GIPSIES, a wandering folk scattered through every European land, over the greater part of Asia and North America, and along the northern coast of Africa. Bell of Antermony speaks in his Travels (1763) of meeting at Tobolsk a and of sixty Tziggany on their way to China ; Koster describes the Brazilian Ciganos (Travels in Brazil, 1816) ; and at the present day cases of Gipsy emigration to Australia are not unknown. No general estimate can be formed of their numbers outside Europe, but travelers agree that they are very numerous in Persia (3000 families in 1856), Armenia, Asiatic Turkey (67,000 in 1877), and Egypt (one alone of the three chief tribes, the Ghagars, being reckoned at 16,000) ; whilst in America, besides a multitude of British Gipsies, Gipsies from Spain, France, Germany, and Hungary are not unfrequent. The total, 700,000, at which Miklosich place (1878) the European Gipsies, fairly agrees with the following fragmentary statistics. Turkeys, before its late dismemberment, contained 104,750 (9537 in Bosnia and the Herzegovina in 1874) ; Servia had 24,691 in 1874, Montenegro 500 in 1873 ; and in Roumania there are from 200,000 to 300,000, according to the varying estimates of Cretzulesco (1876) and the Annuaire general official de Roumanie (1874). In 1876 Austria counted about 1000 (13,500 in Bohemia in 1846?), and Hungary proper in 1864) ; while Spain is credited with 40,000, France with from 2000 to 6000 (700 in the Basque country), Germany and Italy together with 34,000 (?), and Scandinavia with 1500. in Russia their number in 1834 was stated at 48,247, exclusive of Polish Gipsies, in 1844 at 1,427,539, and in1877 at 11,654.1
Names.Just as in every European land the Gipsy calls "Gentiles" (i.e.,non-Gipsies) gajé, he calls himself Rom, "a man or husband." This word Rom, connected by Paspati with the name of the Indian god Ráma, is by Miklosich identified with the Sanskrit doma or domba, "a low-caste musician."2 Of names conferred by "Gentiles," some point to the fancied cradle of the Gipsy race. Thus Gipsy of Gypsy itself (Egyptian in the 16th century), the Spanish Gitano, Albanian Jevk, modern Greek GREEK Magyar Pharao népek ("Pharaohs people"), and Turkish Färäwni, preserve the belief in its Egyptian origin, a belief which finds no confirmation except in the casual resemblance between Rom and the Egyptian rôme, "man" (cf. Rawlinsonss Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 225), and which was possibly due to the Gipsies skill in serpent-charming. The Scandinavian and Low-German Tatare identifies Gipsies with the Mongolian hordes, the terror of Europe in the 13th century ; and their French name Bohémiens was probably due either to a confusion of some such form as Secani with Czech or to the belief Gipsies originated in Bohemia. To the same class belong Walachi, Cilices, Uxii, Saraceni Agareni, Nubiani, &c., cited by Fritschius (1660). Other names again denote the character, hue, or callings of the race, as Arabic Harámí, "villain ;" Dutch Heydens, "heathens," Persian Karáchí, "swarthy ; and modern Greek GREEK, by Somavera derived from the Latin captivus, by Bataillard connected with GREEK, "a dart," and so with the Gipsies name in Cyprus, Kilindjiridès, from the Turkish gylidj, "a sword." Their Scotch name Tinkler, which occurs in a charter of William the Lion (11651214), is commonly held to be a mere variant of tinker ; but if its initial t correspond to z (cf. English ten, German zehn), it comes very near the Italian Zingaro or Zingano, which, like the German Zigeuner, Czech Cingán, and Magyar Cigány, is form of the most widespread of all the Gipsies appellationsBulgarian Atzigan, modern Greek GREEK or AGREEK. The last was also the title of a separatist sect in Asia Minor, so called, it is supposed, because its members themselves from contact with unbelievers (a privative, and GREEK, "to touch"). Miklosich, finding in it the source of all the preceding forms, believes it to have been transferred by the Greeks to Gipsies, either because the later entered the western parts of the Byzantine empire from Phrygia and Lycaonia, or because they were suspected of being adherents of the sect or simply as a nickname (Mickl., vi. Pp. 5766). Bataillard, on the other hand, identifying the heretic AGREEK with Gipsy AGREEK, and these with the GREEK of Herodotus (v. 9), derived the name from GREEK, "a javelin ;" while others among the countless etymologies proposed are Goejes from Persian chang, "a kind of harp or cither;" Burtons from Persian zang, "Ethiopia ;" an Newbolds from Persian z_n, " a saddle."
First Appearance in European History.From whatever cause, it is certain that a confusion did exist between the AGREEK and GREEK, which renders it extremely difficult to determine whether the Byzantine historians are speaking of Gipsies or heretics in seven passages collected by Miklosich. It appears from these that AGREEK, described as magicians, soothsayers, and serpent-charmers, first emerge in Byzantine history under Nicephorus I. (80211), were banished by Michael I. (81113), and were restored to favour by Michael II. (82029) ; but Miklosichs reasons for absolutely identifying them with Gipsies, and positively asserting the latter to have appeared at Byzantium in 810 under Nicephorus, are hard to recognize. Less dubious seems an extract from the Georgian Life of Giorgi Mtharsmindel (11the century), which described how at Constantinople certain descendants of the race of Simon Magus, Atsinkan by name, sorcerers and famous rogues, slew wild beasts by their magic arts in the precence of Bagrat IV. Such passages are open to some doubt ; hardly so the following from the Itinerarium Symonis Simeonis (ed. by J. Nasmith, Camb. 1778), where Fitz Simeon, a Franciscan friar of Dublin, describing his stay in Crete in 1322, says :" We there saw a people living outside the city (of Candia), who worship according to the Greek rite, and declare themselves of the race of Ham. They rarely or never stop in one place more thirty days, but, as though accursed of heaven, wander from field to field with little, oblong, black, low tents, like those of the Arabs, or from cave to cave." The empress Catherine de Valois, again, who died in 1346, granted to the suzerains of Corfu authority to reduce to vassalage certain hominess vageniti coming from the mainland, who under the Venetians formed in 1386 the nucleus of a feudum Acinganorum that lasted down to the present down to the present century. About 1378 the Venetian governor of Nauplion confirmed the Acingani of that Greek colony in privileges granted by his predecessors ; and in 1387 Mircea I., waiwode of Wallachia, renewed a grant made by his uncle Ladislaus to the monastery of St Anthony at Voditza of forty salaschi (tents) of Acigani. Other document documents might be cited, but these are enough to show that in the 14th century Gipsies existed in the Balkan peninsula and islands of the Levant ; that in Wallachia they were reduced to a state of bondage (from which they were only freed in 1856) ; and that nowhere were they regarded as new-comers, so that by these documents it is impossible to fix the date of the first Gipsy immigration. More than this, a metrical paraphrase of Genesis, made by an Austrian monk about 1122, preserved at Vienna, and edited by Hoffman in his Fundgruben für Geschichte deutscher Sprache (Breslau, 1837), goes far to prove that Gipsies were known in Austria three centuries before the commonly-accepted date of their appearance in that country. A passage relating to Hagars descendants (Gen. xvi. 15) runs :" So she (Hagar) had this son ; they named him Ishmael. It is from him the Ishmaelites descend. They journey far through the world; we call them chaltsmide (lit. cold-smiths)
. They have no house nor country; everywhere they are found alike; they wander over the country, abusing people by their knaveries. Thus they deceive men,robbing no one openly." That here by chaltsmide, Ishmaelites, and descendants of Hagar Gipsies are meant, scarcely admits of doubt, seeing that the smiths is still the Gipsies leading handicraft ; that Lusignan in 1573 speaks of the Gipsies of Cyprus as "Cinquances, otherwise calledAgariens ;" and that in German and Danish Rotwälsch or thieves slang Geschmeilim and Smaelem (i.e., Ishamaelites) signify "Gipsies." The GREEK also of Byzantine writers were possibly Gipsies, being defined by Ducange as "circulators atque adeo Fabri aerarii qui per pagos cursitant : ut hodile passim apud nos, quos Chauddronniers dicimus." Theophanes (758818) speaks under the date 544 of a GREEK from Italy.
