Mr Barrow calls this hokkeny baro, the great swindle.  I may remark, by the way, that among jugglers and “show-people” sleight of hand is called hanky panky.  “Hocus-pocus” is attributed by several writers to the Gipsies, a derivation which gains much force from the fact, which I have never before seen pointed out, that hoggu bazee, which sounds very much like it, means in Hindustani legerdemain.  English Gipsies have an extraordinary fancy for adding the termination us in a most irregular manner to words both Rommany and English.  Thus kettene (together) is often changed to kettenus, and side to sidus.  In like manner, hoggu (hocku or honku) bazee could not fail to become hocus bozus, and the next change, for the sake of rhyme, would be to hocus-po-cus.

I told my ancient rambler of an extraordinary case of “huckeny pokee” which had recently occurred in the United States, somewhere in the west, the details of which had been narrated to me by a lady who lived at the time in the place where the event occurred.

“A Gipsy woman,” I said, “came to a farmhouse and played huckeny pokee on a farmer’s wife, and got away all the poor woman’s money.”

“Did she indeed, rya?” replied my good old friend, with a smile of joy flashing from his eyes, the unearthly Rommany light just glinting from their gloom.

“Yes,” I said impressively, as a mother might tell an affecting story to a child.  “All the money that that poor woman had, that wicked Gipsy woman took away, and utterly ruined her.”

This was the culminating point; he burst into an irrepressible laugh; he couldn’t help it—­the thing had been done too well.

“But you haven’t heard all yet,” I added.  “There’s more covvas to well.”

“Oh, I suppose the Rummany chi prastered avree (ran away), and got off with the swag?”

“No, she didn’t.”

“Then they caught her, and sent her to starabun” (prison).

“No,” I replied.

“And what did they do?”

“THEY BURNT HER ALIVE!”

His jaw fell; a glossy film came over his panther-eyes.  For a long time he had spoken to me, had this good and virtuous man, of going to America.  Suddenly he broke out with this vehement answer—­

“I won’t go to that country—­s’up mi duvel!  I’ll never go to America.”

It is told of a certain mother, that on showing her darling boy a picture in the Bible representing Daniel in the lions’ den, she said, “And there is good Daniel, and there are those naughty lions, who are going to eat him all up.”  Whereupon the dear boy cried out, “O mother, look at that poor little lion in the corner—­he won’t get any.”

It is from this point of view that such affairs are naturally regarded by the Rommany.