THE GYPSY IN ASIA
§ 1. _The Punjabi Jats_
We find the Jats well and copiously described as early as 1835 by
Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Sleeman.[156] He called them “Jâts,” with
a long vowel, and treats them everywhere as low caste, or rather
no-caste, Hindus. Their original habitat was upon the Indus about
Multán, one of the headquarters of Hindu fable, and thence they spread
to the Jumna and the Chumbul Valleys. They were alternately robbers
and peaceful peasants until about A.D. 1658, when they plundered the
ill-fated Dara Shikoh, son of Shah Jehan, the Moghol. Enriched by this
feat, they became the nobles and rajahs of the land; and they expended
vast sums in building forts like Bharatpúr, Matras, and Gohud, and on
public works like the quadrangular garden at Díg. Incited by a love of
conquest and plunder, and united by a feeling of nationality, which
may be called patriotism, they would have become, but for the Maráttás
and for the English, the dominant race in India. Fate, however, was
against them, and those dwelling between the Indus and the Jumna merged
into the Nánah-Shákis or Sikhs. As regards the origin of his “Jâts,”
Colonel Sleeman reminds us that Sultan Mahmoud carried back with him to
Hindustan in A.D. 1011 some two hundred thousand captives, the spoils
of his expedition.
The way of the new faith presently converted powerful subjects and
industrious peasantry into a fighting caste, and every Jat became
a soldier. On the other hand, those lying along the Jumna and the
Chumbul, never having been inspired with the martial spirit or united
under any conqueror, continued to drive the plough. Thus external
influence combined to make the Jats restless, and gradually they turned
their steps westward.[157]
Again, Ghenghis Khan, in A.D. 1206, and his descendant Turmachurn, who
in A.D. 1303 invaded India and carried off hosts of prisoners, may have
given impulse to the current westward. Lastly, about two centuries
after, the great Conqueror whom Europe has apparently determined by
sectarian nickname, “Tamerlane,” swept over Northern India in A.D.
1398-1400, and his horde must have caused a wide scattering of the
weaker tribes.
The Jats, I may here notice, inhabited the Indine Valley, whence
emigration westward is easy; the other tribes, like the Nats,
fancifully connected with the Gypsies, were by no means so favourably
situated for an exodus. Originally the Gypsies must have been outcasts,
not Hindu Pariahs, as some have supposed them to be; although they may
have borrowed from those Aryans the horse-sacrifice and the burning of
the dead--the latter custom has become obsolete in Europe, and now only
a few of the deceased person’s clothes are thrown into the fire. They
had words for God (Deob) and the Devil (Bad God--Benga), “Já li benga”
(Go to the Devil) being a popular curse. They were unalphabetic: so
clever a race would certainly not have lost a written character, and
they became nominal Christians and Muslims in imitation of those among
whom they settled.
The Jats are still half nomads, and perhaps of old they were wholly
nomadic. They are breeders of cattle and rude veterinary surgeons.
They are fond of music, as are all these races; and their dances are
exactly represented by those of the Egyptian Gypsies, a similarity
which has yet to be insisted upon. Their iron-smelting, like that of
the Mahabaleshwar tribes, is exactly like that of the Romá. Their sword
play is that of the Hindu, whereas the Gypsies in Scotland use a direct
thrust straight to the front,[158] certainly not learned in India.
The village Jats are said to mould the babies’ heads; perhaps the
idea arose by the shampooing of the younger children by the mothers.
Divination seems to be the growth of the soil, and palmistry palpably
derives from India. Snake-charming is also common amongst them. As
their history in the Panjab proves, they are disposed to robbing and to
violence. Lastly, though the history of the country universally derives
them from the Land of the Five Rivers, the modern date of Muslim annals
would not be proof against their being a race of remote antiquity.
Believing that the Jats may fairly have sent forth the last wave of
Aryan emigration, the Gypsies, a western flood which was probably
preceded by many others, I attempted during my last trip through
Sindh in the spring of 1856 to enlist fellow-workmen in the task
of illustrating their ethnology and philology. Able linguists like
Lieutenant-Colonel Dunsterville, Collector of Hydrabad, and others,
were willing to assist me. But I was much disappointed by the
incuriousness of a certain professor who met me at Milan before my
visit to Western India and Sindh. He had never seen my Grammar and
Vocabulary, of which he desired the republication; but he accepted
with enthusiasm my offer to enlist collaborators in the Valley of the
Indus for the purpose of proving or disproving his favourite theory
that the Gypsies are Sindhis who have long dwelt in Afghanistan.[159]
This professor had of course no personal experience; anything he had
written on the subject was derived from theory only. Object lessons are
not yet popular in Italy; it is easier to visit the camel of the Jardin
des Plantes than the camel of the desert, and we can hardly expect a
_littérateur_ to take interest in gathering together raw new facts.
