124 



MR. BORROW ON THE GIPSIES. 



If this favourable turn in their disposi- 

 tion is allowed to pass, it is rarely any- 

 thing of that nature can be got from 

 them at that meeting ; and it is extreme- 

 ly likely that, at any after interviews, 

 they will entirely evade the matter so 

 much desired (p. 286). 



Sir Walter Scott seems to have had 

 an intention of writing an account of the 

 Gipsies himself ; for, in a letter to Mur- 

 ray, as given by Lockhart, he writes : 

 " I have been over head and ears in 

 work this summer, or I would have sent 

 the Gipsies ; indeed, I was partly stopped 

 by finding it impossible to procure a few 

 words of their language " (Ed., p. 25). 



In regard to the mixture of the 

 blood, and the destiny of the mixed 

 breeds, and that of the tribe gene- 

 rally, in Spain, the following extracts 

 are taken from the History of the 

 Gipsies, and have reference to Mr. 

 Borrow's observations and opinions 

 on the subject : 



The effect of a marriage between a 

 White and a Gipsy, especially if he or 

 she is known to be a Gipsy, is such that 

 the White instinctively withdraws from 

 any connexion with his own race, and 

 casts his lot with the Gipsies. The 

 children born of such unions become 

 ultra Gipsies. A very fine illustration 

 of this principle of half-breed ultra 

 Gipsyism is given by Mr. Borrow, in his 

 Gipsies in Spain, in the case of an offi- 

 cer in the Spanish army adopting a 

 young female Gipsy child, whose parents 

 had been executed, and educating and 

 marrying her. A son of this marriage, 

 who rose to be a captain in the service 

 of Donna Isabel, hated the white race 

 so intensely, as, when a child, to tell his 

 father that he wished he (his^father) was 

 dead. At whose door must the cause 

 of such a feeling be laid ? One would 

 naturally suppose that the child would 

 have left, perhaps despised, his mother's 

 people, and clung to those whom the 

 world deemed respectable. But the 

 case was different. Suppose the mother 

 had not been prompted by some of her 

 own race, while growing up, and the 

 son, in his turn, not prompted by the 

 mother, all that was necessary to stir up 

 his hatred toward the white race, was 

 simply to know who he was (Ed., p. 372). 



This Spanish Gipsy is reported by 

 Mr. Borrow to have said : "She, how- 



ever, remembered her blood, and hated 

 my father, and taught me to hate him 

 likewise. When a boy, I used to stroll 

 about the plain that I might not see my 

 father ; and my father would follow me, 

 and beg me to look upon him, and 

 would ask me what I wanted ; and I 

 would reply, ' Father, the only thing I 

 want is to see you dead !' " This is 

 certainly an extreme instance of the re- 

 sult of the prejudice against the Gipsy 

 race ; and no opinion can be formed upon 

 it, without knowing some of the circum- 

 stances connected with the feelings of 

 the father, or of his relations, toward 

 the mother and the Gipsy race gene- 

 rally. This Gipsy woman seems to 

 have been well brought up by her pro- 

 tector and husband ; for she taught her 

 child Gipsy from a MS., and procured 

 a teacher to instruct him in Latin. 

 There are many reflections to be drawn 

 from the circumstances connected with 

 this Spanish Gipsy family, but they do 

 not seem to have occurred to Mr. Bor- 

 row * (Ed., p. 373). 



This brings me to an issue with Mr. 

 Borrow. Speaking of the destination 

 of the Spanish Gipsies, he says : "If 

 the Gitanos are abandoned to them- 

 selves, by which we mean, no arbitrary 

 laws are again enacted .for their ex- 

 tinction, the sect will eventually cease 

 to be, and its members become con- 

 founded with the residue of the popula- 

 tion." I can well understand that such 

 procedure, on the part of the Spanish 

 Government, was calculated to soften 

 the ferocious disposition of the Gipsies ; 

 but did it bring them a point nearer to 



* Of the mixed Spanish Gipsy, to whom 

 I have alluded, Mr. Borrow says, that " he 

 had flaxen hair; his eyes small, and like 

 ferrets, red and fiery ; and his complex- 

 ion like a brick, or dull red, chequered 

 with spots of purple." This description, 

 with, perhaps, the exception of the red 

 eyes, and spots of purple, is quite in 

 keeping with that of many of the mixed 

 Gipsies. The race seems even to have 

 given a preference to fair or red hair, in 

 the case of such children and grown-up 

 natives as they have adopted into their 

 body (Ed., p. 377). 



To thoroughly understand how a Gipsy, 

 with fair hair and blue eyes, can be as 

 much a Gipsy as one with black, may be 

 termed " passing the pons asinorum of 

 the Gipsy question." Once over the 

 bridge, and there are no difficulties to be 

 encountered on the journey, unless it be 

 to understand that a Gipsy can be a Gipsy 



