They assured me that in Egypt there were many _Nury_." The same writer obtained from one of these Syrian-Egyptian Gipsies a not inconsiderable vocabulary of their language, and says: "I find many Arabic, Turkish, and some Greek words in it; it appears to me, however, that they have borrowed from a fourth language, which was perhaps their mother-tongue, but which I cannot name, wanting dictionaries." The words which he gives appear to me to consist of Egyptian-Arabic, with its usual admixture from other sources, simply made into a gibberish, and sometimes with one word substituted for another to hide the meaning--the whole probably obtained through a dragoman, as is seen, for instance, when he gives the word _nisnaszeha_, a fox, and states that it is of unknown origin.

The truth is, _nisnas_ means a monkey, and, like most of Seetzen's "Nuri" words, is inflected with an _a_ final, as if one should say "monkeyo." I have no doubt the Nauar may talk such a jargon; but I should not be astonished, either, if the Shekh who for a small pecuniary consideration eagerly aided Seetzen to note it down, had "sold" him with what certainly would appear to any Egyptian to be the real babble of the nursery.

There are a very few Rommany words in this vocabulary, but then it should be remembered that there are some Arabic words in Rommany.
The street-cry of the Gipsy women in Cairo is [ARABIC TEXT which cannot be reproduced] "_Neduqq wanetahir_!" "We tattoo and circumcise!" a phrase which sufficiently indicates their calling.

In the "Deutscher Dragoman" of Dr Philip Wolff, Leipzig, 1867, I find the following under the word Zigeuner:-- "Gipsy--in Egypt, Gagri" (pronounced more nearly 'Rh'agri), "plural _Gagar_; in Syria, _Newari_, plural _Nawar_.

When they go about with monkeys, they are called _Kurudati_, from _kird_, ape.