Western Kansas world., 1886-11-06
GYPsIEs.
They are Oueer, Even in Their Religion.
So-Called.

InGy arc SuccTs ANOA ~ hGIElDn.
So-Called.
All the Year Round.
OF religion, sad to say, the gypeiee
have little or none, as we know it. Thew
have not learned, and they can not learn.
Some notable exceptions there are who
teach their children the Lords PRAYER.
which is translated into theit language.
and allow them to attend Sunday school
when they are sometime in the neighbor-
hood cf one. But they havea rooted
objection to churches; and some of them
lay curse on their children. if thew
break the promise they extort on their
death beds, that they will not bury them
in church yard.
In common with all savage, unciviiized
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 hi
vague worship is incomplete. They
sent intrusion, but at the same time have
met the advances of Christian teachers
with a 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 coverlets 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 am
amulets, which they sport at fairs and
races, or at some of their evening gath
erings.
Meet them where ycu will-in Spair
or Norway. in Hungary, Wallachia OF
Scotland, in Italy or Epping Forest, il
the arid deserts of Morocco or the snow
swept steppes of Russia a-there is n.
mistaking the gypsy face, the gypsy
blood or character. They sll under
stand the same language, that of Roma
ny, subject through of course it is t
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 century before they ap
peared in Britain they were known In
France as "Bohemiens' Or "Egyptiens,'
and for long they were popularity sup
posed to hail originally from Egypt but
philologists and antiquarians differ as
to their nationality. There is faint
trs ceable likeness in the names given tc
them in different ands:-"Yangari"
Italy, the "Gitanos" of Spain, the
''Tzigan of Hungary, the "Gypsy" OF
England. They are as ignorant of theil
origin as we are; they have no archives,
no family history, no possessions, nc
patrimony, no literature.
Perhaps they were the cursed descend
ants of Ham; perhaps the posterity of
that first out cast Ishmael, whom jeal-
ously and injustice drove out to the
wilderness to give name to the hap]ese
pariahs of society to time immemorial-
their hand against every mans, and
every mans hand against THEIRS" Or
were they wandering Bedouins, wander
ing first by choice and then by necessity,
till habit grew to second nature, and
grown too numerous to find their needful
prey on their native soil, they spread
over the known world? A dreamy mys-
terry, deep as their dark eyes, surrounds
them; halo of antiquity on which his
tory has thrown no side light, they are
people complete, individual, separate
with no rights. no titles, not even
home.