102 GYPSIES. 



exists an important division between tlie puro Mamanis^ 

 or Icdlo Ramanis (deep, or black Gypsies) and the Didi- 

 Jcai or half-breeds. These latter are not purely, often 

 not chiefly, of Grypsy blood but are the results of crosses 

 between pure Gypsies and the lower class English or 

 Irish people. They exist in all grades from those whose 

 mixture of gentile blood was a long way back and who 

 are altogether Gypsy like in character through quadroons 

 and octaroons to men who have much more gentile than 

 Gypsy in them and who are lacking in many essential 

 Romany traits. We have even heard of crosses between 

 these half-bloods, while they were South for the winter, 

 and negroes. The Didikai never know as much of the 

 language as the lialo Ramanis do but they are frequently 

 more communicative, and it was a family of them, the 

 Wells family, who were my first Romany acquaintances 

 and amongst whom I laid the foundations of my knowl- 

 edge of their language. 



" Go down and talk to that man," said Lottie Wells 

 once to me, "he's a black Gypsy. He knows an awful 

 "lot of deei^ Ramanes.''^ We were standing amongst 

 the tents and vans of her father's and uncles' camp near 

 Po'keepsie and the man alluded to was a bude-mush, or 

 hired man, who stood at some little distance, brushing 

 and curry-combing the horses. He was of average 

 (American) height, not stout but muscularly built, of a 

 complexion at least as dark as an Italian's, with jet 

 black, unkempt hair and black, bright, roving eyes. Not 

 a bad specimen of the Mlo Ramani or black Gypsy, 

 though not all the pure blood Gypsies have quite such 

 dark complexions as this one. 



All of them are dark, however, while some of the 

 Didikai, on the other hand, are nearly as light as the 

 average American. Still I never remember seeing even 

 one of the Didikai whose hair was not black or who 

 would not have been emphatically styled brunette, and 



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