Read Ebook: Dissertation on the Gipseys Representing their manner of life family economy occupations & trades marriages & education sickness death & burial religion language sciences & arts &c. &c. &c.; with an historical enquiry concerning their origin & first appea by Grellmann Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb Raper Matthew Translator

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The Gipseys of our time are not willing to undertake heavy work; they seldom go beyond a pair of light horse-shoes: in general, they confine themselves to small articles, such as rings, jews-harps, and small nails: they mend old pots and kettles, make knives, seals, needles, and sometimes work trifles in tin or brass.

Their materials, tools, apparatus, all are bad, and of the most inferior kind. Their common method of proceeding is, to collect some pieces of rusty iron, old nails, broken horse-shoes, and such-like, which they fuse and shape to their purpose. The anvil is a stone; the other implements are, a pair of hand-bellows, a pair of pincers, a hammer, a vice, and a file: these are the tools which a nomadic Gipsey carries with him in his perambulations. Whenever he is disposed to work, he is at no loss for fuel: on his arrival at a station where he purposes remaining a few days, or perhaps weeks, he takes his beast, loads him with wood, builds a small kiln, and prepares his own coals. In favourable weather, his work is carried on in the open air; when it is stormy, or the sun too powerful, he retires under his tent. He does not stand, but sits down on the ground, cross-legged, to his work; which position is rendered necessary, not only by custom, but by the quality of his tools. The wife sits by to work the bellows, in which operation she is sometimes relieved by the elder children; the little ones sit, naked as they were born, round the fire. The Gipseys are generally praised for their dexterity and quickness, notwithstanding the wretched tools they have to operate with. When any piece of work requires much time to finish, they are apt to lose their patience, and in that case become indifferent whether it be well executed or not. They never submit to labour so long as they have got a dry crust, or any thing else to satisfy their hunger. They frequently receive orders to fabricate different articles; but if not, no sooner are a few nails, or some other trifles, manufactured, than man, woman, and children, dislodge, to convey their merchandise, from house to house, for sale, in the neighbouring villages: their traffick is carried on sometimes for ready money, sometimes by barter for eatables or other necessaries.

To the two professions before mentioned as commonly followed by the men, may be added, those of carpenters and turners: the former make watering-troughs and chests; the latter turn trenchers, dishes, make spoons and other trifling articles, which they hawk about. There are others who make sieves, or maintain themselves by cobbling shoes. Many of these, as well as the blacksmiths and whitesmiths, find constant employment in the houses of the better sort of people, for whom they work the year round. They are not paid in money; but, beside other advantages, find a certain subsistence. Those who are not thus circumstanced, do not wait at home for customers, but, with their implements in a sack thrown over their shoulders, seek business in the cities or villages: when any one calls, they throw down the bundle, and prepare the apparatus for work, before the door of their employer.

The Gipseys have a fixed dislike to agriculture; and had rather suffer hunger, or any privation, than follow the plough, to earn a decent livelihood. But, as there is no general rule without an exception, so, beside the slaves to the bojars in Moldavia and Wallachia, who are constrained to apply to it, there are some in Hungary who are cultivators by choice. Since the year 1768, the Empress Theresa has commanded that the Hungarian and Transylvanian Gipseys should be instructed in husbandry; but these orders have been very little regarded. At this time there are so few of them farmers, in those parts, that they are undeserving of notice; though in Spain, and other European countries, they are still more scarce, as it would be difficult to find one who had ever made a furrow in his life.

Formerly, Gipseys were commonly employed in Hungary, and in Transylvania almost universally, for hangmen and executioners. They still perform the business of flayers in Hungary, and of executioners in different parts of Transylvania. Their assiduity in torturing, their cruel invention in tormenting, are described by Toppeltin to be so shocking, that the Gipseys seem eminently calculated for works of barbarity. They do not follow flaying as a regular profession any-where; it is merely a casual occupation, in addition to their usual employment. Whenever a beast dies near where they happen to be, it is a fortunate circumstance if there be no skinner in the place; not because they can make much of the skin, which they always leave with the owner for a trifling consideration, but they are thus enabled to procure a plentiful provision of flesh for the family.

Such are the employments of the men. We shall now proceed to shew the particular methods the women have of obtaining support. It was formerly, and still is, the custom, among the wandering Gipseys, especially in winter, not for the man to maintain the wife, but the wife the husband. This is not precisely the fact in summer, when the men have the before-recited occupations; nor among those who have a regular settlement; but the women always endeavour to contribute their share towards the maintenance of the family: some deal in old clothes; others frequent brothels, which is commonly the case in Spain, and still more so in Constantinople, and all over Turkey. There are others, in Constantinople, who make and sell brooms; but this trade is followed by those chiefly who are too old to get a livelihood by their debauchery. Dancing is another means they have of obtaining contributions: they generally practise this when begging, particularly of men, in the streets; or when they enter houses, to ask charity. Their dancing is the most disgusting that can be conceived, always ending with fulsome grimaces, or the most lascivious attitudes and gestures: nor is this indecency confined to the married women, but is rather more practised by young girls, travelling with their fathers, who are also musicians, and who, for a trifling acknowledgement, will exhibit their dexterity to any body who is pleased with these unseemly dances. They are trained up to this impudence from their earliest years, never suffering a passenger to pass their parents' hut, without endeavouring to obtain something by frisking about naked before him.

