490 



GYPSIES 



GYPSUM 



towards all the rest of mankind. ' There 's nothing 

 worse,' says the Gypsy, ' than nasty gaiijos,' than 

 all, that is, who have not enjoyed the privilege of 

 Gypsy birth. For of that he is genuinely proud ; 

 he is honestly grateful that he ' hasn't got to live in 

 none of your poverty houses.' Gypsy celebrities, 

 outside the realm of music, have been few. John 

 Bunyan has been claimed as one, but on slender 

 grounds ; so have Masaniello and the painter 

 Antonio Solario (1382-1455), nicknamed ' Lo Zin- 

 garo.' Anyhow there is Jem Mace, the champion > 

 pugilist ; and Mrs Carlyle was proud of her Baillie 

 ancestry. 



Physique. Early writers all speak of the Gypsies 

 as hideous, but such language is like early travel- 

 lers' descriptions of Alpine scenery. For the race 

 is a comely one its most marked characteristics 

 the tawny olive skin, the dark lustrous eye, the 

 dazzling teeth, the black or dark-brown hair ( often 

 frizzled and somewhat coarse), the thoughtful 

 brow, and the lithe sinewy form, with finely-made 

 hands and feet, and arms short in comparison to 

 the legs. The skull is mesocephalic. 



Bibliography. There are more than 300 books, pamph- 

 lets, &c. on the Gypsies ; but one and all might have 

 seemed almost valueless beside the 'immense collec- 

 tions' of Michael Ivanovitch Kounavine (1820-81). 

 A Russian by birth, by profession a medical man, 

 he lived, we are told, during 1841-76 among the 

 Gypsies of Germany, Austria, southern France, Italy, 

 England, Spain, Turkey, northern Africa, Asia Minor, 

 central Asia, Hindustan, and Russia, and, with much 

 lse, collected 385 tales, traditions, and ritual songs, 

 enshrining a wealth of mythological and legendary 

 lore. Unfortunately those collections have disappeared, 

 and we know them only through an abstract formed 

 before the collector's death by his friend, Dr A. Elysseef, 

 member of the St Petersburg Geographical Society, and 

 translated from Russian through French for the Gypsy 

 Lore Journal ( 1890 ). Indian Gypsies have been treated 

 by MacRitchie (1886); Persian by Sir ~W. Ouseley 

 (1823) and Newbold (1856); Syrian by Pott (German, 

 1846), Seetzen (Ger. 1854), Newbold (1856), and Everest 

 (1890); Anatolian by Paspati (French, 1870) and Elysseef 

 ( 1889 ) ; Armenian and Siberian by Miklosich ( Ger. 1878 ) ; 

 Egyptian by Newbold (1856), Von Kremer (Ger. 1862), 

 and Leland ( 1873-82) ; Central African by Felkin ( 1889 ) ; 

 Algerian by Bataillard (Fr. 1874); Turkish by Paspati 

 (Fr. 1870) and Colocci (Ital. 1889); Roumanian by 

 Kogalnitschan or Cogalnitcheanu (Fr. 1837) and 

 Vaillant (Fr. 1868); Montenegrin by Bogisic (Ger. 

 1874); Servian by Miklosich (Ger. 1876); Bosnian by 

 Kopernicki (1889); Hungarian by Bright (q.v., 1818) 

 and the Archduke Josef ( Hung. 1888 ) ; Transylvanian 

 by Wlislocki (Ger. 1880-89); Bohemian by Puchmayer 

 ( Ger. 1821 ) and Jesina ( Ger. 1886 ) ; Slovak by Kalina 

 (Fr. 1882) and Von Sowa (Ger. 1887-90); Polish by Dani- 

 lowicz (Pol. 1824) and Czacki (PoL 1845); Crimean by 

 Koppen (Ger. 1874; Eng. 1890); Russian by Bohtlingk 

 (Ger. 1853) and Miklosich (Ger. 1872-78); Lithuanian 

 by Narbutt (Pol. 1830) and Dowojno-Sylwestrowicz 

 (1889); Norwegian by Sundt ( Norw. 1850-65); Danish 

 by Dyrlund (Dan. 1872); German by Liebich (Ger. 

 1863); Dutch by Dirks (Dutch, 1850); English and 

 Welsh by Bryant (1784), Hoyland(1816), Harriot ( 1830 ), 

 Crabb (1831), Roberts (1836), Borrow (q.v. 1841-74), 

 Leland (1873-82), Smart and Crofton (1863-88), and 

 Groome (1880); Scottish by Baird (1839-62), Simson 

 (1865), MacRitchie (1884-94); Basque by Michel (Fr. 

 1857), Baudrimont (Fr. 1862), and Wentworth Webster 

 (1888); Italian by Ascoli (Ger. 1865) and Colocci (Ital. 

