FREDERICK S. ARNOLD. 91 



They may have assumed these names to give themselves 

 weight in dealing with other people, or like the name 

 Gypsy itself, these titles may have been given them by 

 the populace. 



The name Egyptian, Gypsey, Gipsy, was certainly 

 given them by the peopl^^ about them, and there is no 

 reason to believe that they ever had any connection with 

 Egypt, except that some of their tribes have found their 

 way there (where they are called Rhagarin), as they have 

 gone nearly everywhere else. The name was given them 

 because they came from the east, just as our Thanks- 

 giving bird is called Turkey and our native tribes 

 Indians. 



But when the name was once given and the legends 

 built upon the name the Gypsies had good reason enough 

 to retain and adopt both, for, as Egyptian penitents, 

 they passed for a while, unmolested, everywhere. (Bor- 

 row, "Zincali," Chap. X, p. 43.) 



The arrival of the Gypsies in Prance was about 1427. 

 That part of their history has been immortalized by 

 Walter Scott in Hayraddin Maugrabin Just as he has im- 

 mortalized Scotch Gypsydom in Meg Merrilies. France 

 has never been a congenial home for the Gypsies. It is 

 the land of the proprieties. The Gypsies were early ex- 

 pelled (1504, A.D.) from the country, and to this day I 

 am assured by a Frenchman, a friend of mine, are ex- 

 cluded. Still there are some Gypsies in France, espec- 

 ially in the Pyrenees on the Spanish frontier. 



The Gypsies came into Italy about 1422 and were soon 

 very numerous, thriving best in the States of the Church, 

 which were the worst policed and where was the most 

 superstition which they turned to their own account. A 

 curious law was enacted against them to the effect that 

 no Gypsy should spend two nights in the same place. 

 Not a very severe statute, one would think, for such 

 nomads. 



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