Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/345

 Ceremonial Customs of the Bi'itisk Gipsies. 323

pr?enomen, which is the real name. This seems to be part of a person, for it must not be mentioned after his death lest his ghost should be recalled. If anyone else bears the same name, then it must be altered, as in the case of Siterus Boswell, who has been called Jack ever since his great- granduncle Siterus died, or a nickname must be sub- stituted, as in the case of Chasey Price, who is always called "Shovel Mouth" by his friend Nukes Heme, who himself has a dead child called Chasey. There is a well-marked tendency to have two first names, one for Roinamtshals and personal friends, and the other for everyone else. For example, Shandres Smith and Lavinia Boswell have eight children, of whom three have only one name, the other five being known as Vensa Starki, Diddles, Lulu, and Nomas to a limited circle, and as Lena, Bertie, Reuben, Prince Albert, and Edward to the rest of the world. They generally address one another as "brother," "sister," "uncle" and "aunt," quite irrespective of kinship. " Uncle," and " aunt," or rather the Roiiiaiii words kdJ^ and blbi, were originally terms of respect ; they are used when speaking to those of older generations, parents excepted, and are occasionally accompanied by names. "Brother" and " sister " are used under all other circumstances, even by parents when addressing their children, and are practi- cally never accompanied by names.

In the case of those who have two names, the one con- ferred at baptism is usually the gdjo name that is open to anybody. It is publicly revealed at the very beginning, for the baptismal ceremony is that of the Christian Church, the British Gipsies having none of their own. Nor is there anything to make us believe that they ever had one, for the rather elaborate rites practised by some of the Continental Gipsies after the birth of a child ^^ seem to have been borrowed from surrounding peoples. From the time

^* Summarized \n Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. ii., pp. 339- 41. Information mostly derived from Wlislocki.