116 GYPSIES. 



read of in England. Leland says Gypsies are building 

 up the old race and reviving the old language in Amer- 

 ica. The sexual morality of their women is, I believe, 

 better than that of our lower classes. At any rate it is 

 with the pure blood Gypsies. The Didikai are inferior 

 in this respect, as, I think, in most other ways. 



Cheating, petty roguery, and stealing wood, chickens, 

 &c., are no doubt Gypsy traits. But even these charges 

 are often exaggerated and, while fortune telling is wrong 

 from our point of view, it is with them the ancient cus- 

 tom of their race and they have brought it with their 

 language and cultus from India. I have already spoken 

 of their observance of Sunday. The Bucklands told me 

 that in England they went to church regularly and I be- 

 lieve that if approached properly and not too stiffly the 

 Gypsies would be open to the truths of the gospel, though 

 their wandering life will probably prevent their ever go- 

 ing to church very often. 



Before turning to the language of the Romany, the 

 last point to be discussed, it will be worth while to name 

 the principal gangs of Gypsies who frequent this county 

 and of whom this paper is a description. 



My first acquaintances, the Wells tribe, are a large 

 family of Didikai, some of whose members are rather 

 dissipated and not very prosperous. They often travel 

 by single wagons, but every now and then their wardos 

 come together and the family reunites for a time. They 

 are tall, large bodied, and rather fair. The Coopers and 

 some of the Stanleys are related to them. The Coopers 

 are short, dark, pure blood Romanys. I have only seen 

 a few of them here and those few travelled with the 

 Wells. There also travelled once with the Wells a 

 family named Quigley. These were not Gypsies by 

 blood at all and they knew it, but, though they were 

 fair and blue eyed, they spoke the dark language, and 

 their fathers and grandfathers had lived on the roads. 



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