§ 2. _The Jats of Belochistan._
The following interesting extract is borrowed from _The Country of
Balochistan_,[160] by A. W. Hughes (London, 1877):
“In returning to a consideration of the Jat race of Kachh Gandāva, it
may be mentioned that wherever they are found--and they may it seems,
from what Masson states, be seen not alone in the Panjab and Sindh and
in those countries lying between the Satlej and Ganges Rivers, but even
at Kābul, Kandahār, and Herat--they preserve their vernacular tongue,
the Jatki. Of this language many dialects are believed to exist, and it
may well be suggested by Masson that the labour of reviewing would not
be found altogether unprofitable. It appears to be a fact that the Jats
in some places preserve the calling of itinerant Gypsies, and this more
particularly in Afghanistan; and it is not unlikely that some affinity
in their language and habits might very possibly be traced between them
and the vagabond races of Zingāris which are spread over so large a
portion of Europe. The Jats of Eastern Kachhi, the supposed descendants
of the ancient Getæ, form the cultivating and camel-breeding classes,
and are of industrious and peaceable habits, but are dreadfully harried
and plundered by the marauding Balochis of the neighbouring hills.
They are, so to speak, the original inhabitants of this district, the
Rinds,[161] Balochis, and Brahuis having settled in the country at an
apparently recent period. The Jats are numerously subdivided among
themselves, some tribes amounting, it is said, to nearly forty in
number. Some of these are known under the names of Aba, Haura, Kalhora,
Khokar, Machni, Manju, Palal, Pasarar, Tunia, and Waddera. In general
they are all Muhammadans of the Suni persuasion.”
As El Islam was established in these countries before our tenth
century, and the Hinduism of the Lower Valley of the Indus and of
Multán dates from the days of Alexander the Great, the original
emigration of Gypsies, who hardly preserve a trace of Hinduism, must
either have been outlying pagans or a race of extreme antiquity.
§ 3. _The Gypsies of Persia._
Captain Newbold, after visiting the Gypsies in Sindh, Belochistan, and
Multán, found them in the “great plain of Persepolis; in the blossoming
Valley of Shiráz in the Butchligar Mountains; on the scorched plains
of Dashtistan and Chaldea.” He thinks that they may be traced to,
and probably far beyond, the Caspian, and easterly to the deserts of
Herman and Mekran. They affect but little the scanty fare and the
uninteresting life of the desert. Perfectly distinct from the pastoral
“Iliyát,” the Bedawin of nearer Asia, the Turkomans, Kurds, and other
nomads who camped far from the abodes of settled men, these tribes
wander from town to town and village to village, always pitching tents
near the more industrious, on whose credulity they partly subsist, here
and elsewhere.
The ostensible trades of the Persian Gypsies are those of the
blacksmith and tinker, the tinner of iron, makers of winnowing sieves,
cattle doctors, and fortune-tellers; they are also workers in gold,
and forge the current coins of Persia and Turkey. Others are Zíngar
(saddle-makers); and Newbold adds, evidently without sufficient basis:
“Hence the Zinganeh, a Kurdish tribe who are supposed to be of Gypsy
origin, the Italian, Spanish, and German word for Gypsy, Zingari, etc.”
Finally, they are vendors of charms and philters, conjurers, dancers,
mountebanks, and carvers of wooden bowls.
The professors of these arts wander about in separate bands; but
they must not be confounded with independent tribes of vagabonds and
outcasts of various tribes who lead a roving, thieving Gypsy life,
but are not Gypsy. Their Persian neighbours hold them to have a
separate origin; but identity of feature and language prove them to
be one and the same stock. They divide themselves into two classes,
the Kaoli or Ghurabti, the Kurbat of Syria and the Gavbar. Both names
are of disputed origin, and even the Persians and the Gypsies are at
variance. Kaoli is generally supposed to be a corruption of Kabuli (a
man from Kabul). From this old and venerable city, Sir John Malcolm
states, the Dakrám-i-Gúr imported into Persia twelve thousand singers
and musicians; and the dancing girls of Persia are to this day called
Kaoli. Khurbat, of which Kurbat is a corruption, involves, it is said,
the idea of wandering. Gavbar is equally obscure; the meaning would be
“one who takes pleasure in cattle”; but the Persians call a herdsman
“Gan-ban,” never “Gav-bar.” The true Kaoli and Gavbar, who, like their
brethren in Sindh, Syria, and Egypt, outwardly profess El Islam,
rarely, if ever, intermarry with Persians, Turks, or Arabs. And whilst
the latter regard them as distinct in origin from themselves, in fact
as Hindus, would their wretched Pariahs, the Gáo-bár, claim the honour
of being Sayfids, or descendants of the Apostle?
