very old. What is it you call it before everything" (here he seemed
puzzled for a word) "when the world was a-making?"

"The Creation."

"Avali--that's it, the Creation. Well, them crow-swaglers was kaired at
the same time; they're hundreds--avali--thousands of beshes (years) old.
And sometimes we call the beng (devil) a swagler, or we calls a swagler
the beng."

"Why?"

"Because the devil lives in smoke."




CHAPTER III. THE GIPSY TINKER.


Difficulty of coming to an Understanding with Gipsies.--The
Cabman.--Rommany for French.--"Wanderlust."--Gipsy Politeness.--The
Tinker and the Painting.--Secrets of Bat-catching.--The Piper of Hamelin,
and the Tinker's Opinion of the Story.--The Walloon Tinker of Spa.--Argot.

One summer day in London, in 1871, I was seated alone in an artist's
studio. Suddenly I heard without, beneath the window, the murmur of two
voices, and the sleepy, hissing, grating sound of a scissors-grinder's
wheel.