Now, the allusion to _Kennick_ or cant by a tinker, recalls an incident
which, though not strictly Gipsy in its nature, I will nevertheless
narrate.

In the summer of 1870 I spent several weeks at Spa, in the Ardennes. One
day while walking I saw by the roadside a picturesque old tinker, looking
neither better nor worse than the grinder made immortal by Teniers.

I was anxious to know if all of his craft in Belgium could speak Gipsy,
and addressed him in that language, giving him at the same time my knife
to grind. He replied politely in French that he did not speak Rommany,
and only understood French and Walloon. Yet he seemed to understand
perfectly the drift of my question, and to know what Gipsy was, and its
nature, since after a pause he added, with a significant smile--

"But to tell the truth, monsieur, though I cannot talk Rommany, I know
another secret language. I can speak _Argot_ fluently."

Now, I retain in my memory, from reading the Memoirs of Vidocq thirty
years ago, one or two phrases of this French thieves' slang, and I at
once replied that I knew a few words of it myself, adding--

"_Tu sais jaspiner en bigorne_?"--you can talk argot?

"_Oui, monsieur_."

"_Et tu vas roulant de vergne en vergne_?"--and you go about from town to
town?

Grave and keen, and with a queer smile, the tinker replied, very slowly--