Transcribed from the William Ballintine 1807 edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org, using scans from the British Library.

                          [Picture: Book cover]

                               DISSERTATION
                                  ON THE
                                 GIPSEYS:

                            REPRESENTING THEIR

_MANNER OF LIFE_,                   _SICKNESS_, _DEATH_, _& BURIAL_,
_FAMILY ECONOMY_,                   _RELIGION_,
_OCCUPATIONS & TRADES_,             _LANGUAGE_,
_MARRIAGES & EDUCATION_,            _SCIENCES & ARTS_, _&c._ _&c._
                                    _&c._

                                   WITH

                          AN HISTORICAL ENQUIRY

                             CONCERNING THEIR

                  _ORIGIN & FIRST APPEARANCE IN EUROPE_.

                            FROM THE GERMAN OF
                           H. M. G. GRELLMANN.

                                 LONDON:

                      PRINTED BY WILLIAM BALLINTINE,
                   _Duke-street_, _Adelphi_, _Strand_:

                        SOLD BY EFFINGHAM WILSON,
              OPPOSITE THE CHAPTER COFFEE-HOUSE, ST. PAUL’S.

                                  1807.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following Dissertation has already appeared in an English dress,
having been, some years since, translated by the late M. Raper, Esq.
F.R.S. and A.S. for the purpose, as he states in his preface, of
affording “such of his countrymen as were unacquainted with the German
language an opportunity of learning from what part of the world it is
probable the Gipseys came among us.”  The original work, and Mr. Raper’s
translation, are burthened with many notes—Greek, Latin, French, German,
English—shewing the sources whence the information was derived, most of
which, for obvious reasons, are omitted in the present edition; such only
being retained as were thought indispensable, or particularly
interesting.

_July_, 1807.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION                                                  P. 1
                          SECTION THE FIRST.

 DESCRIPTION OF THE GIPSEYS, THEIR MANNER OF LIFE, THEIR CUSTOMS, AND
                             PROPERTIES.
                              CHAPTER I.
                                                                  Page
_Various Appellations of these People_                               1
                             CHAPTER II.
_On the Dispersion of the Gipseys_, _and their Numbers in            3
Europe_
                             CHAPTER III.
_The Properties of their Bodies_                                    10
                             CHAPTER IV.
_On their Food and Beverage_                                        15
                              CHAPTER V.
_On the Dress of the Gipseys_                                       25
                             CHAPTER VI.
_On the Family Economy of the Gipseys_                              31
                             CHAPTER VII.
_Their Occupations and Trades_                                      38
                            CHAPTER VIII.
_On their Marriages and Education_                                  61
                             CHAPTER IX.
_On their Sickness_, _Death_, _and Burial_                          68
                              CHAPTER X.
_Political Regulations peculiar to the Gipseys_                     72
                             CHAPTER XI.
_On the Religion of the Gipseys_                                    79
                             CHAPTER XII.
_Their Language_, _Sciences_, _and Arts_                            83
                            CHAPTER XIII.
_Character and Capacities of the Gipseys_; _whether they            89
are an Advantage or a Detriment to States_
                             CHAPTER XIV.
_Concerning the Toleration of the Gipseys by the different          93
States of Europe_
                             CHAPTER XV.
_Essay on the Improvement of the Gipseys_                          102
                         SECTION THE SECOND.

                    ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GIPSEYS.
                              CHAPTER I.
_The first Appearance of Gipseys in Europe_                        109
                             CHAPTER II.
_On the Sanctity_, _Passports_, _and Difference of the             117
former from the latter Gipseys_
                             CHAPTER III.
_Presumed Origin of the Gipseys_                                   137
                             CHAPTER IV.
_On the Egyptian Descent of the Gipseys_                           147
                              CHAPTER V.
_The Gipseys come from Hindostan_                                  170
                             CHAPTER VI.
_The Gipseys are of the Caste called Suders_                       199
SUPPLEMENT                                                         209

INTRODUCTION.

THE Gipseys are a singular phenomenon in Europe; whether we contemplate
their habitations, attend at their meals, or merely look in their faces,
they always appear particular, and we are each moment struck with
something new and extraordinary.

What appears most worthy of remark is, that neither time, climate, nor
example, has, in general, hitherto, made any alteration.  For the space
of between three and four hundred years, they have gone wandering about,
like pilgrims and strangers: they are found in eastern and western
countries, as well among the rude as civilised, the indolent as active,
people: yet they remain ever, and in all places, what their fathers
were—Gipseys.  Africa makes them no blacker, nor Europe whiter: they
neither learn to be lazy in Spain, nor diligent in Germany: in Turkey,
Mahomet, and among Christians, Christ, remain equally without adoration.
Around, on every side, they see fixed dwellings, with settled
inhabitants; they, nevertheless, proceed in their own way, and continue,
for the most part, unsocial wandering robbers.

When we search for similar cases, among all the different people who have
quitted their mother country, and inhabited a foreign one, we do not meet
with a single instance that exactly agrees with that of the Gipseys.
History certainly does record accounts of people that have migrated, and
remained the same in a strange country; but then this constancy has been
on account of religion, either permitted by the regents, or maintained by
their victorious arms: though this last circumstance has existed much
less frequently than might be imagined.  Many instances have occurred in
which, the people subdued being more enlightened than their conquerors,
the latter have adopted the manners of the former.  The Romans became
Greeks on the conquest of Greece; and the Franks assumed the manners of
the Gauls when in possession of their country: the Mantcheous vanquished
the Chinese; but Chinese customs prevailed over those of the Mantcheous.
How, then, does it happen that the Gipseys, who never either established
their manners and customs by force, or obtained any toleration from
governments under which they lived, remain unchanged, and resemble each
other exactly, in every place?  There are two causes, to which this
coincidence is principally owing: one is the place whence they originate,
with their consequent mode of thinking; the other arises from the
circumstances which have hitherto attended their situation.

The Gipseys are unquestionably of eastern origin, and have eastern
notions.  There is a principle inherent in uncivilised people,
particularly those of Oriental countries, which occasions them to be
strongly attached to their own habits: hence every custom, every
conception, which has once been current among them, be it ever so
pernicious or ridiculous, is invariably preserved; or any affection which
has once predominated in their minds, retains its dominion even for ages.
Innovations do not easily succeed with people living in a state bordering
on that of nature; the least deviation from custom is observed, and often
resented with impetuosity.  For any new thing to take root it must either
be introduced by cunning and force, or be attended with the most
favourable circumstances.  This latter was the case with Christianity.
Providence had called Greeks and Romans into the east, and, by
innumerable vicissitudes, had rendered that country ripe for further
instruction: then came the great Sower—CHRIST scattered the seed, and it
prospered.  Mahomet, on the contrary, before he became strong enough to
enforce conviction with the sword, brought about his purpose by art:
knowing that the weak side of his countrymen was their veneration for
every thing handed down from their forefathers, he gave his new religion
the colouring of antiquity.

Mahomet says, “We have swerved from the religion of our founder Abraham,
and have introduced novelties among us.  Abraham worshipped only one God;
we have many Gods.  I am sent to retrench these novelties, and to bring
you back to the religion of your forefathers.”  This was the first ground
on which he went.  When the Ishmaelite would not acquiesce in the charge
of having fallen off from Abraham’s religion, Mahomet proceeded: “Ye are
illiterate people; ye have no books: the inhabitants of the neighbouring
countries have books, which contain the religion of Abraham.”  The
Arabians applied to the Jews and Christians, for information on this
head; and as the event turned in favour of the pretended prophet, they
yielded without contradiction.  Mahomet proceeded in teaching, and again
appealed to the people with books: the Arabians, too, continued asking
questions, being more tractable whenever his assertions were confirmed;
but when the contrary happened, a dispute arose, in which the prophet
could only get the better by defending the antiquity of his madness at
the expence of truth, accusing both the Jews and Christians with having
falsified their books.

The same means that helped Mahomet with the Arabians, have been, in
latter times, very serviceable to the Jesuits, in China.  How would these
cunning fathers have obtained admission for their religion among the
Chinese, had they not referred to Confucius, in aid of their doctrines?
These are only instances of changes in religion; but the case is
precisely the same in other things.  In the eastern nations, no
improvement is adopted, be it of what kind it may, merely because it is
an improvement.  The Chinese are acquainted with the use of glass; yet
their mirrors are always made of metal, and their windows of
oyster-shells.  Mechanical watches have been for ages used at the court
of Pekin; but the bulk of the nation depend upon fire and water. {v}

It is evident from the above, that the Gipseys, by reason of their
eastern origin, and consequent way of thinking, are not easily made to
change their principles and habits.  When we further consider the
circumstances under which these people have hitherto existed, we want
nothing more to make us comprehend why they have remained, to the present
time, what they were at their first arrival in Europe.

Figure to yourself a person, in whom custom, and deep-rooted affections,
are the only, and at the same time strong, impulses to action; in whose
soul no new unwonted thoughts arise, in consequence of his own
reflections, nor find easy admittance when proposed by others:—leave this
man entirely to himself; do not permit any of those means to be used
which are requisite to give a new turn to his ideas, and deep-rooted
prejudices:—he must necessarily remain the same; and his latest posterity
will continue like him: this is exactly the case with the Gipseys.
Unused to reflect, fettered by habits, they arrived in our quarter of the
globe.  No state has, hitherto, done any thing for the express purpose of
instructing or reforming them; except the Empress Theresa, by her
regulations, which were never put in execution.  On their first arrival,
they procured passports, and free quarters, by their holy lies.  They
dispersed, begged, deceived the common people, by fortune telling: they
stole: and for a long time no attention was paid to them.  At last the
evil grew too enormous; the complaints against them became so loud, that
government was constrained to take official notice of them.  Exemplary
punishments were judged necessary: hanging and beheading were not
sufficiently efficacious; and it was then thought expedient to banish
them;—a proceeding more likely to render them worse than better, and even
in other respects liable to many objections; still the custom has
prevailed, down to the latest times.  The neighbour, to whom these
unpolished guests were sent, sooner or later, followed the same method of
disengaging the evil, till, in the end, they were persecuted by almost
all kingdoms and governments.  Many states afterwards relaxing in their
severity, the Gipseys were suffered to creep in, a few at a time, and
were permitted to remain quiet: yet every one of them stood in fear,
innocent or guilty, lest he might be taken unawares, merely because he
was Gipsey, and delivered over to the executioner.  They had been
accustomed, in their own country, to live remote from cities and towns:
now they became still more uniformly inhabitants of the forests, and
outcasts; as, in consequence of the search which was made after them, or
at least threatened to be made, they judged themselves to be more secure
in deserts and concealment, than they would have been if frequenting
places of established abode, and having free intercourse with the
civilised inhabitants: whereby they were divested of the most, perhaps
only, probable means of inducing them to change their manners.  And yet,
had they not sequestered themselves from other people, or had they been
more inclined to mix in society, it is not likely, without some direct
interference of government, that they would have been rendered better.
There were two great obstacles to be surmounted:—first, by mere
intercourse, it would have been, generally speaking, difficult to
eradicate the prejudices and customs from their Oriental minds: secondly,
being Gipseys, people would not willingly have established any
correspondence with them.  Let us reflect how different they are from
Europeans: the one is white, the other black;—this clothes himself, the
other goes half naked;—this shudders at the thought of eating carrion,
the other regales on it as a dainty.  Moreover these people are famed,
and were even from their first appearance in Europe, for being
plunderers, thieves, and incendiaries: the European, in consequence, not
merely dislikes, but hates them.  For the reasons above stated, the
Gipseys have been, at different periods, driven from all the countries of
Europe; and only a few simple people occasionally made a nearer
acquaintance, in order to consult them on matters of superstition.

Such is the state of what has been done, and attempted, for the
improvement of the Gipseys; whereas, so soon as it was discovered that
they were strangers, who thought of nothing less than of returning into
their own country, if any plan had been acted upon for their reformation,
and only half the wise regulations left behind by the Empress Theresa in
her states for the management of these people been adopted, and duly
enforced, they would long ago have been divested of the rude nature of
their ancestors, and have ceased to be the uncultivated branches of a
wild stock.  On the contrary, having always been either left to
themselves or persecuted, it could not be otherwise, but that they must
remain for ever, and in all places, the same.

Perhaps it is reserved for our age, in which so much has been attempted
for the benefit of mankind, to humanise a people who, for centuries, have
wandered in error and neglect: and it may be hoped, that while we are
endeavouring to ameliorate the condition of our African brethren, the
civilisation of the Gipseys, who form so large a portion of humanity,
will not be overlooked.  It cannot be denied, that, considering the
multitude of them, their reform must be an object of very serious
consideration to many states.  Suppose, according to a rough estimate,
that the Gipseys in Hungary and Transylvania, including the Banat, amount
to upwards of one hundred thousand; what a difference would it not make,
in those countries, if one hundred thousand inhabitants, mostly loungers,
beggars, cheats, and thieves, who now reap where they have not sown,
consuming the fruits of others’ labour, were to become industrious useful
subjects!  Their reformation would be a difficult task, as the attempts
made by the Empress Theresa evinced:—a boy (for you must begin with
children, and not meddle with the old stock, on whom no efforts will have
effect) would frequently seem in the most promising train to
civilisation; on a sudden his wild nature would appear, a relapse follow,
and he became a perfect Gipsey again.  But the measure is not, therefore,
impossible: Was not the case precisely the same with the Saxons, whom
Charles the Great converted to Christianity?  Let the state resolving to
appropriate the Gipsey tribe only persevere in its endeavours; some
effect will be gained on the second generation, and with the third or
fourth, the end will certainly be accomplished.

