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.  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 ye 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!”