The furniture and property of the Gipseys have been already described; they consist of an earthen pot, an iron pan, a spoon, a jug, and a knife; when it happens that every thing is complete, they sometimes add a dish: these serve for the whole family. When the master of the house is a smith by trade, as will be hereafter mentioned, he has a pair of bellows to blow up his fire, a small stone anvil, a pair of tongs, and perhaps a couple of hammers; add to these a few old tatters in which he dresses himself, his knapsack, some pieces of torn bed-clothes, his tent, with his antiquated jade, and you have a complete catalogue of a nomadic Gipsey’s estate.
Very little can be said respecting the domestic employment of the women. The care of theirchildren is the most trifling concern: they neither wash, mend their clothes, nor clean their utensils: they seldom bake: the whole of their business, then, is reduced to—dressing their food and eating it, smoking tobacco, prating, and sleeping. They continue during the whole winter in their hut; but at the first croaking of the frogs, they pull down their house, and decamp.
Such is the condition of the Gipseys who wander about in Hungary, Turkey, and other countries; being no-where, or rather every-where, at home. The remainder of these people who have reconciled themselves to a settled mode of living, are in much better circumstances, and infinitely more rational, than those just described. It will be expected, that those Spanish Gipseys who are innkeepers, and entertain strangers, are more civilised; and it also holds good with regard to those in Hungary and Transylvania who have different ways of gaining a livelihood. Their habitations are conveniently divided into chambers; and are furnished with tables, benches, decent kitchen furniture, and other necessaries. The few who farm, or breed cattle, have a plough and other implements of husbandry; the others, what is necessary for carrying on their trade; though even here you are not to expect superfluity: habitations, clothes, every thing, indicate that their owners belong to the class of poor. They are very partial to goldand silver plate, particularly silver cups; which is a disposition they have in common with the wandering Gipseys: they let slip no opportunity of acquiring something of the kind; and will even starve themselves to procure it. Though they seem little anxious to heap up riches for their children, yet these frequently inherit a treasure of this sort, and are obliged in their turn to preserve it as a sacred inheritance. The ordinary, travelling Gipseys when in possession of such a piece of plate, commonly bury it under the hearth of their dwelling, in order to secure it. This inclination to deprive themselves of necessaries, that they may possess a superfluity, as well as many other of their customs, is curious, yet appears to be ancient; and it was probably inherent in them when they were first seen by Europeans.
Their Occupations and Trades.
Onconsidering the means to which the Gipseys have recourse to maintain themselves, we shall perceive the reason why poverty and want are so generally their lot; namely, their excessive indolence, and aversion from industry. They abhor every kind of employment which is laborious or requires application; and had rather suffer even hunger and nakedness, than obviate these privations on such hard terms. They therefore either choose some profession which requires little exertion, allowing them many idle hours; or addict themselves to unlawful courses, and vicious habits.
Working in iron, is the most usual occupation of the Gipseys. In Spain, very few follow any regular business; but among these few, some are smiths: on the contrary, in Hungary this profession is so common among them, that there is a proverb—‘So many Gipseys, so many smiths:’ the same might be said of those in Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, and all Turkey in Europe; at least such workers in fire are very numerous in all those countries. This occupation seems to have been a favourite with them from the most distant periods, as appears not only by Bellonius’s account,but by an older record, of an Hungarian king Uladislaus, in the year 1496, mentioned by the Abbé Pray, in his Annals, and Friedwaldsky, in his Mineralogy, wherein it is ordered,that every officer and subject,of whatever rank or condition,do allow to Thomas Polgar,leader of twenty-five tents of wandering Gipseys,free residence everywhere,and on no account to molest either him or his people;because they had prepared musket bullets,and other military stores,for the Bishop Sigismund,at Fünfkirchen. Another instance occurred in the year 1565, when Mustapha, Turkish regent of Bosnia, besieged Crupa; the Turks having expended their powder and cannon balls, Gipseys were employed to make the latter, part of iron, the rest of stone cased with lead.
The Gipseys of our time are not willing to undertake heavy work; they seldom go beyond a pair of light horse-shoes: in general, they confine themselves to small articles, such as rings, jews-harps, and small nails: they mend old pots and kettles, make knives, seals, needles, and sometimes work trifles in tin or brass.
Their materials, tools, apparatus, all are bad, and of the most inferior kind. Their common method of proceeding is, to collect some pieces of rusty iron, old nails, broken horse-shoes, and such-like, which they fuse and shape to their purpose. The anvil is a stone; the other implementsare, a pair of hand-bellows, a pair of pincers, a hammer, a vice, and a file: these are the tools which a nomadic Gipsey carries with him in his perambulations. Whenever he is disposed to work, he is at no loss for fuel: on his arrival at a station where he purposes remaining a few days, or perhaps weeks, he takes his beast, loads him with wood, builds a small kiln, and prepares his own coals. In favourable weather, his work is carried on in the open air; when it is stormy, or the sun too powerful, he retires under his tent. He does not stand, but sits down on the ground, cross-legged, to his work; which position is rendered necessary, not only by custom, but by the quality of his tools. The wife sits by to work the bellows, in which operation she is sometimes relieved by the elder children; the little ones sit, naked as they were born, round the fire. The Gipseys are generally praised for their dexterity and quickness, notwithstanding the wretched tools they have to operate with. When any piece of work requires much time to finish, they are apt to lose their patience, and in that case become indifferent whether it be well executed or not. They never submit to labour so long as they have got a dry crust, or any thing else to satisfy their hunger. They frequently receive orders to fabricate different articles; but if not, no sooner are a few nails, or some other trifles, manufactured, thanman, woman, and children, dislodge, to convey their merchandise, from house to house, for sale, in the neighbouring villages: their traffick is carried on sometimes for ready money, sometimes by barter for eatables or other necessaries.
