[{244c}] Drop it.
[{247}] The Petulengres, a wandering clan of gypsies, led by Jasper Petulengro and his wife Pakomovna are introduced to us in Lavengro (chaps, v. and liv.). The etymology is thus explained by Borrow. “Petulengro: A compound of the modern Greek πεταλον and the Sanscrit kara; the literal meaning being lord of the horse-shoe (i.e. maker), it is one of the private cognominations of ‘the Smiths,’ an English gypsy clan.” Engro is apparently akin to the English suffix monger, and with it may be compared the Anglo-Saxon suffix smith, in such words as lore-smith or war-smith (warrior). Thus we have sapengro, lavengro, and sherengro, head man. Of the gypsy tribes in England, Borrow in his Zincali (ed. 1846, Introd.) has the following: “The principal gypsy tribes at present in existence are the Stanleys, whose grand haunt is the New Forest; the Lovells, who are fond of London and its vicinity: the Coopers, who call Windsor Castle their home; the Hernes, to whom the north country, more especially Yorkshire, belongeth; and lastly my brethren the Smiths, to whom East Anglia appears to have been allotted from the beginning. All these families have gypsy names, which seem, however, to be little more than attempts at translation of the English ones. Thus the Stanleys are called Bar-engres, which means stony fellows, the Coopers, Wardo-engres or wheelwrights, the Lovells, Camo-mescres, or amorous fellows, the Hernes (German Haaren), Balors, hairs, or hairy fellows, while the Smiths are called Petulengres, that is, horseshoe-fellows, or blacksmiths. Besides the above-named gypsy clans, there are other smaller ones, some of which do not comprise more than a dozen individuals, children included. For example, the Bosviles, the Browns, the Chilcotts, the Grays, Lees, Taylors and Whites; of these the principal is the Bosvile tribe.”
[{249a}] There’s a witch and a wizard and their name is Petulengro.
[{249b}] Tent.
[{256}] This refers to a notorious match between a lion and six mastiffs, arranged by George Wombwell at Warwick, in July 1825. The fight was that between George Cooper and Ned Baldwin, 5 July, 1825.
[{257}] Peel’s Metropolitan Police, constituted 1829.
[{265}] Said the gypsy lass to her mother—
‘My dear mother, I am with child.’
‘And what kind of a man made you with child,
My own daughter, my gypsy lass?’
‘O my mother, a great gentleman,
A rich gentleman, a stranger to our race,
Who rides upon a fine stallion,
’Twas he that made me thus with child.’
‘Vile little harlot that you are,
Be off, good-bye, you leave my tent!
Had a Romany lad got thee with child,
Then I had said to thee, poor lass!
But thou art just a vile harlot
By a stranger man to be with child.’
[{266}] Pig-poisoning.