Later Movements.Late in 1417 there came to Lüburg a band of 300 wanderers, "black as Tartars and calling themselves Secani." At their head rode a "duke" and "count," splendidly dressed, and leading like nobles dogs of chase ; next came a motley crew afoot ; and women and children brought up the rear in wagons. They bore among other letters of safe-conduct one granted by the emperor Sigismund, and professed themselves engaged on a seven years pilgrimage, imposed by their bishops in expiation of apostacy from the Christian faith. From Lüneburg they passed to Hamburg, Lübeck, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, and Greifswald, camping by night outside the walls, thieving by day, "wherefore several were taken and slain" (cf. the contemporary annals of Korner and Rufus, and Krantzs Saxonia, 1520). In 1418 they journeyed, southwards through Meissen, Leipsic, and Hesse, and entering Switzerland, arrived at Zurich on Augusty 31st, visiting also Basel, Bern, and Solothurn, according to Conrad Justinger (died 1426), who speaks of them as "more than 200 baptized heathens from Egypt." They now split up into two bands, the first of which appeared before Augsburg (November 1, 1418), the second before Sisteron in Provence (October 1, 1419), where the terrified citizens bestowed on the "Saracens" a hundred loaves. Next comes a long notice of a troop of fully 100 lean, black, hideous Egyptians in the Chronica de Bologna (July 18, 1422), which tells how the sorcerers, "Duke" Andrews wife, could read the past and future of mens lives ; but Bologna in fifteen days became too hot for them, so by way of Forliwhere "certain said they were from India"the pilgrims traveled on to Rome. Their object was to procure fresh letters from the pope ; and such they afterwards produced, though of their sojourn in the imperial city no record has yet been published. To the burghers of Ratisbon Gipsies presented themselves in 1424 ; they pitched their tents again before its walls in 1426 ; and at Paris in 1427 the fair of Landit was attended by a duke, a count, and ten other mounted pilgrims, late renegades of "Lower Egypt, " whose women practiced palmistry and cleared everybodys pockets. Later we hear of Gipsies at Arnheim (1429), at Metz (1430), at Erfut (1432), and in Bavaria (1433),these and all notices of the seventeen years preceding referring probably to the movements of a single ubiquitous band, sent forward to spy out the lands of promise, and composed of from 600 to 1400 persons. For not until 1438 did the great tide of westward immigration to flow; then, not in hundreds but thousands, headed no longer by paltry "dukes" and "counts," but by a "king, Zindl,1 the Gipsies poured over Germany, Italy, and France, reaching Poland, by 1501, Sweden by 1512, and having already appeared in Spain in 1447. We find them in England in 1514 (A Dyaloge of Syr Thomas More, 1529), but nothing is known of the date of their landing ; and in Scotland the earliest certain record of their presence is an entry in the books of the Lord High Tresurer : "Apr. 22, 1505. Item, to the Egyptians, be the kingis command, vij lib." (Pitcairns Criminal Trials, Edin. 1833, vol. iii. P. 592). In a "King of Rowmais" (? Rómas, Gipsies) twice mentioned in entries of July 1492, as also in the "Erle of Grece" (1502), "King Cristall"(1530), and the "King of Cipre" (1532), one dimly recognizes from Gipsy chiefs : and with Gipsies perhaps the Saracens may be identified, whom a tradition represents as making depredations in Scotland prior to 1460 (Simson, p. 98). In no other country were Gipsies better received than in this, where they "dansit before the king in Halyrudhous" (15300 ; where James IV. Gave (July 5, 1505) Anthonius Gagino, count of Little Egypt, a letter of commendation to the king of Denmark; and where James V. subscribed a writ (February 15, 1540) in favour of "oure louit Johnne Faw, lord and erle of Litill Egipt,"2 to whose son and successor he granted authority to hand and punish all "Egyptians" within the realm (May 26, 1540). But in 1541 an Act was passed, commanding the "Egyptians to pass forth of the realm" under pain of death, and similar edicts were issued before and afterwards in most of the Europeans statesGermany (1497), Spain (1499), France (1504), England (1531), Denmark (1536), Moravia (1538), Poland (1557), &c. Conveying across the seas was among the milder measures adopted ; it is, however, noteworthy as one of the causes of the dispersion of the tribes. Under Henry VIII. Gipsies were shipped from England to Norway (Wrights History of Ludlow, pp. 38992) or France ; whilst by the latter power, so lately as 1802, the bands infesting Bayonne and Mauléon were caught by night as in a net, huddled on shipboard, and landed on the coast of Africa (Michael, Pays Basque, p. 137). In Scotland four Faas were hanged at Edinburgh in 1611 "for abiding within the kingdome, they being Epiptianis;" and in 1636 doom was pronounced on other "Egyptians" at Haddington, the "men to be hangit, and the weomen to be drowned ; and suche of the weomen as hes children to be scourgit throw the burgh and brunt in the cheeke." Under the English statute of 1562 (repealed 1783) making it foleny without benefit of clergy to be merely seen for a month in the fellowship of Gipsies, five men were hanged at Durham "for being Egyptians," 8th August 1592. still greater were the cruelties and injustice suffered by Gipsies on the Continent, since there, to the charge of kidnapping, were added the weightier imputations of being cannibals and emissaries of the Turk. Quiñones recounts how in 1629 four Estremaduran Gitanos owned under torture to having eaten a friar, a pilgrim, and a woman or their tribe ; and in 1782 forty-five Hungarian Gipsies were beheaded, quartered, or hanged on a like monstrous charge. First racked till the confessed the crime of murder, they were brought to the spot where their victims were said to be buried, and when no bodies appeared they were racked again. "We ate them" was their despairing cry ; and forthwith the journals teemed with accounts of "eighty-life persons roasted by Gipsy cannibals"; straightway the "cannibals" were hurried to the scaffold. Then Joseph II. sent a commission down, whose inquiries showed that no one had been murderedexcept the victims of the late false accusation. The full, impartial annals of the race have still to be compiled, from edicts and law-books, from locals histories and a few monographs like Dirks Geschiedkundige onderzoekingen aangaande het verbliff der Heidens of Egyptiërs in de Noordelijke Nederlanden (Utrecht, 1850), or Webers Zigeuner in Sachsen, 14881792, in vol. ii. of his Aus vier Jahrhunderten (Leip. 1861).
