broken lines of the finite, and, therefore, as an ancient magical Eastern
sign, would be most appropriately inscribed as a _sikker-paskero
dromescro_--or hand post--to show the wandering Rommany how to proceed on
their way of life.

[Svastika: ill27.jpg]

That the ordinary Christian Cross should be called by the English Gipsies
a _trin bongo drum_--or the three cross roads--is not remarkable when we
consider that their only association with it is that of a "wayshower," as
Germans would call it. To you, reader, it may be that it points the way
of eternal life; to the benighted Rommany-English-Hindoo, it indicates
nothing more than the same old weary track of daily travel; of wayfare
and warfare with the world, seeking food and too often finding none;
living for petty joys and driven by dire need; lying down with poverty
and rising with hunger, ignorant in his very wretchedness of a thousand
things which he _ought_ to want, and not knowing enough to miss them.

Just as the reader a thousand, or perhaps only a hundred, years
hence--should a copy of this work be then extant--may pity the writer of
these lines for his ignorance of the charming comforts, as yet unborn,
which will render _his_ physical condition so delightful. To thee, oh,
future reader, I am what the Gipsy is to me! Wait, my dear boy of the
Future--wait--till _you_ get to heaven!

Which is a long way off from the Gipsies. Let us return. We had spoken
_of patteran_, or of crosses by the way-side, and this led naturally
enough to speaking of Him who died on the Cross, and of wandering. And I
must confess that it was with great interest I learned that the Gipsies,
from a very singular and Rommany point of view, respect, and even pay