GUDLO XV.  THE HALF-BLOOD GIPSY, HIS WIFE, AND THE PIG.

‘Pre yeck divvus there was a mush a-piin’ ma his Rommany chals adree a kitchema, an’ pauli a chairus he got pash matto.  An’ he penned about mullo baulors, that he never hawed kek.  Kenna-sig his juvo welled adree an’ putched him to jal kerri, but yuv pookered her, “Kek—­I won’t jal kenna.”  Then she penned, “Well alang, the chavvis got kek habben.”  So she putchered him ajaw an’ ajaw, an’ he always rakkered her pauli “Kek.”  So she lelled a mullo baulor ap her dumo and wussered it ’pre the haumescro pre saw the foki, an’ penned, “Lel the mullo baulor an’ rummer it, an’ mandy’ll dick pauli the chavos.”

TRANSLATION.

Once there was a man drinking with his Gipsy fellows in an alehouse, and after a while he got half drunk.  And he said of pigs that had died a natural death, he never ate any.  By-and-by his wife came in and asked him to go home, but he told her, “No—­I won’t go now.”  Then she said, “Come along, the children have no food.”  So she entreated him again and again, and he always answered “No.”  So she took a pig that had died a natural death, from her back and threw it on the table before all the people, and said, “Take the dead pig for a wife, and I will look after the children.” {218}

GUDLO XVI.  THE GIPSY TELLS THE STORY OF THE SEVEN WHISTLERS.

My raia, the gudlo of the Seven Whistlers, you jin, is adree the Scriptures—­so they pookered mandy.

An’ the Seven Whistlers (Efta Shellengeri) is seven spirits of ranis that jal by the ratti, ‘pre the bavol, parl the heb, like chillicos.  An’ it pookers ’dree the Bible that the Seven Whistlers shell wherever they praster atut the bavol.  But aduro timeus yeck jalled avree an’ got nashered, and kenna there’s only shove; but they pens ’em the Seven Whistlers.  An’ that sims the story tute pookered mandy of the Seven Stars.

TRANSLATION.

Sir, the story of the Seven Whistlers, you know, is in the Scriptures—­so they told me.

An’ the Seven Whistlers are seven spirits of ladies that go by the night, through the air, over the heaven, like birds.  And it tells (us) in the Bible that the Seven Whistlers whistle wherever they fly across the air.  But a long time ago one went away and got lost, and now there are only six; but they call them the Seven Whistlers.  And that is like the story you told me of the Seven Stars. {219}

GUDLO XVII.  AN OLD STORY WELL KNOWN TO ALL GIPSIES.