GYPSIES 



189 



Aryan languages of India, it follow* that 

 the emigration cannot have taken place till after 

 the formation of the latter i.e. till after the Pra- 

 krit pi-riml, in which the old system of declension 

 wait still recognised ; since one is liardly inclined t<> 

 assume that Komani, severed from its most nearly- 

 related idioms, developed itself in the selfsame 

 manlier as they.' In Ins Comparative Grammar of 

 tin' MIH/I-I-H Ari/nii I.itnyuages of India (3 vols. 

 I ->;_' -79) Mr Beanies arrives at a similar conclu- 

 sion, that ' the language of the Gypsies is purely 

 n in its structure, and Modern Aryan too, 

 l>rin;,' in many respects quite as far removed from 

 tin 1 olil synthetical system as any of the seven lan- 

 guages now under discussion*' 



nnes. Alike in Turkey and England, in Fin- 

 land and Italy, the Gypsy calls himself Rom ( ' man ' 

 "i 'husband'), from which come Rdmni (' female 

 ( 'M' s y,' 'woman' or 'wife') and the adjective 

 HIHIIUHO ( ' Gypsy ' ). In Asia Minor the form is lorn, 

 an<l in Syria douin, which comes very near the Sans- 

 krit doma and modern Indian '/tun, 'a low-caste 

 imi-ician. 'Husband' is clearly a secondary meaning 

 of Horn, and 'man' the primary; so that one is almost 

 tempted to connect Rom-vfith the ancient Egyptian 

 rdme, 'man' ( Rawlinson's Herodotus, ii. 225), and 

 to believe that there really is something in the 

 alli'^tul Egyptian origin of the Gypsies. That belief 

 was assuredly current in south-east Europe prior to 

 their westward migration, and is current to-day 

 from Armenia to America, having been stereotyped 

 in such names as the modern Greek Gyphtoi, the 

 Albanian Jevk, the Turkish Fiirdwni and Magyar 

 Pharao nepe ( ' Pharaoh's folk ' ), the English Gypsy, 

 and the Spanish Gitnno. Another very widespread 

 name is the Svrian Jinydnih, Modern Greek Atsin- 

 I.Knnl. Turkish Tcfungfaant, Magyar Tzigany, Ger- 

 man Xti/i-itner, Italian Zingaro, &c., perhaps identi- 

 cal with the Persian zlngar, 'a saddler.' We can 

 merely glance at the infinite variety of names 

 applied to the Gypsies in different ages and differ- 

 ent localities e.g. Heiden ('heathen'), Saraceni, 

 Nubiani, Uxii, Cilices, &c. by early writers, and 

 the Persian Karachi ( ' swarthy ' ), the Modern Greek 

 Katzibeloi, the Cypriote KUindjirides, the French 

 Bohemiens, and the Scandinavian Tatere ( ' Tar- 

 tars '). Only, if under these manifold and fre- 

 quently misleading names we can safely recognise 

 Gypsies, it is at least just possible that we should 

 also recognise them in the Dynamitters (traders 

 from foreign parts who sold brazen pots at Win- 

 chester fair in 1349), in the Bemische ( ' foreigners ' 

 at VViir/.burg about 1388; Gypsies incontestably 

 at Frankfort in 1495 ) ; in the tent-dwelling refu- 

 gees from Hungary and Lorraine, who are said 

 to have discovered the Stourbridge fireclay about 

 1 .">">.-> ; or even in the Kenites, nomad tented 

 tinkers and blacksmiths in ancient Palestine (cf. 

 Savce and Neubauer in the Academy, Nov. -Dec. 

 issii). In England, common Gypsy surnames 

 are Boswell, Buckland, Cooper, Gray, Herne, Lee, 

 Los ell, Smith ( /'- tii/i'/iifro), and Stanley assumed, 

 some at least, probably from former patrons of 

 the race. Among their 'Christian' names are 

 Mantis, Perun, Plato, and Pyramus ; Delarffa, 

 Meralini, Memberenci, Perpenia, and Sinaminti. 



