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The women are generally fortune-tellers, the males belonging to the last tribe generally farriers or tinkers, are also named Awwadat or Mua'merratijjeh. There are also many smiths among the Ghagar, who make the brass rings worn round the neck, in the ears, and in the nose. The numerous class who exhibit trained monkeys, chiefly on the Ezbekijjeh in Cairo, belong almost exclusively to the gipsy tribe, they are here called Kurudati (from kird, monkey). The athletes and gymnasts, called Bahlawan, who exhibit in the larger towns, at fairs and festivals, also belong to the gipsy tribe. They come to Cairo in large numbers at the festival Id-ed-d'ay'ijjeh.

All these subdivisions of the Egyptian gipsies speak the same thievish slang language, which they call Sim. Nothing certain is known concerning the origin of this word. According to the opinion of the natives Sim means something secret or mysterious. Sim is also called a spurious gilt wire imported from Austria. The Bahlawan tribe alone are said to speak another language. I was, however, unable to procure any evidence to that effect, nor does it seem to be well founded.

The following little vocabulary may perhaps give some idea of the language. I have collected it from several individuals, but my chief authority was Sheikh Mohammed Merwān in Cairo, who gave himself the pompous title: "Sheikh of all the snake-catchers of Egypt." I moreover consulted several gipsies from Upper Egypt, who seem to speak a somewhat different dialect.

Water, moge, himbe, S.*

Bread, shenüb, bishle, S.

Hell, ma-anvāra, i.e. fire

Kindle the fire, add-el-ma-anwăra

Father, a'rub; my father, arūbi; also Date, ma-ahli, mahalli, S. àb, my father, abambra

Mother, kodde; my mother, koddeti; pl. kodaid. Signifies also woman, wife.

Brother, sem' or chawidsh; my brother, sem'i; thy brother, semak or chawidshak

Sister, sem'ah or ucht; my sister, sem'. atak or uctamrak. Sem'ah means generally girl, and sem boy. Sem'ah behileh, a fine girl.

Night, ghalmüz

Horse, soh'lig, husănâish, S.

Ass, zuwell

Camel, hantif

Buffalo, en-naffachah

Gold, el-ma-asfar, midhābesh, S.
Silver, bitug
Iron, hadidāish

Corn, duhubi, duhuba, S.
Hunter, dabai bi
Sorcerer, tur'aii
Stone, hogger

Land, region, anta, pl. anăti
Uncle, a'rub
Aunt, a'rübeh

Milk, raghwan, hirwān, S.

Omen, musannin, mubsalshe, S.

Cheese, el-mehartēmeh, maharteme, S.
Sour milk, atreshent, mishsh

Durrah, Turkish corn, handawil, mu-
gadderijeh, S.

Lamb, mizghal, mingaesh, S., churraf, S. Beans, buhus

Tree, chudruman, shagarāh, S.

Flesh, adwăneh, mah'zuzah, S.
Fowl, en-nebbasheh

Fat, baruah

Spirit, angel, devil, ashum

Dog, sanno

Wolf, dibaish

Knife, el chusah

Foot, darrageh, er-raghaleh, S., mumesh shajat, S.

* The words furnished by the Saaideh are marked S.

VOL. II.-NO. VII.

T

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or mudānshe, S.

Ox, mutwāresh, S.

River, mistabhar, S.
Palm, minchalesh, S.
Tent, el michwasheshe, S.
Wood, machshabesh, S.
Straw, tibnāish, S.
Christ, el-annāwi

Egg, mugah'rada, S.

Fire, el-muganwara, S.

Light the fire, walla'ish-el-mugānwara

Eating, esh-shimleh

Sack, migrabesh, S.

Arm, el, kemmasheh, S.

Ear, widn; thine ear, widnam rak, S., My hand aches, kem-mashtu waga'ani

Cow, mubgārshe, S.

Hair, sha'raish, S.

Tobacco, tiftaf, S.

Mountain, migbālesh, S.

1, mach

ADJECTIVES.

Ugly, shalaf. Beautiful, behil. A pretty girl, se'mah behileh.

NUMBERS.

6, sütet, S.

2, machein

7, subi, S.

3, tulit, S., or telat machat

4, rubi, S., or arba'ah machat

5, chūmis

Go, fell; I went, felleit

Come, e'tib

Say, agmu; I said, agēmtu
Sit, watib

Strike, th'big; he struck, habag; hai
jihbg, he still strikes; he struck,
habash, S.

We ate, raceheina or shamalna

We drank, mawwagna; I drank, mawwagt or hambatt, S.

He cut, shaffar

He called, nabbāť'

He died, entena

He killed, tena; he kills, jitni

8, tūmin, S. 9, tusa, S. 10, ushir, S.

VERBS.

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The preceding vocabulary throws some light on the character of this language. There can be no doubt we have here to do with a thievish slang dialect, made use of by the gipsies in order not to be understood by strangers. The circumstance that amongst themselves they speak Arabic, and Sim only in the presence of strangers, is decisive on this point. Some terms are very expressive; for instance, shammaleh, the hand, from the Arab root, "shamala", to grasp; or bas's'as'eh, the eye, from the root "bas's'a", to spy (the word "eye" in Arabic is of feminine gender). All grammatical forms are, with exception of the suffixes, which seem not quite clear, perfectly Arabic. There occur, however, a number of words evidently of foreign origin, probably imported from the West, whence the gipsies pretend to have migrated to Egypt. Such words are: zuwell, the

ass; ashum, spirit; bitug, silver or money; atreshent, sour milk, the last word having a Coptic sound; sanno, dog; handawil, Turkish maize, a word made also use of by the Egyptian fellahs. Also hantif, the camel; baruah, fat; buhus, beans; damani, thief, all these are foreign words, though they sound like Arabic words.

