The Cecil Whig., 1885-12-05
THE GYPS1ES
At HOLLISuSWORTH'S H'S-ACCOCNT OF
THE PECULIAR NOMADIC TRIBE.

in the woods one mile west of Elkton
last week. Tney were a curious tribe,
and afforded the residents of town and
vicinity great deal OF amusement as
well as fright and discomfort. 1t has
often been wondered as to what is the
nature and origin of Gypsy, and there
are great many who rest in ignorance
of their natures and habits. They are
n mysterious vagabond race, scattered
over the whole of Europe and parts of
Asia ard Africa. Whence they originally
came, and what were the motives which
drove them from their native soil are
questions which, after having passed
through lcnge stage of helplessly alb
| surd speculation, have of late years been
ventilated by competent investigators,
| both linguists and historians, and are
still but partially solved So much only
seems now established, that India, the
cradle of many nations, was also the
source from which they sprang Whether,
however, they are the Tshandalas of
which the laws of Menou speak, or the
hinsmen of the Bazeegars or Nuts of
Calcutta; whether they belong to the
Tshingani, band of robbers near the
mouth of the Indus, or are the descend
ants of those Luz, s-idcntical, according
to Persian and Arabic authorities, with
the Luts or Djatts of Northern India
whom Firdusi mentions as having been
called into Persia by Bahram Cur to the
number of 10000 about the year, A. D.,
i2o, that they might act as musicians to
the poor-canrot be affirmed with GER
tainty, although there can be no doubt
that theirs must have been at all times
one of the poorest and most obscure
tribes of India. At first they were we'll
received. The romance with which they
surrounded themselves, their pretended
state of patience, above all, the pomp
and wealth they displayed, were sufii-
cient to secure the goodwill of the coun-
tries through which they passed-so
much so that letters of safe conduct
We're given them by the Emperor Sigis-
mund, the genuineness of which there is
no reason to doubt. Soon, however, the
tide began to turn. Their resources
gone, they were everywhere treated with
contumely, and despised chiefly on ac-
count of the degrading arts of chiro-
nancy, magic and thieving, to which
they again resorted for their support.
ike their earlier brethren, described by
the monk. And with the reckless bru-
tality characteristic of the middle ages,
edict after ed ct was hurled against these
diviners and wicked heathens.' The
governments of Europe We'd with each
other in banishing, outlawing and slay-
ing them whenever and wherever found,
and IN most severely Furnishing those
that dared to shelter them, chiefly tbe.
cause of their traffic with the DEVIL
These edicts remained in force in many
countries down to the eighteenth GEN.
tury; and Frederick the Great, in 174s,
renewed the law that every Gypsy be-
yond the age of eighteen found in his
States should be hanged forthwith. In
England the most barbarous DEGREES
against them were issued by Henry VIII.
in 1881 and Elizabeth in 1868. In Scot
land, where, under James ", certain
Johnny Faa had been officially recog-
nized by the Crown as Lord and Count
of Little Egypt, some of the seyerest
edicts date from 1910, 1903 and 1909; and
in 1924 Helen Faa, descendant of
Johnny, together with fifteen other wo-
men of the seed-royal, were condemned
to be drowned. OF their qualities, their
manners and customs we can only say
that they were and still are supposed to
be cowaldly, revengeful and treacherous:
that they allow themselves to be used as
spies; are the associates of robbers and
thieves; and that their women, chaste
themselves, ply all sorts of questionable
trades, chiefly selling poisons and acting
as go-betweens. 1t is further said that
their language has no word for God, i'm
mortality, soul-that, in fact, they have
no religion whatever; that their mar
riages, contracted very early, are not
binding; that they were, or are, wont to
eat their parents; and that they are al
together very criminal race. How
much of all these charges is more
founded on fact than their intercourse
with demons, for which they have been
so dastardly slaughtered in former days,
we are not able to decide; certain it is,
however, that there ethical code differs
most essentially from that of other peo-
pie (Gorsio), whom they deSpise on &C
count of their childish credulity and
brutal cruelty. They have proved them
selves on several occasions bold and cou-
rageous as lions, but they prefer running
away to fighting the battles of the for
| eisners; and it is also agreed on all hands
that they are passionately attached to
their relations; that they are fatalists,
and have sort of fetichism or panthe-
ism, though its peculiar form has never
been revealed by them to any inquisitive
tourist. At the same time they belong
| outwardly to the religion of every coun-
try which they happen to inhabit, and
repeat the process of baptism as often as
| they can, with view, as some have it,
to the presents of godfathers and god
mothers. They believe in metempsy-
Ghosts or trapsmigration of souls, and
refrain for that reason from eating GER
tain animals (eels, &c.), although, gen.
orally, they are anything but choice in
their food. They are dirty, lazy, fond of
drinking and smoking. Their talent for
music is remarkable in the extreme; their
ears seize, and instruments reproduce,
after the first hearing, the most difficult
and compile ited pieces, even entire SYM
| phonies. The increase of population
and the growth of culture all over Europe
are their worst enemies. Their forests
are cut down, their heaths enclosed, the
houses are pushed right into their COM
mons; and the easy and remunerative
belief in their secret arts is waning more
| and more. 1t is doubtful, indeed, whether
they will, as separate race, survive
many moro centuries in Europe. Their
numbers at this time are stated so very
differently that we would fam caution
the reader against an implicit belief in
the following figures, which were extract