The English Gipsies and Their Language Part 11

The best is soonest gone.

_To d.i.c.k a puro pal is as cammoben as a kushti habben_.

To see an old friend is as agreeable as a good meal.

_When tuti's pals chinger yeck with a waver_, _don't tute jal adoi_.

When your brothers quarrel don't you meddle.

_Pet up with the rakkerin an' mor pen chichi_.

Endure the chattering and say nothing.

_When a mush dels tute a grai tute man d.i.c.k 'dree lester's mui_.

When a man gives you a horse you must not look in his mouth.

_Man jal atut the puvius_.

Do not go across the field. Intimating that one should travel in the proper road.

_There's a kushti sovaben at the kunsus of a duro drum_.

There is a sweet sleep at the end of a long road.

_Kair the cammodearer_.

Make the best of it.

_Rikker dovo adree tute's see_.

Keep that a secret.

_The koomi foki the tacho_.

The more the merrier.

_The pishom kairs the gudlo_.

The bee makes the honey. _Id est_, each does his own work.

_The pishom lels the gudlo avree the roozhers_.

The bee gets honey from flowers. _Id est_, seeks it in the right place.

_Hatch till the dood wells apre_.

Wait till the moon rises. A very characteristic Gipsy saying.

_Can't pen shukker atut lendy_.

You cannot say aught against them.

_He's boccalo ajaw to haw his chokkas_.

He's hungry enough to eat his shoes.

_The puro beng is a fino mush_!

The devil is a nice character.

_Mansha tu pal_!

Cheer up, brother. Be a man! Spoken to any one who seems dejected. This corresponds partially to the German Gipsy _Ma.n.u.schwari_! which is, however, rather an evil wish and a curse, meaning according to Dr Lieb.i.+.c.h (_Die Zigeuner_) the gallows, dire need, and epilepsy. Both in English and German it is, however, derived from Ma.n.u.sch, a man.

_He's a hunnalo nakin mush_.

He is an avaricious man. Literally, a spiteful nosed man.

_Tute can hair a covva ferridearer if you jal shukar_.

You can do a thing better if you go about it secretly.

_We're lullero adoi we don't jin the jib_.

We are dumb where we do not understand the language.

_Chucked_ (_chivved_) _saw the habben avree_.

He threw all the victuals about. A melancholy proverb, meaning that state of irritable intoxication when a man comes home and abuses his family.

_A myla that rikkers tute is kushtier to kistur than a grai that chivs you apre_.

An a.s.s that carries you is better than a horse that throws you off.

_The juva_, _that sikkers her burk will sikker her bull_.

"Free of her lips, free of her hips."

_He sims mandy dree the mui_--_like a puvengro_.

He resembles me--like a potato.

_Yeck hotchewitchi sims a waver as yeck bubby sims the waver_.

One hedgehog is as like another as two peas.

_He mored men dui_.