530 Colonel Harriot on the Oriental Origin of the Gypseys, 



The Gypsey of India. — In the part of Hindustan which is watered by 

 the river Ganges, as well as in Malwah, Guzerat, and the Deccan generally, 

 there is often to be met with an outcast class of people, who are supposed 

 originally to have been of the Chatriya, or Rajput tribe, and are known 

 generally by the name of Naf and Beria ; while a particular division of 

 tiiem, n Bengal and the central provinces of Behar and Alahabad, are 

 called Kanjar. Bazigar, or juggler, and Pdnchpiri are the common names 

 by which this class of wanderers is designated by Mahometans. 



The Nat', or Beria, assimilate closely in the following circumstances to 

 their more distant and exiled brethren, the Kauli of Persia, the Chingdna of 

 Syria, and Zigeuner and Zingari of Germany, Italy, and generally of Europe. 



1. The Nat' tribe have no regular house or habitation, but live in small 

 and low matted sheds, which they remove and carry about on a little bullock 

 or ass, and roam at pleasure from one part of the country to another. 



2. They are commonly esteemed rogues : that is, Nal'-Ic'hat ; the latter 

 being a familiar popular term to signify any one sly, underhand, or roguish.* 



3. In Bengal, Behar, Benares, Oude, and Malwah, they live in groupes 

 of from five to ten or fifteen families ; some of them profess Mahometanism, 

 although but slightly, since they can hardly repeat their short creed ; others, 

 by citing the Biz'hak, or scripture of the reformed Kab'ir, would seem to 

 be Kab'ir Panthis, a sect of dissenting Hindus, whose tenets are Deistical, 

 and free from every species of idolatry. 



4. They catch snakes, and are excellent jugglers and tumblers ; make 

 baskets, ropes, and mats ; practise singing, music, palmistry, and, assum- 

 ing occasionally the habit of religious mendicants, collect alms. 



5. They inter their dead, contrary to the common custom of Hindus. 



6. They elect a chief. 



7. They have trial by jury, or Panchdyat ; having both great and small 

 meetings for the purpose of deciding any quarrel. 



They are reported by Mr. Harris, an enterprising traveller of my acquaint- 

 ance, to be numerous in Cashmir ; and it appears that they are not unknown 

 in Kabul and the Sik'h provinces of the Panjab. 



On submitting my brief vocabulary of the Gypsey to the inspection of 

 the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, late Governor of Bombay, I was 

 favoured with the following note ; and, as the observation it contains throws 



* For several characteristic traits regarding the Nat' of Hindustan, vide Capt. Richardson's 

 Essay in the Asiatic Researches. Vol. vii. 



