Vol. X, No. ll.J The Language of the Gypsies of Qainat. 441 



[N.S.] 



Greeks knew as *' Makai" (Mdiccu) or " Mukai" (Umai) 9 and 

 who appear in cuneiform inscriptions as " Maka " or " Masia." 

 Stephanos of Byzantium gives the name of the country as 

 "Makarene" (Maicaprjvri), and in Muhammadan geographers 

 we find the parallel form " Makiiran **)J 



The ancient Greek name for Southern Persia, " Hedrosia ' ' , 

 seems to have originated in the name of a tribe whom 

 Herodotus styles " Derousiaioi (^ypovoLaloi)* We know but 

 little about the real distribution and peculiarities of the Gypsies 

 in Persia. Still less about those of Afghanistan. From what I 

 have seen of them on the Persian frontier they are of the same 



type (sometimes even fairer), speaking a kind of Turko-Gypsy 

 patois. 



About the Gypsies of Baluchistan we know a little more, 

 and I cannot abstain from quoting here an interesting passage 

 by Mr. Denys Bray, I.C.S., in his Census of Baluchistan, 1911, 

 p. 173, (v. IV). " Zorl— 10,936. They aredispersed throughout 

 the whole country, and reach far away into Persia and beyond. 

 Asked about their origin they usually spin some yarn connect- 

 ing them with the particular race among whom they live : they 

 hail from Aleppo ; they are descended from Sarmast, youngest 

 of the sons of Mir Hamza, the Prophet's uncle ; it was under 

 Chakar the Kind, that they came first to Makran, and on into 

 Baluchistan, and much more in the same strain. Asked about 

 the meaning of their name, they usually explain that old 

 father Sarmast was luckless enough to get overlooked when 



o" wv o 



Mir Hamza's patrimony was being divided up, and there was 

 nothing left him but a lor or share in the lot of his more 

 fortunate brothers. As a matter of fact, they are not over- 

 fond of the name of Zorl, and many of them much prefer 

 to be called Sarmastari after their legendary ancestor, or Zopi. 

 for which they have no explanation to offer at all. or else to 

 be dubbed usta y short for (P.) ustdd, master-craftsman. By 

 craft they are tinkers, first and last; after their own fashion 

 they work well enough in gold and silver; they are not bad 

 hands at carpentry ; they are expert beggars ; several of them 

 are domb or professional minstrels ; the wives of the domb are 

 the midw T ives of the country. After this long list of their 

 attainments it is not surprising that the tribes to which they 

 are attached — and nearly every section among the Baloch and 

 Brahuis has its own little Zorl group— are fully alive to the 

 value of their services and keep a pretty tight hold over them, 

 taking them along on their wanderings and fiercely resenting 

 any overtures on the part of other tribes to lure them away. 



1 It is noteworthv that the patois of Zorl. or Gypsie- of Baluchis- 

 tan is still called Mokki. 



i I must refer the reader generally to \V. Bartold's H is torico- Geogra- 

 phical Description of Iran (in Russian)*. 8. Petersb., 1903. 



