‘As much as you please,’ said I, ’provided you can find anything pleasant to talk about.’

‘Never fear,’ said Jasper; ’and first of all we will talk of yourself.  Where have you been all this long time?’

‘Here and there,’ said I, ’and far and near, going about with the soldiers; but there is no soldiering now, so we have sat down, father and family, in the town there.’

‘And do you still hunt snakes?’ said Jasper.

‘No,’ said I, ’I have given up that long ago; I do better now:  read books and learn languages.’

’Well, I am sorry you have given up your snake-hunting, many’s the strange talk I have had with our people about your snake and yourself, and how you frightened my father and mother in the lane.’

‘And where are your father and mother?’

‘Where I shall never see them, brother; at least, I hope so.’

‘Not dead?’

‘No, not dead; they are bitchadey pawdel.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Sent across—­banished.’

‘Ah!  I understand; I am sorry for them.  And so you are here alone?’

‘Not quite alone, brother.’

‘No, not alone; but with the rest—­Tawno Chikno takes care of you.’

‘Takes care of me, brother!’

’Yes, stands to you in the place of a father—­keeps you out of harm’s way.’

‘What do you take me for, brother?’

‘For about three years older than myself.’

’Perhaps; but you are of the Gorgios, and I am a Rommany Chal.  Tawno Chikno take care of Jasper Petulengro!’

‘Is that your name?’

‘Don’t you like it?’

’Very much, I never heard a sweeter; it is something like what you call me.’

‘The horse-shoe master and the snake-fellow, I am the first.’

‘Who gave you that name?’

‘Ask Pharaoh.’

‘I would, if he were here, but I do not see him.’

‘I am Pharaoh.’

‘Then you are a king.’

‘Chachipen Pal.’

‘I do not understand you.’

’Where are your languages?  You want two things, brother:  mother sense, and gentle Rommany.’

‘What makes you think that I want sense?’

‘That, being so old, you can’t yet guide yourself!’

‘I can read Dante, Jasper.’

‘Anan, brother.’

‘I can charm snakes, Jasper.’

‘I know you can, brother.’

’Yes, and horses too; bring me the most vicious in the land, if I whisper he’ll be tame.’

’Then the more shame for you—­a snake-fellow—­a horse-witch—­and a lil-reader—­yet you can’t shift for yourself.  I laugh at you, brother!’

‘Then you can shift for yourself?’

‘For myself and for others, brother.’

‘And what does Chikno?’

‘Sells me horses, when I bid him.  Those horses on the chong were mine.’

‘And has he none of his own?’