280 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [June, 1911. 
we must expect a certain common use or union of dialects, 
and a resultant patois or argot which combined with the tribal 
special ‘‘ slang ’’ provides a sufficiently extensive vocabulary 
must eventually result in the discarding of any real original 
language, and a constantly changing argot. Much interest there- 
fore attaches to words with which we can show some analogy in 
the various secret languages of Gypsies, whether in India or in 
Europe. 
call themselves Gehards, and supply the local Tent Clubs! 
of Delhi and Muttra with shikaries. It was owing to their 
tactics during the earlier days of our acquaintance that I was 
fired with a desire to get to know more about them. It was 
common knowledge in villages and in ‘‘ camp’’ among syces and 
others that these Kanjar-lég had a boli? of their own: but 
my earlier attempts at linguistic research in this direction 
were not successful. My informers unb!ushingly foisted on 
me what I subsequently discovered to be absolute gibberish, 
and it was only after I had known the clans settled in and 
around Delhi for some years, that I was really admitted into 
their confidence. It also so happened that about nine years ago 
I was in a measure instrumental in getting these Gehdrds 
exempted from the more rigorous operations of the Criminal 
Tribes Act, and I believe I thus became something of a 
apparent breach of confidence in committing their meagre 
cant to the care of the Asiatic Society. This particular branch 
of the tribe whom I discovered to the local authorities as 
Gehdrds, and who have been mostly the source of my informa- 
tion, are now more or less occupied in the peaceful pursuits of 
making khas khas tatties and collecting pig’s bristles, while 
the adventurous among them find scope for their natural bent 
in following ‘‘ the line’’ of the Tent Club or taking the globe- 
trotter out shikaring. As I say, the Gehdrdé sub-section of the 
Xunchbanciya Kanjarsin and around Delhi are now a prac- 
ically settled community, and any interest therefore whic 
: See Genl. Baden Powell’s book on Pigsticking in India. 
; * Talk or languaze. In Hindustani apas ké boli hai = ‘there is a 
anguage of their own,’’ and which the Kanjars themselves called pdsi 
e 
boli, I think it likely that pasi is slang for apas or apis or aps 
