Tsingani
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In Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, the Tsingani are a largely nomadic race of people, the fantasy equivalent of "Gitanos" or Tsiganes in French, similar in many respects to their real life counterparts. They are horse-traders, gamblers, and fortune-tellers, persecuted in many lands but tolerated in Terre d'Ange. According to Hyacinthe, the Tsingani are doomed and destined to wander eternally, with no proper home for their people, because they would not give Elua sanctuary during his travels in Bhodistan. There is no accurate estimation of how many Tsingani live within d'Angeline borders, as they are too itinerant to be counted.
The Tsingani are noted for being great horsemen, and hold a horse fair in early spring in Kusheth each year. The fair lasts for three days: the first for looking, the second for talking, and the third for trading.
[edit] Terms
- baro kumpai
- the four mightiest kumpanias.
- chaidrov
- a route-marker, a signal known only to Tsingani.
- chavi
- girl.
- Didikani
- halfbreed.
- dromonde
- the art of speaking prophecy, either looking into the future or the past, generally a natural-born talent in women. It is vrajna for men to speak the dromonde. Base word of drom or road, so literally: seeing down the long road.
- gadje
- non-Tsingani people.
- galb
- coin-wrought jewelry.
- gavvering
- strict, belligerent.
- Hokkano
- the many ways Tsingani part D'Angelines from their money.
- Kralis
- king.
- kumpania
- a tribe or clan.
- kushi gurya
- good horses for sale.
- laxta
- the unsullied virtue of a Tsingani woman. If a woman loses her laxta, she loses all her worth.
- Lungo Drom
- the "Long Road" that all Tsingani travel.
- mulo
- ghost, spirit.
- rinkeni chavo
- pretty boy.
- tseroman
- headman of a family or kumpania.
- vrajna
- unclean, forbidden, against the Tsingani code of behavior.
[edit] Notable Tsingani
Abhirati is the grandmother of Anasztaizia, through whom Anasztaizia received her gift for the dromonde.
Anasztaizia is the mother of Hyacinthe, a Tsingani princess cast out of her family for sleeping with a man not of her kind, even though it was not of her choice, and she was deceived and sold out by a cousin. Nonetheless, she lost her laxta and had to leave her family. She lives in Night's Doorstep in the City of Elua, taking in washing and telling fortunes with the gift of the dromonde. It is Anasztaizia who warns Phèdre not to seek to uncover the secrets of Anafiel Delaunay, because she will learn them to her despair. Anasztaizia speaks the dromonde in front of Phèdre again years later, warning her not to discount the Cullach Gorrym. She does not know the meaning of the words she has spoken, as they were in Cruithne, but Phèdre understands and relays the information to Anafiel Delaunay. Anasztaizia unwittingly hits upon another prophecy made in Alba, regarding the eventual uniting of that country with Terre d'Ange. She is a victim of the plague that hits the City of Elua during the Bitterest Winter.
Csavin is the cousin who is responsible for Anasztaizia losing her laxta. He wagered against an adept of Bryony House and lost. For violating Tsingani law, he forfeited all his rights and possessions to Manoj.
Hyacinthe is Anasztaizia's son, the self-styled Prince of Travellers, a cunning and quick-witted boy with a talent for accumulating wealth, and great friend to Phèdre nó Delaunay.
Manoj is the Tsingan Kralis, the King of the Tsingani, Anastaizia's father and Hyacinthe's grandfather. When Phèdre meets him, he is about sixty years old, with fierce dark eyes and iron-grey hair and mustache.
Neci is the tseroman of a young family who give aid to Phèdre, Joscelin, and Hyacinthe. He travels with a small group of relatives, including his wife Gisella and her brother-in-law Pardi. They accompany Phèdre, Hyacinthe, and Joscelin to Quintilius Rousse, and promise to remember them both.
