126 



MR. BORROW ON THE GIPSIES. 



the Spanish Gipsies, thus : " We have 

 already expressed our belief that the 

 caste has diminished of latter years ; 

 whether this diminution was the result 

 of one or many causes combined ; of a 

 partial change of habits, of pestilence 

 or sickness, of war or famine, or of a 

 freer intercourse with the Spanish 

 population, we have no means of de- 

 termining, and shall abstain from offer- 

 ing conjectures on the subject." In 

 this way does he leave the question just 

 where he found it. Is there any reason 

 to doubt that Gipsydom is essentially 

 the same in Spain as in Great Britain ; 

 or that its future will be guided by any 

 other principles than those which regu- 

 late that of the British Gipsies ? Indeed, 

 I am astonished that Mr. Borrow should 

 advance the idea that Gipsies should 

 decrease by " changing their habits ;" 

 they might not increase so fast in a set- 

 tled life, as when more exposed to the 

 air, and not molested by the Spanish 

 Government. I am no less astonished 

 that he should think they would decrease 

 by " a freer intercourse with the Spanish 

 population ;" when, in fact, such mix- 

 tures are well known to go with the Gip- 

 sies ; the mixture being, in the estimation 

 of the British Gipsies, calculated to 

 strengthen and invigorate the race it- 

 self. Had Mr. Borrow kept in mind the 

 case of the half-blood Gipsy captain, he 

 could have had no difficulty in learning 

 what became of mixed Gipsies.* 



back to back. We have made money in 

 the wars " (Ed., p. 392). 



It would seem that the law in Spain, in 

 regard to the Gipsies, stands pretty much 

 where it did that is, the people are, in a 

 sense, tolerated, but that the use of their 

 language is prohibited, as may be.gather- 

 ed from an incident mentioned in the 

 ninth chapter of the Bible in Spain, by Mr. 

 Borrow" (Ed., p. 395). 



* Mr. Borrow surely cannot mean that 

 a Gipsy ceases to be a Gipsy when he set- 

 tles down, and "turns over a new leaf;" 

 and that this " change of habits " changes 

 his descent, blood, appearance, language 

 and nationality! What, then, does he 

 mean, when he says, that the Spanish 

 Gipsies have decreased by " a partial 

 change of habits ? " And does an infusion 

 of Spanish blood, implied in a " freer in- 

 tercourse with the Spanish population," 

 lead to the Gipsy element being wiped 

 out ; or does it lead to the Spanish feel- 

 ing being lost in Gipsydom ? Which is 

 the element to be operated upon the 



It doubtless holds in Spain, as in 

 Great Britain, that as the Gipsy enters 

 into settled life, and engages in a re- 

 spectable calling, he hides his descent, 

 and even mixes his' blood with that of 

 the country, and becomes ashamed of 

 the name before the public ; but is as 

 much, at heart, a Gipsy, as any others 

 of his race. And this theory is borne 

 out by Mr. Borrow himself, when he 

 speaks of " the unwillingness of the 

 Spanish Gipsies to utter, when speaking 

 of themselves, the detested expression 

 Gitano ; a word which seldom escapes 

 their mouths." We might therefore 

 conclude, that the Spanish Gipsies, with 

 the exception of the more original and 

 bigoted stock, would hide their na- 

 tionality from the common Spaniards, 

 and so escape their notice. It is not at 

 all likely that the half-pay Gipsy cap- 

 tain would mention to the public that he 

 was a Gipsy, although he admitted it to 

 Mr. Borrow, under the peculiar circum- 

 stances in which he met him. My 

 Spanish acquaintance informs me that 

 the Gitanos generally hide their na- 

 tionality from the rest of the world. 



Such a case is evidently told by Mr. 

 Borrow, in the vagabond Gipsy, An- 

 tonio, at Badajoz, who termed a rich 

 Gipsy, living in the same town, a hog, 

 because he evidently would not counte- 

 nance him. Antonio may possibly have 

 been kicked out of his house, in attempt- 

 ing to enter it. He accused him of 

 having married a Spaniard, and of fain 

 attempting to pass himself for a Span- 

 iard. As regards the wife, she might 

 have been a Gipsy with very little of " the 

 blood " in her veins ; or a Spaniard 

 reared by Gipsies ; or an ordinary 

 Spanish maiden, to whom the Gipsy 

 would teach his language, as some- 

 times happens among the English 



Spanish or the Gipsy? Which is the 

 leaven? The Spanish element is the pas- 

 sive, the Gipsy the active. As a question 

 of philosophy, the most simple of com- 

 prehension, and, above all, as a matter of 

 fact, the foreign element introduced, in 

 detail, into the body of Gipsydom, goes 

 with that body, and, in feeling, becomes 

 incorporated with it, although, in physi- 

 cal appearance, it changes the Gipsy race, 

 so that it becomes " confounded with the 

 residue of the population," but remains 

 Gipsy, as before. A Spanish Gipsy is a 

 Spaniard as he stands, and it would be 

 hard to say what we should ask him to 

 do, to become more a Spaniard than he is 

 already (Ed., p. 390). 