Another branch of commerce much followed by the Gipseys is horse dealing, to which they seem to have been attached from the earliest period of their history. In those parts of Hungary where the climate is so mild that horses may lie out all the year, the Gipseys avail themselves of this circumstance to breed, as well as deal in, those animals; by which they sometimes not only procure a competence, but grow rich. Instances have been known on the Continent of Gipseys keeping from fifty to seventy horses each, and those the best bred horses of the country; some of which they let out for hire, others they sold or exchanged, as occasion offered. But this description of Gipsey horse-dealers is not very numerous; for the greatest number of them deal only in blind worn-out jades, which they drive about to different markets, to sell or barter. When the dealer is not fortunate enough to find a chap for his nag, he leads him to the collar-maker, who values the hide, and takes him off his hands for a few groschens. In order to prevent being reduced to this necessity, the slyest tricks are practised to conceal the animal’s defects. In Spain, therefore,GitanoandGitaneria(Gipsey and Gipseyism) are become familiar expressions to imply a cheater in horses, with the deceptions he makes use of. In the year 1727 they had become so infamous in Sweden, that the subject was thought of sufficient consequence for the consideration of the diet, and their total expulsion was voted to be a necessary measure. The following trick is frequently played in Hungary, and the adjacent country, to make a horse appear brisk and active:—the rider alights at a small distance from the place where he means to offer his horse for sale, and belabours him till he has put the whole muscular system in motion with fright; he then mounts again, and proceeds. The poor beast remembering the blows he has received, jumps about, or sets out full speed, at the least signal; the buyer, entirely ignorant of the preparatory discipline the animal has undergone, supposes this to be natural vivacity, and in hopes that good feeding, with care, will render him still more lively, strikes a bargain: but the next day he has the mortification to discover that he has bought a jade, on which all his care will be thrown away, as the beast has not a leg to stand upon. In Suabia, and on the Rhine, they have another device:—they make an incision in some hidden part of the skin, through which they blow the creature up, till he looks fleshy and plump; they then apply a strong sticking-plaster, to prevent the air fromreturning. If what Wolfgang Franz assures us be true, they sometimes make use of a trick with a live eel, to this blown-up horse, that he may not only appear in good condition, but spirited and lively. It might be thought, that, on account of these and such-like roguish proceedings, nobody would ever venture to deal with a Gipsey for a horse, were not the possibility proved by the fact itself. But we see instances of this infatuation in other transactions: it is well known that every Jew will cheat, whenever he has an opportunity; yet these people have lived by trade, ever since their dispersion from Babel. Then, these frauds do not always happen: the Gipseys too sell their horses cheap; and as poor people cannot afford to pay dear for them, they must buy where they can; and thus the Gipseys are enabled to continue their traffick.
To the two professions before mentioned as commonly followed by the men, may be added, those of carpenters and turners: the former make watering-troughs and chests; the latter turn trenchers, dishes, make spoons and other trifling articles, which they hawk about. There are others who make sieves, or maintain themselves by cobbling shoes. Many of these, as well as the blacksmiths and whitesmiths, find constant employment in the houses of the better sort of people, for whom they work the year round. They are not paid inmoney; but, beside other advantages, find a certain subsistence. Those who are not thus circumstanced, do not wait at home for customers, but, with their implements in a sack thrown over their shoulders, seek business in the cities or villages: when any one calls, they throw down the bundle, and prepare the apparatus for work, before the door of their employer.
The Gipseys have a fixed dislike to agriculture; and had rather suffer hunger, or any privation, than follow the plough, to earn a decent livelihood. But, as there is no general rule without an exception, so, beside the slaves to the bojars in Moldavia and Wallachia, who are constrained to apply to it, there are some in Hungary who are cultivators by choice. Since the year 1768, the Empress Theresa has commanded that the Hungarian and Transylvanian Gipseys should be instructed in husbandry; but these orders have been very little regarded. At this time there are so few of them farmers, in those parts, that they are undeserving of notice; though in Spain, and other European countries, they are still more scarce, as it would be difficult to find one who had ever made a furrow in his life.
Formerly, Gipseys were commonly employed in Hungary, and in Transylvania almost universally, for hangmen and executioners. They still perform the business of flayers in Hungary, and of executioners indifferent parts of Transylvania. Their assiduity in torturing, their cruel invention in tormenting, are described by Toppeltin to be so shocking, that the Gipseys seem eminently calculated for works of barbarity. They do not follow flaying as a regular profession any-where; it is merely a casual occupation, in addition to their usual employment. Whenever a beast dies near where they happen to be, it is a fortunate circumstance if there be no skinner in the place; not because they can make much of the skin, which they always leave with the owner for a trifling consideration, but they are thus enabled to procure a plentiful provision of flesh for the family.
Such are the employments of the men. We shall now proceed to shew the particular methods the women have of obtaining support. It was formerly, and still is, the custom, among the wandering Gipseys, especially in winter, not for the man to maintain the wife, but the wife the husband. This is not precisely the fact in summer, when the men have the before-recited occupations; nor among those who have a regular settlement; but the women always endeavour to contribute their share towards the maintenance of the family: some deal in old clothes; others frequent brothels, which is commonly the case in Spain, and still more so in Constantinople, and all over Turkey. There are others, in Constantinople, who make and sell brooms; butthis trade is followed by those chiefly who are too old to get a livelihood by their debauchery. Dancing is another means they have of obtaining contributions: they generally practise this when begging, particularly of men, in the streets; or when they enter houses, to ask charity. Their dancing is the most disgusting that can be conceived, always ending with fulsome grimaces, or the most lascivious attitudes and gestures: nor is this indecency confined to the married women, but is rather more practised by young girls, travelling with their fathers, who are also musicians, and who, for a trifling acknowledgement, will exhibit their dexterity to any body who is pleased with these unseemly dances. They are trained up to this impudence from their earliest years, never suffering a passenger to pass their parents’ hut, without endeavouring to obtain something by frisking about naked before him.
Respecting fortune telling, with which the female Gipseys impose on people’s credulity, in every district and corner of Europe, little need be said. Yet it is extraordinary, thatwomen, generally too not till they become old, should be so sharpsighted as to discover, in every person’s hand they are permitted to inspect, the events of futurity! There are some instances of men being thus gifted; but so few, that they are only exceptions to a general rule. It is, therefore, to be ascribed to the Gipsey womenalone, that faith in divination still exists in the minds of millions of people. It is true, Europe was not originally beholden to the Gipseys for this faith, it being deeply rooted in the ignorance of the middle age, when they arrived and brought it with them also. The science of divination here, was already brought to a much greater degree of perfection than among them: rules were invented to tell lies from the inspection of the hand; whereas these poor wretches were esteemed mere bunglers. During the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century the Gipseys were considered as only a supernumerary party; there being men of great learning, who not only read lectures in college on the divine art of chiromancy, but wrote many books, vilifying these people, and endeavouring to spoil their market by exposing their ignorance. But those enlightened men are no more; their knowledge is deposited in the dead archives of literature: and probably, if there were no Gipseys, with them would also have died the belief in chiromancy, as has happened in regard to astrology, necromancy, oneirocritica, and the other offsprings of imbecile fancy. By the Gipseys alone will this deceit be kept alive, till every Gipsey is constrained to acknowledge some country, and to have some ostensible mode of gaining a livelihood. We can only pity the poor weak deluded beings, who pay their groschen or kreutzer, their shillingor sixpence, for a few unmeaning words!—as if it were possible for people to instruct us concerning our future fortune in life, who are ignorant of their own; being unable to determine whether a day or two hence, they may still be telling fortunes, or be taken before the magistrates, and hanged for theft.
