search among old Gipsies, the
Anglo-Rommany vocabulary might be increased to possibly five or six
thousand words.

It is very possible that when they first came from the East to Europe the
Gipsies had a very copious supply of words, for there were men among them
of superior intelligence. But in Turkey, as in Germany, they have not
been brought into such close contact with the _Gorgios_ as in England:
they have not preserved their familiarity with so many ideas, and
consequently their vocabulary has diminished. Most of the Continental
Gipsies are still wild, black wanderers, unfamiliar with many things for
which the English Gipsy has at least a name, and to which he has
continued to apply old Indian words. Every one familiar with the subject
knows that the English Gipsies in America are far more intelligent than
their German Rommany cousins. A few years ago a large party of the
latter appeared at an English racecourse, where they excited much
attention, but greatly disgusted the English Roms, not as rivals, but
simply from their habits. "They couldn't do a thing but beg," said my
informant. "They jinned (knew) nothing else: they were the dirtiest
Gipsies I ever saw; and when the juvas suckled the children, they
sikkered their burks (showed their breasts) as I never saw women do
before foki." Such people would not, as a rule, know so many words as
those who looked down on them.

The conclusion which I have drawn from studying Anglo-Rommany, and
different works on India, is that the Gipsies are the descendants of a
vast number of Hindus, of the primitive tribes of Hindustan, who were
expelled or emigrated from that country early in the fourteenth century.
I believe they were chiefly of the primitive tribes, because evidence
which I have given indicates that they were identical with the two castes
of the Doms and Nats--the latter being, in fact, at the present day, the
real Gipsies of India. Other low castes and outcasts were probably
included in the emigration, but I believe that future research will prove
that they were all of the old stock. The first Pariahs of India may have
consisted entirely of those who refused to embrace the religion of their
conquerors.

It has been coolly asserted by a recent writer that Gipsies are not
proved to be of Hindu origin because "a few" Hindu words are to be found
in their language. What the proportion of such words really is may be
ascertained from the dictionary which wil