The cryptogram presented today was brought to my attention by blog reader Alex Ulyanenkoff. It appears on a page of a notebook that its owner has presented on Facebook.
The notebook was written around 1900 by Francis Harvard Brooks, who was born in Tyrol, Austria, in 1863 and died in Riverside, California, in 1929. According to the information provided with the notebook, it records a “code of conduct for a gypsy.”
The lower half of the page is written in English, while the upper half consists of mysterious characters that bear some resemblance to shorthand.
A lively discussion about the mysterious writing has developed on Facebook. Various possibilities have been suggested, including Arabic, Persian, and Romany, but none of these explanations appears convincing. Its shorthand-like appearance might offer a more promising avenue of investigation.
Can a reader solve this mystery?
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