In addition to the chiromantic deception of the Gipsey women, they also--though not exclusively, as the men likewise often profess the same talent--cure bewitched cattle, discover thefts, and possess nostrums of various kinds, to which they ascribe great virtues. These nostrums consist principally of roots, and amulets made of unfermented dough, marked with strange figures, and dried in the air. Griselini says, that, in the Banat of Temeswar, they sell certain small stones, chiefly a kind of scoriae, which they say possess the quality of rendering the wearer fortunate in love, play, &c. Were that true, why deliver to others what they have so much occasion for themselves? Why do they beg and steal, when, with the assistance of these stones, they might honourably acquire riches, and good fortune? Yet these stones are purchased with avidity, not only in the Banat, but in Germany. People use their quack medicines; call the Gipsey woman into the stable, to exorcise their bewitched cattle, without suspecting any trick or deception. So the open-hearted farmer, in Suabia and Bavaria, has recourse to the Gipseys on many occasions, employing them as doctors for man and beast; and constantly, in cases of supposed enchantment, flies to the Gipsey: this circumstance happens most frequently among those of the common people who pretend to have the least belief in witches and witchcraft. Whenever a cow does not feed kindly, something is immediately suspected; and the Gipsey woman is called, who is often so successful as to remove the impediment. She goes into the stable, orders the cow to be shewn to her, and, after desiring every one else to go out, remains a few minutes alone with it: having finished her operations, she calls in the master, acquaints him with the beast's recovery, and behold it eats heartily! How happens this? Was it not a piece of enchantment, wherein the Gipsey really acted the magician? Certainly not. The fraud is this:--When the cattle are feeding abroad, the Gipsey woman takes advantage of the keepers absence to entice some of them, with a handful of fodder, to follow her; she then smears them, over the nose and mouth, with some filthy composition, which she has ready in the other hand. From that moment the creature loaths all kinds of food and drink. When the Gipsey is called in to apply a remedy, the whole skill required, is to cleanse the animal's nose and mouth from the stuff she had put on a day or two before: by this means the true smell is restored, and the cow being hungry, it is not surprising she should fall-to greedily. From this single instance, a judgment may be formed of other cases.

The more common Gipsey occupations, wherein the men and women take an equal share, are--in Spain, keeping inns; principally music in Hungary and Turkey; and gold-washing in Transylvania, the Banat, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The Gipseys, formerly, were concerned in smuggling; and probably still are, although it is not mentioned by late writers.

It may not be uninteresting in this place to give the process of goldwashing, in the words of those who, as mineralogists, have superintended the work. The account communicated by the Councellor von Kotzian, concerning the goldwashing in the Banat, is as follows: "The operation consists in, first, providing a board of lime-wood, about one fathom long, and half a fathom broad; being hollowed at the upper end, in the form of a dish, from which are cut ten or twelve channels, in an oblique direction. This board is fixed in an inclined position so as to form an angle of forty-five degrees with the horizon. The sand containing the gold, being laid in the hollow at the top of the board, a quantity of water is then poured upon it, which carries off the lighter parts; such as are more heavy they shove down by hand: what remains in the channels, or furrows, is discharged into an oblong tray, carried to the straining-trough, and the gold which remains picked clean out. The whole of this work is performed in so careless a manner, that much pure gold is lost: it is, moreover, to be lamented, that the Gipseys get only the gold which is perfectly separated from the sand, but by no means any that sticks to the ore, which they throw away, though there is gold in it."

As it seems evident, from the foregoing statement, that this method is very inadequate to the purpose, and that consequently much gold must be wasted, we are the more surprised when another author, in the following words, assures us of the contrary:--"So negligent and careless as the work of the Gipseys appears at first sight, just as effectual it is proved when put to the test. Daily practice gives to these people a degree of discernment, without which another person would think they must lose a great deal. I convinced myself in the following manner: When they had finished their washing on the board--for which they commonly used from fifteen to twenty troughs of coarse stuff--I divided the washed stuff into three parcels; the ten or fifteen uppermost furrows always contained the most gold, the second division not more than an eighth part as much, but the last fifteen to twenty furrows scarcely three grains. I have also narrowly examined the refuse, and very seldom found any traces of gold in it."

The art of goldwashing is brought to much greater perfection in Transylvania. In the description of the process adopted in that country, it is said that all the rivers, brooks, and even the pools which the rain forms, produce gold: of these the river Aranyosch is the richest, insomuch that the historians have compared it to the Tagus and Pactolus. Excepting the Wallachians, who live by the rivers, the goldwashers consist chiefly of Gipseys. They can judge with the greatest certitude where to wash to advantage. The apparatus used by them for this work is a crooked board, four or five feet long, by two or three broad, generally provided with a wooden rim on each side; over this board they spread a woollen cloth, and scatter the gold-sand, mixed with water, upon it: the small grains of the metal remain sticking to the cloth, which they afterwards wash in a vessel of water, and then separate the gold by means of the trough. When larger particles of sand are found in their washing, they make deeper channels in the middle of their crooked boards, to stop the small pieces as they roll down: they closely examine these small stones, and some are frequently found to have solid gold fixed in them.