In addition to the chiromantic deception of the Gipsey women, they also—though not exclusively, as the men likewise often profess the same talent—cure bewitched cattle, discover thefts, and possess nostrums of various kinds, to which they ascribe great virtues. These nostrums consist principally of roots, and amulets made of unfermented dough, marked with strange figures, and dried in the air. Griselini says, that, in the Banat of Temeswar, they sell certain small stones, chiefly a kind of scoriæ, which they say possess the quality of rendering the wearer fortunate in love, play, &c. Were that true, why deliver to others what they have so much occasion for themselves? Why do they beg and steal, when, with the assistance of these stones, they might honourably acquire riches, and good fortune? Yet these stones are purchased with avidity, not only in the Banat, but in Germany. People use their quack medicines; call the Gipsey woman into the stable, to exorcise their bewitched cattle, without suspecting any trick or deception. So the open-hearted farmer,in Suabia and Bavaria, has recourse to the Gipseys on many occasions, employing them as doctors for man and beast; and constantly, in cases of supposed enchantment, flies to the Gipsey: this circumstance happens most frequently among those of the common people who pretend to have the least belief in witches and witchcraft. Whenever a cow does not feed kindly, something is immediately suspected; and the Gipsey woman is called, who is often so successful as to remove the impediment. She goes into the stable, orders the cow to be shewn to her, and, after desiring every one else to go out, remains a few minutes alone with it: having finished her operations, she calls in the master, acquaints him with the beast’s recovery, and behold it eats heartily! How happens this? Was it not a piece of enchantment, wherein the Gipsey really acted the magician? Certainly not. The fraud is this:—When the cattle are feeding abroad, the Gipsey woman takes advantage of the keepers absence to entice some of them, with a handful of fodder, to follow her; she then smears them, over the nose and mouth, with some filthy composition, which she has ready in the other hand. From that moment the creature loaths all kinds of food and drink. When the Gipsey is called in to apply a remedy, the whole skill required, is to cleanse the animal’s nose and mouth from the stuff she had put on a day or two before:by this means the true smell is restored, and the cow being hungry, it is not surprising she should fall-to greedily. From this single instance, a judgment may be formed of other cases.
The more common Gipsey occupations, wherein the men and women take an equal share, are—in Spain, keeping inns; principally music in Hungary and Turkey; and gold-washing in Transylvania, the Banat, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The Gipseys, formerly, were concerned in smuggling; and probably still are, although it is not mentioned by late writers.
Both male and female Gipseys attend at entertainments with their music, and often shew great proficiency in the art: besides some wind instrument, they have generally a violin; and many of them have attained so great perfection on that instrument, as to be employed in the chapels of the nobility, and admired as great masters.Barna Mihaly, in the country of Zips, who distinguished himself, about the middle of the last century, in the chapel of the cardinal CountEmerick von Cschaky, was an Orpheus of this kind. The cardinal, who was a judge of music himself, had so great a regard for him, that he had his likeness taken by one of the most capital painters. Instances of the kind are not wanting in the other sex: it is well known that a Gipsey girl, at fourteen years of age, was so famous as a fidler, thatthe greatest and most fashionable people in Hungary were accustomed to send twenty or thirty miles for her, to play at their balls. There are likewise very manyscrapers; these are generally such as have learned of other scrapers, at their own expense. This kind of musicians travel about, with the dancers before mentioned; or play to the peasants, who, not having much taste, always make them welcome at their weddings, or dances. They scratch away on an old patched violin, or rumble on a broken base, neither caring about better instruments, nor minding to stop in tune; being what they are, more for want of application than capacity. Others practise vocal music; and some have acquired considerable fortunes, particularly in Spain, by singing.
Goldwashing, in the rivers, is another occupation, by which many thousand Gipseys, of both sexes, procure a livelihood, in the Banat, Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia. As this is only a summer employment, they are under the necessity of finding some other means of supporting themselves during the winter. It is not permitted for every one, without exception, to be a goldwasher: in Transylvania, such only can follow the employment, who have leave from the office of Mons;[51]and these only enjoy the privilege undercertain restrictions. In Wallachia and Moldavia, none of the bojars’ slaves, thence calledbojaresk(bojar Gipseys), are suffered to meddle with goldwashing; that being a liberty granted only to those who, like other subjects, are immediately under the prince, denominateddomnesk(princely Gipseys): which are also subdivided into three classes; the first namedRudar; the secondUrsar; and the thirdLajaschen. TheRadarsalone have the licence above mentioned; the others are obliged to seek a different means of obtaining support. Each person is forced to pay a certain tribute to government. The goldwashers in Transylvania and the Banat pay four guilders annually, which is discharged in gold-dust: the same sum is due from every Gipsey, though many evade the contribution. When the time for payment approaches; they contrive to keep out of the way, particularly the Hungarian Gipseys. The tribute collected in Wallachia and Moldavia does not go into the public treasury, but belongs to the princesses for pin-money. In Cantemir’s time, that in Moldavia produced yearly one thousand six hundred drachms: and the consort of the Wallachian hospodar Stephen Rakowitza, in the year 1764, received from her Rudars, two hundred and forty in number, twelve hundred and fifty-four drachms;—a sum, according to General von Bauer and Sulzer, amounting to one thousand and three drachms,fine gold. What the Gipseys in Wallachia and Moldavia get more than their head-money, goes to the grand armasch, at two lion-guilders the drachm: this he afterwards sells again, at a higher price, according with its real value; as General von Bauer believes, for his own profit, not for that of the prince. The goldwashers in the Banat and Transylvania dispose of their share at the royal redemption-office, in Zalatnya. The earnings of these people vary with time and at different places; during heavy rains and floods they are usually most successful: besides, their profit is more or less, according to the quality of the river they wash in. At the most favourable times, viz. at the floods, Griselini calculates their daily gain not to exceed three groschens. If we understand, as we certainly ought, that this sum is not earned by each person, but by a whole family, the statement will agree, pretty nearly, with Mr. Dembscher’s account: he says, “In the year 1770 there were, in the districts of Uj-Palanka, Orsova, and Caransebes, upwards of eighty goldwashers, all of whom had families, and followed the business, with their wives and children; yet this number of hands delivered in only six or seven hundred ducats worth of gold.” Take half of the doubtful seventh hundred; deduct three hundred and twenty guilders, head money, from the gross sum; divide the remainderamong eighty families, and each will receive yearly thirty-two guilders: allot to each day, in the summer half-year, its proportion, and it will be found very little more or less than three groschens. As before stated, the labour of two hundred Rudars produced, in the year 1764, twelve hundred fifty-four drachms: General von Bauer adds, this sum was exactly the half of what was collected, over the whole country, in the same year. Now as these Gipseys were under the necessity of parting with their twelve or thirteen hundred drachms, which remained after the capitation tax was paid, to the grand-armasch, at the rate of two lion-guilders per drachm, they earned still less than those in the Banat; although the rivers in Wallachia contain a sufficient plenty of gold to have enabled them to make ten times that advantage, did not their laziness prevent them. The Transylvanian rivers yield the most gold: there are annually, from eight to ten hundred weight separated from their sand, which are brought to Zalatnya, to be disposed of. As this quantity is not obtained by Gipseys only, but together with the Wallachians, and we have no account of the gross number of goldwashers, how many of them are Gipseys, nor what proportion they have of these eight hundred weight, it is impossible to ascertain the profits of the Transylvanian Gipsey goldwashers. That they are better off than thosein the Banat and other places, is certain, from the circumstance of the rivers abounding more with gold, than elsewhere.
