152 



THE SOCIAL EMANCIPA TION OF THE GIPSIES. 



tizing on a subject on which (as it 

 may be) they know nothing person- 

 ally, and can appeal to no one bet- 

 ter informed on the point than 

 themselves. I readily admit, in a 

 general way, the truth of the adage, 

 " out of sight, out of mind ; " but 

 I decidedly object to its being 

 applied to the Gipsies to mean " out 

 of sight, out of existence." 



To the world at large, the subject 

 of civilized Gipsies is a new idea 

 (although an old fact), that is very 

 apt to be objected to because it is a 

 new idea, for the reason that people 

 allege they do not understand it. 

 But do people in every instance un- 

 derstand what all admit to be facts ? 

 Do they even understand what a 

 Gipsy of the popular kind means ? 

 We in reality understand little of 

 what we believe, and it has been 

 well said, that if we believed only 

 what we understood, we would all 

 have remarkably short creeds. As 

 people have believed in Gipsies of 

 the popular kind without really un- 

 derstanding the subject, or giving it 

 a serious thought, so might they be- 

 lieve in those more or less civilized, 

 on 'the simple ground that they are 

 the children or descendants of ordi- 

 nary Gipsies, having their blood, an 

 inherent sense of being members of 

 the tribe, and some of the language 

 and signs peculiar to themselves, 

 like a Masonic society, although the 

 possession of these words and signs 

 is not absolutely necessary to con- 

 stitute them Gipsies; for the mere 

 consciousness of the fact of being 

 Gipsies, transmitted from genera- 

 tion to generation, and made the 

 basis of marriages and the intimate 

 associations of life, is in itself per- 

 fectly sufficient. Hence, we can 

 understand the meaning of Gipsy 

 lady's maids, Gipsy fiddlers at par- 

 ties, Gipsy spae-wives, and Gipsies 

 in other spheres of life, mentioned 

 by the author, whose facts, in the 

 language of an American writer, are 

 " so obviously derived from personal 

 observation or conscientious inqui- 



ry, and so unaffectedly related," as 

 to command belief; to say nothing 

 of what I have added, in the way of 

 facts and philosophy, establishing 

 the perpetuation of the Gipsy na- 

 tionality in a settled and civilized 

 state. 



You will thus see, as a result of 

 the Gipsy nationality, forced as it 

 has been to hide itself from the rest 

 of the world, that a bond of sympa- 

 thy exists between its members when 

 they happen to meet, and that no- 

 thing can be more natural or credi- 

 ble. But, however natural or credi- 

 ble, we find the following singular 

 comments on the subject in All the 

 Year Round, for the i;th March, 

 1866 : 



" Another craze, hitherto not general, 

 but which, if believed in, will throw over 

 society a delightful if slightly madden- 

 ing amount of mystery, has been put 

 forth in a certain book, written by a 

 Scottish enthusiast, by which it appears 

 that both Scotland and England are 

 penetrated through and through with 

 Gipsy blood, and that men and women 

 whom we had all along taken for douce 

 and honest Anglo-Saxons, or at the 

 least Celts of the true breed, are nothing 

 better than Gipsies." " Our lady's 

 maids may be Gipsies, with fair hair and 

 blue eyes, ' chattering Gipsy ' secretly to 

 other ' romany managies,' likewise cun- 

 ningly disguised. Soldiers and sailors 

 may mset other ' Nawkens ' or Gipsies 

 like thsmselves in the enemy's camp, 

 and cry, ' Zincali ! zincali ! ' as at the 

 discovery of a brother . . . but we do 

 not believe it. Nothing is easier than 

 to make up a mystery [?]. . . . It is all 

 one to the mystery-monger, provided 

 only he can weave his webs with the 

 faintest show of reason." " Once admit 

 this base of secrecy, and you may build 

 on it the most gigantic pyramid of mar- 

 vel you choose." " We may be excused 

 if we somewhat doubt the accuracy of 

 statements which cannot be proved by 

 any modern methods known to us." [As 

 if research and observation, and the sa- 

 tisfying ourselves as to facts, were not 

 " modern methods known to us " ! Or 

 that one can doubt the " secrecy " that 

 characterizes the Gipsies !] 



We thus see how mere novelists 