Those we have mentioned are the customary professions and occupations of Gipseys, in the different countries and states of Europe. But people must not imagine that their smiths' shops are continually resounding with the hammer; nor that those of other professions are so attentive to their callings, as to provide even a daily subsistence, not to think of a comfortable maintenance. Their consummate laziness, on the contrary, as before observed, occasions so many idle hours in the day, that their family is often reduced to the greatest distress; for which reason, begging or stealing is by far a more common method, than diligence or assiduous application to business, for quieting the cravings of hunger. If we except soldiers, who are kept in order by the discipline of the corporal, with some of the Transylvanian goldwashers, who apply to music--and, living separate from their own caste, in constant habits of intercourse with people of a better sort, have thereby acquired more civilised manners, and learned the distinction, if not between right and wrong, at least between social honour and disgrace--the remainder are, in the most unlimited sense, arrant thieves. In fact, working at any trade, or employment, seems to be merely a disguise, in order the better to enable them to carry on their thieving practices; as the articles which they prepare for sale in the cities and villages, furnish an excellent excuse for sneaking into houses, to pry where there is any thing which they may appropriate to themselves. This kind of artifice is particularly the province of the women, who have always been reckoned more dextrous than the men in the art of stealing. They commonly take children with them, who are tutored to remain behind, in the outer part of the house, to purloin what they can, while the mother is negotiating in the chamber. It is generally the women's office to make away with the boor's geese and fowls, when they are to be found in a convenient place. Should the creature make a noise when seized, it is killed and dressed for the consumption of the family; but if, by chance, it have strayed so far from the village, that its crying cannot give any alarm, they keep it alive to sell at the next market town. Winter is the time when the women generally are most called upon to try their skill in this way: during that season, many of the men remain in their huts, sending the women abroad to forage. They go about in the guise of beggars--a character they well know how to support--and commonly carry with them a couple of children, miserably exposed to the cold and frost; one of these is led by the hand, the other tied in a cloth to the woman's back, in order to excite compassion in well-disposed people. Whole troops of these Gipsey beggars are met with in Spain; and the encounter is by no means pleasant, as they ask alms in a manner, and with such importunity, as if they thought you could not deny them. They also tell fortunes; and impose on the credulous with amulets. Besides all this, they seldom return to their husbands without some pilfered booty. Many writers confine the thefts of the Gipseys to small maters, and will not allow that they are ever guilty of violence. This is not only denied by the testimony of others, but absolutely contradicted by some recent instances. It is true that, on account of their natural timidity, they do hesitate to commit a robbery which appears to be attended with great danger, nor do they often break open houses by night: they rather confine themselves to petty depredations, than, as they think, rush voluntarily into destruction by a great and dangerous action. Yet we have more than one proof, that they make no scruple to murder a traveller, or plunder cities and villages.

THERE are not, perhaps, any other people among whom marriages are contracted with so little consideration, or solemnised with so little ceremony, as among the Gipseys. No sooner has a boy attained the age of fourteen or fifteen years, than he begins to perceive that something more than mere eating and drinking is necessary to him. Having no fear of consequences, nor being under any restraint from his parents, he forms a connection with the girl he most fancies, of twelve, or at most thirteen, years old, without any scruple of conscience, whether she be his nearest relation, or an entire stranger; but it is to be observed, that a Gipsey never marries a person who is not of the true Gipsey breed. God's commandments are unknown to him; and human laws cannot have much influence over one who lives in a desert, remote from the observation of any ruling power. The term of courtship is very short, often only long enough for the parties to communicate their mutual inclination. They do not wait for any marriage ceremony, as it is a matter of no consequence to them, whether it be performed afterwards, or not at all. Yet they do not seem to be entirely indifferent about matrimony, not on account of conforming to any institution, but from a pride they have in imitating what is done by other people, lest they should appear to be inferior to them. As the very early age of the parties, or some other irregularity, might meet with objections from a regular clergyman, they frequently get one of their own people to act the priest, and tack the decent couple together. A marriage being thus accomplished, the man provides a stone for an anvil, a pair of pincers, a file, and hammers away as a smith; or works at some other trade, he may have just learned from his father: then begins his peregrination. Should his wife commit a fault at a future time, he gives her half a dozen boxes on the ear; or very likely, for some trifling cause, turns her off entirely. Her conduct must, in general, be very much regulated by his will; and she is obliged to be more attentive to him than to herself. When the woman lies-in, which happens frequently, these people being remarkably prolific, the child is brought forth, either in their miserable hut, or, according to circumstances, it may be in the open air, but always easily and fortunately: a woman of the same kind performs the office of midwife. True Gipsey like, for want of some vessel, they dig a hole in the ground, which is filled up with cold water, and the new-born child washed in it. This being done, it is wrapped up in some old rags, which the motherly foresight has taken care to provide. Next comes the christening, at which ceremony they prefer strangers, for witnesses, rather than their own caste: but what kind of folks their guests are, may be collected from the mode of entertaining them. When the christening is over, the father takes the sponsors to an alehouse, or if none be near, to some other house, where he treats them with cakes and brandy. If he is a little above the lowest state of misery, and has a mind to be generous, other things are provided; but he does not join the company, being employed in serving his guests. Thus the affair ends. The lying-in woman passes her short time of confinement, seldom exceeding eight days, with her child, in the hut, or under a tent, in the smoke by the fire. Refreshments are often sent from the godfathers and godmothers; yet they are sometimes so uncivil, that they do not hesitate to quarrel with them or even to discharge them from the trust, if they think the present too small, or do not like the provisions. When this happens, they have another christening, in some other place; nay, sometimes even a third.

