Transcribed from the William Ballintine 1807 edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org, using scans from the British Library.
[Picture: Book cover]
DISSERTATION
ON THE
GIPSEYS:
REPRESENTING THEIR
_MANNER OF LIFE_, _SICKNESS_, _DEATH_, _& BURIAL_,
_FAMILY ECONOMY_, _RELIGION_,
_OCCUPATIONS & TRADES_, _LANGUAGE_,
_MARRIAGES & EDUCATION_, _SCIENCES & ARTS_, _&c._ _&c._
_&c._
WITH
AN HISTORICAL ENQUIRY
CONCERNING THEIR
_ORIGIN & FIRST APPEARANCE IN EUROPE_.
* * * * *
* * * * *
FROM THE GERMAN OF
H. M. G. GRELLMANN.
* * * * *
* * * * *
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BALLINTINE,
_Duke-street_, _Adelphi_, _Strand_:
SOLD BY EFFINGHAM WILSON,
OPPOSITE THE CHAPTER COFFEE-HOUSE, ST. PAUL’S.
1807.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE following Dissertation has already appeared in an English dress,
having been, some years since, translated by the late M. Raper, Esq.
F.R.S. and A.S. for the purpose, as he states in his preface, of
affording “such of his countrymen as were unacquainted with the German
language an opportunity of learning from what part of the world it is
probable the Gipseys came among us.” The original work, and Mr. Raper’s
translation, are burthened with many notes—Greek, Latin, French, German,
English—shewing the sources whence the information was derived, most of
which, for obvious reasons, are omitted in the present edition; such only
being retained as were thought indispensable, or particularly
interesting.
_July_, 1807.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION P. 1
SECTION THE FIRST.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GIPSEYS, THEIR MANNER OF LIFE, THEIR CUSTOMS, AND
PROPERTIES.
CHAPTER I.
Page
_Various Appellations of these People_ 1
CHAPTER II.
_On the Dispersion of the Gipseys_, _and their Numbers in 3
Europe_
CHAPTER III.
_The Properties of their Bodies_ 10
CHAPTER IV.
_On their Food and Beverage_ 15
CHAPTER V.
_On the Dress of the Gipseys_ 25
CHAPTER VI.
_On the Family Economy of the Gipseys_ 31
CHAPTER VII.
_Their Occupations and Trades_ 38
CHAPTER VIII.
_On their Marriages and Education_ 61
CHAPTER IX.
_On their Sickness_, _Death_, _and Burial_ 68
CHAPTER X.
_Political Regulations peculiar to the Gipseys_ 72
CHAPTER XI.
_On the Religion of the Gipseys_ 79
CHAPTER XII.
_Their Language_, _Sciences_, _and Arts_ 83
CHAPTER XIII.
_Character and Capacities of the Gipseys_; _whether they 89
are an Advantage or a Detriment to States_
CHAPTER XIV.
_Concerning the Toleration of the Gipseys by the different 93
States of Europe_
CHAPTER XV.
_Essay on the Improvement of the Gipseys_ 102
SECTION THE SECOND.
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE GIPSEYS.
CHAPTER I.
_The first Appearance of Gipseys in Europe_ 109
CHAPTER II.
_On the Sanctity_, _Passports_, _and Difference of the 117
former from the latter Gipseys_
CHAPTER III.
_Presumed Origin of the Gipseys_ 137
CHAPTER IV.
_On the Egyptian Descent of the Gipseys_ 147
CHAPTER V.
_The Gipseys come from Hindostan_ 170
CHAPTER VI.
_The Gipseys are of the Caste called Suders_ 199
SUPPLEMENT 209
INTRODUCTION.
THE Gipseys are a singular phenomenon in Europe; whether we contemplate
their habitations, attend at their meals, or merely look in their faces,
they always appear particular, and we are each moment struck with
something new and extraordinary.
What appears most worthy of remark is, that neither time, climate, nor
example, has, in general, hitherto, made any alteration. For the space
of between three and four hundred years, they have gone wandering about,
like pilgrims and strangers: they are found in eastern and western
countries, as well among the rude as civilised, the indolent as active,
people: yet they remain ever, and in all places, what their fathers
were—Gipseys. Africa makes them no blacker, nor Europe whiter: they
neither learn to be lazy in Spain, nor diligent in Germany: in Turkey,
Mahomet, and among Christians, Christ, remain equally without adoration.
Around, on every side, they see fixed dwellings, with settled
inhabitants; they, nevertheless, proceed in their own way, and continue,
for the most part, unsocial wandering robbers.
When we search for similar cases, among all the different people who have
quitted their mother country, and inhabited a foreign one, we do not meet
with a single instance that exactly agrees with that of the Gipseys.
History certainly does record accounts of people that have migrated, and
remained the same in a strange country; but then this constancy has been
on account of religion, either permitted by the regents, or maintained by
their victorious arms: though this last circumstance has existed much
less frequently than might be imagined. Many instances have occurred in
which, the people subdued being more enlightened than their conquerors,
the latter have adopted the manners of the former. The Romans became
Greeks on the conquest of Greece; and the Franks assumed the manners of
the Gauls when in possession of their country: the Mantcheous vanquished
the Chinese; but Chinese customs prevailed over those of the Mantcheous.
