invented to distinguish a hare, and which signifies ear-fellow, is no
more applicable to a hare than to a rabbit, as both have long ears.
They have no certain word either for to-morrow or yesterday, collico
signifying both indifferently. A remarkable coincidence must here be
mentioned, as it serves to show how closely related are Sanscrit and
Gypsy. Shoshoi and collico are nearly of the same sound as the
Sanscrit sasa and kalya, and exactly of the same import; for as the
Gypsy shoshoi signifies both hare and rabbit, and collico to-morrow
as well as yesterday, so does the Sanscrit sasa signify both hare and
rabbit, and kalya tomorrow as well as yesterday.

The poverty of their language in nouns the Gypsies endeavour to
remedy by the frequent use of the word engro. This word affixed to a
noun or verb turns it into something figurative, by which they
designate, seldom very appropriately, some object for which they have
no positive name. Engro properly means a fellow, and engri, which is
the feminine or neuter modification, a thing. When the noun or verb
terminates in a vowel, engro is turned into mengro, and engri into
mengri. I have already shown how, by affixing engro to kaun, the
Gypsies have invented a word to express a hare. In like manner, by
affixing engro to pov, earth, they have coined a word for a potato,
which they call pov-engro or pov-engri, earth-fellow or thing; and by
adding engro to rukh, or mengro to rooko, they have really a very
pretty figurative name for a squirrel, which they call rukh-engro or
rooko-mengro, literally a fellow of the tree. Poggra-mengri, a
breaking thing, and pea-mengri, a drinking thing, by which they
express, respectively, a mill and a teapot, will serve as examples of
the manner by which they turn verbs into substantives. This method
of finding names for objects, for which there are properly no terms
in Gypsy, might be carried to a great length--much farther, indeed,