Songs and Folk Tales. Chin, Romani for ' write,' 

 means literally 'cut,' so points back to a dim an- 

 ti'iuity; still, the Gypsies have neither alphabet 

 nor literature. Many Koiuani songs, however, have 

 been taken down in Spain, Hungary, Koumania, 

 and elsewhere ballads, love- and dance-songs, and 

 threnodies. The last, collected in Transylvania by 

 Wlislocki, are instinct with pathos and poetry; 

 but the rest, rude in rhyme and in rhythm, as a 

 rule have only a linguistic value. The famous 

 ' Pharaoh lay ' is known to us only through a very 

 corrupt fragment. The case is 'otherwise with 



<v\j'sy folk-tales, of which nearly 200 have been 

 collected since 1832 in Turkey, Koumania, Austria* 

 Hungary, Wales, &c. A meagre store, yet suffi- 

 cient to enable UH to arrive at certain definite con- 

 clusions. First, in different collections we meet 

 with variant* of one ami the same story e.g. three 

 of 'The Valiant Little Tailor,' and three of 'The 

 Master Thief.' Secondly, many (perhaps most) of 

 the Gypsy stories are identical with, though not 

 seldom superior to, stories current amongst non- 

 Gypsy races. Thirdly, there are certain episodes 

 in Gypsy stories, and certain whole Gypsy stories, 

 for which diligent research has failed to produce any 

 parallel. Fourthly, a number of non- Gypsy stories 

 present strong internal evidence of the probability 

 of their Gypsy origin. Now, as early as 1856 the 

 Gypsies were termed the ' rhapsodist* of Moldo- 

 Wallachia ; ' in Turkey Gypsies are professional 

 story-tellers ; their stories there are proved to be 

 ' very old ' by their retention of otherwise forgotten 

 Romani words ; in the Scottish Highlands a tented 

 tinker was one of Campbell's four principal sources ; 

 and finally, according to Ben fey, Ralston, Cos- 

 quin, Clouston, and other folklorists, most of the 

 popular stories of Europe are traceable to Indian 

 sources (see FOLKLORE). But how ? by what chan- 

 nels? one channel, perhaps, was the Gypsies. 



Religion. Of the Gypsies' religion not much need 

 be said, as they do not possess one. They probably 

 had one at starting ; but, if so, they lost it by the 

 way. In spite of frequent statements to the contrary, 

 R6mani has words for God, devil, soul, heaven, 

 cross ; but trushul, ' cross,' originally stood for 

 Siva's trident. So, too, their folklore enshrines 

 many strange survivals of dead heathenry of tree 

 and serpent worship, of phallicism, tabu, and the 

 vampire superstition. But everywhere Gypsies 

 profess the faith of the land of their adoption 

 Mohammedan, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant. 

 They bring their children to baptism, and are 

 scrupulous in the matter of Christian sepulture. 

 At Steinbach in 1445 the ' high-born Duke Panuel ' 

 was buried beneath a scutcheoned monument ; at 

 Dayton, Ohio, in 1878, ' Queen ' Margaret Stanley 

 was borne with regal honours to the grave ; and 

 scores of similar cases could be cited in England, 

 where at Malmesbury in 1657 'John Buccle, a 

 gypsie, was buried in King Athelstone's chapel,' 

 and at Steeple Barton in 1794 ' Peter Buckland, a 

 great man among the Gypsies, said to be very 

 wealthy,' was interred in tne chancel. Otherwise, 

 unless for marriages, nor always then, the Gypsies 

 are not great church-goers. 



Character. There are Gypsies and Gypsies. The 

 better sort are quick-witted, courteous, likeable, 

 trustworthy when trusted, and lavishly generous 

 with the one hand, though the other may itch for 

 a bargain. Untrammelled by prejudices, and vexed 

 by no lofty ambition, they have picked up a sort of 

 peripatetic philosophy, so lead a pleasant, cuckoo- 

 like existence, and make the best of this life for a 

 next they have small concern. As to faults, these 

 ' spoilt children of Nature ' are boastful, passionate, 

 crafty, superstitious, thriftless, and indolent ; they 

 break most of the Decalogue's precepts, but lightly 

 great criminals are few among them. Still, 

 horse-dealing and palmistry have not proved en- 

 nobling vocations. Piety, which is rare with Gyp- 

 sies, is apt to assume the form of cant ; and learn- 

 ing, which is rarer, of conceit. Indeed, the best 

 <!\ psy is the Gypsy au naturel, the life-long tent- 

 dweller in country lanes; and he, like all ferte 

 nut n nr, is threatened with extinction. Gypsies' 

 virtues are largely their own, an outcome of open- 

 air life ; their vices ascribable to centuries of 

 oppression, which have left them a singular com- 

 pound of deep-seated gloom and quicksilver liglit- 

 neartedness have made them suspicious and hostile 