§ 4. _The Gypsies of Syria._
According to Newbold, the Gypsies of Palestine and South Syria[162] are
called Náwer; while in Asia Minor and North Syria they style themselves
Kurbat, Rumeh, and Jinganeh (Chinganeh). The signification of Kurbat is
doubtful, but is only supposed to mean a wanderer from his own land, a
stranger, derived from the Arab root Gharaba, “he went far away.” The
two last terms he holds related to the Spanish Romani (?) and Zincali,
and the German Zigeuner. They are true to the character of their race;
they disdain to be shepherds or tillers of the soil; and they feed
like vultures and carrion upon the credulity and superstitions of
mankind. Bedawin of the intellectual world, they juggle the simpler
sons and daughters of cities by pretended skill in the occult, more
especially chiromancy. Some are dancers and minstrels, while others
vend charms, philters, and poisons. Like their English brethren, the
men are profound adepts in horseflesh, in donkey-dealing, and in
game-snaring; but instead of tinkering pots and kettles, they spin
cotton and woollen yarns for their clothes and tents, and they make and
mend osier-baskets. This and making wooden boxes were the favourite
handicrafts of the Gypsies when they first entered Europe.
In winter they camp on the outskirts of large towns, in a sort of
half tent, half hut, which is readily removed. During the fine months
they go forth into the plains or mountains, where they affect tents
or ruins, but never far from the haunts of their prey, mankind. Their
migrations, if regular, are not of a great extent; and they never
wholly forsake a country unless driven away by absolute persecution.
Shaykh Rasscho, the head of the Aleppine Gypsies, and responsible for
their poll tax, informed Newbold that his tribe was divided into thirty
houses, of whose names he could only remember twenty-eight. It is not
material to give these names, but they are evidently Muslim names of
men who probably belonged to “heads of houses.” The old Gypsy declared
that Kurbat, Nawar, Rumeli, and Chinganeh were all of the same family,
and had lived in Syria and Asia Minor since the creation.
These people in no way differ physically from the European tinkers.
They have the same slender, well-knit figures, rather below middle
size, tawny skins, rather prominent cheekbones, and straight black
hair. The facial angle is rather Hindu and Tatar than Turkoman,
and they have the Hindu’s long horse-tail hair. Dark eyes are not
invariable; in the mountains of Antioch the colour is sometimes grey
or blue, and the same occurs occasionally among the Arabs of Petra
and Palmyra, among the Syrians, the Zebeks, and other races of Asia
Minor. A great mixture of blood is the cause. The Zebeks of Smyrna have
now been deputed to represent the bandit regular troops of Turkey as
opposed to the bandit police. The Asiatic Gypsy has also that peculiar
indescribable appearance and expression of eye which is so strongly
developed in the Romá of Morocco and Moorish Spain, “a feature which,
like the brand on the forehead of the first murderer, stamps this
marked race over the whole globe, and when once observed is never
forgotten. The ‘Evil Eye’ is not the least of the powers with which
this people is superstitiously invested; and if there be any truth
in the overstrained (?) doctrines of animal magnetism, one could not
possibly frame to the imagination an eye so well calculated, so intense
a magnetic force.”[163]
These Gypsies have never been seen to pray or perform any religious
rite; some of their elders, like the Druzes and other Syrian tribes,
circumcise their children, and conform to the exterior observances of
El Islam.
Shaykh Rasscho could repeat with sundry mistakes the Arabic Faith
Formula, omitting the second half, “Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah.”
He said that he and his tribe acknowledged one supreme, everlasting,
omnipotent Being, and believed in an existence after death, a state
of reward and punishment connected with metempsychosis. He denied the
charges made against the Kurbat by Syrians, Muslims, and Christians
that they worshipped the stars or the creative principle under a
symbol. He also denied that they abhorred the eel and the celebrated
black fish of the Antioch Lake, like the Jews, to whom the Mosaic
Law--which, by-the-bye, is equally binding upon Muslims--makes it
unclean, because it lacks fins and scales.[164] Newbold, however, was
assured that the Kurbat, who, like the India Pariahs, are the flayers
of animals dying a natural death, devour the carcases of all animals
except the man and the hog.
