[The English Gipsies and Their Language by Charles G. Leland]@TWC D-Link book
The English Gipsies and Their Language

CHAPTER VIII
17/27

In India the Dom caste is one of the lowest, whose business it is for the men to remove carcasses, while the Domni, or female Dom, sings at weddings.

Everything known of the Dom identifies them with Gipsies.

As for the sound of the word, any one need only ask the first Gipsy whom he meets to pronounce the Hindu _d_ or the word Dom, and he will find it at once converted into _l_ or _r_.

There are, it is true, other castes and classes in India, such as Nats, the roving Banjaree, Thugs, &c., all of which have left unmistakable traces on the Gipsies, from which I conclude that at some time when these pariahs became too numerous and dangerous there was a general expulsion of them from India.

{124} I would call particular attention to my suggestion that the Corn of India is the true parent of the Rom, because all that is known of the former caste indicates an affinity between them.


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