94 GYPSIES. 



another kind of cant. I imagine his was a Gypsy dia- 

 lect very niuch corrupted by slang of the roads. 



" Your' re talken' cant," he said to me, ''you can 

 talk it good, I don't know your kind. I'm Scotch. 

 "Name's Williamson; ain't Romanes. Do I know 

 " Wells? (a Gypsy friend of mine). Yes ; he's out near 

 " Bull's Head. We was with him but we left him. 

 " Couldn't stand him. He can talk that what you talk 

 " in this country. I talk cant. The words are cadji, 

 " like that. Will I be here several days? Ye3, I'm out 

 " by the Asylum. So long ! " And he trudged away, 

 up the hill, basket on arm, never looking back. I meant 

 to go out and see tbis gang but they got away before I 

 could do it. I have since heard one of their girls mar- 

 ried an American gypsy, a friend of mine. This shows 

 that whatever their differences they accept each other as 

 kindred — "all rogues, and from Egypt." The one word 

 he gave me, cadji, which probably was slang for one of 

 his own gang, is Scotch slang and means a wanderer or 

 beggar. The " Slang Dictionary " gives cadge, ''' to heg 

 in an artful, wheedling manner," and says it means in 

 Scotland also, to wander, to go astray. It may be 

 derived from Gaelic cad, a friend, or from Welsh cod, a 

 bag or pouch (which would be carried by a beggar). 



According to Hoyland (a Quaker who married a Gypsy 

 girl and wrote a book about them from the Gypsy- 

 Quaker combination standpoint), the ancestors of our 

 American Gypsies arrived in England in 1512. Leland 

 (Johnson's Encycl., Art. "Gypsies") gives 1506. They 

 had a leader of the name of Giles Hathor, who was 

 termed theii king, with a woman named Calot called their 

 queen. These two rode through the country on horse- 

 back in strange attire, followed by their ragamuffin pack. 

 Although I have seen no record of it, they no doubt tried 

 to impose on our ancestors as penancers and lords of lit- 

 tle Egypt, just as elsewhere, but the trick didn't work 



32 