It may not be uninteresting in this place to give the process of goldwashing, in the words of those who, as mineralogists, have superintended the work. The account communicated by the Councellor von Kotzian, concerning the goldwashing in the Banat, is as follows: “The operation consists in, first, providing a board of lime-wood, about one fathom long, and half a fathom broad; being hollowed at the upper end, in the form of a dish, from which are cut ten or twelve channels, in an oblique direction. This board is fixed in an inclined position so as to form an angle of forty-five degrees with the horizon. The sand containing the gold, being laid in the hollow at the top of the board, a quantity of water is then poured upon it, which carries off the lighter parts; such as are more heavy they shove down by hand: what remains in the channels, or furrows, is discharged into an oblong tray, carried to the straining-trough, and the gold which remains picked clean out. The whole of this work is performed in so careless a manner, that much pure gold is lost: it is, moreover, to be lamented, that the Gipseys get only the gold which is perfectly separated from the sand, but by no means any that sticks tothe ore, which they throw away, though there is gold in it.”
As it seems evident, from the foregoing statement, that this method is very inadequate to the purpose, and that consequently much gold must be wasted, we are the more surprised when another author, in the following words, assures us of the contrary:—“So negligent and careless as the work of the Gipseys appears at first sight, just as effectual it is proved when put to the test. Daily practice gives to these people a degree of discernment, without which another person would think they must lose a great deal. I convinced myself in the following manner: When they had finished their washing on the board—for which they commonly used from fifteen to twenty troughs of coarse stuff—I divided the washed stuff into three parcels; the ten or fifteen uppermost furrows always contained the most gold, the second division not more than an eighth part as much, but the last fifteen to twenty furrows scarcely three grains. I have also narrowly examined the refuse, and very seldom found any traces of gold in it.”
The art of goldwashing is brought to much greater perfection in Transylvania. In the description of the process adopted in that country, it is said that all the rivers, brooks, and even the pools which the rain forms, produce gold:of these the river Aranyosch is the richest, insomuch that the historians have compared it to the Tagus and Pactolus. Excepting the Wallachians, who live by the rivers, the goldwashers consist chiefly of Gipseys. They can judge with the greatest certitude where to wash to advantage. The apparatus used by them for this work is a crooked board, four or five feet long, by two or three broad, generally provided with a wooden rim on each side; over this board they spread a woollen cloth, and scatter the gold-sand, mixed with water, upon it: the small grains of the metal remain sticking to the cloth, which they afterwards wash in a vessel of water, and then separate the gold by means of the trough. When larger particles of sand are found in their washing, they make deeper channels in the middle of their crooked boards, to stop the small pieces as they roll down: they closely examine these small stones, and some are frequently found to have solid gold fixed in them.
Those we have mentioned are the customary professions and occupations of Gipseys, in the different countries and states of Europe. But people must not imagine that their smiths’ shops are continually resounding with the hammer; nor that those of other professions are so attentive to their callings, as to provide even a daily subsistence, not to think of a comfortable maintenance.Their consummate laziness, on the contrary, as before observed, occasions so many idle hours in the day, that their family is often reduced to the greatest distress; for which reason, begging or stealing is by far a more common method, than diligence or assiduous application to business, for quieting the cravings of hunger. If we except soldiers, who are kept in order by the discipline of the corporal, with some of the Transylvanian goldwashers, who apply to music—and, living separate from their own caste, in constant habits of intercourse with people of a better sort, have thereby acquired more civilised manners, and learned the distinction, if not between right and wrong, at least between social honour and disgrace—the remainder are, in the most unlimited sense, arrant thieves. In fact, working at any trade, or employment, seems to be merely a disguise, in order the better to enable them to carry on their thieving practices; as the articles which they prepare for sale in the cities and villages, furnish an excellent excuse for sneaking into houses, to pry where there is any thing which they may appropriate to themselves. This kind of artifice is particularly the province of the women, who have always been reckoned more dextrous than the men in the art of stealing. They commonly take children with them, who are tutored to remain behind, in the outer part of the house, to purloin what they can,while the mother is negotiating in the chamber. It is generally the women’s office to make away with the boor’s geese and fowls, when they are to be found in a convenient place. Should the creature make a noise when seized, it is killed and dressed for the consumption of the family; but if, by chance, it have strayed so far from the village, that its crying cannot give any alarm, they keep it alive to sell at the next market town. Winter is the time when the women generally are most called upon to try their skill in this way: during that season, many of the men remain in their huts, sending the women abroad to forage. They go about in the guise of beggars—a character they well know how to support—and commonly carry with them a couple of children, miserably exposed to the cold and frost; one of these is led by the hand, the other tied in a cloth to the woman’s back, in order to excite compassion in well-disposed people. Whole troops of these Gipsey beggars are met with in Spain; and the encounter is by no means pleasant, as they ask alms in a manner, and with such importunity, as if they thought you could not deny them. They also tell fortunes; and impose on the credulous with amulets. Besides all this, they seldom return to their husbands without some pilfered booty. Many writers confine the thefts of the Gipseys to small maters, and will not allow that they are ever guilty of violence.This is not only denied by the testimony of others, but absolutely contradicted by some recent instances. It is true that, on account of their natural timidity, they do hesitate to commit a robbery which appears to be attended with great danger, nor do they often break open houses by night: they rather confine themselves to petty depredations, than, as they think, rush voluntarily into destruction by a great and dangerous action. Yet we have more than one proof, that they make no scruple to murder a traveller, or plunder cities and villages.
On their Marriages and Education.
