The Reviewer.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 226, 8 January 1876, Page 7

The Reviewer.

LELAND’S ENGLISH-GIPSY SONGS. If any proof were needed of the versatile talent of the author of “ Meister Ivarl’s Sketch Book,” and “ Hans Breitmann’s Ballads,” it might be found without stint in this unique volume. Mr. Leland’s brain fairly swarms with whimsical conceits, for the illustration of which he ransacks the most recondite stores of learning, as well as making use of his own extraordinary powers of invention. One of his characteristic fancies is for trying all sorts of curious experiments with languages, which often remind the reader of the deftness of a conjuror even more than of the skill of an artist. Leaving the racy idioms of the American German, he here plunges into the depths of the English Rommany, not content with reproducing the bits and scraps of song which may be heard from the lips of the wandering gipsies, but venturing upon the bold attempt of original poetical composition in their own language. According to the author’s account of the origin of the volume, he was desirous when writing his work on “ The English Gipsies and their Language ” to add specimens of Rommany { songs to the collection of proverbs and tales which it contains, but could discover none of any interest except as imperfect illustrations of tlie strange tongue. The singing of the gipsies is like that of the American Indians, entirely wanting in rhyme and metre, and chanted without respect to time and tune. Mr. Leland, therefore, gave up the intention of forming such a collection, when he fell in with some admirable Rommany ballads written by a friend, which, with others by Professor Palmer and Miss Jane Tuckey, his colleagues in the present volume, suggested the idea that idiomatic poetry with the true gipsy spirit might be written as honest Rommany, although not composed by dwellers in tents or caravans. In carrying out the suggestion, great care was taken to keep to strict English Rommany, both as regards words and expression, and to abstain from all ideal fancies. There is hardly a poem in the volume which, if read in a natural manner, would not be easily understood by any intelligent gipsy. Mr. Leland excuses himself for taking so much interest in the Rommany language on the ground that of late years it has commanded the attention of the most eminent European philogists ; that in England it has been a distict dialect for several centuries ; and that it is soft, musical, and easy to acquire. The songs in the Rommany text are accompanied with poetical English versions, translated for the most part by the writers of the originals. As a specimen of the lighter class of these poems, we may take “ The Real Gipsy,” written and translated by Mr. Leland :

Oli! I’m a jolly Gipsy, and I roam the country round ; I’m a real Petulengro as can anywhere be found ; My uncle is a Chilcott, my mother is a Lee, But I’m the best of all of ’em, and real EommaHy. A real Rommany From head to foot I be. Who-op ! look into my peepers if a Gipsy you would see ! I go to fairs and races, there I’m always to be found ; One day across the country, then back upon the ground: One day I’m dressed up swelly, like the gentleman of course, Then the next I come the beggar, a holdin’ of yer horse. “ Just a threepence, sir. All right! For I had held him jolly tight.” Who-op ! I’m the boy as knows the way to run a horse —by niglit i When a cuttin’ of my skewers, so peaceable I am, You’d say, “That Petulengro is the pattern of a lamb!” But I’m handy with my maulies, as I many a time have showed, An’ can do for any traveller as goes up the road. Oh ! at fightin’ I’m at home, Quick to dodge and quick to come ; For at hittin’ or at shyin’ I’m an out-an’-outer Rom ! How are you, my sweet lady ? how are you, my lord, I sjy: My wife ’ll take your money when she comes along this way. You’ll want to give her something—just to keep away the cold— So I’ll step round the corner while your fortune’s bein’ told. Then there’ll be a patterin’, An’ an awful chatterin’, So I bid you all good evenin’ till I come this way again.

The following song by Miss Jane Tuckey is founded on the gipsy custom of assisting in the hop harvest, and thus earning enough to buy a stock of baskets, clothes-lines, and other “ notions,” with which they tramp over all England, each family taking its special beat. The general impression that they live by stealing, Mr. Leland pronounces to be incorrect. Whatever may have been the sins of their fathers in this respect, the present generation, as a rule, are not open to the charge. “From what I have seen of gipsies,” he says, “ I should say that they are on the whole as honest as the corresponding class of equally ignorant English people. They rarely betray a man who trusts them. I can recall, in relation to this, having once heard from Mr. Thomas Carlyle an interesting anecdote of a Scottish gipsy, who having borrowed a sum of money, faithfully returned it. I have neyer heard of a Rommany Rye being robbed by a gipsy. When the summer-time is gone, and the races all are run Our luck’s not over yet, for the hopping has begun ; So come, my Gipsy brothers, if everything is spent, We’ll all be off together to the pleasant land of Kent; And we’ll all sing in time, And we’ll all sing in rhyme, A song of the merry hopping time. Oh, the flowers are fading fast, and the nuts are growing brown ; The leaves are turning yellow, and the wind will blow them down ; But no matter for the flower, and no matter for the tree, The hops are all the flowers I would ever care to see ; They’re tlie best of all that grow, So get up, lads, and go To the country where the hops hang low. There the poles stand in line, like the men that serve the Queen, And the vines twist around them, and cover them with green ; There’s no prettier sight, let the rest be what they may,

Than a fine Kentish hopfield on a sunny Autumn day. Come, Gipsy boys so tall, Come, Gipsy children small— There’s money waiting yonder for us all!

