CHAP. I. On the Origin of the Gipsies.

Of the Origin of these wanderers of the human race, the learned are not agreed; for we have no authentic records of their first emigrations. Some suppose them to be the descendants of Israel, and many others, that they are of Egyptian origin. But the evidence adduced in confirmation of these opinions appears very inconclusive. We cannot discover more than fifty Hebrew words in the language they speak, and they have not a ceremony peculiar to the Hebrew nation. They have not a word of Coptic, and but few of Persian derivation. And they are deemed as strangers in Egypt at the present time. They are now found in many countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, in all of which they speak a language peculiar to themselves. On the continent of America alone are there none of them found. Grellman informs us that there were great numbers in Lorraine, and that they dwelt in its forests, before the French Revolution of 1790. He supposes that there are no less than 700,000 in the world, and that the greatest numbers are found in Europe. Throughout the countries they inhabit, they have kept themselves a distinct race of people in every possible way.

They never visit the Norman Isles; and it is said by the natives of Ireland, that their numbers are small in that country. Hoyland informs us, that many counties in Scotland are free of them, while they wander about in other districts of that country, as in England. He has also informed us, sec. 6, of a colony which resides during the winter months at Kirk Yetholm in the county of Roxburgh. [10]

Sir Thomas Brown, in his work entitled “Vulgar Errors,” says, that they were seen first in Germany, in the year 1409. In 1418, they were found in Switzerland; and in 1422, in Italy. They appeared in France, on the 17th August, 1427. It is remarkable that, when they first came into Europe, they were black, and that the women were still blacker than the men. From Grellman we learn, that “in Hungary, there are 50,000; in Spain, 60,000; and that they are innumerable in Constantinople.”

It appears from the statute of the 22nd of Henry VIII, made against this people, that they must at that time have been in England some years, and must have increased much in number, and in crime. In the 27th of that reign, a law was made against the importation of such persons, subjecting the importer to 40l penalty. In that reign also they were considered so dangerous to the morals and comfort of the country, that many of them were sent back to Calais. Yet in the reign of Elizabeth, they were estimated at 10,000. [11a]

Dr Walsh says, that the Gipsies in Turkey, like the Jews, are distinguishable by indelible personal marks, dark eyes, brown complexion, and black hair; and by unalterable moral qualities, an aversion to labour, and a propensity to petty thefts. [11b]

The celebrated traveller, Dr Daniel Clarke, speaks of great numbers of Gipsies in Persia, who are much encouraged by the Tartars. Formerly, and particularly on the Continent, they had their counts, lords, and dukes; but these were titles without either power or riches.

The English Gipsies were formerly accustomed to denominate an aged man and woman among them, as their king and queen; but this is a political distinction which has not been recognized by them for many years.

If we suppose the Gipsies to have been heathens before they came into this country, their separation from pagan degradation and cruelty, has been attended with many advantages to themselves. They have seen neither the superstitions of idolatry, nor the unnatural cruelties of heathenism. They are not destitute of those sympathies and attachments which would adorn the most polished circles. In demonstration of this, we have only to make ourselves acquainted with the fervour and tenderness of their conjugal, parental, and filial sensibilities,—and the great care they take of all who are aged, infirm, and blind, among them. Were these highly interesting qualities sanctified by pure religion, they would exhibit much of the beauty and loveliness of the christian character. I am aware that an opinion is general, that they are cruel to their children; but it may be questioned if ebullitions of passion are more frequent among them, in reference to their children, than among other classes of society; and when these ebullitions, which are not lasting, are over—their conduct toward their children is most affectionate. The attachment of Gipsy children to their parents is equally vivid and admirable; it grows with their years, and strengthens even as their connections increase. [12] And indeed the affection that sisters and brothers have one for the other is very great. A short time since, the little sister of a Gipsy youth seventeen years of age, was taken ill with a fever, when his mind became exceedingly distressed, and he gave way to excessive grief and weeping.

Those who suppose these wanderers of mankind to be of Hindostanee or Suder origin, have much the best proof on their side. A real Gipsy has a countenance, eye, mouth, hands, ancle, and quickness of manners, strongly indicative of Hindoo origin. This is more particularly the case with the females. Nor is the above mere assertion. The testimony of the most intelligent travellers, many of whom have long resided in India, fully supports this opinion. And, indeed, persons who have not travelled on the Asiatic Continent, but who have seen natives of Hindostan, have been surprised at the similarity of manners and features existing between them and the Gipsies. The Author of this work once met with a Hindoo woman, and was astonished at the great resemblance she bore in countenance and manners to the female Gipsy of his own country.

