New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-03-24
THE GipslEs.

- bl9le IN Sla anu many otller WuIAsf +
limited Immortality, published his singslas book eal-
Cd the { zirgaree, embodying result g nus vi
searches among the OF Span, N 1le last-
nesses Of the alia ana m tlle
crowded cities If Madrid Barcelona and elsewhere
verv little l1as been written read concerning this
strange tribe cf people They are sort Of middle
ape MYTH tralsp 10 the hard actuaties Of the
d fiction realized; romance fact Claim
M all yItan and Arabic nationality prior to the
times Christ possessing strange kind of elastic
evertIeless cohesive nationality with an honor
as FURNISHED steel between themselves they
nevertheless agabonds, thieves, cheats; the dis
owned and dispersed doulo of the world whose hand
is against every man, and whom every mans hand is
raised against @@2
During the middle ages the Gipseys were, for along
time slowly working their way westward through
Austria Germany France and Spain, until finally
they stIayed over into England Some of them have
latterly appeared in our own country and camped at
Hoboken, near New York, where they drove u -four
ishing business in fortune telling, stealing and Jockey
ing for no educated horseman has quicker eye for
good points in an animal, half 50 many resorts
for concealng those which are bad, as Egyptian,
who sucks in rascalty with his mothers milk, and is
little else than how to procure money by those
means of knaVery which deserve but Just escape, the
4 Jail and parish prison. Indeed. in order to become
profcients and graduates in knayery they hvea sort
of actual education rough and une0uth as it is, admit
raby adapted to the purposes for whichitis taught
With regard to this strange people, whose secrets
4 are known to none outside their own order; who
have queens clothed in rags and not unwilling to beg
or steal priests competent to mock all religions yet
revered, for some unknown cause, by their own com
i municants, and whose creed is SO close as to put
hardshell baptist in the ranks of libeIality some
revelations have lately been made, as interesting as
they are novel; The field explored was the Danubian
prncipalities, opened to nauisiton by the existing
war and the result of the researches we very briefly
append are not less curious ethnologicaly than phi
n losophcay. g.4s& s.,s=eea 81 /. gafaa- Y3m5#
\ The Gpsey population of the provinces to which
wehaye referred, is estimated at about three hundred
thousand their rowing habits preventing any close
census statisticsand, in character, they not IN
like their brethren the Gitanas Of SPAIN Politically,
democrats of the open air and great adventures reli
gously outward conformists to the faith Of those
+ among whom they live but cherishing at the same
time mysterious belief of their owIneyer diyuged,
nor even comprehended in its outlines Those who
are acquainted with them, assert that they have a
political organization and king; though who he is,
where he lives or what his powers may be, not
known by any. They are as marked people in their
physiognomy and physical conformation as any that
are known, and love to live the open air. under the
stars. Their language is queer corruption Of every
thing eyer talked, and cannot be learned with much
facility as the Chinese which has some thousands Of
characters in its alphabet The root is supposed to
be Sanscrit with borrowing from every other known
or used, ancently Or recently accommodating itself
to the countries where they reside: in Turkey having
the Turkish termination in Spain, the Spanish sufx
but, everywhere, the same generic character
{ Their religion passes comprehension. It certainly
has nothing to do with morals for they steal, lie
murder and cheat with q provoking negation of all
recognised rules of virtue. Some deem them fire.
worshippers, and there are not wanting grounds on
4 which to rest such an opinion.
A With regard to their origin, there is no doubt of
their being Notwithstanding even now, the lower
castles of Hindostan-and it is supposed that they
were driven from the banks of tile Oxus by Tanner
lane about 400, and entered Europe by three different
channes--by Spain ria Africa; by the northern
shore of the Euxine, and, towards the Danube, by
way of Anatolia and Roumeia. They spread over
\ Europe like u great wave In l4l7 they appeared
:. in Moldavia, and in a few months reached Germany
and the Baltic shores thence in year. into Swift
zelland pretending to have been driven from Lower
soon as their true character developed itself they
prosecuted with unrelcntng bitterness driven out OF
, Switzerland by decree of government, and STYLED
thieves, liars and besphemous idolaters.
At present it is estimated that there are abou
100000 Gipsies in Europe. In 1442 there vert
1900 in Switzerland alone. They were expelled
from France, Spain, Denmark and Germany, at thu
peril of their lives but nevertheless continued to lin
: ger about their old haunts. By Henry VIII ant
Elizabeth they were prosecuted in England, thougl
protected in Scotland when, at one tinle they nun
/ bered 100, 900 In the time of Walter Scott, how
e ever, who makes frequent reference to them, Their
= were not over 500 Gpsies in all Scotland In Mo
davia and Walacha, the Gipsies held as slaves
J. the number of quarter of million, and weane
IL from thieving and begging by good cudgels an
plenty of work. They are the gold washers of til
country, and have gone so far as the Ural our
Ii tains to pursue their researches. Another class
/ (pses catch young bears among the Carpathia
# mountains, teach them various tricks and take ther
around to exhibit through all the countries of Ell
rope; wherefore they are called Uisari bear mel
. Another class, more civilized and industrious tina
II the rest, manufacture wooden utensils-cups, plate
1t and spoons--and also labor smiths. They are I'll
. most prosperous of all.
=. The last class of ali, and the lowest even in Clips
estimation, are the vagabonds-the smonpure Gil
sies-who pursue no trade, have no calling, but liz
by beggary larceny and small villanies. This is tt
= class that fitch eggs and chickens, appropriate I'll
weeks washing, tell fortunes and sleep under hedge
ID 1t is the one that is best known, and the whc
e, Borrow seems to have fallen in with whose largo
10 decs every pathological rule and all gramnlatic;
construction, and called among themselves romano
t, nothing nor less than scientific arrangemer
in and classification of all the argon invented since tt
40 confusion of tongues. The women of this class Al
frequently very beautiful, with large black eyes, re
Is uar features swelling breasts, and clean ankles
Oh tull-boodcd racer. This form of government is pa
~ TALLY royal partially democratic, and partially patl
archal. They have judges and subordinate officer
, and the punishment of death is sometimes execute
- upon recusants
~ The class Of Gipsies called Vatrassi have fix
A. dwellings, and are like Russian sers than say
r. or freemen. They are chiefly household servants
III Bayard families and are altogether more domcst
M and scrvile than those democrats of the open air
good adventure to whom We have already allude
as Some of them are farmers small scale, and son
on have trades but the majority held in vassaage
Of and given the cut direct by those who prefer to sil
the songs of the Jolly Beggars' as penned by Burn
= with the ready trick and fable,
Round we wander all the day;
/ And at night, in barn Or stable,