entitled to the name, being wonderfully sweet.
Well, everybody present seemed mighty well pleased
with the song and music, with the exception of one
person, a carroty-haired Scotch body; how he came there
I don’t know, but there he was; and, coming
forward, he began in Scotch as broad as a barn-door
to find fault with the music and the song, saying that
he had never heard viler stuff than either.
Well, brother, out of consideration for the civil
gentry with whom the fellow had come, I held my peace
for a long time, and in order to get the subject changed,
I said to Mikailia in Romany, you have told the ladies
their fortunes, now tell the gentlemen theirs, quick
quick,—pen lende dukkerin. {269b} Well,
brother, the Scotchman, I suppose, thinking I was
speaking ill of him, fell into a greater passion than
before, and catching hold of the word dukkerin—’Dukkerin,’
said he, ‘what’s dukkerin?’ ‘Dukkerin,’
said I, ‘is fortune, a man or woman’s
destiny; don’t you like the word?’ ’Word!
d’ye ca’ that a word? a bonnie word,’
said he. ’Perhaps you’ll tell us
what it is in Scotch,’ said I, ’in order
that we may improve our language by a Scotch word;
a pal of mine has told me that we have taken a great
many words from foreign lingos.’ ’Why,
then, if that be the case, fellow, I will tell you;
it is e’en “spaeing,"’ said he, very
seriously. ‘Well, then,’ said I,
’I’ll keep my own word, which is much the
prettiest—spaeing! spaeing! why, I should
be ashamed to make use of the word, it sounds so much
like a certain other word;’ and then I made a
face as if I were unwell. ‘Perhaps it’s
Scotch also for that?’ ’What do you mean
by speaking in that guise to a gentleman?’ said
he, ’you insolent vagabond, without a name or
a country.’ ’There you are mistaken,’
said I, ’my country is Egypt, but we ’Gyptians,
like you Scotch, are rather fond of travelling; and
as for name—my name is Jasper Petulengro,
perhaps you have a better; what is it?’ ‘Sandy
Macraw.’ At that, brother, the gentlemen
burst into a roar of laughter, and all the ladies
tittered.”
“You were rather severe on the Scotchman, Jasper.”
“Not at all, brother, and suppose I were, he
began first; I am the civilest man in the world, and
never interfere with anybody who lets me and mine
alone. He finds fault with Romany, forsooth!
why, L—–d A’mighty, what’s
Scotch? He doesn’t like our songs; what
are his own? I understand them as little as
he mine; I have heard one or two of them, and pretty
rubbish they seemed. But the best of the joke
is the fellow’s finding fault with Piramus’s
fiddle—a chap from the land of bagpipes
finding fault with Piramus’s fiddle! Why,
I’ll back that fiddle against all the bagpipes
in Scotland, and Piramus against all the bagpipers;
for though Piramus weighs but ten stone, he shall
flog a Scotchman of twenty.”
“Scotchmen are never so fat as that,”
said I, “unless, indeed, they have been a long
time pensioners of England. I say, Jasper, what
remarkable names your people have!”