Gipsey women, as already mentioned, frequently smear their children over with a particular kind of ointment, and then lay them in the sun, or before the fire, in order that the skin may be more completely parched, and their black beauty thereby increased. They never use a cradle, nor even possess such a piece of furniture; the child sleeps in its mother's arms, or on the ground. When the lying-in is over, the Gipsey woman goes to church, and thence, immediately, either to begging or stealing. While the child remains in her arms, perhaps imagining that people will be less severe in their chastisements, she is more rapacious than at other times, and takes whatever she can lay her hands on. If she cannot escape without a beating, she endeavours to screen herself by holding up the child to receive the blows, till she finds an opportunity of retiring imperceptibly, and running away.

When the child gets a little stronger, and has attained the age of three or four months, the mother seldom carries it on the arm, but at her back; there it sits, winter and summer, in a linen rag, with its head over her shoulder. If she have more children, in course of time, which is generally the case, as this race of beings is so prolifick, she leads one or two by the hand, while such as are older run by her side; and thus attended, she strolls through the villages and into houses. Notwithstanding their dark complexion, and bad nursing, writers are unanimous in stating, that these children are good-looking, well shaped, lively, clever, and have fine eyes. The mother plaits their black hair on the crown of the head, partly to keep it out of their face, and partly for ornament. This is all she ever does towards decorating her offspring; for in summer the children wear no clothes till ten years of age, and in winter they are forced to be content with a few old rags hung about them.

No sooner is the child, whether boy or girl, capable of running about, than it is taught to dance; which talent consists in jumping on one foot, and constantly striking behind with the other. As the young Gipsey grows up, all kinds of postures are added, in hopes of diverting, and thereby to obtain a reward from persons who happen to pass the parents' habitation. What the children are further taught, especially by their mothers, is the art of stealing, which they often put in practice, as before related. Instruction or school is never thought of; nor do they learn any business, except perhaps to blow the fire when the father forges, or to assist in goldwashing.

The preparations for death are usually regulated according to a person's religious principles; but the Gipsey, who neither knows nor believes any thing concerning the immortality of the soul, or of rewards and punishments beyond this life, for the most part dies like a beast--ignorant of himself and his Creator, as well as utterly incapable of forming any opinion respecting a higher destination.

The Gipsey's decease is instantly succeeded by the most frantic lamentations: parents, in particular, who have lost their children, appear inconsolable. Little can be said of their burials; only, that on those occasions the cries and bewailings are redoubled, and become very violent. When the leader of a horde dies, things are conducted more quietly. His own people carry him, with great respect, to the grave, where each one appears earnest and attentive; although at the same time employed in a manner to excite laughter.

This is the mode of proceeding when a Gipsey dies a natural death. But it often happens that he loses his life by violent means--not by his own hands for self-murder and infanticide are equally unheard of among them. No Gipsey ever puts a period to his own existence on account of vexation, anxiety, or despair; as, besides his unbounded love of life, care or despair is totally unknown to him.

Even in the greatest distress, the Gipsey is never troubled with low spirits; ever merry and blythe, he dies not till he cannot help it: this often happens on the gallows, attended with scenes ridiculous as the most ludicrous imagination could invent. One man requested, as a particular act of grace, that he might not be hanged with his face towards the high road; saying, "Many of his acquaintance passed that way, and he should be very much ashamed to be seen by them hanging on a gallows." At another time the relations of a Gipsey who was leading to execution, perceiving, by the discourse and gestures of the criminal, how unwillingly he advanced, not having the least inclination to be hanged, addressed themselves to the magistrates and officers of justice, with the following wise remonstrance: "Gentlemen, pray do not compel a man to a thing for which you see he has no desire nor inclination." Such scenes happen at almost every Gipsey execution, which are proofs that these people are quite deficient in thought or consideration.

WHEN the Gipseys first arrived in Europe, they had leaders and chiefs, to conduct the various tribes in their migrations. This was necessary, not only to facilitate their progress through different countries and quarters of the globe, but to unite their force if necessary, and thereby enable them to make a more formidable resistance when opposed: and likewise to carry any plan, they might have formed, more readily into execution. We accordingly find, in old books, mention made of knights, counts, dukes, and kings. Krantz and Munster mention counts, and knights, in general terms, among the Gipseys; other people give us the very names of these dignified men: Crusius cites a duke MICHAEL; Muratori a duke ANDREAS; and Aventinus records a king ZINDELO: not to speak of inscriptions on monuments, erected in different places, to the memories of duke PANUEL, count JOHANNIS; and a noble knight PETRUS, in the fifteenth century. But no comment is requisite to shew how improperly these appellations were applied. Though the Gipsey chiefs might be gratified with these titles, and their dependants probably esteemed them people of rank, it was merely a ridiculous imitation of what they had seen and admired among civilised people. Nevertheless, the custom of having leaders and chiefs over them prevails to this time, at least in Hungary and Transylvania; probably it may also still exist in Turkey, and other countries where these people live together in great numbers.