Oh, the air smells so sweet where the ripe hop-blossoms are. You’d think you were sitting in a jolly alehouse bar ; It’s just like drinking beer in with every breath you draw — Oh, sure ’tis a wonder that it’s not against the law ! Bring the horse and the tent— We’ll none of us repent Having gone to the pleasant land of Kent. We’ll pitch our little tent, and at night when work is done, We’ll sit round the fire, and we’ll hang the kettle on ; And if Gorgios asks what’s in it, we’ll say, “ What should there be In the poor Gipsies’ kettle but a little drop of tea ?” And we’ll sing half the night, And we’ll dance and we’ll fight, Then we’ll sleep till the sun rises bright. When all the hops are picked, then we’ll travel to the town, And I'll buy a coat, and my wife will buy a gown, And we’ll get a stock of baskets, and sweepingbrushes too ; Oh, the hopping keeps us going aIL the dreary Winter through. So when nights are cold and long, Let us sing loud and strong, And remember the hopping in our song. Professor Palmer is responsible for the next extract, which, it will be perceived, is not without a certain flavor of Pike County : PREACHING CHARLIE. I don’t know much of religion. And I ain’t a goin’ to learn; But if any one takes up with it, That there is his own concern.

I’m not the kind of party As alius goes in for chaff; If a man does go to mootin’, What call have you to laugh ? But what I do maintain is, However much you try. The ways as you’ve once got in yer Must come out by and by. Now there’s old Preacliin’ Charlie— And this I’m bound to say, There’s no one, barrin’ his prayin’ More honest than Charlie Gray. He’s learnt to read, has Charlie, And spelt the Scripture through; And to hear him talk about it, You’d half believe it’s true. And he says as how in Heaven The weary are at peace, An’ the wicked cease from troublin’, An’ they don’t keep no police. But he says as how to git there, You musn’tlie nor drink; And as that’s agin all natur’, They won’t see me, I think. But a fox’ll show his breedin’ If there’s ever a hen about ; So whenever you rise old Charlie. His Rommany blood comes out. The other night I see him ; I went to his house to hide, For I’d had a bit of a shindy On yonder cover side. Says he, “I alius warned you, But it ain’t a bit of use ; Them poachin’ tricks you’re up to Will get your neck in a noose.” Says he, “ What were you arter ! The Lord forgive your sin !” And he fastened up the shutters, And fetched me out the gin. Says I, “I was out by moonlight A lookin’ about for a hare, Or a rabbit or two, or a pheasant, Or mebbe to set a snare. “ But I see the keepers cornin’, And clambered up a tree Says Charlie, “ May God forgive you ! What a wessel o’ wrath you be 1" “ Well, they hunted about for a little, Then all went off but one, Who stopped behind.”—Says Charlie, “ What risks them poachers run !” “ Then the moonlight shone upon him, And who do you think I see But the werry self-same ranger ' As alius was down on me. “ If I’d a been so much varmint, He couldn’t ha’ served me worse ; The -!” “ Can’t you talk,” says Charlie “ Without a hoath or a curse ?” “ Well, arter a bit he rested His gun agin a stump, And down I come upon him, So sudden it made him jump. “ And I took and snatched the gun up And put it agin his head ; Says I, “ You shout or holloa, And you’re as good as dead !’ “ He never moved a muscle, And I never see him flinch, Tlio’ the muzzle touched his forehead Within a half an inch ! “ Says I, ‘ You are a plucked ’un And no mistake—and so If you promise not to follow, Hang me ! but I’ll let you go.’ “ Says he, ‘ I’ll do my duty, Though I knows I am in your power ; But I don’t mind if I give you A start of a half an hour.’ “ So I hands him back his weapon, And cuts away like mad; And here I am !” says Charlie, “ Thank Heaven your safe, my lad ! “ But if I had had the handlin’ That gun instead of you, I’d a taken the butt-end on it, And smashed his legs in two !” If the reader should be tempted by these specimens to engage in the study of Rommany, he will find ample assistance at hand in Mr. Leland s Introduction and Notes to the poems, together with the Glossary and Rhyming Vocabulary by the other contributors to the volume.