Thereare not, perhaps, any other people among whom marriages are contracted with so little consideration, or solemnised with so little ceremony, as among the Gipseys. No sooner has a boy attained the age of fourteen or fifteen years, than he begins to perceive that something more than mere eating and drinking is necessary to him. Having no fear of consequences, nor being under any restraint from his parents, he forms a connection with the girl he most fancies, of twelve, or at most thirteen, years old, without any scruple of conscience, whether she be his nearest relation, or an entire stranger; but it is to be observed, that a Gipsey never marries a person who is not of the true Gipsey breed. God’s commandments are unknown to him; and human laws cannot have much influence over one who lives in a desert, remote from the observation of any ruling power. The term of courtship is very short, often only long enough for the parties to communicate their mutual inclination. They do not wait for any marriage ceremony, as it is a matter of no consequence to them, whether it be performed afterwards, or not at all. Yet they do not seem to be entirely indifferent about matrimony,not on account of conforming to any institution, but from a pride they have in imitating what is done by other people, lest they should appear to be inferior to them. As the very early age of the parties, or some other irregularity, might meet with objections from a regular clergyman, they frequently get one of their own people to act the priest, and tack the decent couple together. A marriage being thus accomplished, the man provides a stone for an anvil, a pair of pincers, a file, and hammers away as a smith; or works at some other trade, he may have just learned from his father: then begins his peregrination. Should his wife commit a fault at a future time, he gives her half a dozen boxes on the ear; or very likely, for some trifling cause, turns her off entirely. Her conduct must, in general, be very much regulated by his will; and she is obliged to be more attentive to him than to herself. When the woman lies-in, which happens frequently, these people being remarkably prolific, the child is brought forth, either in their miserable hut, or, according to circumstances, it may be in the open air, but always easily and fortunately: a woman of the same kind performs the office of midwife. True Gipsey like, for want of some vessel, they dig a hole in the ground, which is filled up with cold water, and the new-born child washed in it. This being done, it is wrapped up in some old rags, which the motherly foresight has taken care to provide.Next comes the christening, at which ceremony they prefer strangers, for witnesses, rather than their own caste: but what kind of folks their guests are, may be collected from the mode of entertaining them. When the christening is over, the father takes the sponsors to an alehouse, or if none be near, to some other house, where he treats them with cakes and brandy. If he is a little above the lowest state of misery, and has a mind to be generous, other things are provided; but he does not join the company, being employed in serving his guests. Thus the affair ends. The lying-in woman passes her short time of confinement, seldom exceeding eight days, with her child, in the hut, or under a tent, in the smoke by the fire. Refreshments are often sent from the godfathers and godmothers; yet they are sometimes so uncivil, that they do not hesitate to quarrel with them or even to discharge them from the trust, if they think the present too small, or do not like the provisions. When this happens, they have another christening, in some other place; nay, sometimes even a third.
Gipsey women, as already mentioned, frequently smear their children over with a particular kind of ointment, and then lay them in the sun, or before the fire, in order that the skin may be more completely parched, and their black beauty thereby increased. They never use a cradle, nor evenpossess such a piece of furniture; the child sleeps in its mother’s arms, or on the ground. When the lying-in is over, the Gipsey woman goes to church, and thence, immediately, either to begging or stealing. While the child remains in her arms, perhaps imagining that people will be less severe in their chastisements, she is more rapacious than at other times, and takes whatever she can lay her hands on. If she cannot escape without a beating, she endeavours to screen herself by holding up the child to receive the blows, till she finds an opportunity of retiring imperceptibly, and running away.
When the child gets a little stronger, and has attained the age of three or four months, the mother seldom carries it on the arm, but at her back; there it sits, winter and summer, in a linen rag, with its head over her shoulder. If she have more children, in course of time, which is generally the case, as this race of beings is so prolifick, she leads one or two by the hand, while such as are older run by her side; and thus attended, she strolls through the villages and into houses. Notwithstanding their dark complexion, and bad nursing, writers are unanimous in stating, that these children are good-looking, well shaped, lively, clever, and have fine eyes. The mother plaits their black hair on the crown of the head, partly to keep it out of their face, and partly for ornament. Thisis all she ever does towards decorating her offspring; for in summer the children wear no clothes till ten years of age, and in winter they are forced to be content with a few old rags hung about them.
No sooner is the child, whether boy or girl, capable of running about, than it is taught to dance; which talent consists in jumping on one foot, and constantly striking behind with the other. As the young Gipsey grows up, all kinds of postures are added, in hopes of diverting, and thereby to obtain a reward from persons who happen to pass the parents’ habitation. What the children are further taught, especially by their mothers, is the art of stealing, which they often put in practice, as before related. Instruction or school is never thought of; nor do they learn any business, except perhaps to blow the fire when the father forges, or to assist in goldwashing.
By the twelfth or thirteenth year, a boy acquires some knowledge of his father’s trade; and then becomes emancipated from parental authority; as he now begins to think of forming his own separate connections. The Gipseys, in common with uncivilised people, entertain unbounded love for their children: this is a source of the most unpardonable neglect. Gipsey children never feel the rod; they fly into the most violent passion, and at the same time hear nothing from their parents but flattery and coaxing. In return, they act, as is commonlythe consequence of such education, with the greatest ingratitude. This excessive fondness for their children is, however, attended with one advantage:—when they are indebted to any person, which is frequently the case in Hungary and Transylvania, the creditor seizes a child, and by that means obtains a settlement of his demand; as the Gipsey will immediately exert every method to discharge the debt, and procure the release of his darling offspring.
To the beforegoing account of Gipsey marriages, and education, there are but few exceptions; comprised in a small proportion of them who have fixed habitations. The character of people being formed by the instruction they receive in their early years, can it then be thought surprising that Gipseys should be idlers, thieves, murderers, and incendiaries? Is it probable,thatman should become diligent, who has been educated in laziness? Can it be expected those should leave every person in possession of his own property, whose father and mother have taught them to steal, from their earliest infancy? Who can have a general idea of fair dealing, that knows not right from wrong, nor has ever learned the distinction between good and evil, virtue and vice? Punishments inflicted on others, for their crimes, have no effect upon one who is not sufficiently attentive to take warning by the examples of strangers: and when, by his own experience,he is taught not to lay hands on the property of others, he is become so hardened, that the milder punishments leave no lasting impression; while the more severe ones, which reach the life, cannot have any effect on him, and are, as before observed, totally disregarded by his fellows. So long therefore as the education of the Gipseys continues to be what it is, we cannot hope that they should leave off their vile practices and filthy habits.
On their Sickness,Death,and Burial.
Wehave before had occasion to mention the constant good health of these people; and it is fact, that they do enjoy it more uninterruptedly, and perfectly, than persons of the most regular habits, and who pay the greatest attention to themselves. They get no cold nor defluxions, from the inclemency of the air. They are not subject to rashes; even poisons, or epidemical disorders, have no effect upon them. Any prevailing sickness penetrates sooner into ten habitations of civilised people, than it finds its way under a Gipsey’s tent, or into his hut. They are equally liable to the small-pox and measles with other people, though with infinitely less danger; and they are subject to a disorder in the eyes, occasioned by the continual smoke and steam in their huts, during the winter season: excepting these complaints, the Gipseys, in general, experience little inconvenience till the time comes that Nature demands her own back again, and entirely destroys the machine. Though this be not always at a great age, it is generally at an advanced period; it being very uncommon for a Gipsey to die early in life, or during his childhood. Their love of life is excessive; yet they hardly ever takethe advice of a physician, or use medicines, even in the most dangerous maladies. They generally leave every thing to nature, or good fortune: if they doanything, it is, to mix a little saffron in their soup, or bleed and scarify themselves; having observed that their horses use bleeding, as a remedy for disorders. When the sickness indicates danger, and that the universal enemy to life is really in earnest, the Gipsey breaks out into sighs and lamentations, on account of his departure; till at last he gives up the ghost, in his usual place of residence—under a tree, or in his tent.
The preparations for death are usually regulated according to a person’s religious principles; but the Gipsey, who neither knows nor believes any thing concerning the immortality of the soul, or of rewards and punishments beyond this life, for the most part dies like a beast—ignorant of himself and his Creator, as well as utterly incapable of forming any opinion respecting a higher destination.