Possibly, though I have no means of ascertaining this, these words may be derived from the Berber language. It is, however, surprising, that among the verbs there are some quoted in old Arabic dictionaries as genuine Arabic, though they have now become obsolete. The word habag, he struck, is already inserted in Feiruzabadi's large dictionary, Kamus; shaffara, he cut, is manifestly allied to the old Arabic shufrah, the knife; nabbata, he cried, is not improbably connected with the old generic name nabat (plural anbat), by which the Arabs designate all other people speaking a different language, whom the Greeks called "barbarians". It is also remarkable that the word watib, to sit, which according to the Arabic lexicographers has the same signification in the old Arabic dialect of the Himjares, whilst utib and etutib correspond in signification to the modern Arabic watab to rise up.

I confine myself to note these philological facts without drawing from them any hazardous inferences, for which the material at hand is scarcely sufficient. The old original words seem to become obsolete, and are replaced, according to a conventional scheme, by an Arabic slang. Thus the Egyptian gipsies have probably forgotten the ancient names for colours, sun, moon, earth, fire, etc., and know only their Arab denominations

ON THE IDEAS OF SPECIES AND RACE APPLIED TO MAN AND HUMAN SOCIETY: ON ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY.*

BY M. COURNOT.

In all ages, men have busied themselves with the question of knowing how far they ought to consider themselves as relations or strangers to each other. For a long time, the sentiment of the relationship and the consanguinity of all those who speak the same language, and observe the same ceremonies and customs, acted with great energy. On the other hand, the disgust and aversion for foreign

Traité de l'Enchainement des Idées Fondamentales dans les Sciences et dans l'Histoire, Paris, 1861, tom. ii, c. ii, p. 31.

populations, reputed barbarous, because they did not speak the same language, impious, because they did not adore the same gods,—and coarse, because they had not the same manners, -inspired a sort of repugnance for every idea of relationship or consanguinity with them. Indigenous cosmogonies did not trouble themselves with the origin of foreigners, or did so only to explain, after their own fashion, the stamp of reprobation that they bore. If, in accordance with the myth, these foreigners were relations in a coarse and animal sense, at all events they had ceased to be of the family; they were relations disinherited and disavowed. Religious institutions,—in the ancient way in which they were developed and organised according to the ideas of purity and impurity,-only served to strengthen the idea of an original separation among peoples, and even among castes, who spoke the same language, but who found themselves, if not fused together, at least so put into juxtaposition and so combined as to form one and the same people.

Later, another class of religious institutions, whose principle is essentially different, and which we may call proselytising religions, produced a totally different effect. The same faith, and the expectation of a common destiny, tended to reunite those who had been separated from each other by the dissimilarity of their coarse superstitions, or the heterogeneousness of religious systems of deeper signification. This end, however, they could not obtain without insisting upon the idea of an original brotherhood between men, expressed in a manner to make it attractive and popular. Besides this, and independently of all religious influence, it is the property of a progressive civilisation to disentangle the bonds of that complete union which depends upon the conformity of language, manners, and institutions; and to extend in every way the prevalence of everything which is universal in human nature over that which is peculiar to separate times, places, classes, and nationalities. When once society has entered on this phase, men find themselves compelled more and more to put the idea of humanity above the idea of every particular nationality, and even above the idea of every religious confraternity. In modern language this is called philanthropy, and philanthropy is not a thing which ought to be ridiculed, notwithstanding the way it has been abused.

I have shown the reasons why we cannot raise, even with the utmost scientific impartiality, the famous question of the unity of the human species, or the principle of the diversity of the races of man, without awakening religious and philanthropic susceptibility. Not that so much importance exactly is attached to the scientific formula of the unity of the species, as because there is mentally

associated with it another idea, which can be easily comprehended even by those most destitute of scientific education; namely, the idea of the descent from a single pair. And yet, in the kind of facts with which natural science deals, there is no more reason to admit, in the case of the human species, the hypothesis of the descent from a single pair, than to admit it in the case of every other living species. Can all the oaks of the same species have issued from the same acorn? or all the bees from the same queen bee? Must we say so of all the innumerable species of plants and animals, and for each of the creations which distinguish the geological epochs? On the other hand, it is very bad policy for those (in the interest of a special, scientific, or philosophic solution) who make themselves the champions of science or philosophy, to demand from the guardians of tradition immediate concessions, when science and philosophy are still so little sure of their ways of action and their conclusions.

Some reconciliation has been arrived at on astronomical and geological questions, where philanthropy had no business, and which, besides, did not affect, in the same degree, religious tradition. The same reconciliation will, I have no doubt, take place also with regard to anthropology and ethnology; but it is in the nature of things that it should be later. Let us, then, discuss in our turn,-since we are obliged to, by our subject,-but discuss with all the liberty of thought these delicate questions. Let us separate what the author has himself separated so visibly, the natural and the supernatural; let us venerate what ought to be venerated; and let us not run the chance of profaning it by mixing it up with our scientific discussions.

If the aptitude of forming hybrid unions which possess a fecundity, which can be transmitted for an infinite number of generations, be taken as the definition of the specific unity of races, the question of the unity of the human races would be settled by one notorious fact, that is, by the fecundity of the unions of such disparate races as the European with the Negro, Hottentot, and American. There remains an accessory question, but only of much interest from a physiological point of view, that of determining if the hybrid race can preserve itself indefinitely with its medial characters; or if, in the absence of all new infusion of the blood of one of the original races, the products of the hybrids would finish by reverting to one of the two original types. Observations are said to have been made in both directions. Certainly, if it were proved that the hybrid type could not perpetuate itself indefinitely in spite of the formation of offspring, and in spite of the indefinite persistence of the prolific power, during successive generations, that would be a sign that nature had marked, by the most profound indications,

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