522 Colonel Hajhhot on the Oriental Origin of the Gypsies. 



under the article " Gypsey," has a remark, that " their language differs 

 entirely from the Coptic, and that their customs are very different from 

 those of the Egyptians." 



Tlie surnames most prevalent in Hampshire, are those of Stanley, Aires, 

 Lee, and Peters. Their complexion, eyes, and hair are dark, and of that 

 nature we might expect from their Oriental origin. To strangers they 

 appear reserved, but not so to those who treat them with general kindness : 

 many of them have served in the army, and, I believe, some few as sailors. 

 u In Europe, their employments, avocations, and customs, appear to be 

 generally as follow : — 



1. Basket and mat making ; fabricating needles, bodkins, nets, carpets, 

 selves, besoms, and foot-bosses ; grinding and cutlery ; turning or making 

 troughs, trenchers, dishes, and spoons ; farriery and horse-dealing ; braziery : 

 and in the summer they are occasionally employed in the fields, reaping, 

 weeding, and hop-picking. 



2. Feats of dexterity, as jugglers' tricks, wrestling, single stick, dancing, 

 singing, and music. 



3. Palmistry and soothsaying, fortune-telling, astrology, chiromancy, and 

 exorcism. 



4. Begging, poaching, pilfering, and stealing : although, on the latter 

 head, it may be observed that they are countenanced by their more settled 

 neighbours. 



5. They sit on the ground rather than on chairs and stools. 



o'ii The circumstance of their living under tents, blankets, or mats, in 

 barns, sheds, or caves ; their invariable antipathy to houses ; their dislike 

 of agriculture, and the harder kinds of manual labour ; their love of an 

 erratic life, and toleration of religion, or rather indifference to religious 

 rites and forms, with a similarity of language, seem common to all, and 

 constitute the most prominent feature in tiieir individual and national cha- 

 racter. In short, as of the ancient Bedouin of the desert, it may be truly said 

 of them, •' every man's hand is against them, and their's is against every 

 man ;" since the term house-dweller,* like Ajami or Gentile to the Jew and 



* The following 'anecdote was communicated to me by Mr. Leadbeater, of Overton, Hants. 

 " On the 5th June 1809, I was sent to attend Barbara Ayres in her accouchement. I found her 

 under one of their usual tents ; and in the space of an hour after my arrival she was 

 delivered of a female child. The first thing which suggested itself to me, was the necessity of 

 removing her into a house, where she might receive that attention her situation required. A 



horse 



