[201] On mentioning to Sir Walter Scott, when at Abbotsford, that the Gipsies were very partial to Hughie the Græme, he caused his eldest daughter, afterwards Mrs. Lockhart, to sing this ancient Border song, which she readily did, accompanying her voice with the harp. We were, at the time, in the room which contained his old armour and other antiquities; to which place he had asked me, after tea, to hear his daughter play on the harp. She sang Hughie the Græme, in a plain, simple, unaffected manner, exactly in the style in which I have heard the humble country-girls singing the same song, in the south of Scotland. Sir Walter was much interested about the Gipsies; and when I repeated to him a short sentence in their speech, he, with great feeling, exclaimed, “Poor things! do you hear that?” This was the first time, I believe, that he ever heard a Scottish Gipsy word pronounced. It appeared to me that the mind of the great magician was not wholly divested of the fear that the Gipsies might, in some way or other, injure his young plantations.
[202] See [pages 58] and [65].—Ed.
[203] These sixteen farms embraced about 25,000 acres of mountainous land, maintained 13,000 sheep, 100 goats, 250 cattle, 50 horses, 20 draught-oxen, and 60 dogs; 29 shepherds, 26 other servants, and 15 cotters, making, with their families, 228 souls, supported by my ancestor’s property, as that of a Scotch gentleman-farmer. On the farms mentioned, which lay in Mid-Lothian, Tweed-dale, and Selkirkshire, the Gipsies were allowed to remain as long as they pleased; and no loss was ever sustained by the indulgence.
[204] I am convinced the Gipsies have a method of communicating with one another by their hands and fingers, and it is likely this man tried me, in that way, both at the fair and in his own house. I know a man who has seen the Gipsies communicating their thoughts to each other in this way.
“Bargains among the Indians are conducted in the most profound silence, and by merely touching each other’s hands. If the seller takes the whole hand, it implies a thousand rupees or pagodas; five fingers import five hundred; one finger, one hundred; half a finger, fifty; a single joint only ten. In this manner, they will often, in a crowded room, conclude the most important transactions, without the company suspecting that anything whatever was doing.”—Historical Account of Travels in Asia, by Hugh Murray.
“Method of the English selling their cargoes, at Jedda, to the Turks: Two Indian brokers come into the room to settle the price, one on the part of the Indian captain, the other on that of the buyer or Turk. They are neither Mahommedans nor Christians, but have credit with both. They sit down on the carpet, and take an Indian shawl, which they carry on their shoulders like a napkin, and spread it over their hands. They talk, in the meantime, indifferent conversation, of the arrival of ships from India, or of the news of the day, as if they were employed in no serious business whatever. After about twenty minutes spent in handling each other’s fingers, below the shawl, the bargain is concluded, say for nine ships, without one word ever having been spoken on the subject, or pen or ink used in any shape whatever.”—Bruce’s Travels.
[205] It is interesting to notice the reason for this old Gipsy chief being so backward in giving our author some of his language. “He was ashamed to do it.” Pity it is that there should be a man in Scotland, who, independent of personal character, should be ashamed of such a thing. Then, see how the Gipsy woman, in our author’s house, said that “the public would look upon her with horror and contempt, were it known she could speak the Gipsy language.” And again, the two female Gipsies, who would rather allow themselves to be murdered, than give the meaning of two Gipsy words to Sauchie colliers, for the reason that “it would have exposed their tribe, and made themselves odious to the world.” And all for knowing the Gipsy language!—which would be considered an accomplishment in another person! What frightful tyranny! Mr. Borrow, as we will by and by see, says a great deal about the law of Charles III, in regard to the prospects of the Spanish Gipsies. But there is a law above any legislative enactment—the law of society, of one’s fellow-creatures—which bears so hard upon the Gipsies; the despotism of caste. If Gipsies, in such humble circumstances, are so afraid of being known to be Gipsies, we can form some idea of the morbid sensitiveness of those in a higher sphere of life.
The innkeeper evidently thought himself in bad company, when our author asked him for the Tinkler’s house, or that any intercourse with a Tinkler would contaminate and degrade him. In this light, read an anecdote in the history of John Bunyan, who was one of the same people, as I shall afterwards show. In applying for his release from Bedford jail, his wife said to Justice Hale, “Moreover, my lord, I have four small children that cannot help themselves, of which one is blind, and we have nothing to live upon but the charity of good people.” Thereat, Justice Hale, looking very soberly on the matter, said, “Alas, poor woman!” “What is his calling?” continued the judge. And some of the company, that stood by, said, (evidently in interruption, and with a bitter sneer,) “A Tinker, my lord!” “Yes,” replied Bunyan’s wife, “and because he is a Tinker, and a poor man, therefore he is despised, and cannot have justice.” Noble woman! wife of a noble Gipsy! If the world wishes to know who John Bunyan really was, it can find him depicted in our author’s visit to this Scottish Gipsy family, where it can also learn the meaning of Bunyan, at a time when Jews were legally excluded from England, taking so much trouble to ascertain whether he was of that race, or not. From the present work generally, the world can learn the reason why Bunyan said nothing of his ancestry and nationality, when giving an account of his own history.—Ed.
[206] Sallah, in the Scottish Gipsy speech, properly signifies accursed, or detested. It is one of the most abusive expressions that can be used towards your fellow creatures. Nothing terrifies a young Gipsy so much as to bawl out to him, “Sallah, jaw drom,” which, in plain English, nearly means, “You accursed, take the road.”
It appears that, in Hindostanee, Salla is a word of the highest reproach, and that nothing can provoke a Hindoo so much as the applying of it to him. When cursing and swearing, by what would appear to be the Deity, the Gipsies make use of the word Sallahen.