Language.Until lately the information about the Gipsy language to be gathered from books was meager in the extreme. The thirteen works published prior to 1840 which furnish specimens of the Anglo-Romani dialectBoorde (1547), Bryant (1785), Bright (1818), Copsey (1818), Harriot (1830), Roberts (1836), &c.together contain but 396 genuine, stems, besides 69 doubtful words, and furnish scarcely and examples of the grammar. Nor are the Continental works cited by Pott, from Vulcanius (1589) downwards, much more copious. Even to-day there are still great gaps in our knowledge, especially of the dialects outside of Europe ; but enough has been done to show that from the Nile to the Arctic Ocean, from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, the Gipsies speak , with dialectal variations, one and the selfsame speech. The Romani names for "water," "fire," "hair," and "eye," are in Persia páni, ág, bal, and ankhi ; in Norway pani, jag, bal, and jak ; in England páni, yog, bal, and yok. And these for instances which might be multiplied indefinitely, serve further to show, by their resemblance to the Hindi p_n_, _g, b_l, and _nkh, that in Romani we have an Indian tongue. Rüdiger first compared Romani, so long regarded as a thieves jargon. with one of the new Indian dialects, and in 1782 published the result of the comparison in his Neuester Zuwachs der Sprachkunde. In 1783 Grellamanns Versuch reaped all the fruits of Rüdigers reseach ; and in the same year. Marsden was independently led to al like discovery. The conclusion that the Gipsies wandered forth from India is now almost universally accepted, but when, or from what part of India, are questions on which few have done more than idly speculate. Whetehr Romani is derived from Hindi, Marathi, &c., can only be determined by minute investigations, which, long neglected, are now being carried on by various Orientalists. They have at least established that Romani stands in the relation of a sister, not a daughter, to the seven principal New India dialects. Its forms are often more primitive than theirs, sometimes than those of Pali or the Prakrits, e.g., vast, "hand" (Sanskrit hasta, Pali hattha), kasht, "wood" (Sanskrit k_shtha, Pali kattha), vustht, "lip" (Sansdkrit oshtha, Pali ottha), trash, "fear" (Sanskrit tr_sa, Pali tas), trin, "three" (Sanskrit tri, tr_ni ; Pali ti, tini), and pral, "brother" (Sanskrit bhr_t_, Pali bh_ta). And while the archaisms or Romani forbid us to derive it From Hindi or Marathi, some of its seemingly modern forms are the result o independent development. On the other hand, our knowledge of Romani itself, and of the multitudinous spoken dialects of India, is not at present sufficient to warrant our pronouncing the former more primitive than any of them ; and as a fact many of its archaisms may be paralleled in the languages of Dardistan and Kafiristan (cf. Miklosich, Beiträge, iv. 4554). Thus before are difficulties on both sides in the way of adjudicating between the opinions of Ascoli and Miklosich. The former maintains (Saggi Indiani, vol. ii., 1875) that Romani, preserving certain consonantal nexus which had almost entirely disappeared at the epoch of the most ancient consonantal nexus which had almost entirely disappeared at the epoch of the most ancient Prakrit texts, approaches Sanskrit more nearly even than Paliconclusions, he observes that harmonize well with Bataillards pre-historic theory. Miklosich, on the other hand, opposes that theory in Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (3d ed. 1878), where he infers from the agreement of Romani in its phonetic laws and system of case-endings with the modern Aryan languages of India that the emigration cannot have taken place till these were found, i.e., until after the Prakrit period.
In Europe Miklosich distinguishes thirteen Romani dialectsthe Greek or Turkish, Roumanian, Hungarian, Moravo-Bohemian, German, Polo-Lithuanian, Russian, Finnish, Scandinavian, Anglo-Scottish, Italian, Basque, and Spanish. To these should be added the Welsh, which, generally unintelligible to the English Gipsy, is one of the most perfect, as it has also been the least studied, of all the dialects. As a general rule, the further these dialects remove from Turkey, the more corrupt have they become, so that the Gipsies of Spain, of Scandinavia, and in great measure of England, know no case or verb endings other than those of the lands of their adoption. From Turkish Romani, therefore, and Welsh the following examples will be drawn. The Turkish (marked T.) are taken from Paspati ; the Welsh (W.) are derived from letters and stories written by John Roberts, the oldest living harper, whose thorough knowledge of his language is probably unique.
The definite article, wanting in Asia, is supplied in every European dialect by the Greek ó and __ for the masculine , _ for the famine and the oblique cases, e.g., W. Potchdas ow bearengaro e vaver tringengey, "the sailor asked the other three," E colley pendas, " the Gipsey woman said." The indefinite article, in some dialects supplied by yek. "one," is still omitted by the Welsh and the "deeper" English Gipsies, e.g., Yeker porro gougco ta porrey gougey jivenes undra borrow veshestay, "once (an) old man and (an) old woman were living in (a) great wood." Romani has no trace of either a dual number or a neuter gender. Excepting monodsyllables, most of the its nouns terminate in o (masc.) and i (fem.), as raklo, "lad," rakli, "girl." Masculine nouns ending in a consonant form their feminines in ni, as rom, "husband," romni, "wife," Inaminate objects are indifferently masculine or feminine: to the former belonging gav, "town," and gad, "shirt;" to the latter nok, "nose," and bok, "hunger." Rom, "a husband," and rakli, "a girl, are thus declined in Turkish Romani:
Here the so-called genitive is in reality an adjective. It precedes and agrees in gender with its noun, e.g., T. e derviséskeri rakli, "the dervishs daughter ;" W. sonekaiesko mochto, "a golden box," and dakey pen, "mothers sister." Welsh Gipsies often use the dative where we should look for the genitive, as in Te pogerel yeck e herrenday ow vodrestay, "to break one of the legs of the bed."Datives and instrumentals are formed by suffixing to accusatives the separable post-positions, te or ke, "to," and sar, "with;" and the tar of the ablative (also occurring in ká-tar, "whence," lit. "where from") Pott (i.188) compares with the Pali adverbial ending to=Sansk. tas =Lat. tus in caelitus. In most European Romani dialects considerable confusion has arisen in the use of the oblique cases, but Welsh Gipsies employ the following rightly enough : Sing. acc te dickel ow krallises, "to see the king;" dat. Masc. te dickel pesko jivamaskay, "to look for his living ;" dat. fem. Pendas e gougeackey, "she said to the woman ;" inst. Rokkerdas ow krallisesa, "he spoke with the king ;" voc. Ria, "Sir!"Plur. Acc. te patsell e callen, "to believe the Gipsies;" dat. te kerrav les undra chichaw grengey, "to make it into shoes for horses ;" voc. Chovollacy, "mates! Nouns ending in o form their plural in Welsh, as in Turkish Romani, in accented é, e.g., chavay, "children" (sing. chávo), and chiriklay, "birds" (sing. chíriklo) ; other nouns form it in a or ïa, as chaia, "girls" (sing. chai), tema, "lands" (sing. tem), penya, "sisters" (sing. pen), &c. Of adjectives it need only be remarked that, with rare exceptions, they end in o (masc.) and I (fem.), and form the plural in é, e.g., W. Java te kerra esa te rigeren tomen tatay, "I go to make clothes to keep you (plur.) warm." The termination of the comparative is der, eg., W. porro, "old," poradare, "older;" and the want of a true superlative is frequently supplied, as in French, by prefixing the definite article to the comparative, e.g., W. consee ow poradare, "who is the eldest." Romani pronouns present an interesting study, since everywhere they have been better preserved than any other parts of speech. Turkish Romani gives me, "I," man, "me, "amén, "we," &c., and tu, "thou," tut, "thee," temén, "ye" (lit. thou-we), &c., all of which forms are employed by English and Welsh Gipsies. How strikingly indeed the Turkish and Welsh dialect agree may be seen from the instances following these paradigms, taken from Paspati, of ov, "he," _i, " she," and ol (Bohemian Romani, jon) "they" :
