Huntsville gazette., 1886-10-23
GYPSY HISTORY.
Race Which Has Been Prosecuted and
Despised for Many Centuries.

Race Which Has Been Prosecuted ana
| Despised for Many Centuries.
Gypsies were descended from the
wandering tribes Of that portion of In
dia once known as Hindustan. When
the fierce Hindus came down in mighty
hordes upon India, these tribes re-
PEELED them savagely, holding them in
check above the Nerbuddah and Tap
tee rivers. But in time, like a great
tempest, the Hindus swept over the pc
ninsula until the green waters of the
Indian ocean sang rhythmic chants in
honor of the conquest. Of the antiaui-
| ty of the race there is no longer any
| doubt. But strange and mysterious as
the race itself, the certainty of that an
tiquity and distinctiveness is alone es-
tablished through a most strenuously
guarded secret. This is of the Gipsy
| language-the Rommany. 1t is San
skirt with Aryan notifications. but as
universal and pure to-day, to whatever
degree it has been retained by people
possessing neither books nor homes, in
the camps of every part of America, in
the canyons and on the calZads of Cuba
along the hedges and wales of England
and Scotland, in every village and by
every roadside of continental Europe,
from Constantinople to Shanghai or
| Siberia to Ceylon, as when the eight
cen Puranes were made by the myth
| ical Vyasa. But the exodus of the race
began and continued from the tenth to
the thirteenth centuries. The conquered
tribes of India heed these restless,
unconquerable spirits. They stole
away from their savage surroundings
in the night of the years. 1t was not
the instantaneous going out of a whole
people. 1t extended through number
less generetions. 1t was the wary glid-
ing Of the group or little band from
place to place, and, what might sur
vive dismay and scourge, meeting again
in month, year, decade. Weird,
made them doubly so. Hunted like
beasts, subtle instinct grew into them
akin to genuine powers of divination.
Goaded by revengeful fate, and pos
sessed of the eternal alertness of dread,
the mantle of sorcery and witchcraft
clothed them. Compelled to clutch
at life with the starved and dex-
ferrous fingers of chance, their Jug
gleries, chicanery and chickering's be-
came miracles of desperate art. In
these three hundred years they
crept into central Asia. They pene-
trated the very heart of Africa. They
| stole over tho hordarC and Uazad
| upon the wonders of continental Eu-
rope. Here, to them, was land Of
marvellous peace. Then the word passed
over steppes, beyond mountains, into
| jungles: Here is Heaven. Gomez
These were the mystic fathers of the
Gypsies of to-day. In the idyllic days
of my wanderings with them, in sea-
sons of joyous nearness to the warm,
welcoming heart of nature these peo-
pie adore In confidence told and
heard in tenderest trust, through ro-
mances fit for heroic verse, in friend
ship lofty and leal, have come such as
can make their story simple, plain and
true. And looking upon these sWarthy
| faces about me, while realizing the
conditions so marvelously favorable to
the rapid growth of these people in
America, can look forward to no dis
tant day and see, in spirit of no un-
wise prophecy, time when not to
| know this ancient race is to have ig-
nored a people certain to gain vast
| numbers, large material holdings, and
no little respect among us.-Edgar Il.
| Wdkemdaa, t'7 Chicago Neoos.