How, then, does it happen that the Gipseys, who never either established
their manners and customs by force, or obtained any toleration from
governments under which they lived, remain unchanged, and resemble each
other exactly, in every place? There are two causes, to which this
coincidence is principally owing: one is the place whence they originate,
with their consequent mode of thinking; the other arises from the
circumstances which have hitherto attended their situation.
The Gipseys are unquestionably of eastern origin, and have eastern
notions. There is a principle inherent in uncivilised people,
particularly those of Oriental countries, which occasions them to be
strongly attached to their own habits: hence every custom, every
conception, which has once been current among them, be it ever so
pernicious or ridiculous, is invariably preserved; or any affection which
has once predominated in their minds, retains its dominion even for ages.
Innovations do not easily succeed with people living in a state bordering
on that of nature; the least deviation from custom is observed, and often
resented with impetuosity. For any new thing to take root it must either
be introduced by cunning and force, or be attended with the most
favourable circumstances. This latter was the case with Christianity.
Providence had called Greeks and Romans into the east, and, by
innumerable vicissitudes, had rendered that country ripe for further
instruction: then came the great Sower—CHRIST scattered the seed, and it
prospered. Mahomet, on the contrary, before he became strong enough to
enforce conviction with the sword, brought about his purpose by art:
knowing that the weak side of his countrymen was their veneration for
every thing handed down from their forefathers, he gave his new religion
the colouring of antiquity.
Mahomet says, “We have swerved from the religion of our founder Abraham,
and have introduced novelties among us. Abraham worshipped only one God;
we have many Gods. I am sent to retrench these novelties, and to bring
you back to the religion of your forefathers.” This was the first ground
on which he went. When the Ishmaelite would not acquiesce in the charge
of having fallen off from Abraham’s religion, Mahomet proceeded: “Ye are
illiterate people; ye have no books: the inhabitants of the neighbouring
countries have books, which contain the religion of Abraham.” The
Arabians applied to the Jews and Christians, for information on this
head; and as the event turned in favour of the pretended prophet, they
yielded without contradiction. Mahomet proceeded in teaching, and again
appealed to the people with books: the Arabians, too, continued asking
questions, being more tractable whenever his assertions were confirmed;
but when the contrary happened, a dispute arose, in which the prophet
could only get the better by defending the antiquity of his madness at
the expence of truth, accusing both the Jews and Christians with having
falsified their books.
The same means that helped Mahomet with the Arabians, have been, in
latter times, very serviceable to the Jesuits, in China. How would these
cunning fathers have obtained admission for their religion among the
Chinese, had they not referred to Confucius, in aid of their doctrines?
These are only instances of changes in religion; but the case is
precisely the same in other things. In the eastern nations, no
improvement is adopted, be it of what kind it may, merely because it is
an improvement. The Chinese are acquainted with the use of glass; yet
their mirrors are always made of metal, and their windows of
oyster-shells. Mechanical watches have been for ages used at the court
of Pekin; but the bulk of the nation depend upon fire and water. {v}
It is evident from the above, that the Gipseys, by reason of their
eastern origin, and consequent way of thinking, are not easily made to
change their principles and habits. When we further consider the
circumstances under which these people have hitherto existed, we want
nothing more to make us comprehend why they have remained, to the present
time, what they were at their first arrival in Europe.
Figure to yourself a person, in whom custom, and deep-rooted affections,
are the only, and at the same time strong, impulses to action; in whose
soul no new unwonted thoughts arise, in consequence of his own
reflections, nor find easy admittance when proposed by others:—leave this
man entirely to himself; do not permit any of those means to be used
which are requisite to give a new turn to his ideas, and deep-rooted
prejudices:—he must necessarily remain the same; and his latest posterity
will continue like him: this is exactly the case with the Gipseys.
Unused to reflect, fettered by habits, they arrived in our quarter of the
globe. No state has, hitherto, done any thing for the express purpose of
instructing or reforming them; except the Empress Theresa, by her
regulations, which were never put in execution. On their first arrival,
they procured passports, and free quarters, by their holy lies. They
dispersed, begged, deceived the common people, by fortune telling: they
stole: and for a long time no attention was paid to them. At last the
evil grew too enormous; the complaints against them became so loud, that
government was constrained to take official notice of them. Exemplary
punishments were judged necessary: hanging and beheading were not
sufficiently efficacious; and it was then thought expedient to banish
them;—a proceeding more likely to render them worse than better, and even
in other respects liable to many objections; still the custom has
prevailed, down to the latest times. The neighbour, to whom these
unpolished guests were sent, sooner or later, followed the same method of
disengaging the evil, till, in the end, they were persecuted by almost
all kingdoms and governments. Many states afterwards relaxing in their
severity, the Gipseys were suffered to creep in, a few at a time, and
were permitted to remain quiet: yet every one of them stood in fear,
innocent or guilty, lest he might be taken unawares, merely because he
was Gipsey, and delivered over to the executioner. They had been
accustomed, in their own country, to live remote from cities and towns:
now they became still more uniformly inhabitants of the forests, and
outcasts; as, in consequence of the search which was made after them, or
at least threatened to be made, they judged themselves to be more secure
in deserts and concealment, than they would have been if frequenting
places of established abode, and having free intercourse with the
civilised inhabitants: whereby they were divested of the most, perhaps
only, probable means of inducing them to change their manners. And yet,
had they not sequestered themselves from other people, or had they been
more inclined to mix in society, it is not likely, without some direct
interference of government, that they would have been rendered better.
