277 



CHAPTEK XXIII. 



THE SPANISH GYPSY. 



NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE " GITANOS." 



The mysterious Bommany race which overruns every 

 nation in Europe, but intermingles with none, has always 

 abounded in Spain, and particularly in Andalucia, a land 

 which is peculiarly favourable to the Ishmaelitish propen- 

 sities of these human pariahs — as congenial to predatory 

 wild men as to the wild beasts we elsewhere describe. 

 Thoroughly typical objects both on the byeways and 

 deserts of Spain, and of the animated scenes at her 

 rural feasts and fairs, to which the gypsies flock like vul- 

 tures to a carcase, it would be inappropriate here to omit 

 all mention of this singular race, even though it may be 

 impossible for us to add anything new to the exhaustive 

 description of the Spanish gypsy narrated by Borrow in 

 " The Zincali," a work based on intimate acquaintance with 

 the gitanos and their language. To it we are indebted for 

 much historic and ethnological information respecting the 

 gypsy race, and take the liberty of quoting two or three 

 passages from its pages.* 



First appearing on Spanish soil during the early decades 

 of the fifteenth century, after being driven from land to 

 land, the Zingari outcasts speedily found a congenial home 

 — if such a term is applicable to nomadic vagabonds — 

 amidst the lone and sparsely-peopled regions of Iberia. 



Whence they had originally come — whether from Egypt, 

 as they themselves averred and as their Spanish name 



* "The Zincali; or, an Account of the Gypsies of Spain." By 

 George Borrow. 2 vols. London, John Murray, 1841. 