By an attentive observation, we may perceive that the Gipseys are endued
with very good capacities, which promise to make a profitable return, for
much trouble bestowed upon them.  In the first Section one attempt, made
on this speculation, is produced, and it is hoped it will be found
sufficiently complete, to exhibit the leading features of their
character.

The origin of the Gipseys has remained a perfect philosopher’s stone till
a late period.  For more than two hundred years, people have been anxious
to discover who these guests were, that, under the name of Gipseys, came,
unknown and uninvited, into Europe, in the fifteenth century, and have
chosen to remain here ever since.  No enquirer ever broached an opinion
that met with his successor’s approbation; a fourth scarcely heard what a
third had said, before he passed sentence and advanced something new.  We
have no reason to wonder at the miscarriage of these enquiries, which
were neither more nor less than a collection of conjectures founded on
imaginary proofs and partial speculation.—An author set to work, to
discover a country whence the Gipseys came, or a people to whom they
could belong; he found out a place which had been named, for instance,
Zeugitana, or a people who bore some faint resemblance to the Gipseys.
As one coal lights another, so these two similarities became perfectly
applicable to the people whose origin he was seeking; he stopped here,
and published his discovery.

Several investigators laid their foundation on hearsay, and
unauthenticated evidence; they then endeavoured to assist this testimony
by modelling the extraneous circumstances which could not be passed over,
in order to make them coincide; if, notwithstanding all this,
difficulties still occurred, they borrowed Alexander’s sword, and cut the
knot which no milder means could undo.

That this has been the mode of proceeding hitherto, will be frequently
proved in the course of the work.  Even had the imagination not magnified
any thing, nor modelled circumstances agreeably to its own fancy, yet the
following, which is taken for granted, “_that two people resembling each
other in one or two particulars_, _must be descended from the same
stock_,” is an over-hasty conclusion.  In the first place, reject that
the most different nations may agree in some points; further, make the
allowance for various parts of the world producing inhabitants of similar
shape and colour;—What, then, remains to prove that the Gipseys are
descended from any one of the people from whom they have been traced?

There are no records, or historical sources, leading to a direct
discovery of the origin of the Gipseys; those which have been thought so,
are not genuine.  Nothing, therefore, remains, but to seek the truth,
through circuitous tracks; by this means, it may certainly be found.  A
man must not go to tombstones, recently erected, in German church-yards,
nor adduce a single custom, or the name of a country bearing a
resemblance to that of Gipsey, as grounds of proof; and, on the other
hand, overlook a hundred difficulties, or even positive contradictions.
But if _the language of the Gipseys_, _their name_, _the conformation of
their bodies and minds_, _their customs and religious principles_, _mark
a country where it is possible for them to have been indigenous_; _when
History and Chronology corroborate the supposition_, _and there is not
any other country in the world to which the Gipseys_, _all these
particulars taken together_, _could belong_; then the country, where
these circumstances meet, must, in all probability, be their true mother
country.

Whether their Hindostan origin has so much in its favour, is more than we
dare venture to affirm; as it is very possible for the judgment to be so
deceived, that we may believe what does not, in fact, exist.  However, on
perusing the subsequent pages, our readers will judge if, like our
predecessors, we have erred, or have discovered the truth.

SECTION I.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GIPSEYS, THEIR MANNER OF LIFE, THEIR CUSTOMS AND
PROPERTIES.

CHAPTER I.

_Various Appellations of these People_.

IT is not uncommon for the same people to be called by different names,
in different nations; such is the case with the Gipseys.  The French
received their first accounts of them from Bohemia; which occasioned
their giving them the name of Bohemians (_Bohémiens_); the Dutch,
supposing they came from Egypt, called them Heathens (_Heydens_).  In
Denmark, Sweden, and some parts of Germany, Tartars were thought of: the
Moors and Arabians, perceiving the propensity the Gipseys have to
thieving, adopted the name _Charami_ (robbers) for them.  In Hungary,
they were formerly called Pharaohites (_Pharaoh nepek_, Pharaoh’s
people); and the vulgar, in Transylvania, continue that name for them.
The English do not differ much from these latter (calling them
Egyptians—Gipseys); any more than the Portuguese and Spaniards
(_Gitanos_).  The Clementines, in Smyrnia, use the appellation _Madjub_;
and the inhabitants of the lesser Bucharia, that of _Diajii_.  The name
of Zigeuner has obtained the most general adoption: the Gipseys are so
called not only in all Germany, Italy, and Hungary (_Tzigany_), but
frequently in Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia (_Cyganis_).
Moreover the Turks, and other eastern nations, have no other than this
name for them (_Tschingenés_); and perhaps the before-cited Diajii of the
Bucharians may be the very same.  It has been said, they call themselves
Moors; but that is false; Moor is only an adjunct, not the name of any
people: it is really a pity, since this name would have been so fair a
pretence to make Amorites of them, as some writers have done!  It is not
by any means proved, that the modern Greeks called them _Athingans_; this
opinion is supported more by the arbitrary assertions of some learned
men, than by real facts: which is also the case with the rest of the
catalogue of names that have been dispersed, in various treatises on the
origin of the Gipseys; as will be hereafter demonstrated.

CHAPTER II.

_On the Dispersion of the Gipseys_, _and their Numbers in Europe_.

THE numerous hordes of Gipseys, widely dispersed over the face of the
earth, are incredible.  They wander about in Asia; in the interior part
of Africa, they plunder the merchants of Agades; {3} and, like locusts,
have overrun most of the countries of Europe.  America seems to be the
only part of the world where they are not known; no mention appearing to
be made of them by authors who have written on that quarter of the globe.
It would be superfluous to dilate on the history of those in Asia and
Africa, as we have no minute accounts of them; we shall therefore confine
ourselves to those in Europe.

There are but few countries, here, which are entirely free from Gipseys;
although, for centuries, every state has been endeavouring to rid itself
of them.  Under King Henry VIII, and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
they suffered a general persecution in England: there are, nevertheless,
great numbers still to be found there.  About thirty years ago, they even
threatened to set the town of Northampton on fire, because the
magistrates had arrested some of their young people, whose release they
solicited in vain: several of the ringleaders were hanged: they had in
the mean time shewn plainly, that their race was very far from being
annihilated.  It is not uncommon, in the county of Bedford particularly,
to see them lying in byplaces, to the number of forty or fifty together:
but they are cautious how they travel about in companies, and are rarely
seen in towns or villages but by one at a time.

Spain, especially the southern provinces, contains so many of these
people, that they rove about in large troops, threatening to plunder and
murder travellers whom they happen to meet in lonely places: at a
distance from the cities, and where no place of refuge is near, danger is
always to be apprehended.  Swinburne rates their number very high; he
asserts, that the loss of the Gipseys would immediately be perceived by
the apparent diminution of population.  Now as Spain contains eleven
millions of people, how considerable a draft must there be to render it
perceptible!  Twiss also mentions a great many, but sums up a determinate
number, 40,000; which is certainly considerable, but probably twice
twenty, or even twice forty, thousand too few;—unless we charge
Swinburne, and others, with having greatly exaggerated;—even admitting,
that he means to be understood as speaking of the southern provinces
only.

In France, before the revolution, there were but few, for the obvious
reason, that every Gipsey who could be apprehended, fell a sacrifice to
the police.  Lorrain and Alsatia were indeed exceptions; they being very
numerous there, especially in the forests of Lorrain.  Here they seem to
have met with milder treatment; yet, according to the assurances of a
traveller, many of them were to be found in the gaols of Lorrain.  They
increased the more in this district, in consequence of their having been
very assiduously looked after, and driven from the dominions of a late
Duke of Deuxponts, whither his successor would not suffer them to return.

They were universally to be found in Italy, insomuch that even Sicily and
Sardinia were not free.  But they were most numerous in the dominions of
the church; probably because _there_ was the worst police, with much
superstition: by the former they were left undisturbed, and the latter
enticed them to deceive the ignorant, as it afforded them an opportunity
of obtaining a plentiful contribution by their fortune-telling, and
enchanted amulets.  There was a general law throughout Italy, that no
Gipsey should remain more than two nights in any one place: by this
regulation, it is true, no place retained its guest long; but no sooner
was one gone, than another came in his room: it was a continual circle,
and quite as convenient to them as a perfect toleration would have been.
Italy rather suffered than benefited by this law; as, by keeping these
people in constant motion, they would do more mischief there than in
places where they were permitted to remain stationary.

They are very scarce in many parts of Germany; as well as in Switzerland
and the Low-countries.  A person may live many years in Upper Saxony, or
in the districts of Hanover and Brunswic, without seeing a single Gipsey:
when one happens to stray into a village, or town, he occasions as much
disturbance as if the black gentleman with his cloven foot had appeared;
he frights children from their play, and draws the attention of the older
people; till the police officers get hold of him, and make him again
invisible.  In other provinces, on the contrary, particularly on the
Rhine, a Gipsey is a very common sight.  Some years ago there were such
numbers of them in the dutchy of Wirtemburg, that they seen lying about
every where: but as, according to custom, they either lived by thieving,
by fortune-telling or other tricks, plundering the illiterate people of
their money, the government ordered detachments of soldiers to drive them
from their holes and lurking-places throughout the country; and then
transported the congregated swarm, in the same manner as they were
treated by the Duke of Deuxponts, as before related.

In Poland and Lithuania, as well as in Courland, there is an amazing
number of Gipseys.  Their wayvode in Courland is distinguished from the
principals of hordes in other countries; being not only very much
respected by his own people, but, even by the Courland nobility, is
esteemed a man of high rank, and is frequently to be met with at
entertainments and card parties in the first families, where he is always
a welcome guest.  His dress is uncommonly rich, in comparison with others
of his tribe; generally silk in summer, and constantly velvet in winter.
The common Gipseys, on the contrary, are, in every particular, exactly
like their brethren in other countries: even with regard to religion,
they shew the same levity and indifference;—they suffer their children to
be several times baptised; now they profess themselves to be Catholics,
then Lutherans, and presently after nothing at all.

That they are to be found in Denmark, and Sweden, is certain, but how
numerous they are in those countries we cannot affirm; and therefore
proceed to the south-east of Europe.

The countries in this part seem to be the general rendezvous of the
Gipseys: their number amounts in Hungary, according to a probable
statement, to upwards of 50,000; and in the districts of the Banat,
Grisellini assures us, that when Count Clary occupied the situation of
president, they were reckoned at 5500: yet they appear to be still more
numerous in Transylvania.  It is not only Mr. Benko, a German writer, who
says they swarm upon the land like locusts, but we have also certain
calculation, wherein their numbers are estimated at between 35 and
36,000.

Cantemir says, the Gipseys are dispersed all over Moldavia, where every
baron has several families of them subject to him: in Wallachia, and the
Sclavonian countries, they are quite as numerous.  In Wallachia and
Moldavia they are divided into two classes—the princely, and bojarish:
the former, according to Sulzer, amounts to many thousands; but that is
trifling, in comparison with the latter, as there is not a single bojar
in Wallachia who has not at least three or four of them for slaves; the
rich have often some hundreds each, under their command.

Bessarabia, all Tartary, Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania, swarm with them;
even in Constantinople they are innumerable.  In Romania, a large tract
of Mount Hæmus, which they inhabit has acquired from them the name
_Tschenghe Valkan_ (Gipsey Mountain).  This district extends from the
city Aydos, quite to Philippopolis, and contains more Gipseys than any
other province in the Turkish empire.

From what has been advanced, the reader will be enabled to form some
conception, how considerable a class of people the Gipseys are in Europe;
independent of their numbers in Egypt, and some parts of Asia.

If we could obtain an exact estimate of them in the different countries,
or if the unsettled life of these people did not render it extremely
difficult, perhaps impossible, to procure such information, the immense
number would probably greatly exceed what we have any idea of.  At a
moderate calculation, without being extravagant, they might be reckoned
at between 7 and 800,000.  What a serious matter of consideration when we
reflect, that the greatest part of these people are idlers, cheats, and
thieves!  What a field does this open for the contemplation of
governments!—But more of this in another place.

CHAPTER III.

_The Properties of their Bodies_.