Now in Welsh Romani we find. SING. MASC. nom. Pendas yov, "said he ;" gen. lesko pickoo, "his shoulder;" acc. Cordas les poley, "he called him back ;" dat. i. deyas lestay, "he gave him;"dat. ii. ow Rye leskay, "quoth the gentleman to him ;"inst. bitcherdas vaver yeck lessa, "he sent another one which him:"SING. FEM. nom. Yoi comdas les, "she loved him ;" gen. unrea lacko nogo drom, "in her own way;" acc. yov comdas la, "he loved her ;" dat. i. aney joneles yov chimney trostel latay, "whether he knew something about her;" dat. ii. jalla te dickel lakey "he goes to look for her;" inst. commesa to te jas lasa, "wilt thou go with her ;" PLUR. Nom. yon jivenes, "they were living;" gen. save saw e chava bitcherana lengo camyben, "all the children send their love;" acc. commos tokey te bichaves len, "I should like you to send them;" dat. i. trosel lenday, "about them;" dat. ii. potchdas lengey, "he asked them ;" instr. Potchday leskey so wantines lensa, "they asked him what he wanted with them ;" abl. Te tardel lovo from lenda, "to extract money from them," where the English "from" is redundant. That nineteen out of the twenty-one forms of the Turkish dialect should be preserved in the Welsh after a separation of four centuries, Romani, moreover, being an unwritten language, is singular ; hardly less striking is the similarity in the use of the reflexive pronoun pes, "himself" or herself," e.g., W. dickel pesko drom glan pestay, "he sees his way before him;" ow Jack rivdas pes, "Jack dressed himself," te den pengo lovo, "to give their money;" c trin morsh gillay pengay, "the three men went away" (lit. "went to themselves," a curious use). The third pronoun, lo, "he," li, "she," and lé, "they, commonly only used after the auxiliary verb "to be," is also noteworthy, as playing an important part in the formation of the verb. Instances of its use areW. postey seslo kinno, "till he was tired;" vasavee chibalengerey ses le, "she was a foul-tongued woman ;" trashaday seslay, "they were frightened." The auxiliary verb runs in Turkish Romani : Pres. Sing. is_m, isán, isí (asti in Asiatic R.); plur. Isám, isán, isí: IMPERF.
sing. isómas, isánas, isás; plur. isámas, isánas, isás. And in Welsh Romani occur the forms, shom, " am;" shan, "thou art;" se, "he is" or "they are;" sham, "we are" (e.g., shant, betcherda te las a kai filashin, "we are sent to get this man-sion") ; shen, "ye are;" shomas, "I was ;" skennes, "thou wert" or "ye were ;" ses, "he was" or "they were." The terminations of the present indicative in Turkish Romani are: SING. -va, -sa, -la; PLUR. -sa, -na, -na, which are joined immediately to the verbal stem (identical with the imperative) if it is monosyllabic and ends in a vowel, but otherwise are connected with it by a vowel. For example, lá-va, "I take ;" Iá-sa (1ésa), Iá-la (léla), lá-sa, 1é-na, 1é-na; and kcr-á-va, "I make;" ker-é-sa, &c. Welsh Romani retains all these forms, e.g., bitcherava, "I send;" shonesa, "thou hearest;" penela, "he says;" bitcherasa, "we send;" vena, "ye come;" bitcherena, "they send." In -va (-mi in Asiatic R.), -sa, and -la (cf. lo above) may be recognized the first, second, and third personal pronouns; the n of the second and third persons plural may be compared with the n in romén, "husbands." The imperfect is formed from the present by the suffix of -s, or, in the Hungarian dialect, -hi, e.g., T. keráva-s, "I was making ;" Hung. kawesa-hi, "thou wast loving;" W. salles, "he was laughing," jivenes, "they were living." This -s or -hi is the third person singular of the auxiliary verb, isi, "it is," so that literally kerávas means "I make + it is" (? some time ago). Perfects are com-pounded of participlesending in -do (rarely -to), -1o, and noand the auxiliary verb. Thus from T. piráva, "I walk," part. pirdó, comes pird-óm, "I walked," pird-án, "thou walkedst," pird-ás, "he walked," &c. ; and from dáva, "I give," part. dinó, dinóm, "I gave." Here too the Welsh aggrees generally with the Turkish dialect, e.g., kerdom, "I made," keddan, "thou madest," kerdas, "he made ;" but kedan, "we made," should properly be kerdám; and for the third person plural Welsh R., like the German and other dialects, simply employs the plural participle, as dicktta, "they saw." In Continental dialects a pluperfect is formed from the perfect by adding to it -a-s or -a-hi, just as the imperfect from the present; and for a future kama- (kamava, "I love, wish, or will") is prefixed to the present, e.g., kama-keráva, "I will do," kama-kerésa, "thou wilt do," &c. The sign of the subjunctive, which supplies the place of an infinitive, is the conjunction te, "that," prefixed to the indicative, which usually drops its vowel--ending, e.g., T. teréla dúi lav te pénel túke, "he has two words to tell (lit. that he tells) you;" W. trashaday seslay te dicken man, "they were frightened to see (lit. that they see) me." Enough has been said to show that Romani is not so utterly "degraded in its grammar" as Max Müller has declared it to be; and the following short Welsh Gipsy story (printed literatim from Roberts) will illustrate some of the foregoing remarks:
Yeker a doi ses bearengaro ta vaver store morsh; yek ses
Once there were (a) sailor and other four men; one was peltanengero, ta ow vaver ses koramangaro, ta sivamangaro, (a) blacksmith, and the other was (a) soldier, and (a) tailor,
to pallano ses kirchimackaro. Ow bearengaro potchedas e
and the last was (an) innkeeper. The sailor asked the
peltanengaro te vel apra ow doreav. Ow peltanengaro pendas,
blacksmith to come on the sea. The blacksmith said,
"Nau, shom te ja te kerra boottee." "So se tero bootee?" "Te
"No, (I) am to go to do work." "What is thy work ?" "To
tasarra sastarn," chotchy ow pelttenengaro, "ta te kerravles undra
heat iron," quoth the blacksmith, "and to make it into
chichaw grengey." Potchdas ow bearengaro e vaver trinengey te
shoes for horses." Asked the sailor the other three to
ven adra ow bearo. Ow koramangaro pendas ta jalla te kel
come in the ship. The soldier said that he go to make
moyaben ta javaben; to sivamangaro pendas, "Shorn te ja te
facings and marching; and the tailor said, "(I)am to go to kerra esa te rigeren tomen tatay." A ow kirchimacharo pendas,
makec clothes to keep you warm." And the innkeeper said,
"Java ma te kerra lovina te kel tomen matay, te jan saw
"Go I to make beer to make you drunk, that may go all
to menday kai ow Beng." Okke saw dolestay.
you to the Devil." Here (is) all to that (i.e., of that).