Their chiefs--or waywodes, as they proudly call them--were formerly of two degrees in Hungary. Each petty tribe had its own leader; beside which, there were four superior waywodes, of their own caste, on both sides the Danube and Teisse, whose usual residences were at Raab, Lewentz, Szathmar, and Kaschau: to these the smaller waywodes were accountable. It would appear extraordinary that any well-regulated state should allow these people a distinct establishment in the heart of the country, did not the Hungarian writers assign a reason: viz. that in the commotions and troubles, occasioned by the Turkish wars, in former centuries, they were, by means of their waywodes, more easily summoned, when occasion required, and rendered useful to the community. But the Gipseys in Hungary and Transylvania were permitted to choose, from their own people, only the small waywodes of each tribe. The superior waywodes, to whom the Gipseys, in many districts, were subject, have existed till within a few years; but they were appointed by the court, and always selected from the Hungarian nobility. The appointment was by no means despicable; as each Gipsey was bound to pay the superintendent under whom his tribe was classed, a guilder annually, of which one half was demanded at Easter, the other half at Michaelmas. In order to render the levying this tax more certain, the magistrates, in all towns, cities, and villages, were ordered to be assisting to the collectors, where necessary; to protect them also from any violence that might be offered by the Gipseys. These superior waywodes are now no longer appointed, except a single one in Transylvania, who has authority over the goldwashers in those parts. But the Gipseys still continue the custom, among themselves, of dignifying certain persons, whom they make heads over them, and call by the exalted Sclavonian title--waywode. To choose their waywode, the Gipseys take the opportunity when a great number of them are assembled in one place, commonly in the open field. The elected person is lifted up three times, amidst the loudest acclamations, and confirmed in his dignity by presents; his wife undergoes the same ceremony. When this solemnity is performed, they separate with great conceit, imagining themselves people of more consequence than electors returning from the choice of an emperor. Every one who is of a family descended from a former waywode is eligible; but those who are best clothed, not very poor, of large stature, and about the middle age, have generally the preference. Understanding or wise conduct is of no consideration: therefore it is easy to distinguish the waywode from the multitude, by observing his size and clothing. The particular distinguishing mark of dignity, is a large whip, hanging over the shoulder. His outward deportment, his walk and air, also plainly shew his head to be filled with notions of authority.

It is uncertain how far the waywode's sway over his subjects extends. A distinction must here be made, whether the state gives him any power, and what he assumes or derives by custom from his caste. It were ridiculous to suppose that the state should, on any occasion, appoint this sort of illustrious personage a judge. In Transylvania, indeed, the magistrates do interfere with regard to the fellow whom this or that horde has elected chief, and impose an obligation on him; but it is only that he should be careful to prevent his nimble subjects from absconding, when the time arrives for them to discharge their annual tribute at the land-regent's chamber. He has no right to interfere in disputes or quarrels which the Gipseys have among themselves, or with other people, further than to give notice of them to the regular courts of the district where they happen to be. In this point of view, what Toppeltin and others after him assert, that the waywodes have little or no power over their own people, is perfectly correct: but if we attend to their actions, the affair carries a very different appearance. Whenever a complaint is made, that any of their people have been guilty of theft, the waywode not only orders a general search to be made, in every tent or hut, and returns the stolen goods to the owner, if they can be found, but punishes the thief, in presence of the complainant, with his whip. Certainly it is not by any written contract that he acquires his right over the people, for no such thing exists among them, but custom gives him this judicial power. Moreover he does not punish the aggressor from any regard to justice, but rather to quiet the plaintiff, and at the same time to make his people more wary in their thefts, as well as more dextrous in concealing their plunder. These discoveries materially concern him, since by every detection his income suffers; as the whole profit of his office arises from his share of the articles that are stolen. Every time a Gipsey brings in a booty, he is obliged to give information to the arch-Gipsey of his successful enterprise; and then render a just account of what and how much he has stolen, in order that the proper division may be made. In this proceeding the Gipsey considers himself bound to give a fair and true detail; though in every other instance he does not hesitate to commit the grossest perjury. We may therefore judge how precarious success is likely to be, when a waywode is applied to for the recovery of stolen goods. The Gipseys are cunning enough to hide what they have pilfered, in such a manner, that out of a hundred searches the complainer hardly once accomplishes his desire. It does not at all forward the cause, that the waywode knows who the thief is: his interest requires him to dissemble. Thus, though he does not steal himself, the Spanish proverb is a very true one: "The Count and the Gipsey are rogues alike." For which reason people seldom apply to so suspicious a judge. If a thief is caught in the fact, the owner takes his property, and gives the offender his proper reward, or else delivers him over to the civil power for correction. Here ensues a truly laughable scene: As soon as the officer seizes on, and forces away the culprit, he is surrounded by a swarm of Gipseys, who take unspeakable pains to procure the release of the prisoner. They endeavour to cajole him with kind words, desiring him to consider this, that, and the other, or admonish him not to be so uncivil. When it comes to the infliction of punishment, and the malefactor receives a good number of lashes, well laid on, in the public market-place, an universal lamentation commences among the vile crew; each stretches his throat, to cry over the agony his dear associate is constrained to suffer. This is oftener the fate of the women than of the men; for, as the maintenance of the family depends most upon them, they more frequently go out for plunder.

THESE people did not bring any particular religion with them from their native country, by which, as the Jews, they could be distinguished among other persons; but regulate themselves, in religious matters, according to the country where they live. Being very inconstant in their choice of residence, they are likewise so in respect to religion. No Gipsey has an idea of submission to any fixed profession of faith: it is as easy for him to change his religion at every new village, as for another person to shift his coat. They suffer themselves to be baptised in Christian countries; among Mahometans to be circumcised. They are Greeks with Greeks, Catholics with Catholics, and again profess themselves to be Protestants, whenever they happen to reside where protestantism prevails.