HAD the Gipseys made but a temporary appearance, and we could only be
acquainted with them from the publications of former centuries, it would
be difficult to entertain any other idea than that they were a herd of
monsters and beelzebubs.  We find in those books frequent mention of a
_savage people_, _black horrid men_.  But now that they have continued to
our time, and we have an opportunity of seeing, with our own eyes, how
they are formed, and what appearance they make, they are so fortunate as
to have authors who commend their beauty, and take great pains to set
forth their advantages; though many, indeed most of the moderns, their
colour and looks being the same, perfectly agree with the writers of past
centuries, in their accounts of them.  Both parties may be in the right,
when we consider, that what appears beautiful in the eyes of one person,
is possibly ugly and deformed in the eyes of another: this depends
entirely upon habit and familiarity.  For this reason, the dark brown, or
olive coloured, skin of the Gipseys, with their white teeth appearing
between their red lips, may be a disgusting sight to an European,
unaccustomed to such objects.  Let us only ask, As children, have we not,
at some time or other, run affrighted from a Gipsey?  The case will be
entirely altered, if we divest ourselves of the idea that a black skin is
disagreeable.  Their white teeth; their long black hair, on which they
pride themselves very highly, and will not suffer to be cut off; their
lively black rolling eyes;—are, without dispute, properties which must be
ranked among the list of beauties, even by the modern civilised European
world.  They are neither overgrown giants, nor diminutive dwarfs: their
limbs are formed in the justest proportion.  Large bellies are, among
them, as uncommon as hump-backs, blindness, or other corporeal defects.
When Grisellini asserts that the breasts of the Gipsey women, at the time
of their nursing, increase to a larger size than the child they support,
it is an assertion destitute of proof, and parallel with many other
arguments he adduces to prove the Gipseys are Egyptians.  Probably he may
have confounded himself, by thinking of the Hottentots; the circumstance
above mentioned being true of them, though not of the Gipseys.  Every
Gipsey is naturally endued with agility, great suppleness in, and the
free use of, his limbs: these qualities are perceptible in his whole
deportment, but in an extraordinary degree whenever he happens to be
surprised in an improper place: in the act of thieving, with a stolen
goose or fowl in his hand, he runs off so nimbly, that, unless his
pursuer be on horseback, the Gipsey is sure to escape.  These people are
blessed with an astonishingly good state of health.  Neither wet nor dry
weather, heat nor cold, let the extremes follow each other never so
quickly, seems to have any effect on them.  Gipseys are fond of a great
degree of heat; their supreme luxury is, to lie day and night so near the
fire, as to be in danger of burning: at the same time they can bear to
travel in the severest cold bareheaded, with no other covering than a
torn shirt, or some old rags carelessly thrown over them, without fear of
catching cold, cough, or any other disorder.

By endeavouring to discover the causes of these bodily qualities of the
Gipseys, we find them, or at least some of them, very evidently arising
from their education and manner of life.  They are lean; but how should
they be corpulent? as they are seldom guilty of excess in eating or
drinking; for if they get a full meal to-day, they must not repine should
they be under the necessity of keeping fast to-morrow and the next day.
They have iron constitutions, because they have been brought up hardily.
The pitiless mother takes her three-months-old child upon her back, and
wanders about in fair or foul weather, in heat or cold, without troubling
her head what may happen to it.  When a boy attains the age of three
years, his lot becomes still harder.  While an infant, and his age
reckoned by weeks and months, he was at least wrapped up closely in rags;
but now, deprived even of these, he is, equally with his parents, exposed
to the rigour of the elements, for want of covering: he is now put to
trial how far his legs will carry him, and must be content to travel
about, with, at most, no other defence for his feet than thin socks.
Thus he grows up, and acquires his good health by hardship and misery.
We may as easily account for the colour of the Gipsey’s skin.  The
Laplanders, Samoieds, as well as the Siberians, likewise, have brown
yellow-coloured skins, in consequence of living, from their childhood, in
smoke and dirt, in the same manner as the Gipseys: these would, long ago,
have been divested of their swarthy complexions, if they had discontinued
their filthy mode of living.  Only observe a Gipsey from his birth, till
he reaches man’s estate; and you must be convinced that their colour is
not so much owing to their descent, as to the nastiness of their bodies.
In summer, the child is exposed to the scorching sun; in winter, it is
shut up in a smoky hut.  It is not uncommon for mothers to smear their
children over with a black ointment, and leave them to fry in the sun or
near the fire.  They seldom trouble themselves about washing, or other
modes of cleaning themselves.  Experience also shews us, that the dark
colour of the Gipseys, which is continued from generation to generation,
is more the effect of education, and manner of life, than descent.  Among
those who profess music in Hungary, or serve in the Imperial army, where
they have learnt to pay more attention to order and cleanliness, there
are many to be found whose extraction is not at all discernible in their
colour; though they had, probably, remained to the age of twelve or
fourteen years under the care of their filthy parents; and must
necessarily, when they first adopted a different mode of life, have borne
the marks of the dirt contracted during this period.  How much less,
then, should we be able to distinguish a Gipsey if taken when a child
from its sluttish mother, and brought up under some cleanly person!  By
the same reasoning we may account for their white teeth and sound limbs;
namely, from their manner of life.  The former are evidences of their
spare diet: the latter prove them to have been reared more according to
the dictates of nature, than those of art and tenderness.

CHAPTER IV.

_On their Food and Beverage_.

THOSE Gipseys who are more connected with civilised people are not
remarkable in their diet; though it is to be observed of them, that they
are by no means particular in their cookery.  The others, on the
contrary, have their table furnished in a very irregular and
extraordinary way.  Sometimes they fast, or at best have only bread and
water to subsist upon: at other times they regale on fowls and geese.
The greatest luxury to them is, when they can procure a roast of cattle
that have died of any distemper.  It is the same to them, whether it be
the carrion of a sheep, hog, cow, or other beast, horse-flesh only
excepted: they are so far from being disgusted with it, that to eat their
fill of such a meal is to them the height of epicurism.  When any person
censures their taste, or shews surprise at it, they answer, “The flesh of
a beast which God kills, must be better than that of one killed by the
hand of man:” they therefore embrace every opportunity of getting such
dainties.  That they take carrion from the laystalls, as is affirmed of
the Gipseys in Hungary, is not probable, any more than that they eat
horse flesh.  But if a beast out of a herd die, and they find it before
it become rotten and putrefied; or if a farmer give them notice of a cow
dead in the stable; they proceed, without hesitation, to get possession
of the booty.  They are particularly fond of animals that have been
destroyed by fire; therefore, whenever a conflagration has happened,
either in town or country, the next day the Gipseys, from every
neighbouring quarter, assemble, and draw the suffocated, half consumed,
beasts out of the ashes.  Men, women, and children, in troops, are
extremely busy, joyfully carrying the flesh home to their dwellings: they
return several times, provide themselves plentifully with this roast
meat, and gluttonise in their huts as long as their noble fare lasts.
Their manner of dressing this delicious food is curious:—they boil or
roast what is intended for the first day; if they have more than they can
devour at once, the remainder is either dried in the sun, or smoked in
their huts, and eaten without any further preparation.

Something might here be introduced concerning their relish for human
flesh, and the instances which some years ago happened in Hungary might
be adduced as proofs, {16} were it not likely to be objected, that these
examples are at variance with common experience, as well as with the old
accounts handed down to us concerning these people.  We shall, therefore,
not insist on this accusation: but entirely give up the point of Gipseys
being men-eaters, except just hinting, that it would be expedient for
governments to be watchful.  But the instances in Hungary do not appear,
by any means, so casual and uncommon as people may imagine.—What,
according to the strictest examination, has been done, not by _one_, but
_many_; not by _ten_, but even _two hundred_, and perhaps by _thousands_;
not _yesterday_ and _to-day_, but _many years back_; finally, not _by the
whole body together_, but _single parties by themselves_, _in different
places_: Shall these things be deemed only casual excesses?  Should it be
asserted, in addition to this, that eating human flesh is in practice and
allowed, in the country whence they originate; we might with greater
probability mention this shocking fact, of feeding on human flesh, as a
prevailing custom among the Gipseys.  This circumstance is expressly
mentioned in histories: which assure us, that among the particular class
of people from whom the Gipseys sprung, it is a long-established custom
for the nearest relations and friends to kill and eat each other.  It is
unnecessary to bring proof of it in this place, as it belongs to the
second section: let it suffice just to have hinted the matter, in order
that it may be known towards what people we are to look for the origin of
the Gipseys.  As to the objection, that among all the crimes with which
they have been charged, in the older writings, _eating human flesh_ is
not positively alledged against them, it may be obviated by more than one
answer.  In the first place, let it be observed, history relates, and the
event in Hungary confirms, that they murder one another; further,
consider their wandering mode of life; lastly, that they generally abide
in byplaces: and all may be easily accounted for.  A hundred fathers may
sacrifice their children to their voluptuousness, and the crime still
remain concealed.  The absent person is not missed; as nobody watches
over a family continually in motion, and every-where a stranger.  Just as
unlikely is it, that information should be given to government.  There is
no reason to suppose any of their own people would think it their duty to
inform; as, not being contrary to their usual practice, they do not
esteem it wrong.  It is very possible for them to have destroyed many
other people, without the circumstances being recorded in the courts of
justice, or noticed in the annual publications.  Who ever thought to
enquire of them after any traveller that, far distant from his own
country, might have fallen into their hands and been cut off?  Or how are
the remains of the poor victim to be traced, if they devour what is
eatable, and burn the bones? {19}

Those Hungarian wretches have, according to their own account, for twelve
years gratified their horrid cravings, undiscovered by the magistrates,
in a country where the police is by no means bad: perhaps they might have
continued unsuspected for ever, had they not laid their unlucky hands on
the people of the country, thereby bringing on a strict enquiry, and
rendering the discovery more easy.  Nor do the older writings seem to be
entirely silent on this head; at least there is an appearance of
something of the kind in them.  Many authors mention the Gipseys stealing
people, and accuse them particularly of lying in wait for young children.
Others again deny this, saying, that the Gipseys have brats enough of
their own, and therefore have not the least reason to covet strange
children.  How does the matter look, if we suppose they did not want to
rear these children, but to sacrifice them to their inordinate
appetite?—and the Hungarian intelligence expressly says, they were
particularly fond of young subjects.  What renders the truth of this
accusation in the old writings suspicious, is, that before even a single
Gipsey had set his foot in Europe, the Jews lay under the same
imputation.  Perhaps in this, as in many other instances, the calumny
invented against the Jews might be afterwards transferred to the Gipseys.
This alone considered, the imputation of kidnapping children might become
doubtful; but then occurs the weighty circumstance, that it has been
judicially proved in England; and, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an
act of parliament was passed on the occasion.  Enough of this; let people
reason upon the cannibal appetite of the Gipseys as they please, there
will always remain ground for suspicion.

After having shewn how little delicate they are in satisfying their
appetites, we should scarcely expect to find them squeamish with regard
to articles of diet that are highly esteemed among civilised people.  But
Griselini gives a long catalogue of things which, he says, are
disagreeable to a Gipsey’s palate; among which, he particularly mentions
beans and onions, red bream, pearch, lampreys, with every kind of
wild-fowl.  Whereas the fact is, Gipseys not only eat beans and onions,
but are very fond of them; and as for the red bream, pearch and lampreys,
pheasants, partridges, &c. their only reason for abstaining from them is,
the difficulty of procuring them: in which they are not singular; many
other people being in the same predicament.

The Gipseys are not much accustomed to baking of bread; that is an
article which they usually buy, beg or steal, or go entirely without.  If
by chance they do bake, the business is performed quite in the eastern
method:—a wood fire is made on the ground, which soon becomes embers; in
the mean time the mother kneads her dough, forms it into small cakes,
lays them on the hot ashes, and thus they are baked.

To eat with a knife and fork, is no part of a Gipsey’s politeness; nor is
a table or plate thought necessary: even a dish is frequently dispensed
with.  The whole kitchen and table apparatus consists of an earthen pot,
an iron pan (which is also used as a dish), a knife, and a spoon.  When
the meal is ready, all the family sit around the pot or pan, the boiled
or roast is divided into pieces, on which they fall-to; their teeth and
fingers serving them for knives and forks, as does the ground for table
and plates.

The common beverage of the Gipseys is water; now and then beer, when it
costs them nothing.  Wine is too expensive, nor is it particularly
grateful to them.  The case is very different when brandy comes in
question, of which they are immoderately fond.  They feel great pleasure
in intoxicating themselves; which being easiest and soonest effected with
brandy, it is in their esteem the only liquor worth purchasing: all they
can earn goes that way: and whenever by chance they become possessed of a
penny, it is expended at the first house where brandy is to be met with.
Every christening, wedding, or other occasion of rejoicing, is solemnised
with brandy: if they have plenty of it, they, as it were, drive the world
before them; each trying, by screaming or holloing, to express his
felicity and consummate happiness.

