SOCIALITY OF BRUTES GIPSIES. 185 



following sentiment in the mouth of Adam, seems to be 

 somewhat mistaken : 



Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl, 

 So well converse, nor with the ox the ape. 



LETTER LXVII. 

 TO THE HON. DAINES HARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, October 2, 1775. 



DEAR SIR, We have two gangs, or hordes of gipsies, 

 which infest the south and west of England, and come round 

 in their circuit two or three times in the year. One of these 

 tribes calls itself by the noble name of Stanley, of which I 

 have nothing particular to say ; but the other is distinguished 

 by an appellative somewhat remarkable. As far as their harsh 

 gibberish can be understood, they seem to say that the name 

 of their clan is Curleople : now the termination of this word 

 is apparently Grecian ; and, as Mezeray and the gravest 

 historians all agree that these vagrants did certainly migrate 

 from Egypt and the East, two or three centuries ago,* and so 



* The gipsies first attracted notice in the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century, and, within a few years afterwards, they had spread themselves 

 all over the Continent. The earliest mention which is made of them 

 was in the years 1414 and 1417, when they were observed in Germany. 

 In 1 41 8, they were found in Switzerland ; in 1 422, in Italy ; and, in 

 1427, they are mentioned as having been seen in the neighbourhood of 

 Paris, and about the same time in Spain. In England they were not 

 known till some time after. One remarkable part of their history is, their 

 continuing the same unsettled mode of life, and rigidly keeping apart 

 from all other people. It is impossible to find a greater similarity in 

 the traits of character, and the manners exhibited by different tribes of 

 the same family, than that which is observable amongst the gipsies of the 

 different countries of Europe, under whatever appellation they are known. 

 The habits of the cygani of Hungary, the gitano of Spain, the zigenners 

 of Transylvania, the zingari of Ita'y, the bohemien of France, the gipsy 

 of England, and the tinkler of Scotland, are identical j whether we regard 

 their physical distinction, or their mode of subsistence. 



Their features and complexion mark them of eastern origin. Grell- 

 man thinks them Hindoos of the lowest class; and a comparison of 

 the language of that people with a list of about four hundred words pos- 

 sessed by him goes far to prove a national connection. There is, besides, 

 some striking coincidences in the construction of the languages. He 

 attributes their appearance to the cruel war of devastation carried on by 

 Timur-Beg in 1408-9, and supposes them to be fugitives from their native 

 land, and that they passed through the desert of Persia, and along the 

 Gulf of Persia, through Arabia Petrea, o^er the Isthmus of Suez, into 



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