The Hindoo Suder delights in horses, tinkering, music, and fortune telling; so does the Gipsy. The Suder tribes of the same part of the Asiatic Continent, are wanderers, dwelling chiefly in wretched mud-huts. When they remove from one place to another, they carry with them their scanty property. The English Gipsies imitate these erratic tribes in this particular. They wander from place to place, and carry their small tents with them, which consist of a few bent sticks, and a blanket. [14] The Suders in the East eat the flesh of nearly every unclean creature; nor are they careful that the flesh of such creatures should not be putrid. How exactly do the Gipsies imitate them in this abhorrent choice of food! They have been in the habit of eating many kinds of brutes, not even excepting dogs and cats; and when pressed by hunger, have sought after the most putrid carrion. It has been a common saying among them—that which God kills, is better than that killed by man. But of late years, with a few exceptions, they have much improved in this respect; for they now eat neither dogs nor cats, and but seldom seek after carrion. But in winter they will dress and eat snails, hedge-hogs, and other creatures not generally dressed for food.

But the strongest evidence of their Hindoo origin is the great resemblance their own language bears to the Hindostanee. The following Vocabulary is taken from Grellman, Hoyland, and Captain Richardson. The first of these respectable authors declares, that twelve out of thirty words of the Gipsies’ language, are either purely Hindostanee, or nearly related to it.

The following list of words are among those which bear the greatest resemblance to that language.

Gipsy. Hindostanee. English.

Ick, Ek, Ek, One.

Duj, Doj, Du, Two.

Trin, Tri, Tin, Three.

Schtar, Star, Tschar, Four.

Pantsch, Pansch, Pansch, Five.

Tschowe, Sshow, Tscho, Six.

Efta, Hefta, Sat, Seven.

Ochto, Aute, Eight.

Desch, Des, Des, Ten.

Bisch, Bis, Bis Twenty.

Diwes, Diw, Day.

Ratti, Ratch, Night.

Cham, Cam, Tschanct The sun.

Panj, Panj, Water.

Sonnikey, Suna, Gold.

Rup, Ruppa, Silver.

Bal, Bal, The hair.

Aok, Awk, The eye.

Kan, Kawn, The ear.

Mui, Mu, The mouth.

Dant, Dant, A tooth.

Sunjo, Sunnj, The hearing.

Sunj, Sunkh, The smell.

Sik, Tschik, The taste.

Tschater, Tschater, A tent.

Rajah, Raja, The prince.

Baro, Bura, Great.

Kalo, Kala, Black.

Grea, Gorra, Horse.

Ker, Gurr, House.

Pawnee, Paniee, Brook, drink, water.

Bebee, Beebe, Aunt.

Bouropanee, Bura-panee, Ocean, wave.

Rattie, Rat, Dark night,

Dad, Dada, Father.

Mutchee, Muchee, Fish.

This language, called by themselves Slang, or Gibberish, invented, as they think, by their forefathers for secret purposes, is not merely the language of one, or a few of these wandering tribes, which are found in the European Nations; but is adopted by the vast numbers who inhabit the earth.

One of our reformed Gipsies, while in the army, was with his regiment at Portsmouth, and being on garrison duty with an invalid soldier, he was surprised to hear some words of the Gipsy language unintentionally uttered by him, who was a German. On enquiring how he understood this language, the German replied, that he was of Gipsy origin, and that it was spoken by this race in every part of his native land, for purposes of secrecy. [16]

A well known nobleman, who had resided many years in India, taking shelter under a tree during a storm in this country, near a camp of Gipsies, was astonished to hear them use several words he well knew were Hindostanee; and going up to them, he found them able to converse with him in that language.

Not long ago, a Missionary from India, who was well acquainted with the language of Hindostan, was at the Author’s house when a Gipsy was present; and, after a conversation which he had with her, he declared, that, her people must once have known the Hindostanee language well. Indeed Gipsies have often expressed surprise when words have been read to them out of the Hindostanee vocabulary.

Lord Teignmouth once said to a young Gipsy woman in Hindostanee, Tue burra tschur, that is, Thou a great thief. She immediately replied; No—I am not a thief—I live by fortune telling.