The Gipsey’s decease is instantly succeeded by the most frantic lamentations: parents, in particular, who have lost their children, appear inconsolable. Little can be said of their burials; only, that on those occasions the cries and bewailings are redoubled, and become very violent. When the leader of a horde dies, things are conducted more quietly. His own people carry him,with great respect, to the grave, where each one appears earnest and attentive; although at the same time employed in a manner to excite laughter.
This is the mode of proceeding when a Gipsey dies a natural death. But it often happens that he loses his life by violent means—not by his own hands for self-murder and infanticide are equally unheard of among them. No Gipsey ever puts a period to his own existence on account of vexation, anxiety, or despair; as, besides his unbounded love of life, care or despair is totally unknown to him.
Even in the greatest distress, the Gipsey is never troubled with low spirits; ever merry and blythe, he dies not till he cannot help it: this often happens on the gallows, attended with scenes ridiculous as the most ludicrous imagination could invent. One man requested, as a particular act of grace, that he might not be hanged with his face towards the high road; saying, “Many of his acquaintance passed that way, and he should be very much ashamed to be seen by them hanging on a gallows.” At another time the relations of a Gipsey who was leading to execution, perceiving, by the discourse and gestures of the criminal, how unwillingly he advanced, not having the least inclination to be hanged, addressed themselves to the magistrates and officers of justice, with the followingwise remonstrance: “Gentlemen, pray do not compel a man to a thing for which you see he has no desire nor inclination.” Such scenes happen at almost every Gipsey execution, which are proofs that these people are quite deficient in thought or consideration.
Political Regulations peculiar to the Gipseys.
Whenthe Gipseys first arrived in Europe, they had leaders and chiefs, to conduct the various tribes in their migrations. This was necessary, not only to facilitate their progress through different countries and quarters of the globe, but to unite their force if necessary, and thereby enable them to make a more formidable resistance when opposed: and likewise to carry any plan, they might have formed, more readily into execution. We accordingly find, in old books, mention made of knights, counts, dukes, and kings. Krantz and Munster mention counts, and knights, in general terms, among the Gipseys; other people give us the very names of these dignified men: Crusius cites a dukeMichael; Muratori a dukeAndreas; and Aventinus records a kingZindelo: not to speak of inscriptions on monuments, erected in different places, to the memories of dukePanuel, countJohannis; and a noble knightPetrus, in the fifteenth century. But no comment is requisite to shew how improperly these appellations were applied. Though the Gipsey chiefs might be gratified with these titles, and their dependants probably esteemed them people of rank, it was merelya ridiculous imitation of what they had seen and admired among civilised people. Nevertheless, the custom of having leaders and chiefs over them prevails to this time, at least in Hungary and Transylvania; probably it may also still exist in Turkey, and other countries where these people live together in great numbers.
Their chiefs—or waywodes, as they proudly call them—were formerly of two degrees in Hungary. Each petty tribe had its own leader; beside which, there were four superior waywodes, of their own caste, on both sides the Danube and Teisse, whose usual residences were at Raab, Lewentz, Szathmar, and Kaschau: to these the smaller waywodes were accountable. It would appear extraordinary that any well-regulated state should allow these people a distinct establishment in the heart of the country, did not the Hungarian writers assign a reason: viz. that in the commotions and troubles, occasioned by the Turkish wars, in former centuries, they were, by means of their waywodes, more easily summoned, when occasion required, and rendered useful to the community. But the Gipseys in Hungary and Transylvania were permitted to choose, from their own people, only the small waywodes of each tribe. The superior waywodes, to whom the Gipseys, in many districts, were subject, have existed till within a few years; but they were appointed by the court, andalways selected from the Hungarian nobility. The appointment was by no means despicable; as each Gipsey was bound to pay the superintendent under whom his tribe was classed, a guilder annually, of which one half was demanded at Easter, the other half at Michaelmas. In order to render the levying this tax more certain, the magistrates, in all towns, cities, and villages, were ordered to be assisting to the collectors, where necessary; to protect them also from any violence that might be offered by the Gipseys. These superior waywodes are now no longer appointed, except a single one in Transylvania, who has authority over the goldwashers in those parts. But the Gipseys still continue the custom, among themselves, of dignifying certain persons, whom they make heads over them, and call by the exalted Sclavonian title—waywode. To choose their waywode, the Gipseys take the opportunity when a great number of them are assembled in one place, commonly in the open field. The elected person is lifted up three times, amidst the loudest acclamations, and confirmed in his dignity by presents; his wife undergoes the same ceremony. When this solemnity is performed, they separate with great conceit, imagining themselves people of more consequence than electors returning from the choice of an emperor. Every one who is of a family descended from a former waywodeis eligible; but those who are best clothed, not very poor, of large stature, and about the middle age, have generally the preference. Understanding or wise conduct is of no consideration: therefore it is easy to distinguish the waywode from the multitude, by observing his size and clothing. The particular distinguishing mark of dignity, is a large whip, hanging over the shoulder. His outward deportment, his walk and air, also plainly shew his head to be filled with notions of authority.
It is uncertain how far the waywode’s sway over his subjects extends. A distinction must here be made, whether the state gives him any power, and what he assumes or derives by custom from his caste. It were ridiculous to suppose that the state should, on any occasion, appoint this sort of illustrious personage a judge. In Transylvania, indeed, the magistrates do interfere with regard to the fellow whom this or that horde has elected chief, and impose an obligation on him; but it is only that he should be careful to prevent his nimble subjects from absconding, when the time arrives for them to discharge their annual tribute at the land-regent’s chamber. He has no right to interfere in disputes or quarrels which the Gipseys have among themselves, or with other people, further than to give notice of them to the regular courts of the district where they happen to be.In this point of view, what Toppeltin and others after him assert, that the waywodes have little or no power over their own people, is perfectly correct: but if we attend to their actions, the affair carries a very different appearance. Whenever a complaint is made, that any of their people have been guilty of theft, the waywode not only orders a general search to be made, in every tent or hut, and returns the stolen goods to the owner, if they can be found, but punishes the thief, in presence of the complainant, with his whip. Certainly it is not by any written contract that he acquires his right over the people, for no such thing exists among them, but custom gives him this judicial power. Moreover he does not punish the aggressor from any regard to justice, but rather to quiet the plaintiff, and at the same time to make his people more wary in their thefts, as well as more dextrous in concealing their plunder. These discoveries materially concern him, since by every detection his income suffers; as the whole profit of his office arises from his share of the articles that are stolen. Every time a Gipsey brings in a booty, he is obliged to give information to the arch-Gipsey of his successful enterprise; and then render a just account of what and how much he has stolen, in order that the proper division may be made. In this proceeding the Gipsey considers himself bound to give a fair and true detail; though inevery other instance he does not hesitate to commit the grossest perjury. We may therefore judge how precarious success is likely to be, when a waywode is applied to for the recovery of stolen goods. The Gipseys are cunning enough to hide what they have pilfered, in such a manner, that out of a hundred searches the complainer hardly once accomplishes his desire. It does not at all forward the cause, that the waywode knows who the thief is: his interest requires him to dissemble. Thus, though he does not steal himself, the Spanish proverb is a very true one: “The Count and the Gipsey are rogues alike.” For which reason people seldom apply to so suspicious a judge. If a thief is caught in the fact, the owner takes his property, and gives the offender his proper reward, or else delivers him over to the civil power for correction. Here ensues a truly laughable scene: As soon as the officer seizes on, and forces away the culprit, he is surrounded by a swarm of Gipseys, who take unspeakable pains to procure the release of the prisoner. They endeavour to cajole him with kind words, desiring him to consider this, that, and the other, or admonish him not to be so uncivil. When it comes to the infliction of punishment, and the malefactor receives a good number of lashes, well laid on, in the public market-place, an universal lamentation commences among the vile crew; each stretcheshis throat, to cry over the agony his dear associate is constrained to suffer. This is oftener the fate of the women than of the men; for, as the maintenance of the family depends most upon them, they more frequently go out for plunder.
