the more was, that he was not prodigal in his
communications. What I could get out of him
was the result of considerable pressing.

"Is not your language like that of India?"

"Na, na; we've no language different from
other folks, none at all; they say we have, but
it's na true."

This assertion I found afterwards to be incorrect.
There are various topics on which a
gipsy is impatient of being questioned, but on
none are they so secretive as on this.

"But how can you tell a gipsy, suppose you
meet one elsewhere, it you nave no language of
your own?"

"Ah, no, we've no language. All Egyptians
have a wise man amongst them, and no tribe goes
without one."

"A wise man, and what is he?"

"Ye may call him a wise man, or a Fet (or
some such name); we have had one for every
tribe syne we came from Egypt."

"And do you really think that any of your
people when they tell fortunes can see into the
future?"

"Some can, and some say they can, but can't;
some of some tribes can surely tell you all that's
to be."

"Here was Fanny Young this morning told
me something of a person I saw yesterday at an
old house, how did she know that?"

"Ah, Fanny Young, I don't know if she can
tell or not, she says she can."

Here Cleopatra, with some vehemence,
asserted she could not, it was a' make believe in
her.

I was anxious to ascertain whether his
majesty's title was recognised by other tribes, but
on this point I could obtain no very decided
answer; most of the tribes, if not all, in
England and Scotland, acknowledged his de jure
royalty, and some also, it would appear, in
Germany, as it was only a fortnight before that he
received a deputation from the gipsies of that
country. Whether the Fa'as possess a de jure
or a de facto sovereignty, certain it is that they
have held the chief place amongst the Scottish
gipsies for many centuries, as is evidenced in
the old ballad of the elopement of the Lady
Cassillis with Johnny Fa'a the gipsy laddey,
who, it appears, with fifteen of his followers,
fell victims to the vengeance of the injured
husband.

JOHNNY FA'A,

THE GIPSY LADDEY.

The gipsies came to our good Lord's gate,
     And vow but they sang sweetly,
They sang sae sweet and sae very compleat,
    That down came the fair lady.

And she came tripping down the stairs,
    And a' her maids before her;
As soon as they saw her well-far'd face
    They coost the glamour o'er her.

Gae tak frae me this gay mantile,
    And bring to me a plaidie,
For if kith and kin and a' had sworn,
    I'll follow the gipsy laddey.

The king was anxious to inform me, somewhat
in derogation of his own dignity, that he
was not a Fa'a by birth, but acquired the name
and title by marriage with the lady who was
the oldest representative of that family,
consequently his handsome daughter was the true
Fa'a, and, as such, heir apparent to the royal
dignity. He himself was a Bligh, a good old
Egyptian family, that came over with Pharaoh's
daughter. On the extinction of the last male
line of the Fa'as he was crowned with all the
observances peculiar to the people and the
ceremony. The coronation was performed on his
own land (the common), with his face to the
east, the wise man pouring the anointing oil
and wine on his head. It seems a fur robe is
the correct thing on these occasions, but none
being forthcoming, and a piece of fur, however
small, being considered indispensable, the skin
of a hare killed for the occasion did duty in the
emergency. Sir Walter Scott had the honour
of assisting at one of these ceremonies, but I
believe a previous one to the installation of Mr.
Bligh. He was, it would appear, a frequent
visitor of the king's at Yetholm, and speered
(asked) all about his people, and oftentimes did
the king return the visit at Abbotsford, "just
doon in the valley on the other bank, and a
gude place it was, and the meat and the ale
were good, and Sir Walter hissel would sit by
and serve me with his ain hand, and the tobacco
he aye sent to me. I miss it now, and the
Leddey Scott and Mistress Lockhart he minded
them all well, and a braw leddey, Leddey Kutes
it was, was very affable to him. A fine big man
Sir Walter Scott was, much like yoursel, and an
awful lee'r. He comed to me and talked about
our people, but when I read it in books of his it
was not what I said, but full of lees they
were. Is there no pulling a man up for telling
lees?"

I answered I was afraid not. I was extremely
curious to obtain some information respecting
the religion of his people, but if they have any
peculiar to themselves, he was as susceptible of
being questioned about it as he was on the
subject of their language. That they had had a
religion hardly admits of a doubt, but it
appeared to have so degenerated Into superstition,
(and that of the basest kind) that its original
features were no longer discernible. To my
question, Why are your people so jealous of
admixture of race with strangers? he answered that
"It was ordained that we are to go back to our
own country after the appointed time, and
Pharaoh will again sit on the seat in his own
land."

"When is that to be?"

"None know for sure, but it will no be long
first, but after I am gone to my place."

What religion they might have had of
their own seemed to form a kind of substratum
to the Christian teaching, which, truth
to say, sat but very lightly on the top. As
I mentioned above, they have a firm belief in
divination and magic, also in goblins and
fairies, but not in ghosts on any account.