 1889); Catalonian by MacRitchie (1888); Spanish by 

 Borrow (1841), Campuzano (Span. 1851), and Mayo 

 (Span. 1870); Brazilian by Mello Moraes (Port. 1885- 

 86); and North American by Simson (1865) and Leland 

 (1882). Hereto should be added, for music, Liszt (Fr. 

 1859), Leland (1882), and Thewrewk de Ponor (1889); 

 for folklore and folk-tales, Leland's Gypsy Sorcery 

 ( 1 890 ) and eight works cited by Groome in the National 

 -Review for July 1888; for costume, Crofton (1876); for 

 metallurgy, Andree ( 1884 ) ; for craniology and physique, 

 Kopernicki (Ger. 1872), Hovelacque (Fr. 1874), and 

 Weisbach (Ger. 1889); for history, Grellmann (Ger. 



1783; Eng. trans, by Raper, 1787), Sprengler (Lat. 

 1839), Hopt (Ger. 1870), Crofton (1888), and, especially, 

 Bataillard (1844-90); and for the language as a whole, 

 Pott (q.v., Ger. 1844-45), Ascoli (Ger. 1865), and Mik- 

 losich (q.v., 1872-78). Of these works the fullest of 

 several bibliographies is that furnished by Colocci in 

 Qli Zinyari (Turin, 1889). Painters to whom the 

 Gypsies have furnished subjects have been Caravaggio, 

 Callot, Morland, Phillip, and Burgess ; novelists, poets, 

 playwrights, and composers, Cervantes, Scott, Victor 

 Hugo, George Meredith, Le Fanu, Theodore Watts, 

 Matthew Arnold, George Eliot, Puschkin, Kraszewski, 

 Brachvogel, Richepin, Balfe, Verdi, Brahms, Bizet, &c. 

 (cf. Gosche, Die Ziyeuner als Typus in Dichtung und 

 Kunst, 1879). Finally, a vast mass of material is to 

 be found in the quarterly Journal (Edin., Constable) of 

 the cosmopolitan Gypsy Lore Society, which was founded 

 in 1888. 



Gypsum is a valuable mineral of a compara- 

 tively soft nature. Chemically it is a hydrated 

 sulphate of lime, CaSO 4 + 2H 2 O. Its specific 

 gravity is 2 - 31, and its hardness is from 1*5 to 2 

 of the mineral scale. The massive marble-like 

 variety, which is usually white or delicately tinted 

 and translucent, is called Alabaster (q.v.); when 

 transparent and crystallised it is known as Selenite 

 (q.v.); and when fibrous and with a pearly opal- 

 escence it is termed satin spar. 



Gypsum occurs in various geological formations, 

 and has a wide geographical distribution. Exten- 

 sive beds of the common variety are generally 

 made up of irregular, concretionary, nodular 

 masses. In the New Red formation near Derby, 

 at Carlisle, and in some parts of Nottinghamshire, 

 as well as in the Tertiary beds of the suburbs of 

 Paris, it is largely worked for the preparation of 

 plaster of Paris. Productive beds of it are found 

 in numerous localities in the United States, princi- 

 pally in Ohio and Michigan ; in New Brunswick, 

 Nova Scotia, and Ontario ; and in the Punjab. 

 Gypsum is very frequently associated with rock- 

 salt. See ANHYDRITE. 



Gypsum contains 21 per cent, of water, which 

 can be driven off by heat. It is burned in kilns at 

 or a little below a temperature of 250 F., and 

 afterwards ground to a fine powder, which is called 

 plaster of Paris. This recombines with water, 

 evolves heat, and almost immediately solidities or 

 sets. It is this property which makes it so service- 

 able for many purposes in the industrial arts. If 

 in the burning of gypsum the temperature is raised 

 as high or higher than 480 F. it loses the power of 

 rehydrating, and is then said to be dead burnt, 

 in which state it will not set when mixed 

 with water. Like gypsum, plaster of Paris is 

 soluble to the extent of rather more than 2 parts 

 in 1000 parts of water at ordinary temperatures, 

 its point of maximum solubility being 95 F. It 

 is therefore unsuited for external work, except in 

 dry climates such as that of Persia. For making 

 casts the plaster of Paris is made up with water 

 to a consistency of thick cream. In this state it is 

 poured into a mould, which is usually also made 

 of the same material, and left to solidify. Some 

 oil, such as olive, is brushed over the mould to 

 form a parting between it and the cast. Plaster 

 of Paris is most extensively used for taking casts 

 of sculpture and architectural details, as well as 

 for casts of small objects such as coins, medals, and 

 engraved gems. For pottery moulds it is also 

 largely employed, and it is used to take a first 

 copy from the modelled clay in the production of 

 metal patterns. Large quantities of it are con- 

 sumed for the mouldings of the internal plaster- 

 work of houses, and for cornice and other orna- 

 ments. For hardened plaster of Paris, such as 

 Keene's cement, see CEMENTS ; and for the agri- 

 cultural applications of gypsum, see MANURES. 

 Gypsum is one of the substances which renders 