According to the Turks and Syrians, the Kurbat girls are not so chaste
as their European sisters; yet they wear till marriage the “lacto
diklo,” a certain cloth, in token and in pledge of spotless virginity,
which the bridegroom alone is permitted to take off. The women dress
like the lower orders in Syria; but they affect more ornaments of
silver and brass, ear-and nose-rings, armlets and bracelets, anklets
and bangles. They spin, take care of the poultry, ducks, cats, and
children, and cook exactly like the English Gypsy women. Especially
they tell fortunes, which practice, confined to a certain caste but
forbidden to others, seems to be a kind of sacerdotalism.
The Kurbat, like their brethren all the world over, have no written
characters or symbols for letters or words. Their Shaykh told Newbold
that, although they themselves could not write, two men in the tribe
could write. As, however, neither the men nor specimens of their
writing were produced, the inference drawn from this, and other similar
inquiries, was that “the written characters, or symbols, of their
language, or rather jargon, have either been lost, or are known to only
a few, who superstitiously keep them secret.”[165] In the bazars of
Syria they speak Arabic or Turkish; at home they use their own tongue.
The following scanty list of Kurbat words was obtained viva voce from
the Aleppo tribes, and were subsequently checked by comparison with
the tribe near Antioch:
VOCABULARY: KURBAT-DUMAN.
_Kindred._
_English._ _Kurbat._ _Duman._
Father bábúr bábúr.
Mother aida aida _and_ ana.
Brother bhairú berávau.
Sister bhanu kochi.
_Natural Objects._
Sun gáham gáham.
Moon heiúf heiúf.
Star astara astara.
Air vál _and_ vái kannad hává.
Heavens khúai ghennader.
The earth bar, ard (Arab.) _or_ bar.
turra
Fire ag ár.
Water páni hou (Pers. áb, áo).
Rain bursenden bárán.
Snow khíf súrg.
Cloud barúdi bullút.
Light tshek ar _and_ aidinlik.
Sea dúnguz (Turk.) daíreh _and_ dúnguz.
Mountain thull (At. tall) ghiella.
A spring kháni kháni.
Stone vúth káwer.
Salt lóu khoi.
Milk kír (Sanak. Pers.) shir (pure Persian).
_and_ lebben (Ar.)
Barley jou (jau) jou.
Wheat gheysúf ghiannam.
Iron náhl khallik.
Night arát shou (Pers. shub,
shao).
Day bedis ghiundez.
Onion lussun, piyaz piyáz.
Dhurra (Holcus, ak ar.
Sorghum)
Rice brinj silki.
_Animals, etc._
A hare kunder kunder.
Dog súrunter kúchek.
Cat psík kadizor.
Horse ghora _or_ aghora asp.
Mare míno míno.
Ass kharr kharri.
Sheep bakrá khaidú.
Cow góru kaikuz.
Bull grouf, _or_ maia góru meshjúk.
Fowl jeysh-chumári mirrishk.
Pig dónguz (Turk.) dónguz.
Camel aubba, asht ashtur.
Crow kíl, hashzeik _and_ sereh.
tánuk
Snake sánb, sámp marr (Pers.).
Fish machchi machchi.
_Parts of the Human Body._
Finger anglú, ángul pechi.
Hand kustúm, kustúr dast.
Eye akki _and_ ánkhi jow.
Hair vál _or_ bál khalluf.
Ear kán _and_ kannir príúk.
Neck gúrgúr kántlagu.
Knee lúlúk, chokyúm koppaku.
Teeth dándeir ghiólu.
Head sir, chir murrás.
Flesh mársi gósht.
_Miscellaneous Nouns._
A well astal, chál chál.
An egg ánó heili.
A ring angúshteri dastúri.
God Khánarje Allah.
A ship ghemmi, durongaye ghemmi.
Boat shátúr shátúr.
War lagísh, káwye káwye.
A Christian kuttúr (dog?) nosaru (Nazarene).
Door Kápi (Turk.) kapi.
Boy chágú láwak.
Girl lafti kechikeh.
Thief kuft khaiúk.
Tent cháder (Pers.) cháder.
