But when we reflect on the constant mingling of Gipsies with prizefighters, it is almost evident that the word BONGO may have been the origin of it.

A _bongo yakko_ or _yak_, means a distorted, crooked, or, in fact, a bunged eye.
It also means lame, crooked, or sinister, and by a very singular figure of speech, _Bongo Tem_ or the Crooked Land is the name for hell.

{83} SHAVERS, as a quaint nick-name for children, is possibly inexplicable, unless we resort to Gipsy, where we find it used as directly as possible.
_Chavo_ is the Rommany word for child all the world over, and the English term _chavies_, in Scottish Gipsy _shavies_, or shavers, leaves us but little room for doubt.

I am not aware to what extent the term "little shavers" is applied to children in England, but in America it is as common as any cant word can be.
I do not know the origin of the French word CLICHY, as applied to the noted prison of that name, but it is perhaps not undeserving the comment that in Continental Gipsy it means a key and a bolt.
I have been struck with the fact that CALIBAN, the monster in "The Tempest," by Shakespeare, has an appellation which literally signifies blackness in Gipsy.

In fact, this very word, or Cauliban, is given in one of the Gipsy vocabularies for "black." Kaulopen or Kauloben would, however, be more correct.
"A regular RUM 'un" was the form in which the application of the word "rum" to strange, difficult, or distinguished, was first introduced to the British public.