The Romani vocabulary reveals positively and negatively the route by which the Gipsies must have entered Europe, and the various ways by which they have since dispersed to their present quarters. The absence, for instance, of Arabic elements from every European dialect disproves a common belief that the earliest immigrants may have landed in the Balkan peninsula from Egypt. On the other hand, the presence of Persian and Armenian words shows that they must have traversed and halted in the lands where those languages are spoken. Among the Persian are devruál, "sea," poshóm, "wool," vesh, "forest," ambról, "pear," and avgin, "honey;" whilst the Armenian words number twenty-six, according to Miklosichgrast, "horse," chor, "deep," kotór, "a piece," rnorti, "skin," &c. Again, every dialect presents a large number of Greek words, testifying to the long residence of the Gipsies in a Greek--speaking land. In the German Romani dialect Miklosich reckons forty-two, besides the article, in the English thirty, which latter number might be certainly aug-mented. Alike in Russia and Spain, England and Hungary, Gipsies call a road drom (GREEK), time chairos (GREEK), a horseshoe petul (GREEK), a hat stadi (GREEK), &c.; in every land of Europe GREEK, "seven," GREEK, "eight," and GREEK, "nine," have superseded the haut, asch, and nau of Asiatic Gipsies. This identity of their borrowed words disproves the view that the Gipsies of different European countries are the result of successive immigra-tions. Next to the Greek, and almost more numerous than they, come the Slavonic elements. Miklosich cites 70 from the German dialect, 30 from the English, and from the Spanish 46, among them being kralis, "king," kítchima, "inn," mátchka, "cat," lovina, "ale," and plashta, "cloak." Similarly English Romani contains Wallachian, Magyar, German, and French words, showing that the Gipsies reached England after wandering among Greeks, Slavs, Magyars, Germans, and French. It must not, how-ever, be inferred from the foregoing that Romani is essentially other than an Indian speech. The Gipsies linguistic pilferings form but a small percentage in the 2332 articles gathered together by Pott. And though some of these articles, founded on error, must be struck out, their place might be more than filled up by omissions; and the sum total is largely multiplied when one considers how many derivatives are grouped under a single head. Altogether, the entire stock of Romani words probably exceeds 5000, though the number known to any individual Gipsy is often small.
Elements of Literature.The Gipsies have no literature worthy of the namenothing but some rude ballads, some love and dance songs, and a considerable mass of folk-tales. Valuable from a linguistic point of view, the songs have little merit of their own, and seem to be mainly echoes of Gentile strains. The folk-tales, however, would possibly repay a keener investigation than they have yet received. Alike in Wales and Turkey they may be identified with those of other Aryan races; scarce one has yet been published but its counterpart maybe found in Grimms, Ralstons, or other collections of European folk-lore. For instance Paspatis third story, taken down at Constantinople from a Gipsy professional raconteur, is unquestionably the same as Grimms Treuer Johannes. Similarly in the Bukowina we meet with Romani versions of Das tapfere Schneiderlein, Die zwei Brüder, &c., whilst Nazdrivánu may be matched from Ralstons Russian Folktales, p. 73, and frequent mention is made of the waters of life and death, of hills that butt together like rams (cf. Ralston, p. 236), and of other features common in Slavonic.folk-lore. This resemblance of Romani to Gentile stories may be explained (1) by the common origin of the Aryan races, (2) by the Gipsies having borrowed from the nations among whom they wander, or (3) by these nations having received their stories from the Gipsies. Probably all three explanations are true by turns, but the first is sometimes excluded by an identity of details too close to have been preserved through untold ages, and as to the second it is hard to see how a story current at Pader-born should have travelled eastward to Constantinople, especially as Paspatis tales, enshrining words and phrases otherwise obsolete, are plainly of sorne antiquity. Accord-ingly the third explanation, that the Gipsies may have carried Treuer Johannes and other stories westward with them, deserves consideration. Some of the Gaelic stories collected by Campbell were, it should be remarked, taken down fromTinklers ; and from a London Gipsy be obtained a version of The Master Thief, which is current also among Roumanian Gipsies. At present our information is far too scanty to warrant a definite conclusion; but could it once be shown that the Asiatic possess the same stories as the European Gipsies, it might be necessary to admit that Europe owes a portion of its folk-lore to the Gipsies.1
Religious Beliefs and Observances."The Gipsies," says Grellmarm, "brought no particular religion with them, but regulate themselves in religious matters according to the country where they live, . . . wherefore most writers place them below the heathens." This author notwithstanding, the Gipsies mix with their beginnings of Christianity or Mahometanism the relics of an older faith. Devel, their name for God or sky, is akin to the Sanskrit "God" (cf. -dyaus, "sky"), and the German Romani Miro baro devel dela berschindo, "my great God gives rain," i.e., "it rains," preserves the original signification. Gúribea, "thunder" (lit. "bellowing of cattle"), is another reminiscence of nature worship; and trúshul, "cross" (Sanskri tris_la, "the trident of Siva"), presents a curious instance of the transference of religious ideas. Beng, "devil," compared by Miklosich with the Sanskrit bh_ka, "frog," is possibly a survival of serpent-worship, traces of which may be also found in various phrases, stories, emblems, and customs. Survivals also of phallic worship may probably be seen in the honour paid by the three great German Gipsy clans to the fir-tree, the birch, and the hawthorn (Liebich, p. 38) ; and in the veneration in which Welsh Gipsies hold the fasciated vegetable growth known as the broado koro. There are besides a number of other Gipsy superstitions interesting enough in themselves, but which lose their full significance by being at present isolated or insufficiently authenticated, such as, for instance, the alleged devotion of Norwegian Gipsies to a moon-god, Alako (Sundt, 105-10). In the People of Turkey (1878) the Tchinghianés are said to keep a fire continually burning in their camp; on the first of May to go all in a body to the sea-coast or banks of a river, where they thrice throw water on their temples, invoking the invisible genii loci to grant their special wishes; and annually to drink some potion, prepared in a way known only to the oldest and wisest of the tribe.
Modes of Life.In Turkey, according to Paspati, the nomad Tehinghianés far outnumber the sedentary; but how far the same statement is true of Gipsies of other lands is hard to determine. Certain at least it is that in England few house-dwelling Gipsies are to be met with who do not remember that their forefathers followed a wandering life, or who do not themselves go temporarily under canvas as hop--picking or the great race-meetings come round. But though for centuries the tent has been the Gipsys normal habitation, it would not seem to have been so always, if we look to the evidence of the Gipsy tongue. For had it been, assuredly the Romani name for "tent" would be everywhere the same, whereas the Persian Gipsy calls it guri, the nomad Tchinghiané katúna (modern Greek GREEK), the sedentary tchérga (Turkish cherkeh), the Polish Gipsy czater, the Ger-man tattin (from tatto, "hot"), the English tan, &c. On the other hand, ker, "a house," occurs in every dialect. From the time, however, of Fitz-Simeon onwards Gipsies have everywhere been found dwelling in tents, and his description of these tents as "like those of the Arabs, low, black, and oblong," tallies with Mr Boswells:
"The tents are made of rough blankets. They are nearly always brown ones, because the white blankets are not so good for the rain. First of all they measure the ground with a ridge-pole, then they take the kettle-prop and make the holes exactly opposite each other. Then they take up the ridge-pole and stick all the rods into it. Then there is a blanket that goes behind, and is pinned on with pin-thorns ; next to that come the large ones over the top of all, also pinned with the same pins."