Knife chírí khair.
Rope kundóri kundóri _and_ sijúm.
Book kitál kitáh, mushulleh.
City viár viár.
Village deh, diyár deh, diyár.
Bridge kienpri (Turk.) kienpri.
Castle killa kalla.
Paper kághaz kághaz.
Bread manna nán.
House kuri _or_ kiri málá.
King padshah beghirtmish.
Love mankamri _and_ kamri kamri.
Month muh, mas viha, mas.
Colour táwúl táwul.
Year das di mas, varras deh di mar _or_ dah di
_or_ barras viha.
_Personal and Possessive Pronouns._
I man man.
Thou tó to.
He húi húi.
Mine maki _or_ man ki maki _or_ man ki.
Thine to ki _or_ toi ki to ki _or_ toi ki.
His hui ki hui ki.
_Cardinal Numbers._
One ek. The Duman is the
Two di. same, except _sih_ for
Three turrun. “three,” and _deh_ for
Four char _or_ shtar. “ten.”
Five penj.
Six shesh.
Seven heft.
Eight hesht.
Nine na _or_ nu.
Ten das.
Eleven das ek.
Twelve das di.
Thirteen das turrun.
Fourteen das char.
Fifteen das penj.
Sixteen das shesh.
Seventeen das heft.
Eighteen das hesht.
Nineteen das na.
Twenty víst _or_ bíst.
Twenty-one víst ek.
Twenty-two, etc. víst di, etc.
Thirty si.
Forty chhil.
Fifty penjeh.
Sixty turrun víst.
Seventy turrun víst das.
Eighty chár víst.
Ninety chár víst das.
One hundred sad.
Two hundred di sad.
A thousand hazar.
_Adjectives._
Sick numshti bímár, ruár.
Bad kumnarrey kíóná.
Good gahay arunder.
Great durónkay, burro mázin.
Small túróntay, thoranki chúchúk (Pers.
kuchik).
Black kálá, kálo káni, shippia.
White pannarey suffeid.
Red lorey, loley kunnu.
Yellow zard zara, kulp.
Green kark sukkul.
Blue niley níla.
Cold siá súki.
Hot tottey khunney.
_Adverbs._
Much bhúyih phurga.
A little thoráki ennika.
Enough basey nar.
Here veshli, itan, idhur búndeh.
_Verbs._
To come pá ┓ pa.
To go jó ┚ imperative jo.
To eat khm ┓ khám.
To drink piún│ imperative piúm.
To bring nán ┚ winni.
To tell fortune fál wunnakerim.
[The above list is printed exactly as written by Burton; but it has
been found impossible to verify it from other sources.]
§ 5. _The Gypsies of the Haurán, South-Eastern Syria._
In January, 1871, I accompanied the Damascus Pilgrim Caravan some
marches; and at Mazáríb in the Haurán, the well-known station near
which Ali Beg el Abbasi, the Spaniard, was poisoned, I found three
Gypsy tents. The inmates called themselves Nawar, a popular term
throughout the country. In the same way as the Romá of Spain affected
to be devout Christians “living in a peaceable Catholic manner,”
so the head of the little party I discovered insisted upon all his
people being born Muslims, evidently disliking the suspicion that
they belonged to the “obsolete faith,” Christianity, with which the
ignorant faithful confused all later creeds. (These people thus saved
themselves from exile when Sultan “Báyezíd” expelled all Gypsies from
the Ottoman Empire.) In proof of his assertion he recited a verse
of the Koran with peculiar twang. The headquarters of the tribe and
the abode of the chief Shaykh were at Ghazzeh, and Muhammad and his
“lamentable retinue” had wandered northwards, intending to stay four or
five days at Mazáríb--in fact, whilst the caravan was passing. Their
peculiar industries were metal-work and making sieves, so they stated;
but to these their neighbours added plundering and petty larceny,
together with trading in asses and horses. According to my informant,
many of his people attend the Haj, doubtless to throw dust into Muslim
eyes.
My Syrian companions compared the general look of the dark-skinned,
tanned dwellers with the Ashdán, whilst they found a certain
resemblance between the Roumís and the women of a certain Arab tribe
who camped about near Damascus; but the long, coarse, lank hair, with
the duck-tail under curl, the brown white eyes, whose peculiar glance
is never to be mistaken, the prominent Tatar-like cheekbones, and the
irregular-shaped mouths, suggested Hindu origin and physiognomy. The
beard was long and somewhat wavy, possibly the result of inhabiting
for generations a hot dry land. Some have gashed faces like the
“Bohemians” when they first entered Paris. Their women, adorned with
ear-rings and necklaces, bracelets and anklets of brass and tinsel,
were Macbethian witches; and both sexes, like the outcasts of India
generally, seem to abhor cold water. I tried them with a few words of
Sindhi, introduced into Hindustani, when their faces assumed the normal
puzzled expression, and their eyes appeared to close and film over.
