Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1860-04-11
THE GIPsIES.

| The GIPSlES.
The strongest evidence of their Hindoo or
| lgln is found in the great resemblance theil
own language bears to the Hindoostanee.
Grellman, "a distinguished student of languages
states, that twelve words of every thirty in
their vocabulary arc either pure Hindoostanee
or intimately related to it.
| This language they call gibbersh, and be-
| lleve it to have been invented by their fore
| fathers for secret purposes. 1t is not peculiar
| to one, or a few of their tribes, but common
| to all in Europe and Asia.
Bishop Heber records in his journal ac-
count OF an encampment OF wretched tents OF
mats with baskets, ponies, goats, &c, SO like
| gipsies he had seen in England, that, on asking
who they were, he was not surprised to hear
his guide give them that very name.
= A well known nobleman of England, who
had resided many years in India, taking shelter
under tree during storm, near camp of
gipsies, was surprised to hear them use sever
al words which he well knew to be Hindoo-
stance, and, going up to them, he found them
able to converse with him in that language.
A returned missionary met gipsey at the
house of Father Crabb, the gipsy's friend, in
Southampton, England, and having conversed
with her q long time in the language of Hin
doostan, declared that her people must have
known that language WE'LL
Lord Teignmouth, who knew the Indian
language, once said to gypsy, 'Tue burra
tsctur'-that Is, sThou art thief She i'm
mediately replied, NO, am not a thief.
live by fortune-tellng.
Wandering tribes have been found in Nubia,
who have for centuries conversed in the same
dialect. The name of this people has induced
many to suppose that they had an Egyptian
origin but there is nothing in their habits, or
language, or "reminiscences that indicate such
fact. And yet they may have derived their
name from the fact of having passed through
Egypt into the European nations.
1t is believed by those who have had the
best opportunity to study the matter, that in
the earliest years of the fourteenth century
there was general migration of the Sudars,
a caste among the ASiatic Indians, occasioned
by the ravages of Timur Beg, who, having be-
come a Mohammedan, took up arms for the
! purpose of making prosylytes to that idolatry.
These Sudars, being of the lowest caste, and
unable to find shelter among the other castles,
fed, and havingsescaped the armies of Timur,
found their way into the neighboring coun-
tries. They were a degraded people; consid-
cred as the lowest of the human race ,and with
an army seeking their destruction, they had
every motive to leave, and none to remain in
their native land. Perhaps the most natural
course for them on their way to Europe was
over the Persian deserts, along the Persian
Gulf to the mouth of Arabia, and thence into
Egypt by the Isthmus of Suez.
But few years from this period they were
SpFedu INTO all Tic LuFOpeall HdllOUS. Hey
never visit the Norman Islands, and but few
visit ireland. They considered the name
'sGipsies" as disgraceful, probably it seems to
be synonymous with crime and yagrancy.
Their Indian name is Zingaree, Cincari.
Along the Ganges they are called Moth, or
Beania-the former signifyiug a rogue, the
latter dancer or tWmbier.
Having escaped the sword in their own
country, they obliged to live by plunder
in other lands. Indeed, in the 18th century
they became dangerous and burdensome in
the nations which they visited. They came
by thousands over the Pyrenees into Spain,
swept along the shores of its rivers, and plum
dered the husbandmen who were without de-
fence.
Throughout Hungary, France and England,
they were like so many locusts. Laws were
enacted against them. They were at length
not only resisted and brought somewhat under
legal regulations, but measures were carried
to the extreme, and they were prosecuted.
Every crime in the land whose perpetrator was
not discovered, was charged upon gipsies.
They were executed for the smallest offence
and even on suspicion, or on the most fimsy
and even false testimony, until at length they
were obliged to live by cunning and plunder.
Within few years the English and Prussian
laws have been more lenient, and the result is
that the gipsies are more submissive and less
under the influences of Christianity, and many
have shown truly religious spirit. We hope
for them at length Christian civilization and
the blessings of refined nationality .-D0nleG-
uy Literary Journal.