Such is the respect paid by the Gipseys to moral institutions, in every country where they are found. It is true that in this, as well as in other things, there may be exceptions, but they are very rare; by much the greatest part of them are as above described. Wherefore the more ancient, as well as the more modern, writers agree, in positively denying that the Gipseys have any religion; placing them even below the heathens. This sentence cannot be contradicted; since, so far from having a respect for religion, they are adverse to every thing which in the least relates to it.

BESIDES that the Gipseys understand and speak the language of the country where they live, they have a general language of their own, in which they always converse with each other. Writers differ in opinion concerning this language, being undecided whether it be really that of any country, and who are the people from whom it originates. Some pronounce it a mere jargon, others say it is gibberish. We can by no means agree with the supporters of the first opinion, as the only ground for the assertion is barely, that they do not know any other language correspondent to that of the Gipseys. But they do not seem to have considered how extravagant a surmise it is, to believe a whole language an invention; that too of people rude, uncivilised, and hundreds of miles distant from each other. This opinion is too absurd to employ more time to controvert it. Neither can the Gipsey language be admitted for gibberish; unless by those who know nothing of the former, or are totally ignorant of the latter, which is corrupt German; whereas the former has neither German words, inflexions, nor the least affinity in sound. No German, were he to listen a whole day to a Gipsey conversation, would comprehend a single expression. A third party allow that the language of the original Gipseys was really vernacular, and that of some country; but assert it to be so disguised and falsified, partly by design of the Gipseys themselves, partly by adventitious events, through length of time, and the continual wandering of these people, that it is entirely new formed, and now used by the Gipseys only. This opinion contains much truth; but carries the matter too far, in not allowing that any traces remain to prove any particular dialect to be the Gipseys' mother tongue. Perhaps the great B?sching means the same thing, when he says, "the Gipsey language is a mixture of corrupt words from the Wallachian, Sclavonian, Hungarian, and other nations." Among these, the best-founded notion may be, that it is the dialect of some particular country, though no longer so pure as in the country whence it originated. This opinion meets the greatest concurrence of the learned: and will, we hope, be fully proved in another part of this book, where the subject will be again discussed, more fully, in order to corroborate the other proofs of the origin of this people. It will then be certified, in what country this is the native mother tongue. This is a point concerning which most writers think differently. Sometimes the Gipseys are Hebrews, then Nubians, Egyptians, Phrygians, Vandals, Sclavonians, or, as opinions vary, perhaps some other nation.

IMAGINE a people of childish thoughts, whose minds are filled with raw indigested conceptions, guided more by sense than reason, and using understanding and reflection only so far as they promote the gratification of any particular appetite;--and you have a perfect sketch of the general character of the Gipseys.

They are lively; uncommonly loquacious; fickle to an extreme, consequently inconstant in their pursuits; faithless to every body, even of their own caste; void of the least emotion of gratitude, frequently returning benefits with the most insidious malice. Fear makes them slavishly compliant when under subjection; but having nothing to apprehend, like other timorous people, they are cruel. A desire of revenge often causes them to take the most desperate resolutions. Thus they vowed no less than death against a respectable German prince who died not many years ago, because, on account of their misdeeds, he had persecuted and driven them from his territories. They even went so far as to offer a reward among themselves to whoever would deliver him to them, either alive or dead. Nor did they give up this insolent design, till some of them, who talked too openly about it in the Darmstadt dominions, were taken, and being delivered up to the parties concerned, paid the forfeit of their lives for their good intentions.

To such a degree of violence is their fury sometimes excited, that a mother has been known, in the excess of passion, to take her small infant by the feet, when no other instrument has readily presented, and therewith strike the object of her anger. They are so addicted to drinking, as to sacrifice what is most necessary to them, that they may gratify their taste for spirituous liquors. They have likewise, what one would little expect, an enormous share of vanity, which is evidenced in their fondness for fine clothes, and their gait and deportment when dressed in them. It might be supposed that this pride would have the good effect of rendering the Gipsey cautious not to be guilty of such crimes as subject him to public shame: but here his levity of character is rendered conspicuous, for he never looks either to the right or to the left in his transactions; and though his conceit and pride are somewhat humbled during the time of punishment, and while the consequent pain lasts, these being over, he no longer remembers his disgrace, but entertains quite as good an opinion of himself as before. The Gipseys are loquacious and quarrelsome in the highest degree, though they seldom make much noise in their huts, in which they generally keep quiet enough: but in the public markets, and before alehouses, where they are surrounded by a number of spectators, they bawl, spit at each other--catch up sticks and cudgels, vapour and brandish them over their heads--throw dust and dirt--now run from each other, then back again, with furious gestures and threats. The women scream, drag their husbands by force from the scene of action; these break from them again, and return to it: the children, too, howl piteously. After a short time, without any person's interference, when they have cried and made a noise till they are tired, and without either party having received any personal injury, the affair finishes itself, and they separate, with as much ostentation as if they had performed the most heroic feats.

Nothing can exceed the unrestrained depravity of manners existing among these people, particularly the softer sex. Unchecked by any idea of shame, they give way to every desire. The mother endeavours, by the most scandalous arts, to train her daughter for an offering to sensuality; and the latter is scarcely grown up, before she becomes the seducer of others. Let the dance, formerly mentioned, be called to mind; it will then be unnecessary to adduce fresh examples, of which regard for decency will not permit a detail.