In the matter of dress, Mr Crofton, in Papers of the Manchester Literary Club (1876), infers that "Gipsies formerly had a distinctive costume, consisting of a turban--like headdress of many colours, together with a large cloak, worn after the fashion of a toga, over a long loose under-skirt." The Gipsies, however, of to-day can hardly be said to have a distinctive garb, though certain minutiae of dress still render them easily recognizable. In Tran-sylvania, for instance, their womens ear-rings differ in pattern from those of the natives; the Hungarian Gipsy chief wears silver buttons, bearing a serpent crest; and his old-fashioned English brother decks his Newmarket coat with spade-guineas or crown-pieces. The English Gipsy woman may be known by her bright silk handkerchief, her curiously-plaited hair, her massy rings, her coral or bead necklace, and by the monging-guno, a tablecloth arranged bagwise over her back. In August 1878 Queen Victoria was welcomed to Dunbar by a Gipsy "queen," one of the Reynolds family, who was "dressed in a black robe with white silk trimmings, and over her shoulders wore a yellow handkerchief. Behind her stood two other women, one of them noticeable from her rich gown of purple velvet, and two stalwart men, conspicuous by their scarlet coats." On the other hand, the dress of the children upon the Continent is simple, not to say scanty.
Everywhere Gipsies ply an endless variety of trades. In Egypt they monopolize the art of serpent-charming; in France and Spain they sit as professional models ; in England we meet Gipsy Methodist preachers, actors, quack doctors, chimney-sweeps, carpenters, factory hands, &c. But everywhere the men have three principal callings-workers in metals, musicians, and horse-dealers ; everywhere the women are "pleasaunt dauncers" as in the days of Andrew Boorde, and by peddling and fortune-telling contribute their shareoften more than their shareto the family purse. Gipsies have long been famous as copper where their and iron smiths in south-eastern Europe, where horseshoes are reckoned unrivalled. The calderari (copper--smiths) of Hungary and Transylvania, at certain intervals make trading tours to Germany, France, England, Norway, and even Spain and Algeria. The workers in iron, on the other hand, seldom or never quit the land of their adoption, as neither naturally do the few remaining aurari, or Gipsy gold-washers of Transylvania. Simson describes a primitive Tinkler method of smelting iron, and the caves of Granada still echo to the clink of Gipsy anvils; but in England the surname Petulengro, "smith" (from petul, "horseshoe"), alone recalls the days when Gipsies surpassed the Gentile in the farriers craft. Liszt, in his work Des -Bohémiens et de leur Musique en Hongrie (Paris, 1859), ascribes to the Gipsies the creation of Hungarys natiomal music. Bartalus (1868) contests the theory, but few would hesitate to admit its plausibility who at the Paris Exhibition (1878) or elsewhere have listened to the Gipsies thrilling performance of a czardas, or are familiar with the undoubted compositions of Bihary, Csermak, and other Gipsy maestri. The Gipsys favourite instrument is the violin, but few are the instruments he has not success-fully essayed. The Eisteddfods of Wales have witnessed the triumpbs of Gipsy harpists; and hundreds have been charmed by the concerts of the Roberts family, not knowing they were hearing a Gipsy band. "The Egyptian," as Krantzius drily remarked in 1520, "frequently change their horses;" horse-dealing, and horse-stealing are too often synonymous terms with them. Fortune-telling is on the wane with Gentiles waning belief in the fortune-tellers powers. The Gipsy crone can no longer persuade the yeomans wife to bury her treasure in the earth, and return in a fortnights time to find itgone. Those halcyon days of maánzin are passed by; the servants hall is now the only El Dorado left. Enclosure Acts have struck a deadly blow at English Gipsydom, driving the wanderers from breezy common and turf-edged lane to the smoky suburbs of great towns, or at best the outskirts of some watering place. Here, surrounded by Gentiles, the younger generation forget the wisdom of the Egyptians, relinquish time-honoured customs, and, wedding with the sons and daughters of the land, widen the stream of Romani blood, and so diminish its "depth." Several accounts have been furnished of Romani marriages, but they rarely tally, and some (Brights, Borrows, and Simsons) do not bear quotation. On the Continent one common feature is the breaking by the chief of a flower-crowned pitcher, from whose fragments, as they are many or few, he argues the fortunes of the bridal pair. There are many curious Gipsy practices relating to death and burial, such as waking the corpse, burning the deceaseds effects, the fasting of his kinsfolk, and a species of tabu. The earliest record of Gipsies burning the property of their dead occurs in the Annual Register for 1773, p. 142 : "The clothes of the late Diana Boswell, queen of the Gipsies, value £50, were burnt in the Mint, Southwark, by her principal courtiers, according to ancient custom" (cf. Liebich, p. 55). Abstention from flesh or some other delicacy is not always a sign of mourning for the dead (cf. Crofton in Papers of the Man. Lit. Club, 1877); but its most interesting form is where a Gipsy wife or child for ever renounces the favourite delicacy of the dead husband or parent. Like motives prompt the dropping of the dead Gipsys name entirely out of use, any survivors who happen to bear the same changing it to another. Much might be written of a kind of ceremonial purity prescribed by Gipsy law, and indicated in the language by the distinction between chiklo, "dirty," and mokado, " unclean." To wash a tablecloth with clothes is mokado, since it is connected with food; and a German Gipsy woman may not cook for four months alter childbirth, while a vessel touched by the skirt of a womans dress is held to be defiled. But with one other widespread practice we must take our leave of Gipsy cus-toms, that, namely, of leaving at a cross-road a handful of grass or leaves, a heap of stones, a stick or some such mark (patrin, "leaf") to guide the stragglers of the band. See Liebich, p. 96, and Smart and Crofton, p. 199 ; and com-pare "Pola," in Sleemans Ramaseeana, or a Vocabulary of the Thugs (Calcutta, 1836).
Character.The Gipsy character, strange medley of evil and of good, presents itself as black and hateful to the outside world, whilst to the Romani race it is all that is fair and lovable. "Theres nothing worse than mumply Gentiles" is a saying often in Gipsy months, which affords a clue to much that is puzzling in the Gipsys nature. He is at war with mankind, for centuries his oppressors, and, all being fair in war, may plunder and beguile at will, so that he be not caught. Gipsies light-heartedness and courtesy are patent to all men ; but only to true or adopted members of the tribe are their inmost hearts revealed. Their principal faults are childish vanity, professional cun-ning, indolence (caused by the absence of ambition), and a hot passionate temper. But they are as ready to forgive as they are quick to resent a wrong; and before implicit confidence their cunning gives place to inviolate honour, a fact borne strongly out by an incident in the Life of the actor Charles Mayne Young (p, 186, ed. 1871). Their family affection is intensely strong, prompting a parent never to chastise a younger child, a grown-up son meekly to take a thrashing from his father ; and they are lavishly generous to such as are poorer than themselves, even though Gentiles. Their love of nature reveals itself in a hundred quaint, poetic phrases, in a familiarity with beasts and herbs ; their love of dumb creatures in the number of their pets. Quick and versatile, all Gipsies readily adapt themselves to any state of life; they have so wonderful a gift of tongues that formerly it was reckoned at,ainst them for a proof of sorcery. That hitherto the race has produced, outside the realm of music, none but mute geniuses, is ratber due to lack of education than of ability ; but "Zingaro" seems to have only been a nickname of the Quentin Matsys of the South, Antonio Solario (1382-1455), and John Bunyan from parish registers does not appear to have had one drop of Gipsy blood (cf. Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vol. ii.).