But, however great the thirst the Gipseys have for brandy, it is even
exceeded by their immoderate love of tobacco.  This is not, as might be
supposed, peculiar to the men; for the women sometimes exceed them in it:
and they not only smoke it, but chew and swallow the very leaves and
stalks, with great avidity.  That it may sooner reach its place of
destination, and stimulate the gums and tongue more forcibly, they use a
pipe not longer than ones finger: this pipe is made of wood, for
economical reasons—as it absorbs the moisture, and thereby becomes a very
great Gipsey delicacy; for having smoked it as long as they choose, they
gnaw it with astonishing greediness, till not a splinter remains.  It is
immaterial, whether the pipe be smoked by the person himself or another,
to bring it to the proper degree of perfection: he accepts it, as a
valuable present, from any body; and is so chary of it, that it
frequently lasts him many days.  The Gipsey will abstain from food for
more than a day, when he can procure a leaf of tobacco, or a piece of his
pungent pipe, which he chews, drinks a little water, and is happy.  This
surely exceeds every thing that has been related of the most famous
smoker!

CHAPTER V.

_On the Dress of the Gipseys_.

IT cannot be expected that the description of the dress of a set of
people whose whole economy belongs to the class of beggars, should
exhibit any thing but poverty and want.  The first of them that came to
Europe appeared ragged and miserable—unless we perhaps allow their
leaders to have been an exception;—in like manner their descendants have
continued for hundreds of years, and still remain.  This is particularly
remarkable in the countries about the mouth of the Danube, which abound
with Gipseys; namely, Transylvania, Hungary, and Turkey in Europe, where
they dress even more negligently than in other parts.

The Gipseys consider a covering for the head as perfectly useless: the
wind will not easily blow his hat off, who never wears any thing of the
kind, excepting when he has a mind to make a figure, and even then a
rough cap usually supplies its place.  During the winter, if the female
Gipseys do not knit socks, which those in Moldavia and Wallachia do, with
wooden needles, he winds a couple of rags round his feet, which in summer
are laid aside as unnecessary.  He is not better furnished with linen, as
the women neither spin, sew, nor wash.  For want of change, what he once
puts on his body, remains till it falls off of itself.  His whole dress
often consists of only a pair of breeches and a torn shirt.

We are not to suppose, from what is said above, that the Gipseys are
indifferent about dress; on the contrary, they love fine clothes to an
extravagant degree: the want proceeds from necessity, which is become
with them a second nature, forgetting that labour and care are the means
to procure clothes, as well as nourishment.  Whenever an opportunity
offers of acquiring a good coat, either by gift, purchase, or theft, the
Gipsey immediately bestirs himself to become master of it: possessed of
the prize, he puts it on directly, without considering in the least,
whether it suits the rest of his apparel.  If his dirty shirt had holes
in it as big as a barn door, or his breeches were so out of condition
that one might perceive their antiquity at the first glance; were he
unprovided with shoes, stockings, or a covering for the head; neither of
these defects would prevent his strutting about in a laced coat, feeling
himself of still greater consequence in case it happened to be a red one.
Martin Kelpius therefore says, that the Gipseys in Transylvania spend all
their earnings in alehouses and in clothes.  It would excite laughter in
the sternest philosopher, to see a Gipsey parading about, with a beaver
hat, a silk or red cloth coat, at the same time his breeches torn, and
his shoes or boots, if perchance he have either, covered with patches.

Benko, also, assures us, that this kind of state is common in
Transylvania; and adds, the Gipseys are particularly fond of clothes made
after the Hungarian fashion, or which had been worn by people of
distinction.  The habits and properties of the Gipseys in Hungary are
precisely the same.  The following passage, which appeared in the
Imperial Gazettes, is very much to the purpose: “Notwithstanding these
people are so wretched, that they have nothing but rags to cover them,
which do not at all fit, and are scarcely sufficient to hide their
nakedness, yet they betray their foolish taste and vain ostentation
whenever they have an opportunity.”

In Transylvania, some of them wear the Wallachian dress; but in Hungary
they are so attached to the habits of the country, that a Gipsey had
rather go half naked, or wrap himself up in a sack, than he would
condescend to wear a foreign garb, even though a very good one were given
to him.  Green is a favourite colour with the Gipseys; but scarlet is
held in so great esteem by them, that a man cannot appear abroad in a red
habit, though worn out, without being surrounded by a crowd old and
young, who, in the open street, are solicitous to purchase of him, be it
coat, pellisse, or breeches.  Unless severely pinched by the cold, or in
case of the greatest necessity, they will not deign to put on a boor’s
coat: they rather choose to buy for their own use cast-off clothes; and
if they happen to be ornamented with lace or loops, they strut about in
such dresses, as proudly as if they were not merely lords of the
district, but of the whole creation.  Thus all the money they can spare,
is expended in obtaining a sort of clothes not at all becoming their
station, and which answer no other purpose, but to betray their weak
silly notions, and expose them to the ridicule of the more sensible part
of mankind.  They do not pay the least regard to symmetry, nor care what
reasonable people think of their dress: provided they can only get
something shining to put on, that will catch the eye, they give
themselves no concern if the rest of their clothing be very bad, or
though they be nearly in a state of nudity.  It is no uncommon spectacle
to see a Gipsey parading the streets in an embroidered pellisse, or laced
coat decorated with silver buttons, with a dirty ragged shirt,
barefooted, and without a hat; or with a pair of embroidered scarlet
breeches on, and perhaps no other covering but half a shirt.

Nothing pleases Hungarian Gipseys more than a pair of yellow
(_tschischmen_) boots, and spurs: no sooner do the latter glitter on his
feet, but he bridles up, and marches consequentially about, often eying
his fine boots, at the same time totally regardless of his breeches,
which may have lost a portion before or behind, or be in some other
respects quite shabby.

The usual dress of the women is no better than that of the men; indeed
they have generally been thought rather to go beyond them in filth and
nastiness.  Their appearance is truly disgusting to any civilised person:
their whole covering consists of, either a piece of linen thrown over the
head and wound round the thighs, or an old shift hung over them, through
which their smoky hides appear in numberless places.  Sometimes, in
winter, they wrap themselves in a piece of woollen stuff like a cloak.
Occasionally, their dress partakes of the other sex; as they do not
hesitate to wear breeches, or other male habilament.  They use the same
covering for the feet as the men;—either a pair of coarse socks, knit
with wooden needles, which is commonly done in Moldavia and Wallachia; or
they sew them up in rags, which remain on till the stuff perishes and
falls off, or till spring arrives, at which season both men and women go
barefooted. {29}

The women are as fond of dress as the men, and equally ridiculous in
their choice of it; they are often seen in a _dress cap_, while their
rotten linen jacket scarcely serves to cover their nakedness.  In Spain,
they plaster their temples with great patches of black silk; and hang all
sorts of trumpery in their ears, besides a number of baubles about the
neck.

The Gipseys were at very little trouble respecting the dress of their
children; these ran about naked, in the true Calmuc style, till ten years
of age, when the boys got breeches, and the girls aprons.  But this
nuisance is at an end in the Imperial dominions, both in Germany and
Hungary, where an order to suppress it was issued out by the emperor
Joseph.

Before we dismiss the subject of dress, we may mention a laudable custom
established among the Gipseys, in order to save their clothes when they
have quarreled, and mean to fight.  Before they proceed to action, a
truce takes place for a minute or two, to give the combatants time to
strip to their shirts, that their apparel may not suffer in the fray:
then the storm breaks loose, and each lays on the other as hard as he
can.  The custom has this use in it, that whenever any body appears in a
ragged coat, he may affirm, on his honour, that it was not rendered so in
a Gipsey brawl.

CHAPTER VI.

_On the Family Economy of the Gipseys_.

THAT these people are still the rude unpolished creatures that nature
formed them, or, at most, have only advanced one degree towards humanity,
is evinced, with other circumstances, by their family economy.

Many of the Gipseys are stationary, having regular habitations, according
to their situation in life.  To this class belong those who keep
public-houses in Spain; and others in Transylvania and Hungary, who
follow some regular business; which latter have their own miserable huts
near Hermanstadt, Cronstadt, Bistritz, Grosswaradein, Debrezin, Eperies,
Karchau, and other places.  There are also many slaves, to particular
bojars, in Moldavia and Wallachia, who do not wander any more than the
others.  But by far the greatest number of these people lead a very
different kind of life: ignorant of the comforts attending a fixed place
of residence, they rove from one district to another in hordes, having no
habitations but tents, holes in the rocks, or caves; the former shade
them in summer, the latter screen them in winter.  Many of these savage
people, particularly in Germany and Spain, do not even carry tents with
them, but shelter themselves, from the heat of the sun, in forests shaded
by the rocks, or behind hedges: they are very partial to willows, under
which they erect their sleeping place, at the close of the evening.  Some
live in their tents (in their language called _tschater_) during both
summer and winter; which indeed the Gipseys generally prefer.  In
Hungary, even those who have discontinued their rambling way of life, and
built houses for themselves, seldom let a spring pass, without taking
advantage of the first settled weather, to set up a tent for their summer
residence; under this each one enjoys himself, with his family, nor
thinks of his house till the winter returns, and the frost and snow drive
him back to it again.

The wandering Gipsey, in Hungary and Transylvania, endeavours to procure
a horse; in Turkey, an ass serves to carry his wife, a couple of
children, with his tent.  When he arrives at a place he likes, near a
village or city, he unpacks, pitches his tent, ties his animal to a stake
to graze, and remains some weeks there: or if he do not find his station
convenient, he breaks up in a day or two, loads his beast, and looks out
for a more agreeable situation, near some other town.  Indeed, it is not
always in his power to determine how long he will remain in the same
place; for the boors are apt to trouble him, on account of fowls and
geese he has made free with: it sometimes happens, when he is very much
at his ease, they sally out with bludgeons or hedge-stakes, making use of
such forcible arguments, that he does not hesitate a moment to set up his
staff a little farther off: though, in general, the Gipseys are cunning
enough, when they have purloined any thing, or done mischief, to make off
in time before the villagers begin to suspect them.

For their winter huts, they dig holes in the ground, ten or twelve feet
deep; the roof is composed of rafters laid across, which are covered with
straw and sods: the stable, for the beast which carried the tent in
summer, is a shed built at the entrance of the hollow, and closed up with
dung and straw.  This shed, and a little opening rising above the roof of
their subterranean residence, to let out the smoke, are the only marks by
which a traveller can distinguish their dwellings.  Both in summer and
winter, they contrive to have their habitation in the neighbourhood of
some village, or city.  Their favourite mode of building is against a
hillock: the holes in the level ground being only used in cases of
necessity, when there is no rising ground near the spot they have chosen
to pass the winter on.  A Hungarian writer thus describes their method of
constructing the second sort of huts: “They first dig a hollow, about a
fathom broad, far enough into the hillock to bring their floor on a level
with the rest of the plain, in order to form a firm upright wall, for the
back of the building.  Into the wall they fix a beam, about six feet
from, and parallel to, the floor; this beam reaches as far as the
intended depth of the house, seldom exceeding seven or eight feet.  One
end being fast in the wall, the other rests on, and is fixed to, a pillar
or post driven into the ground.  When that is done, they lay boards,
balks, or such other wood as they can find, against it on each side, in
form of a pointed roof, which, viewed from a distance, exhibits a front
in the shape of an equilateral triangle.  The business is finished by
covering the whole building with straw, sods, and earth, to secure its
inhabitants from the rain, snow, and cold.  They always contrive, when
they can, to place their edifice so as to front either the rising or
mid-day sun; this being the side where the opening is left for a door to
go in and out at, which is closed at night, either with a coarse woollen
cloth or a few boards.”

Imagination will easily conceive how dismal and horrid the inside of such
Gipsey huts must be to civilised humanity.  Air and daylight excluded,
very damp, and full of filth, they have more the appearance of wild
beasts’ dens, that of the habitations of intelligent beings.  Rooms or
separate apartments are not even thought of; all is one open space: in
the middle is the fire, serving both for the purpose of cooking and
warmth; the father and mother lie half naked, the children entirely so,
round it.  Chairs, tables, beds or bedsteads, find no place here; they
sit, eat, sleep, on the bare ground, or at most spread an old blanket,
or, in the Banat, a sheep-skin, under them.  Every fine day the door is
set open for the sun to shine in, which they continue watching so long as
it is above the horizon; when the day closes, they shut their door and
consign themselves over to rest.  When the weather is cold, or the snow
prevents them opening the door, they make up the fire, and sit round it
till they fall asleep, without any more light than it affords.

The furniture and property of the Gipseys have been already described;
they consist of an earthen pot, an iron pan, a spoon, a jug, and a knife;
when it happens that every thing is complete, they sometimes add a dish:
these serve for the whole family.  When the master of the house is a
smith by trade, as will be hereafter mentioned, he has a pair of bellows
to blow up his fire, a small stone anvil, a pair of tongs, and perhaps a
couple of hammers; add to these a few old tatters in which he dresses
himself, his knapsack, some pieces of torn bed-clothes, his tent, with
his antiquated jade, and you have a complete catalogue of a nomadic
Gipsey’s estate.

