344 An Essay on Gypsies. 



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zed at the sky and examined the lineaments of the hand of the per- 

 son who consults them, they gravely predict the good or evil which 

 is to be his destiny. The women also practice tatooing, and the fig- 

 ures of stars, flowers, animals, &c. which they imprint upon the skin 

 by puncturation and vegetable juices, are ineffaceable. They live 

 in families, and it is not rare to see father and daughter, uncle and 

 niece, brother and sister living like beasts together. They are sus- 

 picious, liers, gamblers, drunkards, cowards, poltroons and altogeth- 

 er illiterate ; they despise religion and have no other creed than the 

 fear of evil genii and of fatality. They originated in the province of 

 Mahrat among the eastern Gauts. 



The celebrated Cherif Eddin, assures us that Timur sullied his 

 conquests by the massacre of 100,000 prisoners, Persians and Hin- 

 doos. The Monguls spread such terror in all parts of India, that great 

 numbers abandoned that unhappy country. The Hindoos of the three 

 first castes indeed, remained firm to their country; — their religion 

 made it a duty ; but no place could retain the Soudras and Parias. 

 They are such vagabonds that I have myself seen them in Abyssinia, in 

 Arabia, at Tzouakem in the Persian Gulf, at Penang, at Singapore, 

 at Malacca, at Manilla, at Celebes, at Anyer and even in China. 



Is it not natural to believe that the Tzengaris, who are so accus- 

 tomed to a camp life, and excluded from Hindoo communion, should 

 practice or feign to practice religion which offered them so many ad- 

 vantages, that they should act as spies and purveyors to the Mongul 

 armies, and that a portion of them should accompany Timur in his 

 long traverse through Kandahar, Persia and Bukahra ; and after 

 passing through the Caspian and Caucasian regions and leaving be- 

 hind them a train of detached families, they should have come to a 

 stand, some in Russia, others in Asia Minor; that a second column 

 should have passed from Kandahar into Mekran, and Irak- Arabia, and 

 a third strayed into Syria, Palestine, and Arabia-Petrea and should 

 have reached Egypt by the Isthmus of Suez and thence should have 

 passed into Mauritania. 



Is it not probable that these rude travellers landed from the Black 

 Sea and Asia Minor in Europe by the intervention of the Turks during 

 their wars with the Greek empire ; and it is equally probable that the 

 first of them who came to Europe, sojourned in European Turkey as 

 Aventine informs us and proceeded thence to Wallachia and Moldavia. 

 In 1417, they were found in Hungary and at the conclusion of that 

 year they were seen in Germany and Bohemia, the next year in 

 Switzerland, and in 1422 in Italy. Pasquier carries their origin in 



