Note {127} — Chapter VIII · INDICATIONS OF THE INDIAN ORIGIN OF THE GIPSIES.

Since writing the above I have been told that among many Hindus “(good) evening” is the common greeting at any time of the day. And more recently still, meeting a gentleman who during twelve years in India had paid especial attention to all the dialects, I greeted him, as an experiment, with “Sarisham!” He replied, ‘Why, that’s more elegant than common Hindu—it’s Persian!” “Sarisham” is, in fact, still in use in India, as among the Gipsies. And as the latter often corrupt it into sha’shān, so the vulgar Hindus call it “shān!” Sarishan means in Gipsy, “How are you?” but its affinity with sarisham is evident.