Very little can be said respecting the domestic employment of the women.
The care of their children is the most trifling concern: they neither
wash, mend their clothes, nor clean their utensils: they seldom bake: the
whole of their business, then, is reduced to—dressing their food and
eating it, smoking tobacco, prating, and sleeping.  They continue during
the whole winter in their hut; but at the first croaking of the frogs,
they pull down their house, and decamp.

Such is the condition of the Gipseys who wander about in Hungary, Turkey,
and other countries; being no-where, or rather every-where, at home.  The
remainder of these people who have reconciled themselves to a settled
mode of living, are in much better circumstances, and infinitely more
rational, than those just described.  It will be expected, that those
Spanish Gipseys who are innkeepers, and entertain strangers, are more
civilised; and it also holds good with regard to those in Hungary and
Transylvania who have different ways of gaining a livelihood.  Their
habitations are conveniently divided into chambers; and are furnished
with tables, benches, decent kitchen furniture, and other necessaries.
The few who farm, or breed cattle, have a plough and other implements of
husbandry; the others, what is necessary for carrying on their trade;
though even here you are not to expect superfluity: habitations, clothes,
every thing, indicate that their owners belong to the class of poor.
They are very partial to gold and silver plate, particularly silver cups;
which is a disposition they have in common with the wandering Gipseys:
they let slip no opportunity of acquiring something of the kind; and will
even starve themselves to procure it.  Though they seem little anxious to
heap up riches for their children, yet these frequently inherit a
treasure of this sort, and are obliged in their turn to preserve it as a
sacred inheritance.  The ordinary, travelling Gipseys when in possession
of such a piece of plate, commonly bury it under the hearth of their
dwelling, in order to secure it.  This inclination to deprive themselves
of necessaries, that they may possess a superfluity, as well as many
other of their customs, is curious, yet appears to be ancient; and it was
probably inherent in them when they were first seen by Europeans.

CHAPTER VII.

_Their Occupations and Trades_.

ON considering the means to which the Gipseys have recourse to maintain
themselves, we shall perceive the reason why poverty and want are so
generally their lot; namely, their excessive indolence, and aversion from
industry.  They abhor every kind of employment which is laborious or
requires application; and had rather suffer even hunger and nakedness,
than obviate these privations on such hard terms.  They therefore either
choose some profession which requires little exertion, allowing them many
idle hours; or addict themselves to unlawful courses, and vicious habits.

Working in iron, is the most usual occupation of the Gipseys.  In Spain,
very few follow any regular business; but among these few, some are
smiths: on the contrary, in Hungary this profession is so common among
them, that there is a proverb—‘So many Gipseys, so many smiths:’ the same
might be said of those in Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, and all
Turkey in Europe; at least such workers in fire are very numerous in all
those countries.  This occupation seems to have been a favourite with
them from the most distant periods, as appears not only by Bellonius’s
account, but by an older record, of an Hungarian king Uladislaus, in the
year 1496, mentioned by the Abbé Pray, in his Annals, and Friedwaldsky,
in his Mineralogy, wherein it is ordered, _that every officer and
subject_, _of whatever rank or condition_, _do allow to Thomas Polgar_,
_leader of twenty-five tents of wandering Gipseys_, _free residence
everywhere_, _and on no account to molest either him or his people_;
_because they had prepared musket bullets_, _and other military stores_,
_for the Bishop Sigismund_, _at Fünfkirchen_.  Another instance occurred
in the year 1565, when Mustapha, Turkish regent of Bosnia, besieged
Crupa; the Turks having expended their powder and cannon balls, Gipseys
were employed to make the latter, part of iron, the rest of stone cased
with lead.

The Gipseys of our time are not willing to undertake heavy work; they
seldom go beyond a pair of light horse-shoes: in general, they confine
themselves to small articles, such as rings, jews-harps, and small nails:
they mend old pots and kettles, make knives, seals, needles, and
sometimes work trifles in tin or brass.

Their materials, tools, apparatus, all are bad, and of the most inferior
kind.  Their common method of proceeding is, to collect some pieces of
rusty iron, old nails, broken horse-shoes, and such-like, which they fuse
and shape to their purpose.  The anvil is a stone; the other implements
are, a pair of hand-bellows, a pair of pincers, a hammer, a vice, and a
file: these are the tools which a nomadic Gipsey carries with him in his
perambulations.  Whenever he is disposed to work, he is at no loss for
fuel: on his arrival at a station where he purposes remaining a few days,
or perhaps weeks, he takes his beast, loads him with wood, builds a small
kiln, and prepares his own coals.  In favourable weather, his work is
carried on in the open air; when it is stormy, or the sun too powerful,
he retires under his tent.  He does not stand, but sits down on the
ground, cross-legged, to his work; which position is rendered necessary,
not only by custom, but by the quality of his tools.  The wife sits by to
work the bellows, in which operation she is sometimes relieved by the
elder children; the little ones sit, naked as they were born, round the
fire.  The Gipseys are generally praised for their dexterity and
quickness, notwithstanding the wretched tools they have to operate with.
When any piece of work requires much time to finish, they are apt to lose
their patience, and in that case become indifferent whether it be well
executed or not.  They never submit to labour so long as they have got a
dry crust, or any thing else to satisfy their hunger.  They frequently
receive orders to fabricate different articles; but if not, no sooner are
a few nails, or some other trifles, manufactured, than man, woman, and
children, dislodge, to convey their merchandise, from house to house, for
sale, in the neighbouring villages: their traffick is carried on
sometimes for ready money, sometimes by barter for eatables or other
necessaries.

Another branch of commerce much followed by the Gipseys is horse dealing,
to which they seem to have been attached from the earliest period of
their history.  In those parts of Hungary where the climate is so mild
that horses may lie out all the year, the Gipseys avail themselves of
this circumstance to breed, as well as deal in, those animals; by which
they sometimes not only procure a competence, but grow rich.  Instances
have been known on the Continent of Gipseys keeping from fifty to seventy
horses each, and those the best bred horses of the country; some of which
they let out for hire, others they sold or exchanged, as occasion
offered.  But this description of Gipsey horse-dealers is not very
numerous; for the greatest number of them deal only in blind worn-out
jades, which they drive about to different markets, to sell or barter.
When the dealer is not fortunate enough to find a chap for his nag, he
leads him to the collar-maker, who values the hide, and takes him off his
hands for a few groschens.  In order to prevent being reduced to this
necessity, the slyest tricks are practised to conceal the animal’s
defects.  In Spain, therefore, _Gitano_ and _Gitaneria_ (Gipsey and
Gipseyism) are become familiar expressions to imply a cheater in horses,
with the deceptions he makes use of.  In the year 1727 they had become so
infamous in Sweden, that the subject was thought of sufficient
consequence for the consideration of the diet, and their total expulsion
was voted to be a necessary measure.  The following trick is frequently
played in Hungary, and the adjacent country, to make a horse appear brisk
and active:—the rider alights at a small distance from the place where he
means to offer his horse for sale, and belabours him till he has put the
whole muscular system in motion with fright; he then mounts again, and
proceeds.  The poor beast remembering the blows he has received, jumps
about, or sets out full speed, at the least signal; the buyer, entirely
ignorant of the preparatory discipline the animal has undergone, supposes
this to be natural vivacity, and in hopes that good feeding, with care,
will render him still more lively, strikes a bargain: but the next day he
has the mortification to discover that he has bought a jade, on which all
his care will be thrown away, as the beast has not a leg to stand upon.
In Suabia, and on the Rhine, they have another device:—they make an
incision in some hidden part of the skin, through which they blow the
creature up, till he looks fleshy and plump; they then apply a strong
sticking-plaster, to prevent the air from returning.  If what Wolfgang
Franz assures us be true, they sometimes make use of a trick with a live
eel, to this blown-up horse, that he may not only appear in good
condition, but spirited and lively.  It might be thought, that, on
account of these and such-like roguish proceedings, nobody would ever
venture to deal with a Gipsey for a horse, were not the possibility
proved by the fact itself.  But we see instances of this infatuation in
other transactions: it is well known that every Jew will cheat, whenever
he has an opportunity; yet these people have lived by trade, ever since
their dispersion from Babel.  Then, these frauds do not always happen:
the Gipseys too sell their horses cheap; and as poor people cannot afford
to pay dear for them, they must buy where they can; and thus the Gipseys
are enabled to continue their traffick.

To the two professions before mentioned as commonly followed by the men,
may be added, those of carpenters and turners: the former make
watering-troughs and chests; the latter turn trenchers, dishes, make
spoons and other trifling articles, which they hawk about.  There are
others who make sieves, or maintain themselves by cobbling shoes.  Many
of these, as well as the blacksmiths and whitesmiths, find constant
employment in the houses of the better sort of people, for whom they work
the year round.  They are not paid in money; but, beside other
advantages, find a certain subsistence.  Those who are not thus
circumstanced, do not wait at home for customers, but, with their
implements in a sack thrown over their shoulders, seek business in the
cities or villages: when any one calls, they throw down the bundle, and
prepare the apparatus for work, before the door of their employer.

The Gipseys have a fixed dislike to agriculture; and had rather suffer
hunger, or any privation, than follow the plough, to earn a decent
livelihood.  But, as there is no general rule without an exception, so,
beside the slaves to the bojars in Moldavia and Wallachia, who are
constrained to apply to it, there are some in Hungary who are cultivators
by choice.  Since the year 1768, the Empress Theresa has commanded that
the Hungarian and Transylvanian Gipseys should be instructed in
husbandry; but these orders have been very little regarded.  At this time
there are so few of them farmers, in those parts, that they are
undeserving of notice; though in Spain, and other European countries,
they are still more scarce, as it would be difficult to find one who had
ever made a furrow in his life.

Formerly, Gipseys were commonly employed in Hungary, and in Transylvania
almost universally, for hangmen and executioners.  They still perform the
business of flayers in Hungary, and of executioners in different parts of
Transylvania.  Their assiduity in torturing, their cruel invention in
tormenting, are described by Toppeltin to be so shocking, that the
Gipseys seem eminently calculated for works of barbarity.  They do not
follow flaying as a regular profession any-where; it is merely a casual
occupation, in addition to their usual employment.  Whenever a beast dies
near where they happen to be, it is a fortunate circumstance if there be
no skinner in the place; not because they can make much of the skin,
which they always leave with the owner for a trifling consideration, but
they are thus enabled to procure a plentiful provision of flesh for the
family.

Such are the employments of the men.  We shall now proceed to shew the
particular methods the women have of obtaining support.  It was formerly,
and still is, the custom, among the wandering Gipseys, especially in
winter, not for the man to maintain the wife, but the wife the husband.
This is not precisely the fact in summer, when the men have the
before-recited occupations; nor among those who have a regular
settlement; but the women always endeavour to contribute their share
towards the maintenance of the family: some deal in old clothes; others
frequent brothels, which is commonly the case in Spain, and still more so
in Constantinople, and all over Turkey.  There are others, in
Constantinople, who make and sell brooms; but this trade is followed by
those chiefly who are too old to get a livelihood by their debauchery.
Dancing is another means they have of obtaining contributions: they
generally practise this when begging, particularly of men, in the
streets; or when they enter houses, to ask charity.  Their dancing is the
most disgusting that can be conceived, always ending with fulsome
grimaces, or the most lascivious attitudes and gestures: nor is this
indecency confined to the married women, but is rather more practised by
young girls, travelling with their fathers, who are also musicians, and
who, for a trifling acknowledgement, will exhibit their dexterity to any
body who is pleased with these unseemly dances.  They are trained up to
this impudence from their earliest years, never suffering a passenger to
pass their parents’ hut, without endeavouring to obtain something by
frisking about naked before him.

Respecting fortune telling, with which the female Gipseys impose on
people’s credulity, in every district and corner of Europe, little need
be said.  Yet it is extraordinary, that _women_, generally too not till
they become old, should be so sharpsighted as to discover, in every
person’s hand they are permitted to inspect, the events of futurity!
There are some instances of men being thus gifted; but so few, that they
are only exceptions to a general rule.  It is, therefore, to be ascribed
to the Gipsey women alone, that faith in divination still exists in the
minds of millions of people.  It is true, Europe was not originally
beholden to the Gipseys for this faith, it being deeply rooted in the
ignorance of the middle age, when they arrived and brought it with them
also.  The science of divination here, was already brought to a much
greater degree of perfection than among them: rules were invented to tell
lies from the inspection of the hand; whereas these poor wretches were
esteemed mere bunglers.  During the seventeenth and beginning of the
eighteenth century the Gipseys were considered as only a supernumerary
party; there being men of great learning, who not only read lectures in
college on the divine art of chiromancy, but wrote many books, vilifying
these people, and endeavouring to spoil their market by exposing their
ignorance.  But those enlightened men are no more; their knowledge is
deposited in the dead archives of literature: and probably, if there were
no Gipseys, with them would also have died the belief in chiromancy, as
has happened in regard to astrology, necromancy, oneirocritica, and the
other offsprings of imbecile fancy.  By the Gipseys alone will this
deceit be kept alive, till every Gipsey is constrained to acknowledge
some country, and to have some ostensible mode of gaining a livelihood.
We can only pity the poor weak deluded beings, who pay their groschen or
kreutzer, their shilling or sixpence, for a few unmeaning words!—as if it
were possible for people to instruct us concerning our future fortune in
life, who are ignorant of their own; being unable to determine whether a
day or two hence, they may still be telling fortunes, or be taken before
the magistrates, and hanged for theft.