It can be no matter of surprise that this language, as spoken among this people, is generally corrupted, when we consider, that, for many centuries, they have known nothing of elementary science, and have been strangers to books and letters. Perhaps the secrecy necessary to effect many of their designs, has been the greatest means of preserving its scanty remains among them. But an attempt to prove that they are not of Hindoo origin, because they do not speak the Hindostanee with perfect correctness, would be as absurd as to declare, that, our Gipsies are not natives of England, because they speak very incorrect English. The few words that follow, and which occurred in some conversations the Author had with the most intelligent of the Gipsies he has met, prove how incorrectly they speak our language; and yet it would be worse than folly to attempt to prove that they are not natives of England.

Expencival for expensive.

Cide for decide.

Device for advice.

Dixen for dictionary. [18]

Ealfully for equally.

Indistructed for instructed.

Gemmem for gentleman.

Dauntment for daunted.

Spiteliness for spitefulness.

Hawcus Paccus for Habeas Corpus.

Increach for increase.

Commist for submit.

Brand, in his observations on Popular Antiquities, is of opinion that the first Gipsies fled from Asia, when the cruel Timur Beg ravaged India, with a view to proselyte the heathen to the Mohammedan religion; at which time about 500,000 human beings were butchered by him. Some suppose, that, soon after this time, many who escaped the sword of this human fury, came into Europe through Egypt; and on this account were called, in English, Gipsies.

Although there is not the least reason whatever to suppose the Gipsies to have had an Egyptian origin, and although, as we have asserted in a former page, they are strangers in that land of wonders to the present day; yet it appears possible to me, that Egypt may have had something to do with their present appellation. And allowing that the supposition is well founded, which ascribes to them a passage through Egypt into European nations, it is very likely they found their way to that place under the following circumstances.

In the years 1408 and 1409, Timur Beg ravaged India, to make, as has already been observed, proselytes to the Mohammedan delusion, when he put hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants to the sword. It is very rational to suppose, that numbers of those who had the happiness not to be overtaken by an army so dreadful, on account of the cruelties it perpetrated, should save their lives by flying from their native land, to become wandering strangers in another. Now if we assert that the Gipsies were of the Suder cast of Asiatic Indians, and that they found their way from Hindostan into other and remote countries when Timur Beg spread around him terrors so dreadful, it is natural to ask, why did not some of the other casts of India accompany them? This objection has no weight at all when we consider the hatred and contempt poured upon the Suder by all the other casts of India. The Bramins, Tschechteries, and Beis, were as safe, though menaced with destruction by Timur Beg, as they would have been along with the Suder tribes, seeking a retreat from their enemy in lands where he would not be likely to follow them. Besides, the other casts, from time immemorial, have looked on their country as especially given them of God; and they would as soon have suffered death, as leave it. The Suders had not these prepossessions for their native soil. They were a degraded people—a people looked on as the lowest of the human race; and, with an army seeking their destruction, they had every motive to leave, and none to stay in Hindostan.

It cannot be determined by what track the forefathers of the Gipsies found their way from Hindostan to the countries of Europe. But it may be presumed that they passed over the southern Persian deserts of Sigiston, Makran and Kirman, along the Persian Gulph to the mouth of the Euphrates, thence to Bassora into the deserts of Arabia, and thence into Egypt by the Isthmus of Suez.

It is a fact not unworthy a place in these remarks on the origin of this people, that they do not like to be called Gipsies, unless by those persons whom they have reason to consider their real friends. This probably arises from two causes of great distress to them—Gipsies are suspected and hated as the perpetrators of all crime—and they are almost universally prosecuted as vagrants. Is it to be wondered at, that to strangers, they do not like to acknowledge themselves as Gipsies? I think not.

We will conclude our remarks on the origin of these erratic sons of Adam, by adding the testimony of Col. Herriot, read before the Royal Asiatic Society, Sir George Staunton in the chair. That gentleman, giving an account of the Zingaree of India, says, that this class of people are frequently met with in that part of Hindostan which is watered by the Ganges, as well as the Malwa, Guzerat, and the Decan: they are called Nath, or Benia; the first term signifying a rogue—and the second a dancer, or tumbler. And the same gentleman cites various authorities in demonstration of the resemblance between these Gipsies and their neglected brethren in Europe. Nor does he think that the English Gipsies are so degraded as is generally supposed; in support of which he mentions some instances of good feeling displayed by them under his own observation, while in Hampshire.