Evening star., 1912-09-15


pickpotkets! All the Romany types Of the
earth, some as beautiful as demigods.
others degenerate monstrositles. young
women radiant with oriental beauty, old
Hoary sorcerers giorying in their ugh-
ness.
asked Canon Ribon Of their rites and
faith and got little from him. Five years
ago, because he refused to permit GER
tain doings in the upper church, they
cruelty manhandled him.
They came originally from the Indies.
Persia and Egypt, and took their generic
name Of 'Bohemians' from Bohemia,
where they first began living" he said.
They are divided into tribes many such
tribes meeting only here. They begin
arriving May %. and leave May 25 be-
fore the holy reliQuares are put back
Besides the Zingari proper. there are the
Caraques. descended from the Iberfans,
who inhabited this coast in pagan times
They came five years ago. and again this
year. electing their king
I pushed him about the rites
''They occupy the great crypt which is
under the sanctuary" said Canon Ribon
i
tribes there are all sorts Of religions,
even pagans. But what are their cere-
monies? should find 1t hard to say. All
can say is that they come from far
even very far away. They do no harm
here coming with the true devotion in
honor of Sarah the Egyptian servant
Egyptian. And one strange thing is to be
noted" the good priest concluded, from
the first century, in this church. Chrls-
tianity used q pagan altar, originally
dedicated to Mithra. the god OF fire and
water and the Caraques, at least, come
in a pilgrimage to their old temples" .
Tourists who snoop into the silent circle
round the chiefs are led back with poilte
Kidding" -
What do you want to know? Which Is
the grand coesre? And who Will be the
new one? And where he comes from!
And where he is going? And everything
else? Really, there are astonishing laoles
and gentlemen in automobiles. who want
to know more about the gypsies tnan the
gypsies know about themselves!
What can we know? When the chiefs
glide down the winding staits to the un-
derground place inhabited by the preatn
of st. Sarah, what signs from Memphis
and Thebes do they mark on the wans:
What word Of light suddenly JOINS the
scattered descendants Of the magnihcent
and accursed race that pretends to kno"
the future Of the world?
NV secret informant Of Sts. Marys In
sists that they sacrifice two stolen babies.
They do not really kill them. At the
moment before their throats would drip
beneath the altar Of Mithra the newly
elected gypsy king stops the sacrifice,
adopts the babies and promises to be
tray. cheat and rob more gadschi than
there are drops of blood in the veins OF
these innocents." Gadschi are all outsid-
ers who have put the gypsies under the
ban Of humanity, and this traditional
hatred dates from the time Of King Sig
usmund and the first gypsy baron.
rawhide whip, the scepter OF the
grand Coesre plays the bloody part:
Down in the crypt the flames OF tan
candles and aromatic nres dance IN the
darkness. The delegates work themselves
up with a strange litany: SAh. sarah!
All! Sarah! Sarah! Sarah! Sarah! All!
All! All ahahsarah!
Skulls bump the stone floor. Beautiful
girls squirm, foam and phrophesy. Ter
rible old women make awful noises.
clacking their toothless gums and
screeching like bats.
All, ah. Sarah!
frightful hag called Giska, the peas
ant of the black forest. presided with old
Omar during forty years past. and the
two were said to be the greatest real
magicians'' in the world. Giska held the
sacred whip. She led the singing of the
'.Song of Pharoah." the Oldest song OF
the race, which only the initiated OF the
great mysteries can understand. Giska
died last February at Mitcham. in Eng
land, and had funeral the magnifcence
Of which was cabled around the world.
Five years ago says my man Of SITS.
Marys Il give my word that 1t was not
Canon Ribon) the candidates for grand
coesre were Routchouk the Wallack,
Hedjaz of the Desert Of the Red Sea, At
tila the Dace and Balthazar the Croat