They are from George Borrow's book Romano Lavo-Lil (1874). Modern Romany scholars have questioned the authenticity of the songs and poems in Borrow's collection. As Tim Coughlan points out in his book Now Shoon the Romano Gillie: Traditional Verse in the High and Low Speech of the Gypsies of Britain (2001), it is unclear whether some of the songs and poems were actually written by Borrow or whether he "merely sought to embellish an existing text."