Their indolence has been already quoted. Laziness is so natural to them, that were they to subsist by their own labour only, they would hardly have bread for two of the seven days in the week. This disposition increases their propensity to stealing and cheating--the common attendants on idleness. They seek and avail themselves of every opportunity to satisfy their lawless desires. Thomasius endeavours to propagate a notion, that this habit has grown upon the latter Gipseys by degrees, in opposition to the practice of those who first arrived, quoting Stumpf for his authority, who talks of Christian discipline and order among the original Gipseys; he assures us, too, that they paid ready money for all they wanted; but this testimony does not deserve attention: the Gipseys in Stumpf's time were the same as they are at this day, nor are they differently described by any of the old writers.

This is a lamentable enumeration of evil and ruinous properties in the Gipsey's character, which applies not only to a few individuals, but to by far the greatest number of these people. Scarcely any virtue could exist in a soul so replete with vices. What at first sight appears less censurable, or perhaps even amiable, in them is, their habitual content in their situation. They have no care about futurity; they are unacquainted either with anxiety or solicitude: and pass through every day lively and satisfied. But this, in itself commendable resignation, is as little to be accounted a virtue among the Gipseys as among the Iroquois, and proceeds from the excessive levity of their dispositions.

Let us now take a view of the natural qualities, and capacities, of the Gipseys. Here they will appear to advantage. Observe them at whatever employment you may, there always appear sparks of genius. It is well known, and no writer omits to remark, what artful curious devices they have recourse to in perpetrating any cheat or robbery: but this is not the only particular in which they shew brains and capacity. The following extract from an Hungarian author, who was an attentive observer of these people, contains corroborating instances:

"The Gipseys," he says, "have a fertile imagination in their way, and are quick and ready at expedients, so that in many serious doubtful cases they soon recollect how to act, in order to extricate themselves. We cannot, indeed, help wondering, when we attend to and consider the skill they display in preparing and bringing their works to perfection, which is the more necessary, from the scarcity of proper tools and apparatus. They are very acute and cunning in cheating or thieving: and when called to account, for any fraud or robbery, fruitful in invention and persuasive in their arguments to defend themselves."

At Debrezin, as well as at other schools in Hungary and Transylvania, there have been several lads admitted for instruction. Cleverness is observable in all, with no despicable talents for study. If another proof should be wanting, let us advert to their skill in music. That no Gipsey has ever signalised himself in literature, notwithstanding, according to the foregoing accounts, many of them have partaken of the instruction to be obtained at public schools, is no contradiction to the point in question. Their volatile disposition and unsteadiness will not allow them to complete any thing which requires perseverance or application. Frequently the bud perishes before it blows; or if it proceed so far that fruit appears, it commonly falls off and rots ere it attains maturity. In the midst of his career of learning, the recollection of his origin seizes him; a desire arises to return to, what he thinks, a more happy manner of life; this solicitude increases; he gives up all at once, turns back again, and consigns over his knowledge to oblivion. Such is the reason why the Gipsey race has never produced a learned man, nor ever will so long as these principles are retained.

There are many instances recorded in the annals of former centuries, of Gipseys having been employed in military expeditions: but seldom, or rather never, were they thought of as solders. At Crupa, 1565, they prepared cannon balls for the Turks: still earlier, in 1496, they served Bishop Sigismund at F?nfkirchen in the same manner. In the thirty-years war, the Swedes likewise had a body of Gipseys in their army. And when, in 1686, Hamburgh was besieged by the Danes, there were three companies of them in the Danish army. Their destination was not so much to stand to their arms, as to perform other services; they were chiefly employed in flying parties, to burn, plunder, or lay waste, the enemy's country. As these are the operations most suitable to their genius, they are now by the Turks destined to such purposes, and incorporated with the Sains Serdenjesti, and Nephers.

Such is the assistance which has hitherto been derived from the Gipseys in war; whence we experience the possibility of their being rendered serviceable, although the strict watch necessary to be kept over them, on account of their propensity to be guilty of excesses and irregularities, would be exceedingly troublesome.

But, in order to bring the advantages and disadvantages attending them to a fair discussion, it must not be forgotten, that at the very time one part of these people might be rendered beneficial, viz. in time of war, another part would have it in their power to do more mischief; by reason of the disorder which then prevails, when the relaxed attention of the magistrates makes them more daring in their depredations. Besides, what is still worse, they are very convenient for the enemy to use as machines for treachery. What they were in former times accustomed to practise very commonly, they still continue whenever they have an opportunity. They have been generally decried, in early ages, as traitors and spies: perhaps this accusation may be too far extended, but it is not without foundation. A Gipsey possesses all the properties required to render him a fit agent to be employed in traitorous undertakings. Being necessitous, he is easily corrupted; and his misconceived ambition and pride persuade him that he thus becomes a person of consequence: he is at the same time too inconsiderate to reflect on danger; and, artful to the greatest degree, works his way under the most difficult circumstances.

This accusation may be proved by more than one instance.--Count Eberhard, of Wirtemberg, with a train of forty people, made a pilgrimage to Palestine in the year 1468: and, as Crusius says, fell into the hands of the Sultan of Egypt, through the treachery of the Gipseys. Further, during the troubles excited by John Zapolya, in Hungary, in the sixteenth century, sundry spies and delegated incendiaries were taken, which proved to be Gipseys. In 1602 Count Basta, the imperial general, who besieged the city of Bistritz in Transylvania, when he wanted to circulate a letter among the besieged, effected it by means of a Gipsey.

