Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-04-13

capes might not be so vigilant. We
steamed SOUTH. but as we got nearer
the wireless told us hat they were
still in this vicinity"
THE WANDERING FOLK
Gypsies of Europe Number Nearly
100000 Souls.
Europe has still today one utterly
peaceful people, a people peaceful In
action, in intent, and Of peaceful con-
temptation" says a bulletin just issued
by the National Geographic society at
Washington. According to press dis
patches, this race is the only such race,
but, then, it is one Of the most pecu-
liar people in the worlds history-the
gypsies.
Entering into the life Of all nations
under the sur yet a part Of no single
one; mingling themselves within the
highest civilizations, yet unlettered;
pilgrims upon an eternal wander path,
yet forever true to the ties Of racial
blood and to customs whose origin and
significance have been fully forgotten,
the gypsies is the most mysterious Of
all the strange elements of folkdom.
Whence they came has eve been
settled to a certainty. All manner Of
fables have been spun to explain their
origin. Since they first appeared upon
the stage Of Europe in the Middle
Ages, they have been identified with
the Lost Tribes Of Israel, the mixed
multitude that followed Moses out Of
Egypt, the Canannites, the Amorites,
the Saracens and the Egyptians. Some
have held them to be the Children Of
Cain, and others have decided that
they were the children Of the Wander
ing Jew and inheritors Of the restless
curse Of their father.
The gypsies, themselves, have new
er ~professed to know who they were or
where they came from, but they have
shown great readiness to accept the
conclusions on this subject Of the peo-
pie among whom they lived. 1t was
not until the growth Of comparative
.philology and the chance investigation
of the gypsies' tongue in the begin
ming Of the last century, that scientists
concluded the gypsies to be a wander
ing low-caste tribe from northern In
dia- Their language nearly resembles
Sanscrit, the foundation tongue Of all
our western languages which has held
itself purest in Indian sources.
This language they have wonderful
ly preserved in the face Of overmaster-
ing cultures and external wandering.
This has not been accomplished by a
literature or by a close corporation.
The gypsies have no literature, and
their language Is an unwritten one.
while they, themselves, are scattered
in small bands over the whole face of
the earth, scattered even more widely
than the Jew. The gypsy calls him.
self rom meaning man. the man OF
all men. His wife Is 'romni;' his folk
life Is %'romnipen,' and his language is
'romani.' Everyone not Of his race
come under the generic term Of gen
tile
"Gypsy-folk present the strangest
problems known to ~philology and eth
biography. An elementary, nomadic folk
persisting for centuries in the midst Of
complex civilization, they have re-
tanned their physical characteristics,
their tribal rules and customs remi-
niscent Of their far-distant extra
European past, their highly infected
language, and their thousand years of
fever for rowing. They are absolutely
singular and without close parallel
among the peoples Of earth.
Gypsy religion and gypsy aspira-
ton may be summed up in two lines
from the works Of the German poet,
Goethe:
To give room for wandering is 1t,
That the world was made 10 wide
This folk entered Europe by a. of
Constantinople in the 18th century,
and overlooked into the northern
Balkans, Hungary, central and west
ern Europe, England, and, thence to
North and South America. The Eng
lish called them Egyptians. after their
supposed origin, whence the name
gypsy They reached Germany in
about 1417 and England about 1900.
At first they were treated kindly by
the western nations, but their strange
ness, their unconventionality, their
light fingered ways, their proneness
for fortune-telling. necromancy, black
magic, and their unwillingness for
work in all forms, soon called down
upon them bitter persecution in Ger
many, England, France and the Meth
erlands. In the Balkans, Russia
Hungary and Poland they were well
treated, and they are found in these
countries in great numbers today. II
is estimated that Europe has more than
900. 900 gypsies."