Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-04-01
THE GYPSIES.
One People Who Are Not Disturbed by
the European War.


Europe has still to-day one utterly
peaceful people. a people peaceful in ac-
ton, in intent, and Of peaceful contcm-
plation." 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 mmost peculiar
peoples In the world s. history-the gypses.
Entering into the life of all nations
under the sun, yet a part of no single
one. mingling themselves within the high
est civilization, vet unettered: 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 gypsy is
the most mysterious Of all the strange
elements of folkdom.
whence they came has never been
settled to a certainty. All manner of IA
bles have been spun to explain their ORR
gin. 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
Canaanites. the Amorites. the Saracens
and the Egyptians Some have held them
to be the Children of Cain, and others
have decided that they We're the children
Of the Wandering Jew and inhertors of
the restless curse of their father.
The gypsies. themselves. have never
professed to know who they were or
where they came from, but they have
shown great readiness to accept the con-
illusions on this subject OF the people
,hx,~
til the growth Of comparative philology
and the chance investigation of tho
gypsies' tongue in the beginning of the
last century, that scientists concluded
the gypsies to be wandering low
caste tribe from northern India. 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 wonderfully
preserved in the face of overmastering
| cultures and eternal wandering. This
has not been accomplished by a lltera ture
or by a close corporation. The gypsies
have no literature. and their language is
an unwritten one. while they. them
selves. are scattered in small bands over
the whole face Of the earth, scattered
even more widely than the Jew. The
gypsy calls himself 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 comes under the generic term of
| gentle.
"Gypsy-folk present the strangest prob
lens known to philology and ethno-
graphy. An elementary, nomadic folk
persisting for centuries in the midst of
complex civilizations. they have retained
their physical characteristics, their tribal
rules and customs reminiscent of their
| far-distant. extra European past, their
highly ininhected language and their
thousand years of fever for rowing They
are absolutely singular and without close
parallel among the people 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 II
That the world was made so wide
| This folk entered Europe by way of Con-
| stantinople In the l2th century and over
flowed into the northern Balkans, Hunga ~
central and western Europe, England
and, thence to North and South Ameri-
ca. The English called them Egyptians
after their supposed origin. whence the
name gypsy. They reached Germany IN
about lA1 and England about 1500. At