Note 86 — Chapter IV
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This and the following three chapters are illustrative of the Gipsies, in their wild state, previous to their gradual settlement and civilization, and are applicable to the same class in every part of the world. Chapter VI, on the Gipsies of Tweed-dale and Clydesdale, might have been taken the first in order, as descriptive of the tribe in its more primitive condition, but I have allowed it to remain where it stands. A description of the habits peculiar to the race will be found, more or less, in all of these chapters, where they can be consulted, for the better identification of the facts given.—Ed.
[87] It appears that, at this period, James Wilson, town-piper, and John Livingston, hangman, of Linlithgow, were both Gipsies. [Formerly the Gipsies were exclusively employed in Hungary and Transylvania as hangmen and executioners. Grellmann.—Ed.]
[88] This trait in the character of the Scottish Gipsies is well illustrated in the following anecdote, which appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine. It was obtained by an individual who frequently heard the clergyman in question relate it.
“The late Mr. Leek, minister of Yetholm, happened to be riding home one evening from a visit in Northumberland, when, finding himself likely to be benighted, for sake of a near cut, he struck into a wild, solitary track, or drove-road, across the fells, by a place called the Staw. In one of the derne places through which this path led him, there stood an old deserted shepherd’s house, which, of course, was reputed to be haunted. The minister, though little apt to be alarmed by such reports, was, however, somewhat startled on observing, as he approached close to the cottage, a ‘grim visage’ staring out past a window claith, or sort of curtain, which had been fastened up to supply the place of a door, and also several ‘dusky figures,’ skulking among the bourtree-bushes that had once sheltered the shepherd’s garden. Without leaving him any time for speculation, however, the knight of the curtain bolted forth upon him, and, seizing his horse by the bridle, demanded his money. Mr. Leek, though it was now dark, at once recognised the gruff voice, and the great, black, burly head of his next-door neighbour, Gleid Neckit Will, the Gipsy chief. ‘Dear me, William,’ said the minister, in his usual quiet manner,‘can this be you? ye’re surely no serious wi’ me? ye wadna sae far wrang your character for a good neighbour, for the bit trifle I ha’e to gi’e, William?’—‘Lord saif us, Mr. Leek!’ said Will, quitting the rein, and lifting his hat, with great respect, ‘Whae wad hae thought o’ meeting you out owre here away? Ye needna gripe for ony siller to me—I wadna touch a plack o’ your gear, nor a hair o’ your head, for a’ the gowd o’ Tividale. I ken ye’ll no do us an ill turn for this mistak—and I’ll e’en see ye safe through the eirie Staw—it’s no reckoned a very canny bit, mair ways nor ane; but I wat ye’ll no be feared for the dead, and I’ll tak care o’ the living.’ Will accordingly gave his reverend friend a safe convoy through the haunted pass, and, notwithstanding this ugly mistake, continued ever after an inoffensive and obliging neighbour to the minister, who, on his part, observed a prudent and inviolable secrecy on the subject of this rencounter, during the life time of Gleid Nickit Will.”
I understand this anecdote to apply to old Will Faa, mentioned in the Border Gipsies, under chapter VII.—Ed.
[89] Some of the Gipsies only put a paper cap on the head, and paper round the feet, of their dead; leaving all the body bare, excepting that they place upon the breast, opposite the heart, a circle made of red and blue ribbons, in form something like the shape of the variegated cockade, worn in the hats of newly-enlisted recruits in the army. [In England it was customary with the Gipsies, at one time, to burn the dead, but now they only burn the clothes, and some of the effects of the deceased.—Ed.]
[90] Instances have occurred in which an Afghan has received a stranger with all the rights of hospitality, and afterwards, meeting him in the open country, has robbed him. The same person, it is supposed, who would plunder a cloak from a traveller who had one, would give a cloak to one who had none.—Hugh Murray’s Asia, vol. 2, page 508.
[91] A pen-knife, a snuff-box, and a ring are some of the Gipsy pass-ports. It is what is marked upon them that protects the bearer from being disturbed by others of the tribe.
[92] “This morning, a little after nine o’clock, McDonald and Jamieson were transported from the Tolbooth here, (Edinburgh,) escorted by a party of the military, and attended by the sheriff-depute on horseback, with the officers of court, armed with broad-swords, amidst an innumerable crowd of spectators. They were securely pinioned to a cart, and are to be received by the sheriff-depute of Linlithgow, on the confines of this county, whither they are to be conveyed, in order to their execution to-morrow, near Linlithgow-bridge, pursuant to their sentence.”—Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine, vol 9, page 384.
[93] “On Friday last, about three o’clock, McDonald and Jamieson were hanged, at the end of Linlithgow bridge. The latter appeared very penitent, but the former very little affected, and, as the saying is, died hard.”—Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine, vol. 9, page 416.
[94] This Eppie Lundie lived to the advanced age of a hundred years, and was a terror wherever she travelled. Without the least hesitation or scruple, she frequently stripped defenceless individuals of their wearing apparel, leaving them sometimes naked in the open fields.
[95] Perhaps the author intended to say, six feet two inches, and six feet four inches. Still, it might have been as stated in the MS.; for with Gipsies of mixed blood, the individual, if he takes after the Gipsy, is apt to be short and thick-set. The mixture of the two people produces a strong race of men.—Ed.