In addition to the chiromantic deception of the Gipsey women, they
also—though not exclusively, as the men likewise often profess the same
talent—cure bewitched cattle, discover thefts, and possess nostrums of
various kinds, to which they ascribe great virtues.  These nostrums
consist principally of roots, and amulets made of unfermented dough,
marked with strange figures, and dried in the air.  Griselini says, that,
in the Banat of Temeswar, they sell certain small stones, chiefly a kind
of scoriæ, which they say possess the quality of rendering the wearer
fortunate in love, play, &c.  Were that true, why deliver to others what
they have so much occasion for themselves?  Why do they beg and steal,
when, with the assistance of these stones, they might honourably acquire
riches, and good fortune?  Yet these stones are purchased with avidity,
not only in the Banat, but in Germany.  People use their quack medicines;
call the Gipsey woman into the stable, to exorcise their bewitched
cattle, without suspecting any trick or deception.  So the open-hearted
farmer, in Suabia and Bavaria, has recourse to the Gipseys on many
occasions, employing them as doctors for man and beast; and constantly,
in cases of supposed enchantment, flies to the Gipsey: this circumstance
happens most frequently among those of the common people who pretend to
have the least belief in witches and witchcraft.  Whenever a cow does not
feed kindly, something is immediately suspected; and the Gipsey woman is
called, who is often so successful as to remove the impediment.  She goes
into the stable, orders the cow to be shewn to her, and, after desiring
every one else to go out, remains a few minutes alone with it: having
finished her operations, she calls in the master, acquaints him with the
beast’s recovery, and behold it eats heartily!  How happens this?  Was it
not a piece of enchantment, wherein the Gipsey really acted the magician?
Certainly not.  The fraud is this:—When the cattle are feeding abroad,
the Gipsey woman takes advantage of the keepers absence to entice some of
them, with a handful of fodder, to follow her; she then smears them, over
the nose and mouth, with some filthy composition, which she has ready in
the other hand.  From that moment the creature loaths all kinds of food
and drink.  When the Gipsey is called in to apply a remedy, the whole
skill required, is to cleanse the animal’s nose and mouth from the stuff
she had put on a day or two before: by this means the true smell is
restored, and the cow being hungry, it is not surprising she should
fall-to greedily.  From this single instance, a judgment may be formed of
other cases.

The more common Gipsey occupations, wherein the men and women take an
equal share, are—in Spain, keeping inns; principally music in Hungary and
Turkey; and gold-washing in Transylvania, the Banat, Moldavia, and
Wallachia.  The Gipseys, formerly, were concerned in smuggling; and
probably still are, although it is not mentioned by late writers.

Both male and female Gipseys attend at entertainments with their music,
and often shew great proficiency in the art: besides some wind
instrument, they have generally a violin; and many of them have attained
so great perfection on that instrument, as to be employed in the chapels
of the nobility, and admired as great masters.  _Barna Mihaly_, in the
country of Zips, who distinguished himself, about the middle of the last
century, in the chapel of the cardinal Count _Emerick von Cschaky_, was
an Orpheus of this kind.  The cardinal, who was a judge of music himself,
had so great a regard for him, that he had his likeness taken by one of
the most capital painters.  Instances of the kind are not wanting in the
other sex: it is well known that a Gipsey girl, at fourteen years of age,
was so famous as a fidler, that the greatest and most fashionable people
in Hungary were accustomed to send twenty or thirty miles for her, to
play at their balls.  There are likewise very many _scrapers_; these are
generally such as have learned of other scrapers, at their own expense.
This kind of musicians travel about, with the dancers before mentioned;
or play to the peasants, who, not having much taste, always make them
welcome at their weddings, or dances.  They scratch away on an old
patched violin, or rumble on a broken base, neither caring about better
instruments, nor minding to stop in tune; being what they are, more for
want of application than capacity.  Others practise vocal music; and some
have acquired considerable fortunes, particularly in Spain, by singing.

Goldwashing, in the rivers, is another occupation, by which many thousand
Gipseys, of both sexes, procure a livelihood, in the Banat, Transylvania,
Wallachia, and Moldavia.  As this is only a summer employment, they are
under the necessity of finding some other means of supporting themselves
during the winter.  It is not permitted for every one, without exception,
to be a goldwasher: in Transylvania, such only can follow the employment,
who have leave from the office of Mons; {51} and these only enjoy the
privilege under certain restrictions.  In Wallachia and Moldavia, none of
the bojars’ slaves, thence called _bojaresk_ (bojar Gipseys), are
suffered to meddle with goldwashing; that being a liberty granted only to
those who, like other subjects, are immediately under the prince,
denominated _domnesk_ (princely Gipseys): which are also subdivided into
three classes; the first named _Rudar_; the second _Ursar_; and the third
_Lajaschen_.  The _Radars_ alone have the licence above mentioned; the
others are obliged to seek a different means of obtaining support.  Each
person is forced to pay a certain tribute to government.  The goldwashers
in Transylvania and the Banat pay four guilders annually, which is
discharged in gold-dust: the same sum is due from every Gipsey, though
many evade the contribution.  When the time for payment approaches; they
contrive to keep out of the way, particularly the Hungarian Gipseys.  The
tribute collected in Wallachia and Moldavia does not go into the public
treasury, but belongs to the princesses for pin-money.  In Cantemir’s
time, that in Moldavia produced yearly one thousand six hundred drachms:
and the consort of the Wallachian hospodar Stephen Rakowitza, in the year
1764, received from her Rudars, two hundred and forty in number, twelve
hundred and fifty-four drachms;—a sum, according to General von Bauer and
Sulzer, amounting to one thousand and three drachms, fine gold.  What the
Gipseys in Wallachia and Moldavia get more than their head-money, goes to
the grand armasch, at two lion-guilders the drachm: this he afterwards
sells again, at a higher price, according with its real value; as General
von Bauer believes, for his own profit, not for that of the prince.  The
goldwashers in the Banat and Transylvania dispose of their share at the
royal redemption-office, in Zalatnya.  The earnings of these people vary
with time and at different places; during heavy rains and floods they are
usually most successful: besides, their profit is more or less, according
to the quality of the river they wash in.  At the most favourable times,
viz. at the floods, Griselini calculates their daily gain not to exceed
three groschens.  If we understand, as we certainly ought, that this sum
is not earned by each person, but by a whole family, the statement will
agree, pretty nearly, with Mr. Dembscher’s account: he says, “In the year
1770 there were, in the districts of Uj-Palanka, Orsova, and Caransebes,
upwards of eighty goldwashers, all of whom had families, and followed the
business, with their wives and children; yet this number of hands
delivered in only six or seven hundred ducats worth of gold.”  Take half
of the doubtful seventh hundred; deduct three hundred and twenty
guilders, head money, from the gross sum; divide the remainder among
eighty families, and each will receive yearly thirty-two guilders: allot
to each day, in the summer half-year, its proportion, and it will be
found very little more or less than three groschens.  As before stated,
the labour of two hundred Rudars produced, in the year 1764, twelve
hundred fifty-four drachms: General von Bauer adds, this sum was exactly
the half of what was collected, over the whole country, in the same year.
Now as these Gipseys were under the necessity of parting with their
twelve or thirteen hundred drachms, which remained after the capitation
tax was paid, to the grand-armasch, at the rate of two lion-guilders per
drachm, they earned still less than those in the Banat; although the
rivers in Wallachia contain a sufficient plenty of gold to have enabled
them to make ten times that advantage, did not their laziness prevent
them.  The Transylvanian rivers yield the most gold: there are annually,
from eight to ten hundred weight separated from their sand, which are
brought to Zalatnya, to be disposed of.  As this quantity is not obtained
by Gipseys only, but together with the Wallachians, and we have no
account of the gross number of goldwashers, how many of them are Gipseys,
nor what proportion they have of these eight hundred weight, it is
impossible to ascertain the profits of the Transylvanian Gipsey
goldwashers.  That they are better off than those in the Banat and other
places, is certain, from the circumstance of the rivers abounding more
with gold, than elsewhere.

It may not be uninteresting in this place to give the process of
goldwashing, in the words of those who, as mineralogists, have
superintended the work.  The account communicated by the Councellor von
Kotzian, concerning the goldwashing in the Banat, is as follows: “The
operation consists in, first, providing a board of lime-wood, about one
fathom long, and half a fathom broad; being hollowed at the upper end, in
the form of a dish, from which are cut ten or twelve channels, in an
oblique direction.  This board is fixed in an inclined position so as to
form an angle of forty-five degrees with the horizon.  The sand
containing the gold, being laid in the hollow at the top of the board, a
quantity of water is then poured upon it, which carries off the lighter
parts; such as are more heavy they shove down by hand: what remains in
the channels, or furrows, is discharged into an oblong tray, carried to
the straining-trough, and the gold which remains picked clean out.  The
whole of this work is performed in so careless a manner, that much pure
gold is lost: it is, moreover, to be lamented, that the Gipseys get only
the gold which is perfectly separated from the sand, but by no means any
that sticks to the ore, which they throw away, though there is gold in
it.”

As it seems evident, from the foregoing statement, that this method is
very inadequate to the purpose, and that consequently much gold must be
wasted, we are the more surprised when another author, in the following
words, assures us of the contrary:—“So negligent and careless as the work
of the Gipseys appears at first sight, just as effectual it is proved
when put to the test.  Daily practice gives to these people a degree of
discernment, without which another person would think they must lose a
great deal.  I convinced myself in the following manner: When they had
finished their washing on the board—for which they commonly used from
fifteen to twenty troughs of coarse stuff—I divided the washed stuff into
three parcels; the ten or fifteen uppermost furrows always contained the
most gold, the second division not more than an eighth part as much, but
the last fifteen to twenty furrows scarcely three grains.  I have also
narrowly examined the refuse, and very seldom found any traces of gold in
it.”

The art of goldwashing is brought to much greater perfection in
Transylvania.  In the description of the process adopted in that country,
it is said that all the rivers, brooks, and even the pools which the rain
forms, produce gold: of these the river Aranyosch is the richest,
insomuch that the historians have compared it to the Tagus and Pactolus.
Excepting the Wallachians, who live by the rivers, the goldwashers
consist chiefly of Gipseys.  They can judge with the greatest certitude
where to wash to advantage.  The apparatus used by them for this work is
a crooked board, four or five feet long, by two or three broad, generally
provided with a wooden rim on each side; over this board they spread a
woollen cloth, and scatter the gold-sand, mixed with water, upon it: the
small grains of the metal remain sticking to the cloth, which they
afterwards wash in a vessel of water, and then separate the gold by means
of the trough.  When larger particles of sand are found in their washing,
they make deeper channels in the middle of their crooked boards, to stop
the small pieces as they roll down: they closely examine these small
stones, and some are frequently found to have solid gold fixed in them.

Those we have mentioned are the customary professions and occupations of
Gipseys, in the different countries and states of Europe.  But people
must not imagine that their smiths’ shops are continually resounding with
the hammer; nor that those of other professions are so attentive to their
callings, as to provide even a daily subsistence, not to think of a
comfortable maintenance.  Their consummate laziness, on the contrary, as
before observed, occasions so many idle hours in the day, that their
family is often reduced to the greatest distress; for which reason,
begging or stealing is by far a more common method, than diligence or
assiduous application to business, for quieting the cravings of hunger.
If we except soldiers, who are kept in order by the discipline of the
corporal, with some of the Transylvanian goldwashers, who apply to
music—and, living separate from their own caste, in constant habits of
intercourse with people of a better sort, have thereby acquired more
civilised manners, and learned the distinction, if not between right and
wrong, at least between social honour and disgrace—the remainder are, in
the most unlimited sense, arrant thieves.  In fact, working at any trade,
or employment, seems to be merely a disguise, in order the better to
enable them to carry on their thieving practices; as the articles which
they prepare for sale in the cities and villages, furnish an excellent
excuse for sneaking into houses, to pry where there is any thing which
they may appropriate to themselves.  This kind of artifice is
particularly the province of the women, who have always been reckoned
more dextrous than the men in the art of stealing.  They commonly take
children with them, who are tutored to remain behind, in the outer part
of the house, to purloin what they can, while the mother is negotiating
in the chamber.  It is generally the women’s office to make away with the
boor’s geese and fowls, when they are to be found in a convenient place.
Should the creature make a noise when seized, it is killed and dressed
for the consumption of the family; but if, by chance, it have strayed so
far from the village, that its crying cannot give any alarm, they keep it
alive to sell at the next market town.  Winter is the time when the women
generally are most called upon to try their skill in this way: during
that season, many of the men remain in their huts, sending the women
abroad to forage.  They go about in the guise of beggars—a character they
well know how to support—and commonly carry with them a couple of
children, miserably exposed to the cold and frost; one of these is led by
the hand, the other tied in a cloth to the woman’s back, in order to
excite compassion in well-disposed people.  Whole troops of these Gipsey
beggars are met with in Spain; and the encounter is by no means pleasant,
as they ask alms in a manner, and with such importunity, as if they
thought you could not deny them.  They also tell fortunes; and impose on
the credulous with amulets.  Besides all this, they seldom return to
their husbands without some pilfered booty.  Many writers confine the
thefts of the Gipseys to small maters, and will not allow that they are
ever guilty of violence.  This is not only denied by the testimony of
others, but absolutely contradicted by some recent instances.  It is true
that, on account of their natural timidity, they do hesitate to commit a
robbery which appears to be attended with great danger, nor do they often
break open houses by night: they rather confine themselves to petty
depredations, than, as they think, rush voluntarily into destruction by a
great and dangerous action.  Yet we have more than one proof, that they
make no scruple to murder a traveller, or plunder cities and villages.

