140 
NATURAL HISTOEY OF SELBOKNE 
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 of Tartary, who were endeavouring to 
penetrate those deserts, and try their fortune in China."^ 
Gypsies are called in French, Bohemiens ; in Italian and modern 
Greek, Zingani.f I am, &c. 
LETTEE XXVI. 
TO THE SAME. 
Selborne, Nov. 1st, 1775. 
"Hie .... tsedae pingues, hic plurimns ignis 
Semper, et assidua postes fuligine nigri." % 
Dear Sir. — I shall make no apology for troubling you with the 
detail of a very simple piece of domestic economy, being satisfied that 
you think nothing beneath your attention that tends to utility ; the 
matter alluded to is the use of rushes instead of candles, which I am 
well aware prevails in many districts besides this ; but as I know there 
are countries also where it does not obtain, and as I have considered 
the subject with some degree of exactness, I shall proceed in my 
humble story, and leave you to judge of the expediency. 
The proper species of rush for this purpose seems to be the juncus 
* See Bell's "Travels in China." 
t Borrow in his " Zincale" observes, "Bearing the same analogy to the 
Sanscrit tongue as the Indian dialects, we find the Rommany or the speech of 
Roma, or Zmcali as they style themselves, known in England and Spain as 
Gypsies or Gitauos. This speech, wherever it is spoken, is in all principal points 
one and the same, though more or less corrupted by foreign words, picked up in 
the various countries to which those who use it have penetrated. One remark- 
able feature must not be passed over without notice, namely, the very considerable 
number of Sclavonic words, which are to be found imbedded within it, whether 
it be spoken in Spain or Germany, in England or Italy ; from which circumstance 
we are led to the conclusion, that these people in their way from the east travelled 
in one large compact body, and that their route lay through some region where 
the Sclavonian language or a dialect thereof was spoken. This region, I have 
no hesitation in asserting to have been Bulgaria, where they probably tarried 
for a considerable period, as Nomade herdsmen, and where numbers of them are 
still found at the present day. Besides the many Sclavonian words in the 
Gypsy tongue, another curious feature attracts the attention of the philologist ; 
an equal or still greater quantity of terms from the modern Greek ; indeed we 
have full warrantry for assuming that at one period the Spanish section, if not 
the rest of the Gypsy nation^ understood the Greek language well, and that 
besides their own Indian dialect they occasionally used it for conside: ably upwards 
of a century subsequent to their arrival, as amongst the Gitunos there wcio 
individuals to whom it was intelligible so late as the year 154U." 
X " With heapy fires our cheerful hearth is crowned ; 
And firs for torches in the woods abound : 
We fear not more the winds, and wintry cold. 
Than streams the bank, nor wolves the bleati^ or fold." 
Dbyd. ViKG. Bel., vii. line 70. 