Physique.Outwardly as within Gipsies present strong contrasts, some being strangely hideous, others very beautiful, though not with a regular, conventional beauty. Finely proportioned, they are as a race of middle stature, but lithe and sinewy, insensible to cold or wet, capable of supporting great fatigue. They pride themselves on their small hands and feet ; corpulence rarely occurs, and only with the older women. The hair, black or dark brown, inclines to coarseness, is often frizzled, and does not soon turn grey; the complexion, a tawny olive, was compared by the Plymouth Pilgrims (1622) to that of the Indians of North America. The teeth are of dazzling whiteness and perfect regularity, the cheekbones high ; and the aquiline nose is overhung by a strongly-marked brow, knit often in deep lines of thought. But the most striking feature is the full, dark eye, now lustreless, then changing to an expres-sion of mysterious, childlike sorrow, presently blazing forth with sudden passion. As is the case in other Oriental races, the Gipsies early develop and early fade. See, in theArchiv für Anthropologie (1872), M. Isidor Kopernickis learned and exhaustive treatise on Gipsy craniology.
Theories as to Origin.Several attempts have been made to identify Gipsies with nomad Indian tribes: Grellmann, for example, discovers them in the S_dras, Richardson in the N_ts (Asiatic Researches, vol. vii. 1784), Lelaud in the Doms, and B. R. Mitra in the Bediyás (Memoirs of London Anthrap. Sec., vol. iii., 1870). These theories, however, need not detain us long; they rest merely on analogies, real or imagined, between the manners of Gipsies and such Indian vagrants, and not on the evidence of language. Nor, were it even shown that any or all of these pariahs speak Romani among themselves, would such a discovery throw of necessity much light on the origin of our European Gipsies; it might simply prove that India has its Gipsy tribes. It is otherwise with the identification of Gipsies with the Jats, who in the Punjab alone numbered (1871) 1,309,399,a theory started by Pott, elaborated by Bataillard, and supported by Newbold, Sir H. Rawlinson (Proceedings of the Geogr. Soc., vol. i, 1857), Professor de Goeje (Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis der Zigeuners, Amst., 1875), Captain Burton (Academy, March 27,1875), and a writer in the Edinburgh Review (July 1878). About 420 A.D., says Firdousi (circa 1000), the Persian monarch Behram Gur imported 10,000 minstrels from India, assigning them lands and cattle. But they, wasting theit substance, angered the king, who bade them take their instruments, and roaming through the land procure by their songs a livelihood, "wherefore the Lûri now wander about the world." Hamza, the Arab historian of Ispahan (c. 940), had already told how Bebram dispersed through the cities of his realm 12,000 Indian musicians, "whose de-scendants are known as Zuth ;" and of three writers who repeat the tale Mirkhond (15th century) calls the musicians Djatt. Thus Lûri (mod. Pers. "Gipsy") appears to be synonymous with Zuth or Jal, the name on the one hand of Damascus Gipsies (?), on the other of an agricultural and cattle-breeding race inhabiting the valley of the Indus. Neither are records lacking of west-ward migrations of Jats from the Indus, as in 714 to Mopsuestia and Antioch, while in 810 we hear of them in the Tigris valley, in 834 in the marshes of Khuzistan, in 855 in the territory of the Byzantine empire (Goeje). Jat theorists differ as to the date of the great migration that gave Europe its Cipsies, the Edinburgh Review writer placing it at 1025, while Sir Henry Rawlinson regards our Gipsies as lineal descendants of Firdousis Lûri. These writers, how-ever, all agree in making the Gipsies Jats; but none have essayed the necessary comparison of Romani and Játakí (the idiom of the living Indian Jats), though Captain Burton himself has published a grammar of the latter in the Journal of the Bombay Asiatic Society (Bombay, 1849). We have seen that the dialect of the Turkish Gipsies has remained unchanged for near five centuries, and the Jats are said to "preserve their vernacular tongue wherever they go." Supposing Gipsies then to have broken off from the main Jat stem so late as the eleventh, or even as early as the fifth century A.D., we should look for a striking resemblance between Játakí and Romani. Compare, however, with the foregoing paradigms the following from Burtons grammar:SING. nom. ghorá, "a horse;" gen. ghore-dá; dat. ghore-mún; acc. ghorá; abl. ghore-te or -ton, "from a horse;" PLUR. nom. ghore; gen. ghorián or ghorendá; dat. ghorián nún, &c. The Játakí third personal pronoun, again, runs:SING. nom. uha, "he;" gen. usadá; dat. and acc. usnún; abl. uste; PLUR. nom. uhe; gen. ukindá, &c.: its verbal formation is almost equally unlike the Romani. In the face of the great unlikeness of Romani and Játakí one may well concur with Bataillard in the rejection of this theory, and proceed to consider the later views of that writer as advanced in Les Origines des Tsiganes (Par., 1875), Les Tsiganes de IAge du Bronze (Par., 1876)1 and État de. la question de lancienneté des Tsiganes en Europe (Par., 1877). He now believes the Gipsies to have existed in Europe from immemorial times,a conclusion to which he is led by the absence of any record of their passage across the Bosphorus, by their enslaved condition in Wallachia in the 14th century, by the casual notices cited above of their presence at a still earlier date, and by their present monopoly of motallurgical arts in South-Eastern Europe. These mainly negative proofs lose some of their force when we remark that neither is any record known to exist of the passage of Gipsies to England, Scotland, or America; and that at Corfu in 1346 (i.e., in historic times) we read of Gipsies being reduced to vassalage. Assuredly it is a mighty leap from the Athingani of the 9th century A.D. to the Sigynnae of Herodotus (v. 9), whom Bataillard claims for the ancestors of the Gipsy race. The strength, however, of the theory lies less inattempted identifications than in its explanation of the unsolved problem, What was the race that carried bronze to Northern and Western Europe ? Referring for a general survey of the question to the article ARCHAEOLOGY, to E. Chantres ge de Bronze (4 vols., Paris, 1877), and to Lubbocks Prehistoric Times (2d ed., London, 1869), we extract from the last-named work the following passages:"The absence of implements made either of copper or tin seems to indicate that the art of making bronze was introduced into Europe, [a view confirmed by the factt that] wherever we find the bronze swords or celts they are the same, not similar in character, but identical. . . . The discovery of moulds proves that the art of casting in bronze was known and practised in many countries. Hence it appears most probable that the knowledge of metal is one of those great discoveries which Europe owes to the East. . . .The implements of bronze appear to have belonged to a race with smaller hands than those of the present European nation. . . . As regards the smallness of the hands, we must remember that Hindus share this peculiarity with Egyptians . . . . The Phoenicians were well acquainted with the use of iron . . . . We have still very much to learn in regard to the race by whom the knowledge of metal was introduced into our continent." Each passage suggests or is explained by the supposition that this was no other than the small-handed and eastern Gipsy race. The Calderari work exclusively in copper, never in iron; no Gipsy bronze-smith would have spoilt his trade by introducing iron. Traces might perhaps yet be found in Norway of the workings of a band of Calderari, who visited that country in 1874; and certainly the utensils they wrought in France were exactly similar to those that they wrought in Norway. Bataillards theory is strengthened by the fact that so high an authority as M. de Mortilletwho is followed by Chantre and Burnoufhad been independently led to a like conclusion in 1874. Its strongest confirmation, however, is the important discovery of Dr Kopernicki that in Eastern Galicia there survive to the present day certain Zlotars (Ruth. "goldsmiths"), Gipsy workers in bronze, whose processes Bataillard minutely describes in Les Zlotars (Paris, 1878). Difficulties there are in accepting the theory:the unsettled question of the antiquity of the Romani tongue; the yawning chasm of a thousand years; above all, the unnoticed fact that nearly all the metallurgical terms of Romani seem to be borrowed from Greekkalái, "tin" (GREEK); klárkoma, "copper" (GREEK); moliv, "lead" (GREEK); kakkaví, "kettle" (GREEK);amuní, "anvil" (GREEK) ; rin, "file" (GREEK), sivrí, "hammer" (GREEK); ksilávi, "pincers" (GREEK); karfin, "nail" (GREEK); klidí, "key" (GREEK); gampána, "bell" (GREEK) ; and pétalo, "horseshoe" (GREEK). This looks like an insuperable objection, since certainly no Calderari of to-day would borrow from French or German the names for these the most familiar objects of his long-practised calling; and unless Bataillard be prepared to maintain that Greek took the terms from Romani, not vice versa, his theory falls.