CHAPTER VIII.

_On their Marriages and Education_.

THERE are not, perhaps, any other people among whom marriages are
contracted with so little consideration, or solemnised with so little
ceremony, as among the Gipseys.  No sooner has a boy attained the age of
fourteen or fifteen years, than he begins to perceive that something more
than mere eating and drinking is necessary to him.  Having no fear of
consequences, nor being under any restraint from his parents, he forms a
connection with the girl he most fancies, of twelve, or at most thirteen,
years old, without any scruple of conscience, whether she be his nearest
relation, or an entire stranger; but it is to be observed, that a Gipsey
never marries a person who is not of the true Gipsey breed.  God’s
commandments are unknown to him; and human laws cannot have much
influence over one who lives in a desert, remote from the observation of
any ruling power.  The term of courtship is very short, often only long
enough for the parties to communicate their mutual inclination.  They do
not wait for any marriage ceremony, as it is a matter of no consequence
to them, whether it be performed afterwards, or not at all.  Yet they do
not seem to be entirely indifferent about matrimony, not on account of
conforming to any institution, but from a pride they have in imitating
what is done by other people, lest they should appear to be inferior to
them.  As the very early age of the parties, or some other irregularity,
might meet with objections from a regular clergyman, they frequently get
one of their own people to act the priest, and tack the decent couple
together.  A marriage being thus accomplished, the man provides a stone
for an anvil, a pair of pincers, a file, and hammers away as a smith; or
works at some other trade, he may have just learned from his father: then
begins his peregrination.  Should his wife commit a fault at a future
time, he gives her half a dozen boxes on the ear; or very likely, for
some trifling cause, turns her off entirely.  Her conduct must, in
general, be very much regulated by his will; and she is obliged to be
more attentive to him than to herself.  When the woman lies-in, which
happens frequently, these people being remarkably prolific, the child is
brought forth, either in their miserable hut, or, according to
circumstances, it may be in the open air, but always easily and
fortunately: a woman of the same kind performs the office of midwife.
True Gipsey like, for want of some vessel, they dig a hole in the ground,
which is filled up with cold water, and the new-born child washed in it.
This being done, it is wrapped up in some old rags, which the motherly
foresight has taken care to provide.  Next comes the christening, at
which ceremony they prefer strangers, for witnesses, rather than their
own caste: but what kind of folks their guests are, may be collected from
the mode of entertaining them.  When the christening is over, the father
takes the sponsors to an alehouse, or if none be near, to some other
house, where he treats them with cakes and brandy.  If he is a little
above the lowest state of misery, and has a mind to be generous, other
things are provided; but he does not join the company, being employed in
serving his guests.  Thus the affair ends.  The lying-in woman passes her
short time of confinement, seldom exceeding eight days, with her child,
in the hut, or under a tent, in the smoke by the fire.  Refreshments are
often sent from the godfathers and godmothers; yet they are sometimes so
uncivil, that they do not hesitate to quarrel with them or even to
discharge them from the trust, if they think the present too small, or do
not like the provisions.  When this happens, they have another
christening, in some other place; nay, sometimes even a third.

Gipsey women, as already mentioned, frequently smear their children over
with a particular kind of ointment, and then lay them in the sun, or
before the fire, in order that the skin may be more completely parched,
and their black beauty thereby increased.  They never use a cradle, nor
even possess such a piece of furniture; the child sleeps in its mother’s
arms, or on the ground.  When the lying-in is over, the Gipsey woman goes
to church, and thence, immediately, either to begging or stealing.  While
the child remains in her arms, perhaps imagining that people will be less
severe in their chastisements, she is more rapacious than at other times,
and takes whatever she can lay her hands on.  If she cannot escape
without a beating, she endeavours to screen herself by holding up the
child to receive the blows, till she finds an opportunity of retiring
imperceptibly, and running away.

When the child gets a little stronger, and has attained the age of three
or four months, the mother seldom carries it on the arm, but at her back;
there it sits, winter and summer, in a linen rag, with its head over her
shoulder.  If she have more children, in course of time, which is
generally the case, as this race of beings is so prolifick, she leads one
or two by the hand, while such as are older run by her side; and thus
attended, she strolls through the villages and into houses.
Notwithstanding their dark complexion, and bad nursing, writers are
unanimous in stating, that these children are good-looking, well shaped,
lively, clever, and have fine eyes.  The mother plaits their black hair
on the crown of the head, partly to keep it out of their face, and partly
for ornament.  This is all she ever does towards decorating her
offspring; for in summer the children wear no clothes till ten years of
age, and in winter they are forced to be content with a few old rags hung
about them.

No sooner is the child, whether boy or girl, capable of running about,
than it is taught to dance; which talent consists in jumping on one foot,
and constantly striking behind with the other.  As the young Gipsey grows
up, all kinds of postures are added, in hopes of diverting, and thereby
to obtain a reward from persons who happen to pass the parents’
habitation.  What the children are further taught, especially by their
mothers, is the art of stealing, which they often put in practice, as
before related.  Instruction or school is never thought of; nor do they
learn any business, except perhaps to blow the fire when the father
forges, or to assist in goldwashing.

By the twelfth or thirteenth year, a boy acquires some knowledge of his
father’s trade; and then becomes emancipated from parental authority; as
he now begins to think of forming his own separate connections.  The
Gipseys, in common with uncivilised people, entertain unbounded love for
their children: this is a source of the most unpardonable neglect.
Gipsey children never feel the rod; they fly into the most violent
passion, and at the same time hear nothing from their parents but
flattery and coaxing.  In return, they act, as is commonly the
consequence of such education, with the greatest ingratitude.  This
excessive fondness for their children is, however, attended with one
advantage:—when they are indebted to any person, which is frequently the
case in Hungary and Transylvania, the creditor seizes a child, and by
that means obtains a settlement of his demand; as the Gipsey will
immediately exert every method to discharge the debt, and procure the
release of his darling offspring.

To the beforegoing account of Gipsey marriages, and education, there are
but few exceptions; comprised in a small proportion of them who have
fixed habitations.  The character of people being formed by the
instruction they receive in their early years, can it then be thought
surprising that Gipseys should be idlers, thieves, murderers, and
incendiaries?  Is it probable, _that_ man should become diligent, who has
been educated in laziness?  Can it be expected those should leave every
person in possession of his own property, whose father and mother have
taught them to steal, from their earliest infancy?  Who can have a
general idea of fair dealing, that knows not right from wrong, nor has
ever learned the distinction between good and evil, virtue and vice?
Punishments inflicted on others, for their crimes, have no effect upon
one who is not sufficiently attentive to take warning by the examples of
strangers: and when, by his own experience, he is taught not to lay hands
on the property of others, he is become so hardened, that the milder
punishments leave no lasting impression; while the more severe ones,
which reach the life, cannot have any effect on him, and are, as before
observed, totally disregarded by his fellows.  So long therefore as the
education of the Gipseys continues to be what it is, we cannot hope that
they should leave off their vile practices and filthy habits.

CHAPTER IX.

_On their Sickness_, _Death_, _and Burial_.

WE have before had occasion to mention the constant good health of these
people; and it is fact, that they do enjoy it more uninterruptedly, and
perfectly, than persons of the most regular habits, and who pay the
greatest attention to themselves.  They get no cold nor defluxions, from
the inclemency of the air.  They are not subject to rashes; even poisons,
or epidemical disorders, have no effect upon them.  Any prevailing
sickness penetrates sooner into ten habitations of civilised people, than
it finds its way under a Gipsey’s tent, or into his hut.  They are
equally liable to the small-pox and measles with other people, though
with infinitely less danger; and they are subject to a disorder in the
eyes, occasioned by the continual smoke and steam in their huts, during
the winter season: excepting these complaints, the Gipseys, in general,
experience little inconvenience till the time comes that Nature demands
her own back again, and entirely destroys the machine.  Though this be
not always at a great age, it is generally at an advanced period; it
being very uncommon for a Gipsey to die early in life, or during his
childhood.  Their love of life is excessive; yet they hardly ever take
the advice of a physician, or use medicines, even in the most dangerous
maladies.  They generally leave every thing to nature, or good fortune:
if they do _any_ thing, it is, to mix a little saffron in their soup, or
bleed and scarify themselves; having observed that their horses use
bleeding, as a remedy for disorders.  When the sickness indicates danger,
and that the universal enemy to life is really in earnest, the Gipsey
breaks out into sighs and lamentations, on account of his departure; till
at last he gives up the ghost, in his usual place of residence—under a
tree, or in his tent.

The preparations for death are usually regulated according to a person’s
religious principles; but the Gipsey, who neither knows nor believes any
thing concerning the immortality of the soul, or of rewards and
punishments beyond this life, for the most part dies like a
beast—ignorant of himself and his Creator, as well as utterly incapable
of forming any opinion respecting a higher destination.

The Gipsey’s decease is instantly succeeded by the most frantic
lamentations: parents, in particular, who have lost their children,
appear inconsolable.  Little can be said of their burials; only, that on
those occasions the cries and bewailings are redoubled, and become very
violent.  When the leader of a horde dies, things are conducted more
quietly.  His own people carry him, with great respect, to the grave,
where each one appears earnest and attentive; although at the same time
employed in a manner to excite laughter.

This is the mode of proceeding when a Gipsey dies a natural death.  But
it often happens that he loses his life by violent means—not by his own
hands for self-murder and infanticide are equally unheard of among them.
No Gipsey ever puts a period to his own existence on account of vexation,
anxiety, or despair; as, besides his unbounded love of life, care or
despair is totally unknown to him.

Even in the greatest distress, the Gipsey is never troubled with low
spirits; ever merry and blythe, he dies not till he cannot help it: this
often happens on the gallows, attended with scenes ridiculous as the most
ludicrous imagination could invent.  One man requested, as a particular
act of grace, that he might not be hanged with his face towards the high
road; saying, “Many of his acquaintance passed that way, and he should be
very much ashamed to be seen by them hanging on a gallows.”  At another
time the relations of a Gipsey who was leading to execution, perceiving,
by the discourse and gestures of the criminal, how unwillingly he
advanced, not having the least inclination to be hanged, addressed
themselves to the magistrates and officers of justice, with the following
wise remonstrance: “Gentlemen, pray do not compel a man to a thing for
which you see he has no desire nor inclination.”  Such scenes happen at
almost every Gipsey execution, which are proofs that these people are
quite deficient in thought or consideration.

CHAPTER X.

_Political Regulations peculiar to the Gipseys_.

WHEN the Gipseys first arrived in Europe, they had leaders and chiefs, to
conduct the various tribes in their migrations.  This was necessary, not
only to facilitate their progress through different countries and
quarters of the globe, but to unite their force if necessary, and thereby
enable them to make a more formidable resistance when opposed: and
likewise to carry any plan, they might have formed, more readily into
execution.  We accordingly find, in old books, mention made of knights,
counts, dukes, and kings.  Krantz and Munster mention counts, and
knights, in general terms, among the Gipseys; other people give us the
very names of these dignified men: Crusius cites a duke MICHAEL; Muratori
a duke ANDREAS; and Aventinus records a king ZINDELO: not to speak of
inscriptions on monuments, erected in different places, to the memories
of duke PANUEL, count JOHANNIS; and a noble knight PETRUS, in the
fifteenth century.  But no comment is requisite to shew how improperly
these appellations were applied.  Though the Gipsey chiefs might be
gratified with these titles, and their dependants probably esteemed them
people of rank, it was merely a ridiculous imitation of what they had
seen and admired among civilised people.  Nevertheless, the custom of
having leaders and chiefs over them prevails to this time, at least in
Hungary and Transylvania; probably it may also still exist in Turkey, and
other countries where these people live together in great numbers.

