"I say, old woman," he cried; "do you know who you"re _rakkerin_ [speaking] to? This here gentleman is one of the deepest Romany ryes [gypsy gentlemen] a-going. And that there one could _gladdher_ you out of your eye-teeth."
She gave one look of dismay,--I shall never forget that look,--and ran away. The witch had chanced upon Arbaces. I think that the tramp had been in his time a man in better position. He was possibly a lawyer"s clerk who had fallen into evil ways. He spoke English correctly when not addressing the beggar woman. There was in Aberystwith at the same time another fern-seller, an elderly man, as wretched and as ragged a creature as I ever met. Yet he also spoke English purely, and could give in Latin the names of all the plants which he sold. I have always supposed that the tinkers" language spoken of by Shakespeare was Romany; but I now incline to think it may have been Shelta.
Time pa.s.sed, and "the levis grene" had fallen thrice from the trees, and I had crossed the sea and was in my native city of Philadelphia. It was a great change after eleven years of Europe, during ten of which I had "homed," as gypsies say, in England. The houses and the roads were old-new to me; there was something familiar-foreign in the voices and ways of those who had been my earliest friends; the very air as it blew hummed tunes which had lost tones in them that made me marvel. Yet even here I soon found traces of something which is the same all the world over, which goes ever on "as of ever," and that was the wanderer of the road. Near the city are three distinct gypsyries, where in summer-time the wagon and the tent may be found; and ever and anon, in my walks about town, I found interesting varieties of vagabonds from every part of Europe. Italians of the most Bohemian type, who once had been like angels,--and truly only in this, that their visits of old were few and far between,--now swarmed as fruit dealers and boot-blacks in every lane; Germans were of course at home; Czechs, or Slavs, supposed to be Germans, gave unlimited facilities for Slavonian practice; while tinkers, almost unknown in 1860, had in 1880 become marvelously common, and strange to say were nearly all Austrians of different kinds. And yet not quite all, and it was lucky for me they were not. For one morning, as I went into the large garden which lies around the house wherein I wone, I heard by the honeysuckle and grape-vine a familiar sound,--suggestive of the road and Romanys and London, and all that is most traveler-esque. It was the tap, tap, tap of a hammer and the clang of tin, and I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled at the end of the garden a tinker was near.
And I advanced to him, and as he glanced up and greeted, I read in his Irish face long rambles on the roads.
"Good-morning!"
"Good-mornin", sorr!"
"You"re an old traveler?"
"I am, sorr."
"Can you rakker Romanes?"
"I can, sorr!"
"_Pen yer nav_." (Tell your name.)
"Owen ---, sorr."
A brief conversation ensued, during which we ascertained that we had many friends in common in the _puro tem_ or Ould Country. All at once a thought struck me, and I exclaimed,--
"Do you know any other languages?"
"Yes, sorr: Ould Irish an" Welsh, an" a little Gaelic."
"That"s all?"
"Yes, sorr, all av thim."
"All but one?"
"An" what"s that wan, sorr?"
"Can you _thari shelta_, _subli_?"
No tinker was ever yet astonished at anything. If he could be he would not be a tinker. If the coals in his stove were to turn to lumps of gold in a twinkle, he would proceed with leisurely action to rake them out and prepare them for sale, and never indicate by a word or a wink that anything remarkable had occurred. But Owen the tinker looked steadily at me for an instant, as if to see what manner of man I might be, and then said,--
"_Shelta_, is it? An" I can talk it. An" there"s not six min livin" as can talk it as I do."
"Do you know, I think it"s very remarkable that you can talk Shelta."
"An" begorra, I think it"s very remarkable, sorr, that ye should know there is such a language."
"Will you give me a lesson?"
"Troth I will."
I went into the house and brought out a note-book. One of the servants brought me a chair. Owen went on soldering a tin dish, and I proceeded to take down from him the following list of words in _Shelta_:
Theddy Fire (_theinne_. Irish).
Strawn Tin.
Blyhunka Horse.
Leicheen Girl.
Soobli Male, man.
Binny soobli Boy.
Binny Small.
Chimmel Stick.
Gh"ratha, grata Hat.
Griffin, or gruffin Coat.
Respes Trousers.
Gullemnocks Shoes.
Grascot Waistcoat.
Skoich, or skoi b.u.t.ton.
Numpa Sovereign, one pound.
Gorhead, or G.o.dhed Money.
Merrih Nose (?).
Nyock Head.
Graigh Hair.
Kaine, or kyni Ears (Romany, _kan_).
Melthog Inner shirt.
Medthel Black.
Cunnels Potatoes.
Faihe, or feye Meat (_feoil_. Gaelic).
Muogh Pig (_muck_. Irish).
Miesli, misli To go (origin of "mizzle"?) Mailyas, or moillhas Fingers (_meirleach_, stealers Gaelic).
Shaidyog Policeman.
Respun To steal.
Shoich Water, blood, liquid.
Alemnoch Milk.
Raglan, or reglan Hammer.
Goppa Furnace, smith (_gobha_, a smith.
Gaelic).
Terry A heating-iron.
Khoi Pincers.
Chimmes (compare _chimmel_) Wood or stick.
Mailyas Arms.
Koras Legs (_cos_, leg. Gaelic).
Skoihopa Whisky.
Bulla (_ull_ as in _gull_) A letter.
Thari Word, language.
Mush Umbrella (slang).
Lyesken cherps Telling fortunes.
Loshools Flowers (_lus_, erb or flower?
Gaelic).
Dainoch To lose.