Of magic and divination they would not speak to a stranger; but they
readily gave me the following words: Ag, fire (pure Hindi); Ake, eye
(Aukh); Chirí, knife (Churi); Goray, horse (Ghora); Kálá, oracle (pure
Hindi); Munám, bread (an Arabic corruption?); Pánay, water (Pani);
Zari, mouth (?). Conversing with one another they spoke fluently, and
introduced few Arabic words.
The Nawar make their appearance with the Eastern Bedawin, Wuld Ali, and
others about the beginning of summer, and occupy huts built of cane,
sticks, and mud. The roofs are hides weighted with sticks. They work
at getting in the harvests, and they are said to work much harder than
the average husbandman. Of course they are charged with plundering
poultry. They speak bad Arabic, and talk together in their own tongue;
wherefore the peasants affect to despise them. In fact, here, as
elsewhere, they constitute a strange sort of commonwealth amongst
themselves--wanderers, impostors, and jugglers.
§ 6. _The Gypsies of Damascus._
Consul E. T. Rogers, my predecessor at Damascus, made the following
brief notes, and obliged me with permission to publish them. His long
period of residence led him to study subjects which escaped the passing
traveller.
“I remember quite distinctly that the Gypsies of Syria, or people
resembling them, were divided into three distinct families, not
supposed to intermarry, and, as I was told, supplying two distinct
languages:
“(1) The Nawar[166] follow the ordinary Gypsy vocations, stealing,
fortune-telling, tinkering, attending fêtes and marriages as itinerant
musicians, jugglers, etc.;
“(2) The Zutt were generally seen with trained animals, goats, donkeys,
etc., performing in the streets; and
“(3) The Barámaki, who give more attention to horse-dealing. They are
farriers and blacksmiths, and are generally found on the outskirts of
isolated villages, or near the camps of small Arab tribes, where they
let out stallions for breeding purposes. They buy broken-down horses
and mares of good breed, and are very clever at doctoring them up and
rendering them fit for sale.”
Mr. Consul Rogers also showed me a sketch he had made of a Zutti boy
with a performing goat borne upon sections of bamboo--a common sight in
India.
FOOTNOTES:
[156] _Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Officer, etc._ (London:
Hatchard.)
[157] Colonel Sleeman, however, fails to identify his “Jâts” with the
Gypsies.
[158] [“As I have frequently mentioned, all the Gypsies were regularly
trained to a peculiar method of their own in handling the cudgel in
their battles. I am inclined to think that part of the Hungarian sword
exercise at present practised in our cavalry is founded upon the Gypsy
manner of attack and defence, including even the direct thrust to the
front, which the Gypsies perform with the cudgel.”--SIMSON, _A History
of the Gypsies_.]
[159] Inadmissible, because there are Afghan Jats.
[160] [_Balochistan, Balochis., etc._, _sic_ Hughes.]
[161] A celebrated Beloch tribe which considers itself the flower of
the nation.
[162] [“Bishop Pococke, prior to 1745, mentions having met with Gypsies
in the northern part of Syria, where he found them in great numbers,
passing for Mahommedans, living in tents or caravans, dealing in
milch cows when near towns, manufacturing coarse carpets, and having
a much better character than their relations in Hungary or England”
(_Simson_).]
[163] The Spaniards describe this peculiarity of the race, the
remarkably brilliant eye, as opposed to the small fat-lidded organ of
the Jew and the pig’s eye of the Chinaman.
[164] “And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is
unclean unto you” (Deut. xiv. 10).
[165] The same is the case with the Bedawin tribal marks.
[166] The tribal name in Syria is Nawar. During two years’ residence
and long travelling I never heard the terms “Dumi” and “Zutt.” The
latter also escaped a most careful observer, Captain Newbold. As
regards that officer’s distinction between Jat and Jât, he heard the
former term from me at Karachi in 1848 when he looked over my Grammar
and Vocabulary, while he borrowed Jât from Captain Sleeman and others
who have written on the Panjab with perceiving that the two tribes are
one and the same.