heard of that man--many may be desirous of knowing yet more of him. I
have nothing to do with that man's after life--he fulfilled his
dukkeripen. 'A bad, violent man!' Softly, friend; when thou wouldst
speak harshly of the dead, remember that thou hast not yet fulfilled thy
own dukkeripen!"

As Borrow fits these pugilists into the texture of his autobiography, so
he does men who appear not once but a dozen times. Take Jasper
Petulengro out of the books and he does not amount to much. In them he
is a figure of most masculine beauty, a king, a trickster, and thief, but
simple, good with his fists, loving life, manly sport and fair play. He
and Borrow meet and shake hands as "brothers" when they are little boys.
They meet again, by chance, as big boys, and Jasper says: "Your blood
beat when mine was near, as mine always does at the coming of a brother;
and we became brothers in that lane." Jasper laughs at the Sapengro and
Lavengro and horse-witch because he lacks two things, "mother sense and
gentle Rommany," and he has something to do with teaching Borrow the
Gypsy tongue and Gypsy ways, and the "mother sense" of shifting for
himself. The Gypsies approve him also as "a pure fist master." In
return he teaches Mrs. Chikno's child to say his prayers in Rommany. They
were willing--all but Mrs. Herne--that he should marry Mr. Petulengro's
sister, Ursula. It is always by chance that they meet, and chance is
very favourable. They meet at significant times, as when Borrow has been
troubled by the preacher and the state of his own soul, or when he is
sick of London and hack-writing and poverty. In fact, the Gypsies, and
his "brother" Jasper in particular, returning and returning, are the
motive of the book. They connect Borrow with what is strange, with what
is simple, and with what is free. The very last words of "The Romany
Rye," spoken as he is walking eastward, are "I shouldn't wonder if Mr.
Petulengro and Tawno Chikno came originally from India. I think I'll go