Quotation from: The Little Lady of the Big House

Written by: Jack London


"What is the Romany patteran?" she broke off to ask. "I've always
thought of it as patter, or patois, the Gypsy patois, and somehow it
strikes me as absurd to follow a language over the world--a sort of
philological excursion."


"In a way the patteran is speech," he answered. "But it always says
one thing: 'This way I have passed.' Two sprigs, crossed in certain
ways and left upon the trail, compose the patteran. But they must
always be of different trees or shrubs. Thus, on the ranch here, a
patteran could be made of manzanita and madrono, of oak and spruce, of
buckeye and alder, of redwood and laurel, of huckleberry and lilac. It
is a sign of Gypsy comrade to Gypsy comrade, of Gypsy lover to Gypsy
lover." And he hummed:

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