In the seventh Vol. of the Asiatic Researches, page 470, Captain David Richardson says of the _Panchperee_, or Budee’a Nuts: “’Tis probable there will be found in their manners, a stronger similitude to the Gypsies of Europe, than in those of any other which may come under review. They have no particular system of religion, adopting with indifference that of the village near to which they happen to be encamped. In the upper provinces of Hindostan, the little encampments of these people are frequently very regular and neat, being there formed of the Sirkee entirely. Each apartment, though not much larger than a mastiff’s kennel, has its own particular enclosure, or court-yard; generally erected in such a manner, as to become a species of circumvallation to the whole portable hamlet.
“One cannot help wondering where so many men, women, and children, and other domestic animals manage to sleep; or shelter themselves from the storms which sometimes assail these itinerant people. The men are remarkably athletic and active, and also nimble and adroit, in every kind of slight of hand. Many of the subdivisions of this class of men, pay little, or no attention to cleanliness, or any restrictions in diet; eating dead jackalls, bullocks, horses, or any kind of food procurable.
“The women do not attend the men during their juggling exploits, but have a peculiar department allotted to themselves; which consists of the practice of physic, cupping, palmistry, curing disorders of the teeth, and marking the skin of the Hindoo women, an operation termed Godna. They have two languages peculiar to themselves; one intended for the use only of the craftsman, the other general among men, women, and children.
“The Hindostanie is the basis of both; the first is general, being a mere transposition or change of syllables; and the second apparently, a systematic conversion of a few letters; but which will be best elucidated by the following specimen, which contains twenty-two words.”
After which, he says: “I find these people in Colebrook’s arrangement of the Hindoo Classes, mentioned in the sixth class, under the head of _Nata_, Bazeegurs; and in Sir William Jones’s translation of the Ordinances of Menu, _Munoo_, Chapter 10.