Carmen

23

Rom, husband. Romi, wife.

24

Calo, feminine calli, plural cales. Literally “black,” the name the gipsies apply to themselves in their own language.

25

Spanish dragoons wear a yellow uniform.

26

Me dicas vriarda de jorpoy, bus ne sino braco.—A gipsy proverb.

27

The Saint, the Holy Virgin.

28

The gallows, which is the widow of the last man hanged upon it.

29

Flamenco de Roma, a slang term for the gipsies. Roma does not stand for the Eternal City, but for the nation of the romi, or the married folk—a name applied by the gipsies to themselves. The first gipsies seen in Spain probably came from the Low Countries, hence their name of Flemings.

30

A bulbous root, out of which rather a pleasant beverage is manufactured.

31

The ordinary food of a Spanish soldier.

32

Ustilar a pastesas, to steal cleverly, to purloin without violence.

33

A sort of volunteer corps.

34

One-eyed man.

35

“The idiots, they take me for a smart lady!”

36

Name applied by the Spanish populace to the British soldiers, on account of the colour of their uniform.

37

To the galleys, or else to all the devils in hell.

38

My “lover,” or rather my “fancy.”

39

Navarro fino.

40

Or esorjle de or marsichisle, sin chisnar lachinguel. “The promise of a dwarf is that he will spit a long way.”—A gipsy proverb.

41

La divisa. A knot of ribbon, the colour of which indicates the pasturage from which each bull comes. This knot of ribbon is fastened into the bull’s hide with a sort of hook, and it is considered the very height of gallantry to snatch it off the living beast and present it to a woman.

42

Maria Padella was accused of having bewitched Don Pedro. According to one popular tradition she presented Queen Blanche of Bourbon with a golden girdle which, in the eyes of the bewitched king, took on the appearance of a living snake. Hence the repugnance he always showed toward the unhappy princess.

43

It has struck me that the German gipsies, though they thoroughly understand the word cale, do not care to be called by that name. Among themselves they always use the designation Romane tchave.