable to judge by the sound of a word whether it be an approximately correct gypsy word or a slang term, whereas the true gypsy, upon hearing a Romany word of which he had no previous knowledge, will say it over and over again, and at last assert, “Yes, that’s right, that’s correct, I can tell.”