Western cyclone., 1886-11-04
GYPSIES.
They are Queer. Even ia Their Religion =
Su-Called.

They are Queer. Even il Their Religion,
So-Called.
All the Year Round
OF religion, sad to say, the gypeies
have little or none, as we know it. They
have not learned, and they can not learn.
Some notable EXCEPTIONS there are who
teSch their children the Lords prayer,
which is translated into their language,
and allow them 10 attend Sunday school
when they are sometime in the neighbor-
hood CT one. But they havea rooted
objection to churches; and some Of them
lay a curse on their children, if they
break the promise they extort OH their
death beds, that they will not bury them
in a church yard.
In common with all savage, unciyilized
nations, they speak of and know Great
Spirit, to whom they look up and whom
they try to propitiate; but the idea Of
Him is SO overlaid with superstition,
with belief in lesser powers, fairies,
brownies, kelpies, omens, that even this
vague worship is-incomplete. They re-
sent intrusion, but at the same time have
met the advances of Christian teachers
with d gracious and dignifed If some
what condescending, manner.
They have no ambition, for they have
never striven to rise; and, strange to say,
any special talent or cleverness among
them has been found on the female side.
AS rule, the women are far quicker
in intellect than the men. They have
made money, some of them; but the on
ly manner in which We know it to have
been spent is in silken corerlets for some
of the low divans in the tents OF the
queen; IN silver jugs in which they
fetch milk from the neighboring farm;
in gay dresses; in jewelry, coins and
amulets, which they sport at fairs and
races, or at some Of their evening gath
erings.
Meet them where you will-in Spain
or Norway. in Hungary, Wallachia or
Scotland, in Italy or Epping Forest, in
the arid deserts of Morocco or the snow
swept steppes of Russia--there is no
mistaking the gypsy face, the gypsy
blood or character. They all under
stand the same language, that Of Roma
ny, subject through OF course 1t is to
variations in dialect and tinged and in
terspersed by the language of their sew
eral adopted countries.
Even their name is shrouded in mys-
terry. Nearly a century before they ap-
peared in Britain they were known in
France us "Bohtmiens" OR "Egy ptiens,"
and for long they were popularity sup
posed to hail originally from Egypt but
philologists and antiquarions differ as
to their nationality. There is faint
traceable likeness in the names given to
them in different lands:-"Y OF
Italy, the "Gitanos" of Spain, the
''Tzigan Of Hungary, tie 'GyIsy" of
England. They are as ignorant of their
Origin as we are; they have no archives,
no family history, no possessions, no
patrimouy, no literature.
Perhaps they were the cursed descend
ants OF Ham; perhaps the posterity OF
That first out cast Ishmael, whom ieal-
ously and injustice drove ont to the
wilderness to give q name to the hap)ess
pariahs OF society TO time immemorial--
their hand against every mans, and
every mans hand against theirs" Or
were they wandering Bsdouins, wander
ing first by choice ana then by necessity,
Till habit grew to second nature, and
grown too numerous o find tl.ir needful
prey on their native sol. they spread
over the known world? 4 dreamy mys-
terry, deep as their dark eyee, surrounds
them; halo of antiquity on which lis
tory has thrown no side light, they are
people complete, individual, separate
With no rights, no titles, not even o
home.