Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-10-03
THE GYPSIES.
PECULIAR LIFE OF A STRANGE
PEOPLE.
They Know No Name for God, They
Worship Morality and Lead Lives
of Remarkable Purity.


Worship Morality and Lead Lives
of Remarkable Purity.
/ once knew gypsy named Carpen-
ter nearly 100 years old, exactly ninety
six in the summer of 1877, when l was
favored with his wise companionship
among the beautiful hills and valleys OF
western Pennsylvania. His great age,
AMI certain amount of book knowledge
he had somehow acquired, made him a
sort of seer among his race. l always
approached him with real veneration,
and when one day asked him why
gypsies were wanderers he instantly
answered in Romany:
because they are Gods chosen peo-
plel 1"
l am pretty sure the old rascal did
not believe what he said, because there
was a merry, half-wicked twinkle IN his
eyes; and besides we were at that very
moment occupied in dressing some
plump chickens, over whose manner Of
getting into camp ] thought best to
throw the mantle of silent charity. But
he gravely proceeded to draw a host of
similitudes between modes of gypsy life
and those of the ancient patriarchs, lay
ing great emphasis upon the statement
that gypsies were the true descendants
of the house of Rechabites, so owed of
the Lord for its peoples faithful obser
vance of divine commands. Then lie
glibly quoted from jeremiah: Neither
shall We build houses, nor SOW seed,
nor plant vineyards, nor have any; but
all your days We shall dwell in tents;
that We may live many days in the land
where We be strangers.'
1t is a noteworthy fact that the
Romany GYPSY language contains no
exact luiyalent for God. Indeed, it is
almost barren of words designating the
Creator. The nearest expression that
my most studious and persistent
researches have been able to discover IS
that of Banrie Rom, or great head; and
yet this literally means a powerful man,
n chief poten ate, and does not mean a
spiritual being with omniscient powers.
Nor is this term applied to supreme
being save in one instance. That one is
in q singularly universal and always
secret sacred legend Of the gypsies; their
sole lore pertaining to the infinite
mys' cries. This story, tradition or
legend re ates in picturesque, brief and
almost poetic manner to the contess of
the great good spirit and the great bad
spirit as follows
some day the Baurie Rom great
head, whose shining tent was the sky,
went out to seek wild boar for dinner.
As no good being will steal from an open
tent, the Baurie Rom drew not the cur
tain about the door literally, MOUTH.
Soon, along came the Baurie Bing
(chief evil spirit, the great devil), who
saw the deserted tent and cried out with
great glee:
"'Now the Bauiie Rom is gone. i
will de ,troy his beautiful habitation and
leave him desolate =
"Then the Raurie Bling drank up the
rivers, ate all the pomegrana es between
the rims Of the sky, and licked up all
the earth's honey. After feasting he
blew flame on the world, and split the
mountains with his fiery tail. Then he
arose to 60, but had yelled so broad
and high that he could not get out Of
the tent door, and his horns got fast IN
the woolly ten. curve (cover, the sky.
The Baurie Bling struggled and below
ed, and ten black devils (dasa kala bing)
came to help the Baurie Bng away.
just then the Baurie Rom came back.
The ten black devils ran away, when
the Baur.e Rom took the Baurie Bing
in his hand as though light as dust, aud
hurled him beyond the edge of the sky,
into place where he ever burns, but
there is never light. From that day
Baurie Rom placed a great chief to
guard his tent door.
In passing 1t is interesting to find in
the three words ddsa kdla bling (ten black
DEVILS remarkable proof of the extreme
antiquity Of the gypsy race. They are
respectively Sanscrit, Hindostanee and
Romany and their preservation by
these people, independent of the written
or printed language, seems almost be-
yond be ief.
But in the tale of the Paurie Rom and
the Baurie Bing are found many sym
bols of gypsy thought and feeling. 1t
is thousands of years older than the
bible, and it is curious example of the
earliest formulatiye thought as to a
supreme being. He is typified as be-
nign, good, all-powerful, but awful in
Just wrath. The devil, too, as the type
of greed, envy and malicious destruc-
tiveness, was rot q bad notion for 5000
or 1900 years ago; while many Of the
material instincts of these strnDge folk
the sky as a semb'nnce of the tent,
the hunting of the wild boar for dinner,
the feasting and gorging of the intruder,
his final discomforture and almost Mil !
tonic casting out stand out clearly in |
these tropes and SMILES.
But the most singular feature of the
matter is that this notion of supreme
being and an antithesis, the temptation,
the fall, the expulsion from a state of
privilege, the endless punishment for |
rebellion and sin, and the final sentinel
ling of the Raurie Rom's dwelling by I
81 great chief" like our later poetic /
station for st. Peter, crystallized in the 4
minds of pilgrims by the Narbudda and
Tapstee rivers, from 5000 to 5000 years
ago, remain intact in the brain and +
thought of every one of the gypsy des-
pendants that live that is the bare
story, the myth of a substance. the
wrath of some wondrous Has Been.