The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1844-04-05
The esi~ics-.-Who are they.


The following extracts are taken from
long article in The London Christian En-
aminer, written by gentleman of great
literary research. Whoever has read
Borrow's Bible in Spain will at once re-
cugnize the character Of the Gipsies, Gil
tanas, or Rhomas-all of which are syno-
nymous terms:
And whom have we seen, with the
mark Of fugitive imprinted on his brow +!
yea, with that more Infamous brand
mark Of vagabond, also; but one who
strongly resembles, while yet he widely
differs from, the descendant of The patri
arch Judah lie who has travelled on
the continent Of Europe, has met with
him in every European land. lie who
has visited Asia has met with him there.
He who has visited Africa and America
has met with him there. And what Brit
ish, or Scottish, or Welsh, or Irish child,
knows not the swarthy hue, remembers
not the dark and piercing eye, Of the ever
restless wandering tribes of the Gl-
Iana, or, as they are called in this
country, the Gypsy race "a race whose
origin none can tell you, and Of which
none are more ignorant than themselves.
Ask them whence they come They
know not. From whom they spraug !
They know not. What is their religion!
They have none. Whom do they woI-
ship! They are without God in the
world. What is their language ! That
Of the nation among whom they sojourn.
Are they Jews! They tell you they are
not. Are they Gcntiles! No. Like the
Jews, they are wanderers, without Il
home. Like the Jews, they are mingled
among all people, and YET distinct from
all despised, suspected, prosecuted, and
hated without country, without a
king with nationality unbroken either
by time, persecution, or admlXtnre OF
blood; with a spirit of clanshIp or bro
therhood that nothing can qucnch; with
dis,rust of the Gentle that nothing can
overcome.
But the Jew is worshiper Of Jehovah
the Gi,ana, or Rhoma, knows him not.
The Jew processes, and venerates, and
studies tie ancient oracles of revealed
!ruih.-the Rhoma scarcely knows that
such 0racles exist. The Jew would
rather die than deile himself with what
to him is ccremon;aily unclean--the Rho
ma will feed on the most loalhsome food,
even that which is torn, or which hath
died Of itself, eating his deiiled bread
among the Gen,les, iain to fill his belly
with the husks that swine DO eat,-ll0w,
then, can these wanderers be of common
origin : The Jew, though cursed, has
been intrus,ed with the orioles of God,
and has therefore retained zeal for his
worship ; a knowledge of the language of
his forelathers, of the history Of the coun-
try from whence he has been driven and
a hope, an undying, unquenchable hope
Of one day returning to that land, around
which hover all his thoughts, and whose
very dust is dear TO him as the gold OF
Ophir. But the Gitana was sent forth to
wander without the written word, and
consequently he has, and must have lost
all trace of the name and character of the
God of his fathers all knowledge of the
country from whence he came; of the
parental source from whence he sprang !;
of the language in which his spoke;
of the meaning Of his judicial wander
ings and Of the glorious hopes that the
word, the promise, and the oath Of the
God Of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hold
not the scattered tribes, whether Of the
house of Judah or of Israel.
OF these mysterious wanderers, be they
who they may, (and who they are, | pre-
sumo no, to say, although firmly dehere
that they represen, the house Israeli
there are not fewer than three millions
scattered over the face Of the earth, and
of the well known tribes Of Judal, and
BENJAMIN about ten millions more-each
,esIiiying, though in different ways, TO
the truth Of faithful but offended Sod
A death blow to qtack.ery, as the man