86 MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER OF THE GIPSIES. 



them a favourable reception ; but when their wealth was dissipated, 

 their pomp decayed, and their penitence discovered to be a sham, 

 a storm of obloquy broke over their heads. Every European govern- 

 ment levelled the most arbitrary decrees against them, which con- 

 tinued in force down to the middle of the eighteenth century. 

 Various attempts have since been made to civilize and incorporate 

 them with the general body of the population, but these have obtained 

 a very limited success. They still remain a race apart, with their 

 own language (Romany Tschib), their own traditions, their own cus- 

 toms, their distinct personal characteristics. They still remain a race 

 cursed with the curse of perpetual restlessness ; a mysterious impulse 

 constrains them to wander ; they live secluded from all other peoples ; 

 an atmosphere of secrecy enshrouds their inner life, their language, 

 and their creed. They are gifted with a remarkable love of and 

 capacity for music, and a strange wild charm invests their own 

 gipsy-melodies. Their character is a grotesque combination of the 

 most opposite qualities ; for they are brave and yet cowardly ; revenge- 

 ful, yet loyal; treacherous, yet capable of the most passionate attach- 

 ment ; indolent, yet energetic ; chaste, yet fond of licentious songs 

 and dances. In a word, they are a problem to the ethnologist, the 

 moralist, and the historical student ; and fence themselves about with 

 so impenetrable a reserve, that we may well doubt whether the full 

 truth respecting them will ever be ascertained.* 



The Tsiganes or Romany are very numerous in Southern Russia. 

 They pass from town to town, from village to village, sometimes 

 begging or stealing, sometimes exercising their peculiar trades and 

 industries, and providing for their wants more honestly. They never 

 establish themselves permanently in any place. They halt wherever the 

 evening shades may chance to overtake them, stretch a few fragments 

 of woollen stuff across the poles of their vehicles to serve for tents, 

 kindle a fire with herbs, twigs, and dry branches, partly to cook their 

 food, and partly to scare away the wild beasts, and fling themselves 



* All that is really known about them will be found in Professor Pott's " Zigeuner- 

 Bprache " (Halle, 1845). 



