Gypsy Lore Hi there ho there, I'm happy as can be. Come grab a banjo and sing along with me! Here's some Gypsy Lore for you to feast upon. Stories, legends? Who knows! The Goatskin Tea Bottle (Warning; Not a happy ending)

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    Once upon a time a baby boy was born to a Gypsy family. He was rather sickly, and his parents were afraid that he might die. An old lady came to the family's caravan to see what his chances were. Afterwards she shook her head grimly saying, "Your son is going to die." The father was desperate.
    "What can I do to stop him from dying?" He pleaded.
    "There is only one thing you can do;" Said the old lady. "Take a goatskin bottle and fill it with tea. Then take one of the tins in which you make clay bricks in and put the goatskin bottle in it. Pack clay all around the bottle and leave it in the sun to dry. Keep it underneath the young boy's head."
    The boy grew up into a healthy young man. The family travelled far and wide. One day they came to a widespread desert. The young man fell dangerously ill and began calling out for water saying tha the was dying of thirst. The family had no water and the father suddenly remembered the tea in the bottle in the brick.
    He took out the brick and cracked it open. Then he tried to open the bottle but it was so old that it broke in his hands and tea flowed from it into the dust at his feet.
    The young man died and the family wept for him. But the patch of earth where the tea had fallen stayed damp and when the Gypsiesdug the soil on the wet patch they found a spring from which to make a well.
    Afterwards passing travellers told the story saying, "A Gypsy died here, but where he died there is now a well from which anyone who comes by may drink."
The end

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