Mystery Caravan

Set One - Peddlers and Mushrooms and Chamberpots

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Peddlars before the storm. Probably doomed. This is why Gypsy families travel in groups.

"Navajero". From Manual del Baratero, pub.1849, p. 7. Illustration by Gustavo Dore (1833-1883).

My bad. I may catch hell for this ?

Muela gordita. The fat navaja. Step aside! Here we have Ham Gravy's REAL girl friend.

Olive and Ham. Before there was Popeye, there was Ham Gravy, knife fighter. He was Olive Oyl's first boyfriend, circa 1919.

HELLLooooo! Grab you leather cups! (Amanita muscaria) is a potent mushroom known to some immigrant Gypsies in North America.

"Mr. and Mrs.Gypsy Joe." Vlach Rom Fairgrounds wrestler, circa 1954, USA (Q: Is there a "Gypsy" martial arts tradition?)

Gypsies surf the net but ? is there a "Gypsy ocean phobia"? (see Clebert, 1963, p. 187)

"El Jaleo." John Singer Sargent, 1880 (oil on canvas). "Jaleo" means: unrestrained merrymaking; pure enjoyment; emotional upheaval; sound of the stirrings of the soul; duende; manifest dignity; unleashed; a sigh at a million decibles; a roar across the floor ?

A young Paul Anka in Italy . "You haaaaandsome boy you! Some day you be a biiiiig star!" (photographed on Pincio Hill)

Dennis Marlock. Noted and indifatigable "King of the Gypsy-Trackers" (aka Fago Nak and "Marlock the Warlock" around the campfires)

Chamberpot of horrors! Whoever manufactured this degrading item is TOTALLY clueless or rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreally knows how to insult a Gypsy.

Still more Gypsy Punk. Satan-in-the-fiddle-watch-my-eyes ... A NYTimes photo

"King of the Gypsies." Behrens & Hitchcock Winery, 2000. A fine wine -- but expensive!

Happy Campers! Shades of Ooooooooooklahoma! Chals photographed in Essex , England . Date unknown ? (Arranged by Rogers and Hammerstein?)

The Palace of Her Majesty Queen Esther Faa-Blyth (d.1883) of Kirk Yetholm ("The Capital of Upper Egypt" near Kelso , UK . (See also, Bill Clinton family tree).

Dance of the Ouled Nail. Old photo of an Ouled Nail itinerant Gypsy dancer-prostitute of the Atlas Mountains in Algeria . Perhaps related to Egyptian Ghawazee "Gypsy" dancers.

Navajas and snickersnees. From Manual del Baratero, Pub. 1849, p. 39. Illustration by Gustavo Dore (1833-1883). Snickersnees are swords, but navajas from the Iberian peninsula can be just as large -- but are ratcheted folders.

SCA Gypsies. Members of the Society for Creative Anachronisms are also known as LARPERS (Live Action Role Players). Their web pages related to "enacting Gypsyness" are fascinating!