pash-grai wouldn't rikker him, she was sovahalled againsus never to be a
dye or lel tiknos. So she never lelled kek, nor any cross either.

"Then he putchered the myla to rikker him, and she penned: 'Avali!' so he
pet a cross apre laki's dumo. And to the divvus the myla has a trin
bongo drum and latchers tiknos, but the pash-grai has kek. So the mylas
'longs of the Rommanis."

(TRANSLATION.)--"Yes--many a time I've had to go two or three miles of a
Great Day (Christmas), early in the morning, to get ash-wood for the
fire. That was when I was a small boy, for my father always would do it.

"And we do it because people say our Saviour, the small God, was born on
the Great Day, in the field, out in the country, like we Rommanis, and he
was brought up by an ash-fire."

Here a sudden sensation of doubt or astonishment at my ignorance seemed
to occur to my informant, for he said,--

"Why, you can see that in the Scriptures!"

To which I answered, "But the Gipsies have Scripture stories different
from those of the Gorgios, and different ideas about religion. Go on
with your story. Why do you burn ash-wood?"

"The ivy, and holly, and pine trees, never told a word where our Saviour
was hiding himself, and so they keep alive all the winter, and look green
all the year. But the ash, like the oak (_lit_. strong tree), told of
him (_lit_. across, against him), where he was hiding, so they have to
remain dead through the winter. And so we Gipsies always burn an ash-