GIPSIES. 187 



from the Levant ? It would be matter of some curiosity could 

 one meet with an intelligent person among them, to inquire 

 whether, in their jargon, they still retain any Greek words : 

 the Greek radicals will appear in hand, foot, head, water, earth, 

 c. It is possible, that, amidst their cant and corrupted 

 dialect, many mutilated remains of their native language might 

 still be discovered. 



With regard to those peculiar people, the gipsies, one thing 

 is very remarkable, and especially as they came from warmer 

 climates ; and that is, that while other beggars lodge in barns, 

 stables, and cow-houses, these sturdy savages seem to pride 

 themselves in braving the severities of winter, and in living 

 sub dio the whole year round. Last September was as wet a 

 month as ever was known ; and yet, during those deluges, did 

 a young gipsy girl lie in the midst of one of our hop-gardens, 

 on the cold ground, with nothing over her but a piece of a 

 blanket, extended on a few hazel rods bent hoop fashion, and 

 stuck into the earth at each end, in circumstances too trying 

 for a cow in the same condition : yet within this garden there 

 was a large hop-kiln, into the chambers of which she might 

 have retired, had she thought shelter an object worthy her 

 attention. 



Europe itself, it seems, cannot set bounds to the rovings of 

 these vagabonds ; for Mr Bell, in his return from Peking, met 

 a gang of these people on the confines ot Tartary, who were 

 endeavouring to penetrate those deserts, and try their fortune 

 in China.* 



Gipsies are called in French, Bohemiens ; in Italian and 

 modern Greek, Zingani. 



vocabulary be formed of the dialect used by gipsies, the era and route 

 by which they entered Europe might possibly be traced by an ingenious 

 linguist. 



Ludolf, in the seventeenth century, collected from certain wandering 

 tribes, which he met in Ethiopia and Nubia, a vocabulary of thiry-eight 

 words. These were so fortunately selected, that a counterpart has, in 

 almost every instance, offered itself, both from the language of Hindostan, 

 and from that of the European gipsy. This fact recalls an observation 

 made by Sir William Jones, though it may bear but little upon the 

 question that the ancient Egyptian and Sanscrit are probably the 

 same. ED. 



* See Bell's Travels in China. 



