slaves from Algiers, Tunis, and Tetuan, added to its motley variety

of words from the relics of the broken Arabic and Turkish, which
they had acquired during their captivity. The greater part of the

Germania, however, remained strictly metaphorical, and we are aware
of no better means of conveying an idea of the principle on which

it is formed, than by quoting from the first romance of Hidalgo,
where particular mention is made of this jargon:-

'A la cama llama Blanda
Donde Sornan en poblado

A la Fresada Vellosa,
Que mucho vello ha criado.

Dice a la sabana Alba
Porque es alba en sumo grado,

A la camisa Carona,
Al jubon llama apretado:

Dice al Sayo Tapador
Porque le lleva tapado.

Llama a los zapatos Duros,
Que las piedras van pisando.

A la capa llama nuve,
Dice al Sombrero Texado.

Respeto llama a la Espada,
Que por ella es respetado,' etc. etc.

HIDALGO, p. 22-3.
After these few remarks on the ancient Germania of Spain, we now

proceed to the modern, which differs considerably from the former.
The principal cause of this difference is to be attributed to the

adoption by the Spanish outlaws, in latter years, of a considerable
number of words belonging to, or modified from, the Rommany, or

language of the Gitanos. The Gitanos of Spain, during the last
half-century, having, in a great degree, abandoned the wandering

habit of life which once constituted one of their most remarkable
peculiarities, and residing, at present, more in the cities than in

the fields, have come into closer contact with the great body of
the Spanish nation than was in former days their practice. From

their living thus in towns, their language has not only undergone
much corruption, but has become, to a slight degree, known to the

dregs of society, amongst whom they reside. The thieves' dialect
of the present day exhibits, therefore, less of the allegorical

language preserved in the pages of Hidalgo than of the Gypsy
tongue. It must be remarked, however, that it is very scanty, and

that the whole robber phraseology at present used in Spain barely
amounts to two hundred words, which are utterly insufficient to

express the very limited ideas of the outcasts who avail themselves
of it.

Concerning the Germania of France, or 'Argot,' as it is called, it
is unnecessary to make many observations, as what has been said of

the language of Hidalgo and the Red Italian is almost in every
respect applicable to it. As early as the middle of the sixteenth

century a vocabulary of this jargon was published under the title
of LANGUE DES ESCROCS, at Paris. Those who wish to study it as it

at present exists can do no better than consult LES MEMOIRES DE
VIDOCQ, where a multitude of words in Argot are to be found, and

also several songs, the subjects of which are thievish adventures.
The first vocabulary of the 'Cant Language,' or English Germania,

appeared in the year 1680, appended to the life of THE ENGLISH
ROGUE, a work which, in many respects, resembles the HISTORY OF

GUZMAN D'ALFARACHE, though it is written with considerably more
genius than the Spanish novel, every chapter abounding with

remarkable adventures of the robber whose life it pretends to
narrate, and which are described with a kind of ferocious energy,

which, if it do not charm the attention of the reader, at least
enslaves it, holding it captive with a chain of iron. Amongst his

other adventures, the hero falls in with a Gypsy encampment, is
enrolled amongst the fraternity, and is allotted a 'mort,' or

concubine; a barbarousfestival ensues, at the conclusion of which
an epithalamium is sung in the Gypsy language, as it is called in

the work in question. Neither the epithalamium, however, nor the
vocabulary, are written in the language of the English Gypsies, but

in the 'Cant,' or allegorical robberdialect, which is sufficient
proof that the writer, however well acquainted with thieves in

general, their customs and manners of life, was in respect to the
Gypsies profoundlyignorant. His vocabulary, however, has been

always accepted as the speech of the English Gypsies, whereas it is
at most entitled to be considered as the peculiar speech of the

thieves and vagabonds of his time. The cant of the present day,
which, though it differs in some respects from the vocabulary

already mentioned, is radically the same, is used not only by the
thieves in town and country, but by the jockeys of the racecourse

and the pugilists of the 'ring.' As a specimen of the cant of
England, we shall take the liberty of quoting the epithalamium to

which we have above alluded:-
'Bing out, bien morts, and tour and tour

Bing out, bien morts and tour;
For all your duds are bing'd awast,

The bien cove hath the loure. (78)
'I met a dell, I viewed her well,

She was benship to my watch:
So she and I did stall and cloy

Whatever we could catch.
'This doxy dell can cut ben whids,

And wap well for a win,
And prig and cloy so benshiply,

All daisy-ville within.
'The hoyle was up, we had good luck,

In frost for and in snow;
Men they did seek, then we did creep

And plant the roughman's low.'
It is scarcely necessary to say anything more upon the Germania in

general or in particular; we believe that we have achieved the task
which we marked out for ourselves, and have conveyed to our readers

a clear and distinct idea of what it is. We have shown that it has
been erroneously confounded with the Rommany, or Gitano language,

with which it has nevertheless some points of similarity. The two
languages are, at the present day, used for the same purpose,

namely, to enablehabitual breakers of the law to carry on their
consultations with more secrecy and privacy than by the ordinary

means. Yet it must not be forgotten that the thieves' jargon was
invented for that purpose, whilst the Rommany, originally the

proper and only speech of a particular nation, has been preserved
from falling into entire disuse and oblivion, because adapted to

answer the same end. It was impossible to treat of the Rommany in
a manner calculated to exhaust the subject, and to leave no ground

for future cavilling, without devoting a considerable space to the
consideration of the robberdialect, on which account we hope we

shall be excused many of the dry details which we have introduced
into the present essay. There is a link of connection between the

history of the Roma, or wanderers from Hindustan, who first made
their appearance in Europe at the commencement of the fifteenth

century, and that of modern roguery. Many of the arts which the
Gypsies proudly call their own, and which were perhaps at one

period peculiar to them, have become divulged, and are now
practised by the thievish gentry who infest the various European

states, a result which, we may assert with confidence, was brought
about by the alliance of the Gypsies being eagerly sought on their

first arrival by the thieves, who, at one period, were less skilful
than the former in the ways of deceit and plunder; which kind of

association continued and held good until the thieves had acquired
all they wished to learn, when they left the Gypsies in the fields

and plains, so dear to them from their vagabond and nomad habits,
and returned to the towns and cities. Yet from this temporary

association were produced two results; European fraud became
sharpened by coming into contact with Asiatic craft, whilst