On the Religion of the Gipseys.
Thesepeople did not bring any particular religion with them from their native country, by which, as the Jews, they could be distinguished among other persons; but regulate themselves, in religious matters, according to the country where they live. Being very inconstant in their choice of residence, they are likewise so in respect to religion. No Gipsey has an idea of submission to any fixed profession of faith: it is as easy for him to change his religion at every new village, as for another person to shift his coat. They suffer themselves to be baptised in Christian countries; among Mahometans to be circumcised. They are Greeks with Greeks, Catholics with Catholics, and again profess themselves to be Protestants, whenever they happen to reside where protestantism prevails.
From this mutability, we may conceive what ideas they have, and thence deduce their general opinions of religion. As parents suffer their children to grow up without education or instruction, and were reared in the same manner themselves, so neither have any knowledge of God or morality. Few of them will attend to any discourseon religion: they hear what is said with indifference, nay rather with impatience and repugnance; despising all remonstrance, believing nothing, they live without the least solicitude concerning what shall become of them after this life. An instance, quoted by Toppeltin, will fully illustrate this matter: One of the more civilised Gipseys in Transylvania took the resolution of sending his son to school: leave being obtained from the government, the lad was admitted, and was going on very well, under his teachers’ hands. The child died; whereupon the relations applied to the magistrates and clergy for permission to give the young man Christian burial, he being a student at the time of his death. On this occasion the priest asked, whether they believed the deceased would rise again at the last day?—“Strange idea!” they answered; “to believe that a carcase,a lifeless corpse,should be reanimated,and rise again!—In our opinion,it would be no more likely to happen to him,than to the horse we flayed a few days ago.” Such are the opinions of the greatest part of these people with regard to religion; it naturally follows, that their conduct should be conformable to such ideas and conceptions. Every duty is neglected, no prayer ever passes their lips: as little are they to be found in any assembly of public worship; whence the Wallachian adage—“The Gipsey’s church was built with bacon, and the dogs ate it.” The religious party from which a Gipsey apostatises, as little loses a brother believer, as the one into which he goes acquires one. He is neither Mahometan nor Christian; for the doctrines of Mahomet and of Christ are alike unknown or indifferent to him, producing no other effect than that in Turkey his child is circumcised, and baptised in Christendom. The Turks are so fully convinced of the little sincerity the Gipseys entertain in regard to religion, that although a Jew, by becoming a Mahometan, is freed from the payment of the charadsch, the Gipseys are not, at least in the neighbourhood of Constantinople. They are compelled to pay this polltax even though their ancestors, for centuries back, had been Mahometans; or though they should actually have been a pilgrimage to Mecca: the privilege of wearing a white turban is the only advantage their conversion gives them over unbelieving Jews and Gipseys.
Such is the respect paid by the Gipseys to moral institutions, in every country where they are found. It is true that in this, as well as in other things, there may be exceptions, but they are very rare; by much the greatest part of them are as above described. Wherefore the more ancient, as well as the more modern, writersagree, in positively denying that the Gipseys have any religion; placing them even below the heathens. This sentence cannot be contradicted; since, so far from having a respect for religion, they are adverse to every thing which in the least relates to it.
Their Language,Sciences,and Arts.
Besidesthat the Gipseys understand and speak the language of the country where they live, they have a general language of their own, in which they always converse with each other. Writers differ in opinion concerning this language, being undecided whether it be really that of any country, and who are the people from whom it originates. Some pronounce it a mere jargon, others say it is gibberish. We can by no means agree with the supporters of the first opinion, as the only ground for the assertion is barely, that they do not know any other language correspondent to that of the Gipseys. But they do not seem to have considered how extravagant a surmise it is, to believe a whole language an invention; that too of people rude, uncivilised, and hundreds of miles distant from each other. This opinion is too absurd to employ more time to controvert it. Neither can the Gipsey language be admitted for gibberish; unless by those who know nothing of the former, or are totally ignorant of the latter, which is corrupt German; whereas the former has neither German words, inflexions, nor the least affinity in sound. No German, were he to listena whole day to a Gipsey conversation, would comprehend a single expression. A third party allow that the language of the original Gipseys was really vernacular, and that of some country; but assert it to be so disguised and falsified, partly by design of the Gipseys themselves, partly by adventitious events, through length of time, and the continual wandering of these people, that it is entirely new formed, and now used by the Gipseys only. This opinion contains much truth; but carries the matter too far, in not allowing that any traces remain to prove any particular dialect to be the Gipseys’ mother tongue. Perhaps the great Büsching means the same thing, when he says, “the Gipsey language is a mixture of corrupt words from the Wallachian, Sclavonian, Hungarian, and other nations.” Among these, the best-founded notion may be, that it is the dialect of some particular country, though no longer so pure as in the country whence it originated. This opinion meets the greatest concurrence of the learned: and will, we hope, be fully proved in another part of this book, where the subject will be again discussed, more fully, in order to corroborate the other proofs of the origin of this people. It will then be certified, in what country this is the native mother tongue. This is a point concerning which most writers think differently. Sometimes the Gipseys are Hebrews, then Nubians,Egyptians, Phrygians, Vandals, Sclavonians, or, as opinions vary, perhaps some other nation.
