FREDEEICK S. ARNOLD. 99 



the last Mongol conquests in the sixteenth. The 

 hanptstamm of these nomads was probably the Jats 

 who are a race of notorious thieves, without religion, 

 and devoted to raising and riding horses and who, we 

 have said, were very early and are still a half migratory 

 race. The Nauts and Persian Luri, all tinkers, thieves, 

 musicians like the Gypsies, probably swelled the throng, 

 while Mr. Leland's Z>om tribes permeated and gave char- 

 acter to the whole. 



If this be so the Gypsies are descendants of various 

 Hindu tribes who wandered out of India under the pres- 

 sure of Mohammedan conquest and their language may 

 be said to prove this. 



An itinerary of their travels can be made up from the 

 non-Hindu words they preserve. Prom the very large 

 number of Persian words it is evident they spent some 

 time in Persia and probably were joined by some of the 

 inhabitants. Their road must have lain through Turkey 

 into Asia Minor and Greece and they still preserve a 

 number of Greek stems. Thence they entered the Dan- 

 ube and South Sclavonian lands, where they are most 

 numerous and where their language and their Gypsydom 

 is purest to this day. They remained there a long while 

 and there are numerous Sclavic words in their language. 

 Leaving the South Sclavic lands they enter western Eu- 

 rope and history together. 



English Gypsy, to fill out the itinerary, has some Teu- 

 tonic and Italian elements but very little Prench. 



Our historical sketch has now prei)ared us to consider 

 the present condition of the race, especially here in the 

 United States, to which we shall limit ourselves as far as 

 possible. 



Scattered through every country of Europe and 

 America (there are even Gypsies in Brazil) this cosmo- 

 polite race bears a different name almost in each. The 

 name by which the majority of Gypsies are still known 



37 



