Omaha daily bee., 1886-10-10
GYPSIES.
They are Queer, Even in Their Relig-
ion, So-CaIIed.

ion, So-Called.
All the Year Round Of religion. sad
to say, the gypsies have little or none, as
we know it. They have not learned, and
they cannot learn. Some notable excep-
tions there are who teach their children
the Lords prayer, which is translated
into their language, and allow them to
attend Sunday school when they are
sometime in the neighbornood of one.
But they have rooted objection t.,
| churches; and some of them lay a curse
on their children, if they break the prom
ise they extort on their death beds,
that they will not bury them in church
| yard.
In common with all savage, uncivilized
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 a
belief in lesser powers, fairies, bl ownies,
| kelpies, omens that even this vague
| worship is incomplete. They resent in
| trusion, but at the same time have met
| the advance of christian teachers with a
| gracious and dgnitied if somewhat con-
descending, manner.
They have no ambition, for they have
never striven to rise; ana, 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 nen. They have made
money, some of them; but the only man
ner in which We know it to have been
| spent is in silken cnverlcts for some of
the low divans in the tents of the queen;
| in silver jugs in which they fetched milk
from the nelghboring farm; in gay dress.
es; in jewels, coins and amulets, which
they sport at fairs and races or at some
OF their evening gatherings.
Meet them where you will-in Spain or
Norway, in Hungary, Wallachia, or Scot
land, in Italy or Epping Forest, in the
ard deserts of Morocco or the snow.
swept steppes of Russia-there is no mis-.
taking the gypsy face, the gypsy blood or
character. They all understand the same
language, that of Romany, subject though
OF course 1t Is to variations in dialect and
tinged and intcrspersed by the language
OF their several adopted countries.
Even their name is shrouded in mystery.
Nearly century before they appeared
in Britain they were known in France rs
long they were popalarIy supposed TO
hail originally from Egypt but philolo-
gists and antiquarians differ ms to their
nationality There is faint traceable
likeness in the names given to them In
different lands;-'i Zangari" of Italy, the
"Gitanos' of Spain, the 'Tzgan of Hun
gary the Gypsy" of England. They are
10 iSioIuut VI llclr OIlBl us we are; tney
have no archives, no family history, no
possessions, no patrimony, no literature.
Perhaps they were the cursed descend
ants OF Ham; perhaps the posterity of
that first outcast, Ishmael, whom jealousy
and injustice drove out to the wilderness
to give name to the hapless pariahs of
society to time their hand
against every mans, and every man S
hand against tho irs." Or were they
wandering Bedouins, wandering 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 worldy Adieamy mystery, deep as
their dark eyes, surrounds them; halo
of antiquity on which history has thrown
no side light, they are people complete,
individual, seperate with no rights, no
titles, not even home.
The quality of the blood depends much
upon good or bad digestion and assimila,
tion to make the blood rich IN life and
strength-giYing constituents, use DIR. j.
ii, MeLean's Strengthening Cordial and
Blood Purifier, il will nourish the proper
ties of the blood from which the elements
Of vitality are drawn.