Feb. 25, 185.6.] THE GIPSIES. 41 



is hardly too much to say that the argument is complete, and that a very inte- 

 resting ethnographical problem is thus fairly solved. Whether the large Gipsy 

 population of Europe and Asia, now estimated at between three and four mil- 

 lions, can really have sprung from Bahram Gur's original colony, or whether we 

 may not rather suppose that that deportation, giving a direction to colonization, 

 was followed by the movement of large successive bodies of immigrants, is a 

 question that may be left for future consideration. It is only further of inte- 

 rest to note that the ethnic name of Boom or Romania by which alone the 

 European Gipsies designate themselves, arises from the long sojourn of the 

 race in Asia Minor, the title of Romn being applied by the Mohammedans of 

 that age expressly to the Asiatic possessions of the Greek Emperor. The 

 name is unknown to the Gipsies of Syria, of Turkish Arabia, and of Persia, 

 these communities being descended from parties who must have broken off 

 from the great body of the Jatdn and Sagdn in their progress from the East to 

 the West, and before they reached the Cilician frontiers or came into contact 

 with the Greeks. 



General Monteith stated that he had met with very numerous bodies of 

 Gipsies both in Persia and India. He had at one time one hundred and fifty 

 families of them under his orders, but they proved to be most intractable. He 

 believed that one word in every thirty in their language was Hindostanee. 

 Their faces much resembled those of European Gipsies. 



The Gipsies of Madras are vagabonds in every sense of the word. Many of 

 these were workers in small forges on the mountains between Arcot and Ban- 

 galore. They go out each with a small furnace, and bring home 10 lbs. or 

 12 lbs. of metal and sell it. They would then go off to some other trade ; 

 and when not occupied in this way, would spend their time in catching birds. 

 He had seen twenty forges at work at once between Arcot and Bangalore, 

 worked by the same body of men who afterwards went out bird-catching and 

 hunting. 



The Gipsies wander in black tents, from which they are called Karatchi in 

 Persia and Turkey. General Monteith only saw three of their permanent vil- 

 lages ; one at Erivan, Dokhergan, and in the Koflan Koh, near Miana, in 

 Azerbijan. In the latter was said to be the Chief, recognised generally by 

 all who came in contact with him. A few only remain in the villages during 

 the summer. 



With regard to the Gipsies in Persia, he would mention that a king of 

 Persia, one of the Sassanian dynasty, had bi'ought over 12,000 of them from 

 Moultan into the empire, over which they were now spread. He thought 

 that their numbers in Persia did not now exceed 3000 families. Altogether 

 he believed them a most incorrigible race : they got lands without paying 

 taxes for them. 



Mr. Crawfurd, after remarking on the speech of Sir H. Eawlinson as to the 

 origin and language of the Gipsies, went on to say that the large number of the 

 Gipsy ]Dopulation was not surprising. He would compare them with the Jews, 

 of whom from four to five millions were scattered over Europe — a much larger 

 number than Palestine could ever have contained, even at its most flourishing 

 period. He thought it important to remark that Gipsies are totally unknown 

 between India and China. Their whole progress from Hindostan had been 

 westward. The account which Sir Henry Pawlinson had given of their origin 

 and history, he observed, was by far the most satisfactory he had ever 

 heard.* 



* iee Anti-Slavery Keporter, April, 1856, p. ?6; also, 'Frontier Lands of 

 Christian and Turk,' vol. i., p. 318. See also Dr. A. F. Pott's work, 'Die 

 Zigeunerin Europa und Asien,' Halle, 1844, for a mass of information upon works 

 alluding to the Gipsies, and for a copious vocabulary of their language.— Ed. 



