ON ROBBER LANGUAGE; OR, AS IT IS CALLED IN SPAIN, GERMANIA
'So I went with them to a music booth, where they made me almost
drunk with gin, and began to talk their FLASH LANGUAGE, which I did
not understand.' - Narrative of the Exploits of Henry Simms,
executed at Tyburn, 1746.
'Hablaronse los dos en Germania, de lo qual resulto darme un
abraco, y ofrecerseme.' - QUEVEDO. Vida dal gran Tacano.
HAVING in the preceding article endeavoured to afford all necessary
information concerning the Rommany, or language used by the Gypsies
amongst themselves, we now propose to turn our attention to a
subject of no less interest, but which has hitherto never been
treated in a manner calculated to lead to any satisfactory result
or conclusion; on the contrary, though philosophic minds have been
engaged in its consideration, and learned pens have not disdained
to occupy themselves with its details, it still remains a singular
proof of the errors into which the most acute and laborious writers
are apt to fall, when they take upon themselves the task of writing
on matters which cannot be studied in the closet, and on which no
information can be received by mixing in the society of the wise,
the lettered, and the respectable, but which must be investigated
in the fields, and on the borders of the highways, in prisons, and
amongst the dregs of society.
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