THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE GIPSIES. 



149 



will manage to escape from the odium 

 of their fellow-creatures, which clings 

 to them in their present condition. The 

 fact of the poor travelling Gipsies know- 

 ing of such respectable settled Gipsies, 

 gives them a certain degree of respect 

 in their own eyes, which leads them to 

 repel any advance from the other race, 

 let it come in almost whatever shape it 

 may. The white race, as I have already 

 said, is perfectly odious to them.* This 

 is exactly the position of the question. 

 The more original kind of Gipsies feel 

 that the prejudice which exists against the 

 race to which they belong is such, that 

 an intercourse cannot be maintained be- 

 tween them and the other inhabitants ; 

 or, if it does exist, it is of so clandestine 

 a nature, that their appearance, and, it 

 may be, their general habits, do not al- 

 low or lead them to indulge in it. I 

 will make a few more remarks on this 

 subject further on in this treatise (Ed., 

 p. 436). 



The latter part of the Gipsy nation, 

 whether settled or itinerant, must be 

 reached indirectly, for reasons which 



* People often reprobate the dislike, I 

 may say the hatred, which the more origi- 

 nal Gipsy entertains for society ; forget- 

 ting that society itself has had the greatest 

 share in the origin of it. When the race 

 entered Europe, they are not presumed 

 to have had any hatred towards their fel- 

 low-creatures. That hatred, doubtless, 

 sprang from the severe reception and 

 universal persecution which, owing to the 

 singularity of their race and habits, they 

 everywhere met with. The race then be- 

 came born into that state of things. What 

 would subsequent generations know of 

 the origin of the feud ? All that they 

 knew was that the law made them out- 

 laws and outcasts ; that they were sub- 

 ject, as Gipsies, to be hung before they 

 were born. Such a Gipsy might be com- 

 pared to Pascal's man springing up out 

 of an island : casting his eyes around him, 

 he finds nothing but a legal and social 

 proscription hanging over his head, in 

 whatever direction he may turn. What- 

 ever might be assumed to have been the 

 original, innate disposition of a Gipsy, 

 circumstances attending him, from his 

 birth to his death, were certainly not cal- 

 culated to improve him, but to make him 

 much worse than he might otherwise 

 have been. The worst that can be said of 

 the Scottish Gipsies, in times past, has 

 been stated by our author. With all their 

 faults, we find a vein of genuine nobility 

 of character running through all their ac- 



have already been given ; for it does not 

 serve much purpose to interfere too di- 

 rectly with them, as Gipsies. We should 

 bring a reflective influence- to bear upon 

 them, by holding up to their observa- 

 tion some of their own race in respect- 

 able positions in life, and respected by 

 the world, as men, though not known 

 to be Gipsies. For, in this way, the 

 Gipsies, of all classes, would see that 

 they are not outcasts ; but that the pre- 

 judices which people entertain for them 

 are applicable to their ways of life only, 

 and not to their blood or descent, tribe 

 or language. Their hearts would then 

 become more easily touched, their affec- 

 tions more readily secured ; and the at- 

 tempt made to improve them would have 

 a much better chance of being successful. 

 A little judgment is necessary in con- 

 ducting an intercourse with the wild 

 Gipsy, or, indeed, any kind of Gipsy ; it 

 is very advisable to speak well of ' ' the 

 blood," and never to confound the race 

 with the conduct of part of it. There is 

 hardly anything that can give a poor 

 Gipsy greater pleasure than to tell him 

 something about his people, and par- 

 dons, which is the more worthy of notice, 

 considering that they were at war with soci- 

 ety, and society at war with them. Not the 

 least important feature is that of gratitude 

 for kind and hospitable treatment. In 

 that respect, a true Scottish Gipsy has al- 

 ways been as true as steel ; and that is 

 saying a great deal in his favour. I can- 

 not agree with Mr. Borrow, when he says, 

 that the Gipsies " travelled three thou- 

 sand miles into Europe, with hatred in 

 their hearts towards the people' among whom 

 they settled" In none of the earliest laws 

 passed against them is anything said of 

 their being other than thieves, cheats, etc., 

 etc. They seem to have been too politic 

 to commit murder ; moreover, it appears 

 to have been foreign to their disposition 

 to do aught but obtain a living in the 

 most cunning manner they could. There 

 is no necessary connexion between pur- 

 loining one's property and hating one's 

 person. As long as the Gipsies were 

 not hardly dealt with, they could natural- 

 ly have no actual hatred towards their 

 fellow-creatures. Mr. Borrow attributes 

 none of the spite and hatred of the race 

 towards the community to the severity of 

 the persecutions to which it was exposed, 

 or to that hard feeling with which society 

 has regarded it. These, and the example 

 of the Spaniards, doubtless led the Gi- 

 tanos to shed the blood of the ordinary 

 natives (Ed., p. 433). 