Bibliography.The literature on the Gipsies is richer in appearance than in reality. Miklosich (i. 54-59) and Bataillard (Les derniers Travaux relatifs aux Bohémiens, Paris, 1872) give the titles of 118 works, a number which might be largely increased. But many of these "works" are articles hidden away in periodicals, as "The English Gipsies," by the Rev. S. James, in The Church of England Magazine, 1875 ; many are mere rechauffés of earlier publications. Imperfect though it be, Grellmanns Historischer Versuch über die Zigeuner (1783; 2d and enlarged ed., Gött., 1787; Eng. translation by M. Raper, 1787) remains the only attempt at a full history of the Gipsy race; its grave deficiencies are best supplied by Sprenglers Dissertatio historica-juridica de Cinganis sive Zigeunis Leyden, 1839), by Hopfs Einwanderung der Zigeuner in Europa (Gotha, 1870), by the historical portions of Miklosichs work, and above all by Bataillards De lApparition et de la Dispersion des Bohémiens en Europe (Paris, 1844). Nouvelles Recherches (Paris,1849), and État de la Question, &c. (Paris, 1877). On the language viewed as a whole the chief authorities areDie Zigeuner in Europa und Asien (2 vols., Halle, 1844-45), by A. F. Pott; Zigeunerisches (Halle, 1865), by G. H. Ascoli; and Ueber die Mundarten und die Wanderungen der Zigeuner Europas (8 parts, Vienna, 1872-78), and Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Zigeunermundarten (4 parts, Vienna, 1874-78), by F. von Miklosich. From works on the Gipsies of diffe rent European lands the followiug may be given as a selection (the more important being Marked with an asterisk):for Turkey, *Études sur les Tchinghianés (Constan., 1870), by A. G. Paspati; for Roumania, the unsatisfactory Grammaire, Dialogues, et Vocabulaire de la Langue des Cigains (Paris, 1868), by J. A. Vaillant; for Hungary, A czigány nyelv elemei (Pesth, 1853), by J. Bornemisza; for Bohemia, *Románi Czib (Prague, 1821), by A. J. Puchmayer; for Germany, *Die Zigeuner in ihrem Wesen und ihrer Sprache (Leipsic, 1863), by R. Liebich; for Poland, Rys historiczny ludu cygánskiego (Wi1na, 1830), by T. Narbutt; for Russia, Ueber die Sprache der Zigeuner in Russland (St Pet. 1853), by O. Böhtlingk; for Norway, Beretning am Fante-eller Landstrygerfolket i Norge, (5 parts, Christian., 1850-65), by E. Sundt; for Denmark, Tatere og Natmandsfolk i Danmark (Copenh., 1872), by F. Dyrlund; for England, *The English Gipsies and their Language (London, 1873), by C. G. Leland, Ramano Lavo-Lil: Word-took of the English Gipsy Language (1874), by G. Borrow, and *The Dialect of the English Gipsies (1875), by B. Smart and H. T. Crofton; for Scot-land, History of the Gipsies, (London, 1865), by W. Simson; for Italy, Zigeunerisches (Halle, 1865), by Ascoli ; for the Basque Country, Vocabulaire de la Lanque des Bohémiens habitant les Pays Basques Français (Bord. 1862); for Spain, The Zincali (2 vols., Lond., 1841 ; new ed. 1873), by Borrow. From works on non-European Gipsies selection is unnecessary, since their sum total is as follows:"Ueber die Sprache der Zigeuner in Syrien," by Pott, in Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft der Sprache (Berlin, 1846); Reisen durch Syrien, Palästina, &c. (Berlin, 1854), by U. J. Seetzen, containing a Syro-Romani vocabulary; *"The Gipsies of Egypt," in the Journ. of the Roy. Asiatic Soc. (Load., 1856), by Captain Newbold, comprehending vocabularies from Egypt, Syria, and Persia ; "Die Zigeuner in Aegypten," in Petermanns Mittheilungen (Gotha, 1862), by A. von Kremer; Notes et Questions sur les Bohémiens en Algeric (Paris, 1874), by P. Bataillard; and Travels in the East (Lond., 1823), by Sir W. Ouseley, vol. iii. Of which gives a Karáchi vocabulary. To these may be added the specimens of the Gipsy dialects of Asia Minor, furnished by Paspati, and vocabularies from Armenia and Siberia in Miklosichs Beiträge (iv. pp. 38-41). (F. H. G.)
(1) In England the census of 1871 gives the number of "vagrants and Gipsies" as 2280, in Scotland of "vagrants" as 1793. These figures. However, while they include a good many non-Gipsy tramps and show-people, exclude all house-dwelling Gipsies, besides the Gipsy horse-dealers, basket-makers, hawkers, and tinkers, entered under their several headings and are therefore utterly valueless.
(2) Sinté, another appellation current among the Gipsies of Germany, Poland, and Scandinavia, and possibly connected with the Zincalo of the Gitanos, has been likewise variously derived from the Sanskrit Sindhu (Indus), and from the Romani sundó, "famous," whilst Bataillard indentifies it with the GREEK of Homer, Strabo, &c. (cf. Pott, i. 3235).
FOOTNOTE (p. 613)
(1) The titles of king, duke, earl, count, and (in south-eastern Europe) waiwode were and are borne by the chiefs of greater or smaller bands, more to impress the vulgar than as denoting real authority. With British Gipsies one is bewildered by the host of soi-disant kings and queens, from King John Buclle, laid side with Athelstan in Malmesbury Abbey in 1657, down to the Gipsy queen of the United States, Matilda Stanley, royally buried at Dayton, Ohio, in 1878.
(2) This letter has an especial interest, since it presents the earliest specimens of the Gipsy tongue, in the names of three of the Gipsies mentioned in it : Grasta (grast, "a horse"), Towla Bailyow (túlo baúlo, "fat pig"), and Matskalla (? Matchka, "cat"). Paspati gives as female Turkish Gipsy names Tchiriclí," and Sappní, "viper ;" but probably the above were merely assumed by way of a jest, like Corrie, (Hoyland, p. 165) and Gallimensch (Pott, i. 52). See, on Gipsy names, Mr Crofton in Notes and Queries (5th ser., vol. ii. p. 349).
FOOTNOTE (page 616)
1 See Paspati (pp. 594-629), Miklosich (part iv.), Professor Friedri Müllers Beilräge zur Kenntniss der Rom-Sprache (2 parts, Vienna, 1869-72) and Dr Barbu Constantinescus Probe de Limba si Literatura Tiganilor din Romania (Bucharest, 1878).
The above article was written by Francis Hindes Groome, author; sub-editor of Chamber's Encyclopaedia; joint-editor of Chamber's Dictionary of Biography, 1897; author of In Gipsy Tents, A Short Border History, Gipsy Folk-Tales, and The War Game.