Their chiefs—or waywodes, as they proudly call them—were formerly of two
degrees in Hungary.  Each petty tribe had its own leader; beside which,
there were four superior waywodes, of their own caste, on both sides the
Danube and Teisse, whose usual residences were at Raab, Lewentz,
Szathmar, and Kaschau: to these the smaller waywodes were accountable.
It would appear extraordinary that any well-regulated state should allow
these people a distinct establishment in the heart of the country, did
not the Hungarian writers assign a reason: viz. that in the commotions
and troubles, occasioned by the Turkish wars, in former centuries, they
were, by means of their waywodes, more easily summoned, when occasion
required, and rendered useful to the community.  But the Gipseys in
Hungary and Transylvania were permitted to choose, from their own people,
only the small waywodes of each tribe.  The superior waywodes, to whom
the Gipseys, in many districts, were subject, have existed till within a
few years; but they were appointed by the court, and always selected from
the Hungarian nobility.  The appointment was by no means despicable; as
each Gipsey was bound to pay the superintendent under whom his tribe was
classed, a guilder annually, of which one half was demanded at Easter,
the other half at Michaelmas.  In order to render the levying this tax
more certain, the magistrates, in all towns, cities, and villages, were
ordered to be assisting to the collectors, where necessary; to protect
them also from any violence that might be offered by the Gipseys.  These
superior waywodes are now no longer appointed, except a single one in
Transylvania, who has authority over the goldwashers in those parts.  But
the Gipseys still continue the custom, among themselves, of dignifying
certain persons, whom they make heads over them, and call by the exalted
Sclavonian title—waywode.  To choose their waywode, the Gipseys take the
opportunity when a great number of them are assembled in one place,
commonly in the open field.  The elected person is lifted up three times,
amidst the loudest acclamations, and confirmed in his dignity by
presents; his wife undergoes the same ceremony.  When this solemnity is
performed, they separate with great conceit, imagining themselves people
of more consequence than electors returning from the choice of an
emperor.  Every one who is of a family descended from a former waywode is
eligible; but those who are best clothed, not very poor, of large
stature, and about the middle age, have generally the preference.
Understanding or wise conduct is of no consideration: therefore it is
easy to distinguish the waywode from the multitude, by observing his size
and clothing.  The particular distinguishing mark of dignity, is a large
whip, hanging over the shoulder.  His outward deportment, his walk and
air, also plainly shew his head to be filled with notions of authority.

It is uncertain how far the waywode’s sway over his subjects extends.  A
distinction must here be made, whether the state gives him any power, and
what he assumes or derives by custom from his caste.  It were ridiculous
to suppose that the state should, on any occasion, appoint this sort of
illustrious personage a judge.  In Transylvania, indeed, the magistrates
do interfere with regard to the fellow whom this or that horde has
elected chief, and impose an obligation on him; but it is only that he
should be careful to prevent his nimble subjects from absconding, when
the time arrives for them to discharge their annual tribute at the
land-regent’s chamber.  He has no right to interfere in disputes or
quarrels which the Gipseys have among themselves, or with other people,
further than to give notice of them to the regular courts of the district
where they happen to be.  In this point of view, what Toppeltin and
others after him assert, that the waywodes have little or no power over
their own people, is perfectly correct: but if we attend to their
actions, the affair carries a very different appearance.  Whenever a
complaint is made, that any of their people have been guilty of theft,
the waywode not only orders a general search to be made, in every tent or
hut, and returns the stolen goods to the owner, if they can be found, but
punishes the thief, in presence of the complainant, with his whip.
Certainly it is not by any written contract that he acquires his right
over the people, for no such thing exists among them, but custom gives
him this judicial power.  Moreover he does not punish the aggressor from
any regard to justice, but rather to quiet the plaintiff, and at the same
time to make his people more wary in their thefts, as well as more
dextrous in concealing their plunder.  These discoveries materially
concern him, since by every detection his income suffers; as the whole
profit of his office arises from his share of the articles that are
stolen.  Every time a Gipsey brings in a booty, he is obliged to give
information to the arch-Gipsey of his successful enterprise; and then
render a just account of what and how much he has stolen, in order that
the proper division may be made.  In this proceeding the Gipsey considers
himself bound to give a fair and true detail; though in every other
instance he does not hesitate to commit the grossest perjury.  We may
therefore judge how precarious success is likely to be, when a waywode is
applied to for the recovery of stolen goods.  The Gipseys are cunning
enough to hide what they have pilfered, in such a manner, that out of a
hundred searches the complainer hardly once accomplishes his desire.  It
does not at all forward the cause, that the waywode knows who the thief
is: his interest requires him to dissemble.  Thus, though he does not
steal himself, the Spanish proverb is a very true one: “The Count and the
Gipsey are rogues alike.”  For which reason people seldom apply to so
suspicious a judge.  If a thief is caught in the fact, the owner takes
his property, and gives the offender his proper reward, or else delivers
him over to the civil power for correction.  Here ensues a truly
laughable scene: As soon as the officer seizes on, and forces away the
culprit, he is surrounded by a swarm of Gipseys, who take unspeakable
pains to procure the release of the prisoner.  They endeavour to cajole
him with kind words, desiring him to consider this, that, and the other,
or admonish him not to be so uncivil.  When it comes to the infliction of
punishment, and the malefactor receives a good number of lashes, well
laid on, in the public market-place, an universal lamentation commences
among the vile crew; each stretches his throat, to cry over the agony his
dear associate is constrained to suffer.  This is oftener the fate of the
women than of the men; for, as the maintenance of the family depends most
upon them, they more frequently go out for plunder.

CHAPTER XI.

_On the Religion of the Gipseys_.

THESE people did not bring any particular religion with them from their
native country, by which, as the Jews, they could be distinguished among
other persons; but regulate themselves, in religious matters, according
to the country where they live.  Being very inconstant in their choice of
residence, they are likewise so in respect to religion.  No Gipsey has an
idea of submission to any fixed profession of faith: it is as easy for
him to change his religion at every new village, as for another person to
shift his coat.  They suffer themselves to be baptised in Christian
countries; among Mahometans to be circumcised.  They are Greeks with
Greeks, Catholics with Catholics, and again profess themselves to be
Protestants, whenever they happen to reside where protestantism prevails.

From this mutability, we may conceive what ideas they have, and thence
deduce their general opinions of religion.  As parents suffer their
children to grow up without education or instruction, and were reared in
the same manner themselves, so neither have any knowledge of God or
morality.  Few of them will attend to any discourse on religion: they
hear what is said with indifference, nay rather with impatience and
repugnance; despising all remonstrance, believing nothing, they live
without the least solicitude concerning what shall become of them after
this life.  An instance, quoted by Toppeltin, will fully illustrate this
matter: One of the more civilised Gipseys in Transylvania took the
resolution of sending his son to school: leave being obtained from the
government, the lad was admitted, and was going on very well, under his
teachers’ hands.  The child died; whereupon the relations applied to the
magistrates and clergy for permission to give the young man Christian
burial, he being a student at the time of his death.  On this occasion
the priest asked, whether they believed the deceased would rise again at
the last day?—“_Strange idea_!” they answered; “_to believe that a
carcase_, _a lifeless corpse_, _should be reanimated_, _and rise
again_!—_In our opinion_, _it would be no more likely to happen to him_,
_than to the horse we flayed a few days ago_.”  Such are the opinions of
the greatest part of these people with regard to religion; it naturally
follows, that their conduct should be conformable to such ideas and
conceptions.  Every duty is neglected, no prayer ever passes their lips:
as little are they to be found in any assembly of public worship; whence
the Wallachian adage—“The Gipsey’s church was built with bacon, and the
dogs ate it.”  The religious party from which a Gipsey apostatises, as
little loses a brother believer, as the one into which he goes acquires
one.  He is neither Mahometan nor Christian; for the doctrines of Mahomet
and of Christ are alike unknown or indifferent to him, producing no other
effect than that in Turkey his child is circumcised, and baptised in
Christendom.  The Turks are so fully convinced of the little sincerity
the Gipseys entertain in regard to religion, that although a Jew, by
becoming a Mahometan, is freed from the payment of the charadsch, the
Gipseys are not, at least in the neighbourhood of Constantinople.  They
are compelled to pay this polltax even though their ancestors, for
centuries back, had been Mahometans; or though they should actually have
been a pilgrimage to Mecca: the privilege of wearing a white turban is
the only advantage their conversion gives them over unbelieving Jews and
Gipseys.

Such is the respect paid by the Gipseys to moral institutions, in every
country where they are found.  It is true that in this, as well as in
other things, there may be exceptions, but they are very rare; by much
the greatest part of them are as above described.  Wherefore the more
ancient, as well as the more modern, writers agree, in positively denying
that the Gipseys have any religion; placing them even below the heathens.
This sentence cannot be contradicted; since, so far from having a respect
for religion, they are adverse to every thing which in the least relates
to it.

CHAPTER XII.

_Their Language_, _Sciences_, _and Arts_.

BESIDES that the Gipseys understand and speak the language of the country
where they live, they have a general language of their own, in which they
always converse with each other.  Writers differ in opinion concerning
this language, being undecided whether it be really that of any country,
and who are the people from whom it originates.  Some pronounce it a mere
jargon, others say it is gibberish.  We can by no means agree with the
supporters of the first opinion, as the only ground for the assertion is
barely, that they do not know any other language correspondent to that of
the Gipseys.  But they do not seem to have considered how extravagant a
surmise it is, to believe a whole language an invention; that too of
people rude, uncivilised, and hundreds of miles distant from each other.
This opinion is too absurd to employ more time to controvert it.  Neither
can the Gipsey language be admitted for gibberish; unless by those who
know nothing of the former, or are totally ignorant of the latter, which
is corrupt German; whereas the former has neither German words,
inflexions, nor the least affinity in sound.  No German, were he to
listen a whole day to a Gipsey conversation, would comprehend a single
expression.  A third party allow that the language of the original
Gipseys was really vernacular, and that of some country; but assert it to
be so disguised and falsified, partly by design of the Gipseys
themselves, partly by adventitious events, through length of time, and
the continual wandering of these people, that it is entirely new formed,
and now used by the Gipseys only.  This opinion contains much truth; but
carries the matter too far, in not allowing that any traces remain to
prove any particular dialect to be the Gipseys’ mother tongue.  Perhaps
the great Büsching means the same thing, when he says, “the Gipsey
language is a mixture of corrupt words from the Wallachian, Sclavonian,
Hungarian, and other nations.”  Among these, the best-founded notion may
be, that it is the dialect of some particular country, though no longer
so pure as in the country whence it originated.  This opinion meets the
greatest concurrence of the learned: and will, we hope, be fully proved
in another part of this book, where the subject will be again discussed,
more fully, in order to corroborate the other proofs of the origin of
this people.  It will then be certified, in what country this is the
native mother tongue.  This is a point concerning which most writers
think differently.  Sometimes the Gipseys are Hebrews, then Nubians,
Egyptians, Phrygians, Vandals, Sclavonians, or, as opinions vary, perhaps
some other nation.

It appears extraordinary, that the language of a people who have lived
for centuries among us, and has been matter of enquiry almost ever since,
should still remain an affair of so much uncertainty.  Gipseys are to be
found every-where, and might be very easily examined, as closely and
often as any body pleased, about their language.  It would have been
attended with no great trouble, to have made so near an acquaintance as
to bring them to converse with variety of people, and thereby, by means
of comparison, to have attained some degree of certainty.  This
observation sounds plausibly; but on a closer examination the case is
found to be very different.  First, it is not so easy as people may
imagine, to gain much information from the Gipseys concerning their
language.  They are suspicious, apprehending an explanation might be
attended with danger to themselves; and are therefore not very
communicative.  To this must be added, their natural levity, and
consequent seeming inattention to the questions put to them.  A writer,
who had frequent experience of this behaviour, expresses himself to the
following effect: “Suppose any person had an inclination to learn the
Gipsey language, he would find it very difficult to accomplish his
purpose.  Intercourse with these people is almost insufferable; and very
few of them have sense enough to teach any thing, or even to give a
proper answer to a question.  If you ask about a single word, they
chatter a great many, which nobody can understand.  Others have equally
failed of success, not being able, by any means whatever, to obtain from
them the paternoster in their own language.”  Secondly, suppose the
language of the Gipseys had been perfectly understood soon after their
arrival in Europe, variety of opinions would nevertheless have been
maintained among the learned.  It would still have been necessary, in
order to ascertain truth, to have revised the original languages of all
the inhabitants both in and out of Europe, or at least a general sketch
of them.  By such a review, the Gipseys’ mother tongue might easily have
been discovered.  But many there are, as Büttner, Schlözer, Gibelin, and
Bachmeister, who have taken great pains in the minute investigation of
the languages, as well as manners, of different people, and reckon those
they have learned by dozens.  How was it, indeed, possible for the
learned of former centuries to be competent to the enquiry, as they had
not the aids which now so copiously occur to the historical etymologist?