Gypsies. 
598 
scale; and it is observed, that the artificer always sits 
—v~" down cross-legged to his work, which is considered as 
Ytcligion, 
Marriages. 
denoting the eastern origin of his race. They were 
formerly employed abroad in the execution of crimi- 
nals, wherein they displayed a skill in the art of tor- 
turing their fellow-creatures, corresponding with their 
own innate pusillanimity. Many dealt in horses, but they 
practised such ingenious deceptions, and to so great 
an extent, that a royal ordinance prohibited this part | 
of their profession. ‘Their females form a considerable 
portion of the dancing girls of India. They combine 
music with their allurements ; and most of them, both in 
that peninsula and Turkey, as likewise in Spain, subsist 
on the wages of prostitution. Every where the charac- 
ter of their dances is the same; and, in Spain, one of 
them called Maguindry is prohibited under severe pe- 
nalties. —The men and women sometimes bring forward 
dramatic exhibitions, for the performance of which 
they are called before the houses of the wealthy. The 
women, as is well known, pretend to skill in divination, 
and tell the fortunes of the credulous from palinistry, 
physiognomy, or moles on the skin ; hence the origin of 
the beautiful engraving of La Zingara. So long ago as the 
year 1531, we find an English statute narrating, “ that 
before this time many outlandish people, calling them- 
selves Egyptians, using no craft nor feat of merchan- 
dize, have come into this realm, and gone from shire to 
shire, and place to place, in great companies, and used 
great, crafty, and subtile means to deceive the people, 
bearing them in hand, that they, by palmistry, could 
tell men and women’s fortunes, and so, many times by 
craft and subtilty, have deceived the people of their 
money, and also have committed many heinous felonies 
and robberies, to the great hurt and deceit of the peo- 
ple they have come among.” It is singular, that at 
Tobolsk in Siberia, their practice and professions are 
the same. “ They watch every traveller,” according to 
Commodore Billings, “ and pretend to explain the 
mysteries of futurity, by palmistry or physiognomy. 
The peasant dreads their power, and, from motives of 
fear, contributes to their support, lest they should 
spoil his cattle or horses.” Thus, in the western parts 
of Europe, and the eastern parts of Asia, at an interval 
of nearly three centuries, the gypsies are distinguished 
by corresponding features, scarcely modified by the 
people among whom they seek an asylum. 
This tribe is utterly unacquainted with science and 
literature. The scanty knowledge of their forefathers 
remains with them unimproved. A few of those 
in Spain, however, pretend to knowledge in medicine 
or surgery; and the females in the neighbourhood 
of Calcutta visit that and other towns, and prescribe 
for the complaints of their own sex. They have no 
settled principles of religion; they are Turks with 
Turks, and Christians with Christians. It does not ap- 
pear that they celebrate any religious rites, or enter- 
tain the common sentiments of mankind in regard to a 
future life, or places of reward and punishment. The 
son of a more. civilized Transylvanian gypsey having 
died at school, and being about to receive Christian bu- 
rial, the officiating priest inquired, whether the survi- 
vors believed that the deceased would rise again at the 
Jast day ? “ Strange supposition!” they answered, “to 
conceive that a carease,.a lifeless corpse, should be re- 
animated, and rise again; it is no more likely to hap- 
pen, in our opinion, than to the horse we flayed a few 
days ago.” ‘Their children, however, are circumcised 
in Turkey, and baptised in Europe. 
Their marriages, which take place at a very early 
GYPSIES. 
age, are void of ceremony, and ratlier resemble tenypo- — 
rary connections than a union for life. One of their own’ 
number performs the part of priest, and thus gives it 
the sanction of publicity. The youth then forsakes his 
father, along with his bride, and if capable of mecha- 
nical exercises, he provides a pair of tongs, a'stone for an 
anvil, a hammer and a file, to commence the profession 
of smith, after the fashion of his predecessors. In India 
a scene of riot and intoxication precedes the establish~ 
ment of the parties, and certain mystical ceremonies at- 
tend the marriage. The men are extremely jealous of 
their wives, who are kept in strict subservience, and are 
in danger either of corporal punishment, or absolute dis< 
missal, if they happen to displease them... Both sexes 
are extravagantly attached to their offspring; and, in 
some countries, it frequently happens that the readiest 
method of obtaining payment of the father’s debts is by* 
arresting his children. No education is given to the 
young, unless it be instruction in obscenity, and in the art 
of stealing dexterously. Infants of five or six months old 
are supplied with spirits in India, and their mothers, 
while indulging a fatal propensity to the same beverage, 
suckle them until they have seen as many years. In 
Europe these people are remarkably healthy, and escape 
those epidemical maladies which sweep away thousands 
around them ; and even when they labour under dan- 
gerous diseases, they pertinaciously. refuse medical as- 
sistance. They make loud lamentations at funerals, 
and carry the body of the leader of their horde with 
great respect to the grave. | ‘TOAMTO 
The language of the gypsies, though it has neces ; 
sarily undergone many changes from their successive 
migrations, and the corruptions unavoidable from living 
among others, is peculiar to themselves in Europe; but 
it contains many affinities with a dialect of particular 
casts in Hindostan. This fact receives the stronger cor- 
roboration, from having been first recognized by some 
young men, natives of the coast of Malabar, who were 
prosecuting their studies at Leyden. Numerous expres« 
sions were compared by them, and the same has since 
been carried to a greater extent, by literary men residi 
in India. Etymologies are in general to be distrusted, for 
they frequently lead*to the most ludicrous and absurd 
mistakes ; but we cannot deny, on the other hand, that a 
affinities of languages spoken by nations separated far’ 
asunder, may ns fou nd so strong and decided, that 
we shall find it difficult to deny them a common origin. 
On this subject Grellman remarks, “ with respect to 
the construction and inflexion of the two la 
they are evidently the same, that of Hindostan has only 
two gendérs—the gypsey the same. In the former, 
every word ending in 7 is feminine, all the rest are mas- 
culine; in the latter it is the same. That makes the 
inflexions entirely by the ‘article, and adds it to the 
end of the word ; the gypsey language proceeds exactly 
in the same manner. Finally, likewise, excepting afew 
trifling variations, this identical similarity is evident in 
the pronouns.” Many other instances.of mutual corre- 
spondence may be produced, almost. all tending to a si- 
milar purport; as may be seen at large in the writings 
of those authors who discuss this subject. 
The gypsies of Europe acknowledge a chief or leader, 
who usually assumes the. dignified title of wayvode or 
vince, duke, count, or lord, according to the countries 
requented by them, The most exalted of these titles 
is given to one who presides over the gold. washers in 
Hungary, and the dignity is elective, but with some re 
gard to descent from a former wayvode, and also to the 
stature and apparel of the individual chosev, who is 
