Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
in the most brilliant sunshine. The roads, ever since early 
dawn, had been black with an endless stream of Whit 
Monday sightseers— the greater number of them on bi- 
cycles, of which there must have been several thousands. 
Kirk Yetholm is the gipsies’ own particular village, in which 
they have had an encampment for nearly two centuries — 
ever since a bit of land was granted to ‘ William I.,’ of 
the royal line of ‘ Faa,’ by Sir William Bennet, in grati- 
tude for his services. I wonder what kind of services ! 
The gipsies are generally believed to have come from 
Egypt ; indeed, they are commonly called Egyptians, 
which name they are said to prefer. Their name for them- 
selves is Romany (from the Sanscrit Rumanus , meaning 
“strong man ”). They themselves claim that the surname of 
Faa or Faw, an ancient one among them, is derived from 
Pharaoh. But, from a curious likeness between the Rom- 
any and Hindustani languages, some authorities, among 
others Sir Reginald Burton and Grellmann, imagine them 
to be of Hindoo origin. The old English term for a 
gipsy was Gyptian, and the Hungarians sometimes call 
them the children of Pharaoh ( Pharaonepek ). In Hindu- 
stani the word ‘.snow ’ is hima , and the word ‘bearer’ is lay a; 
in Romany the words are him and loya. In both languages 
the word ‘ Himalaya ’ means the ‘ bearer of snows.’ The 
gipsy word Raunie , which means a chieftainess, and 
which has been adopted by the Scotch under the version 
‘ Randy,’ a scolding woman, is just the Hindustani 
Ranee , lady, queen, or woman. The Scotch word ‘ sorn,’ 
to obtain food forcibly, is said to be a corruption of the 
gipsy choar , which is from the Hindustani chorna , 
to steal. Indeed, it would seem pretty well proven 
that the original home of all gipsies were the slopes of 
the Himalayas, at least before 1417, which is the time 
they seem first to have attracted notice in Europe. I have 
heard that in Hindustani the word ghudda is used for a 
donkey, and Jamieson, in his Dictionary, seems to think 
the Scotch word ‘ cuddy ’ (donkey) may be just a cor- 
ruption of the gipsies’ term for their favourite beast of 
88 