It appears extraordinary, that the language of a people who have lived for centuries among us, and has been matter of enquiry almost ever since, should still remain an affair of so much uncertainty. Gipseys are to be found every-where, and might be very easily examined, as closely and often as any body pleased, about their language. It would have been attended with no great trouble, to have made so near an acquaintance as to bring them to converse with variety of people, and thereby, by means of comparison, to have attained some degree of certainty. This observation sounds plausibly; but on a closer examination the case is found to be very different. First, it is not so easy as people may imagine, to gain much information from the Gipseys concerning their language. They are suspicious, apprehending an explanation might be attended with danger to themselves; and are therefore not very communicative. To this must be added, their natural levity, and consequent seeming inattention to the questions put to them. A writer, who had frequent experience of this behaviour, expresses himself to the following effect: “Suppose any person had an inclination to learn the Gipsey language, he would find it very difficult to accomplish his purpose. Intercourse withthese people is almost insufferable; and very few of them have sense enough to teach any thing, or even to give a proper answer to a question. If you ask about a single word, they chatter a great many, which nobody can understand. Others have equally failed of success, not being able, by any means whatever, to obtain from them the paternoster in their own language.” Secondly, suppose the language of the Gipseys had been perfectly understood soon after their arrival in Europe, variety of opinions would nevertheless have been maintained among the learned. It would still have been necessary, in order to ascertain truth, to have revised the original languages of all the inhabitants both in and out of Europe, or at least a general sketch of them. By such a review, the Gipseys’ mother tongue might easily have been discovered. But many there are, as Büttner, Schlözer, Gibelin, and Bachmeister, who have taken great pains in the minute investigation of the languages, as well as manners, of different people, and reckon those they have learned by dozens. How was it, indeed, possible for the learned of former centuries to be competent to the enquiry, as they had not the aids which now so copiously occur to the historical etymologist? Many dialects have been discovered, and our knowledge of others greatly increased, within the last fifty or sixty years. During that term, thetreasures of the farthest north have been opened; and the most eastern idioms become more familiar to us: we even know how the Otaheitian expresses himself. All this information did not exist before; knowledge in this science was much more confined than at this period: nor was it possible for the most learned man, so circumstanced, to point out the country in which the Gipsey language was spoken.
The Gipseys have no writing, peculiar to them, in which to express their language.[87]Writing, or reading, is, in general, a very uncommon accomplishment with any of them; nor must either of these attainments be at all expected among the wandering sort. Sciences and the refined arts are never to be looked for amongst people whose manner of living and education are so irregular. Twiss does, indeed, mention, that the Spanish Gipseys have some knowledge of medicine and surgery; but woe betide the person who confides in their skill! It is absurd to suppose that they are possessed of any secret for extinguishing fire: superstition formerly gave the Jews credit for this art; in process of time, the Gipseys also were believed to be gifted with it. Music is the onlyscience in which the Gipseys participate, in any considerable degree: they likewise compose, but it is after the manner of the eastern people, extempore. In Wallachia, no other people possess this talent; and, like the Italianimprovisatori, they always accompany their verses with singing and music. The quality of the poetry of these ready composers may be appreciated, when it is known that the rhyme is the part most considered: to accomplish this, they are frequently guilty of the most glaring solecisms in grammar; besides their ideas are usually of the most obscene kind, and these expressed in the gross style of rude unpolished people. It is not necessary, therefore, to be a master, to hold their art in the greatest contempt.[88]
Character and Capacities of the Gipseys;whether they are an Advantage or a Detriment to States.
Imaginea people of childish thoughts, whose minds are filled with raw indigested conceptions, guided more by sense than reason, and using understanding and reflection only so far as they promote the gratification of any particular appetite;—and you have a perfect sketch of the general character of the Gipseys.
They are lively; uncommonly loquacious; fickle to an extreme, consequently inconstant in their pursuits; faithless to every body, even of their own caste; void of the least emotion of gratitude, frequently returning benefits with the most insidious malice. Fear makes them slavishly compliant[89]when under subjection; but having nothing to apprehend, like other timorous people, they are cruel. A desire of revenge often causes them to take themost desperate resolutions. Thus they vowed no less than death against a respectable German prince who died not many years ago, because, on account of their misdeeds, he had persecuted and driven them from his territories. They even went so far as to offer a reward among themselves (probably something considerable) to whoever would deliver him to them, either alive or dead. Nor did they give up this insolent design, till some of them, who talked too openly about it in the Darmstadt dominions, were taken, and being delivered up to the parties concerned, paid the forfeit of their lives for their good intentions.
To such a degree of violence is their fury sometimes excited, that a mother has been known, in the excess of passion, to take her small infant by the feet, when no other instrument has readily presented, and therewith strike the object of her anger. They are so addicted to drinking, as to sacrifice what is most necessary to them, that they may gratify their taste for spirituous liquors. They have likewise, what one would little expect, an enormous share of vanity, which is evidenced in their fondness for fine clothes, and their gait and deportment when dressed in them. It might be supposed that this pride would have the good effect of rendering the Gipsey cautious not to be guilty of such crimes as subject him to public shame: but here his levity of character is rendered conspicuous, forhe never looks either to the right or to the left in his transactions; and though his conceit and pride are somewhat humbled during the time of punishment, and while the consequent pain lasts, these being over, he no longer remembers his disgrace, but entertains quite as good an opinion of himself as before. The Gipseys are loquacious and quarrelsome in the highest degree, though they seldom make much noise in their huts, in which they generally keep quiet enough: but in the public markets, and before alehouses, where they are surrounded by a number of spectators, they bawl, spit at each other—catch up sticks and cudgels, vapour and brandish them over their heads—throw dust and dirt—now run from each other, then back again, with furious gestures and threats. The women scream, drag their husbands by force from the scene of action; these break from them again, and return to it: the children, too, howl piteously. After a short time, without any person’s interference, when they have cried and made a noise till they are tired, and without either party having received any personal injury, the affair finishes itself, and they separate, with as much ostentation as if they had performed the most heroic feats.
Thusthe Gipsey seeks honour! of which his ideas seldom coincide with those of other people, and sometimes deviate entirely from propriety: we may therefore assert, what all, who have made observationson these people agree in, that honour and shame are to them totally indifferent. We establish this decision by comparing Gipsey notions with our own: trying their dealings and conduct by this standard, they will often appear ridiculous, frequently even infamous.
Nothing can exceed the unrestrained depravity of manners existing among these people, particularly the softer sex. Unchecked by any idea of shame, they give way to every desire. The mother endeavours, by the most scandalous arts, to train her daughter for an offering to sensuality; and the latter is scarcely grown up, before she becomes the seducer of others. Let the dance, formerly mentioned, be called to mind; it will then be unnecessary to adduce fresh examples, of which regard for decency will not permit a detail.
Their indolence has been already quoted. Laziness is so natural to them, that were they to subsist by their own labour only, they would hardly have bread for two of the seven days in the week. This disposition increases their propensity to stealing and cheating—the common attendants on idleness. They seek and avail themselves of every opportunity to satisfy their lawless desires. Thomasius endeavours to propagate a notion, that this habit has grown upon the latter Gipseys by degrees, in opposition to the practice of those who first arrived, quoting Stumpf for his authority, who talksof Christian discipline and order among the original Gipseys; he assures us, too, that they paid ready money for all they wanted; but this testimony does not deserve attention: the Gipseys in Stumpf’s time were the same as they are at this day, nor are they differently described by any of the old writers.