One day I questioned a Gipsy as to cats, and what his opinion was of black ones, correctly surmising that he would have some peculiar ideas on the subject, and he replied—­

“Rommanys never lel kaulo matchers adree the ker, ’cause they’re mullos, and beng is covvas; and the puro beng, you jin, is kaulo, an’ has shtor herros an’ dui mushis—­an’ a sherro.  But pauno matchers san kushto, for they’re sim to pauno ghosts of ranis.”

Which means in English, “Gipsies never have black cats in the house, because they are unearthly creatures, and things of the devil; and the old devil, you know, is black, and has four legs and two arms—­and a head.  But white cats are good, for they are like the white ghosts of ladies.”

It is in the extraordinary reason given for liking white cats that the subtle Gipsyism of this cat-commentary consists.  Most people would consider a resemblance to a white ghost rather repulsive.  But the Gipsy lives by night a strange life, and the reader who peruses carefully the stories which are given in this volume, will perceive in them a familiarity with goblin-land and its denizens which has become rare among “Christians.”

But it may be that I do this droll old Gipsy great wrong in thus apparently classing him with the heathen, since he one day manifested clearly enough that he considered he had a right to be regarded as a true believer—­the only drawback being this, that he was apparently under the conviction that all human beings were “Christians.”  And the way in which he declared it was as follows:  I had given him the Hindustani word janwur, and asked him if he knew such a term, and he answered—­

“Do I jin sitch a lav (know such a word) as janwur for a hanimal?  Avo (yes); it’s jomper—­it’s a toadus” (toad).

“But do you jin the lav (know the word) for an animal?”

“Didn’t I just pooker tute (tell you) it was a jomper? for if a toad’s a hanimal, jomper must be the lav for hanimal.”

“But don’t you jin kek lav (know a word) for sar the covvas that have jivaben (all living things)—­for jompers, and bitti matchers (mice), and gryas (horses)?  You and I are animals.”

“Kek, rya, kek (no, sir, no), we aren’t hanimals. Hanimals is critters that have something queer about ’em, such as the lions an’ helephants at the well-gooroos (fairs), or cows with five legs, or won’ful piebald grais—­them’s hanimals.  But Christins aint hanimals.  Them’s mushis” (men).

To return to cats:  it is remarkable that the colour which makes a cat desirable should render a bowl or cup objectionable to a true Gipsy, as I have elsewhere observed in commenting on the fact that no old-fashioned Rommany will drink, if possible, from white crockery.  But they have peculiar fancies as to other colours.  Till within a few years in Great Britain, as at the present day in Germany, their fondness for green coats amounted to a passion.  In Germany a Gipsy who loses caste for any offence is forbidden for a certain time to wear green, so that ver non semper viret may be truly applied to those among them who bloom too rankly.