Thus these people, in whatever point of view they are considered, are found to cause incalculable damage and mischief, without, in general, returning the smallest profit or benefit to the state in which they reside.

FROM the inherent bad and pernicious qualities of the Gipseys, the question arises, What a government can do with them? The evil they occasion has long been a subject of serious consideration, and various means of security have been devised. As banishment was a mode punishing formerly often resorted to, nothing could be more natural than that it should likewise be exercised against the Gipseys. The clergy and politicians inveighed strongly against the toleration of these people; and their exile was actually resolved upon in most countries of Europe.

In Italy, their situation has been equally precarious. In the year 1572 they were compelled to retire from the territories of Milan and Parma; and at a period somewhat earlier they were chased beyond the Venetian jurisdiction.

They were not allowed the privilege of remaining unmolested in Denmark, as the code of Danish laws specifies: "The Tartars who wander about every-where, doing great damage to the people, by their lies, thefts, and witchcraft, shall be taken into custody by every magistrate."

Sweden has not been more favourable, having at three different times attacked them. A very sharp order for their explusion came out in the year 1662. The diet of 1723 published a second: and that of 1727 repeated the foregoing, with additional severity.

Several princes were however so little attentive to these orders of the empire, that, instead of endeavouring to drive out the Gipseys, they, on the other hand, furnished them with passports and safe-conducts: others, on the contrary, and by far the greatest number, exerted themselves to the utmost to clear their states of this vermin, and some still continue the same watchfulness.

Hence it appears how universally the opinion was adopted, that banishing the Gipseys was the only method to be secure from their malignity. Perhaps there is not one civilised state, Hungary and Transylvania excepted, where this remedy has not been tried: but whether it be as expedient as it has been hitherto general, is much to be doubted.

In the first place, it had very little effect, and that little was only temporary. Even if every civilised nation had driven out the Gipseys at the same time, Europe could not have been entirely cleared of them, so long as they preserved an asylum in Turkey. Now, as experience evinces there is no country in which a constant equal attention is paid to the execution of the laws, they would, in more or less time, have again insinuated themselves into the neighbouring countries; from these into others; and recommenced where they had left off. But a general extermination never did happen: for the law for banishing them passed in one state before it was thought of in the next, or when a like order had long become obsolete and sunk into oblivion. These desirable guests were, therefore, merely compelled to shift their quarters to an adjoining state, where they remained till the government began to clear them away; upon which the fugitives either retired back whence they came, or went on progressively to a third place, thus making a continual revolution.

Secondly, this remedy was premature: endeavouring to exterminate was the same as if a surgeon should proceed directly to the amputation of a diseased limb, because it created inconvenience to the rest of the body. Whereas the first enquiry ought to be, Whether the disorder were of such a nature, as not to be removed but by entire separation? This is a desperate course, and should only be adopted when no other can be efficacious. Though it be proved that the Gipseys had occasioned ever so much mischief, it was not impossible that they might cease to be such pernicious beings: at least there had never been any trial made, by which this impossibility could be ascertained. Men may be formed to any thing. Had proper means been used for their civilisation, it is highly probable the event would have proved that they were not incapable of becoming better. If several Gipseys, at different times, have voluntarily emerged from their savageness, how much more likely is it that the remainder might have been altered, had they received such aids as their necessities required?--But expelling the Gipseys entirely was not merely a premature step; it was,

Thirdly, a wasteful one. This may perhaps appear strange, but is indisputable, so long as the state maxim holds good--that a numerous population is the most advantageous. It is allowed that a state would not lose any thing by the Gipseys, as Gipseys; on the contrary, it would be a gainer, because an obstacle to the general welfare would be removed: but this is not the matter in question. If the Gipsey do not know how to make use of the faculties with which nature has endowed him; let the state teach him, and keep him in leading-strings till the end is attained. And though the root of this depravity lie so deep, that it cannot be removed in the first generation, a continuation of the same care will, in the second and third descent, be sure of meeting its reward. Now let us reflect on a Gipsey when he has discontinued his vagrant mode of living--consider him with his fecundity and numerous family, who by being reformed are made useful citizens--and we shall perceive how great a want of economy it was to throw him away as dross.

Nearly the same idea has occurred to other authors; at least they so far agree in what has been advanced, that they advise rendering the Gipseys useful: only the means they recommend are liable to powerful objections. They think the state might make public slaves, or penitentiaries, of these people, and put them to all kinds of work. But such dependants, even supposing them to be employed in the most beneficial way, are always a nuisance and burthen to a state. Besides, in the above scheme, there is no proposal made for the bettering these people: they must, therefore, remain under the restraint of convicts, from generation to generation. And, if allowed to increase, what could be done at last with this multitude and their brood? Would not whole districts be required, merely to turn the thousands of these wretches into? Moreover, what an expense and inconvenience to superintend them! Plausible, therefore, as that proposal appears at the first glance, little will it stand the test of a closer examination.

Banishment was not the proper method to be adopted; nor would it have been adviseable to make them penitentiaries or galley-slaves: but care should have been taken to enlighten their understandings, and to mend their hearts.

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