Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1883-11-03
The Gypsies--- Their Origin and Ian
guage. .., lsa


The Gypsies- Their Origin and Ian
guage;ijo noel .bd
Boston Advertiser.
There are about 100000 gypsies in
Europe, and so, 900 in Hungary alone.
Poetry, opera and music must have
been partial to the gypsies. Sir Walter
Scott, the opera of Carmen, and scores
of German productions have dealt in
gypsies, and Franz List has immortal.
lied their music. The gloomy, melan-
choly eye of the gypsy has been ex>
planned as the result of persecution, or
as the yearning for happier lot.
Gypsy girls have been admired for
their charms. But the sober truth is
that the melancholy eye of the gypsy
indicates stupidity, sensuality and lazy
brooding. Gypsy girls may have a
certain charm-young people gener-
ally have; but gypsy women are ugly,
in the fullest sense of the word. And
romance itself comes to an end when
people are on bad terms with water
and soap, and revel in roasted cats or
half decayed meats of any kind. Most
gypsies are dirty, lazy, thievish,
cowardly, malicious and strictly I'M
poetical. They abominate policemen ;
they like people who are romantic.
They are nomadic in the fullest mean
ing of the term, and they like to be
recognized as such. More than cen
fury ago scholar investigated the
language of the gypsies, and decided it
to be Indian in origin and Aryan in
character. The greatest etymologist in
this century, Prof. Pott, studied the
gypsy dialects of all Europe, and con-
cluded them to be nearer the original
Sanskrit than are most languages now
spoken. More recently the eminent
Miklosich, the illustrious Stay scholar
has traced the migrations of the gyp>
sizes from the upper Indus, through
Syria and Asia Minor, to Greece.
They left India about the year 1000;
they began to make Greece their home
about 1850; they entered Roumania
about 1900, Hungary about 1850, Bo'
hemia about 1410, Germany in 1417,
Spain in 1440. Later on they inva-
ded Scotland, Sweden, Russia and ST.
IBERIA. When did they enter America!
We do not know. But it is quite Ger.
tain that the gypsies occur in Egypt,
in the Soudan, throughout Northern
Africa, and even in china. Prof.
Miklosich has destroyed the belief that
the gypsies are Aryans, except in theil
dialect. Modern anthropology is dis
posed to question the Aryan character
of the people in British India, the low
er classes, the dark people, and the
gypsies are now thought to be ORA
vidians, that is to say, neither Caucas-
ian nor Mongolian. They occupied
India before the immigration of the
Sanskrit people, and still survive, es
pecially near Madras and in Southern
India. The pariaths of Northern In
dia are called Domas, but the D is cere
bral, and sounds somewhat like r.
Our gypsies call themselves Rom; they
think themselves kalo, black, or melelo
brown, in opposition to the white Euro
peans, whom the gypsy calls parno
Prof. Miklosich traces the word Zigen'
ner to Atsingani or Athingani, which
is the Byzantine name for abandoned
heretics. The Roms, or gypsies, have
no religion. The Byzantines, likesomt
other people, measure the value o.
strangers on the score of religion-by
the degree to which strangers share
our own religious preferences and Gus
toms. Viewed in that light, or by
our statute-book, the gypsy is not {
good citizen.