There were two great obstacles to be surmounted:—first, by mere
intercourse, it would have been, generally speaking, difficult to
eradicate the prejudices and customs from their Oriental minds: secondly,
being Gipseys, people would not willingly have established any
correspondence with them. Let us reflect how different they are from
Europeans: the one is white, the other black;—this clothes himself, the
other goes half naked;—this shudders at the thought of eating carrion,
the other regales on it as a dainty. Moreover these people are famed,
and were even from their first appearance in Europe, for being
plunderers, thieves, and incendiaries: the European, in consequence, not
merely dislikes, but hates them. For the reasons above stated, the
Gipseys have been, at different periods, driven from all the countries of
Europe; and only a few simple people occasionally made a nearer
acquaintance, in order to consult them on matters of superstition.
Such is the state of what has been done, and attempted, for the
improvement of the Gipseys; whereas, so soon as it was discovered that
they were strangers, who thought of nothing less than of returning into
their own country, if any plan had been acted upon for their reformation,
and only half the wise regulations left behind by the Empress Theresa in
her states for the management of these people been adopted, and duly
enforced, they would long ago have been divested of the rude nature of
their ancestors, and have ceased to be the uncultivated branches of a
wild stock. On the contrary, having always been either left to
themselves or persecuted, it could not be otherwise, but that they must
remain for ever, and in all places, the same.
Perhaps it is reserved for our age, in which so much has been attempted
for the benefit of mankind, to humanise a people who, for centuries, have
wandered in error and neglect: and it may be hoped, that while we are
endeavouring to ameliorate the condition of our African brethren, the
civilisation of the Gipseys, who form so large a portion of humanity,
will not be overlooked. It cannot be denied, that, considering the
multitude of them, their reform must be an object of very serious
consideration to many states. Suppose, according to a rough estimate,
that the Gipseys in Hungary and Transylvania, including the Banat, amount
to upwards of one hundred thousand; what a difference would it not make,
in those countries, if one hundred thousand inhabitants, mostly loungers,
beggars, cheats, and thieves, who now reap where they have not sown,
consuming the fruits of others’ labour, were to become industrious useful
subjects! Their reformation would be a difficult task, as the attempts
made by the Empress Theresa evinced:—a boy (for you must begin with
children, and not meddle with the old stock, on whom no efforts will have
effect) would frequently seem in the most promising train to
civilisation; on a sudden his wild nature would appear, a relapse follow,
and he became a perfect Gipsey again. But the measure is not, therefore,
impossible: Was not the case precisely the same with the Saxons, whom
Charles the Great converted to Christianity? Let the state resolving to
appropriate the Gipsey tribe only persevere in its endeavours; some
effect will be gained on the second generation, and with the third or
fourth, the end will certainly be accomplished.
By an attentive observation, we may perceive that the Gipseys are endued
with very good capacities, which promise to make a profitable return, for
much trouble bestowed upon them. In the first Section one attempt, made
on this speculation, is produced, and it is hoped it will be found
sufficiently complete, to exhibit the leading features of their
character.
The origin of the Gipseys has remained a perfect philosopher’s stone till
a late period. For more than two hundred years, people have been anxious
to discover who these guests were, that, under the name of Gipseys, came,
unknown and uninvited, into Europe, in the fifteenth century, and have
chosen to remain here ever since. No enquirer ever broached an opinion
that met with his successor’s approbation; a fourth scarcely heard what a
third had said, before he passed sentence and advanced something new. We
have no reason to wonder at the miscarriage of these enquiries, which
were neither more nor less than a collection of conjectures founded on
imaginary proofs and partial speculation.—An author set to work, to
discover a country whence the Gipseys came, or a people to whom they
could belong; he found out a place which had been named, for instance,
Zeugitana, or a people who bore some faint resemblance to the Gipseys.
As one coal lights another, so these two similarities became perfectly
applicable to the people whose origin he was seeking; he stopped here,
and published his discovery.
Several investigators laid their foundation on hearsay, and
unauthenticated evidence; they then endeavoured to assist this testimony
by modelling the extraneous circumstances which could not be passed over,
in order to make them coincide; if, notwithstanding all this,
difficulties still occurred, they borrowed Alexander’s sword, and cut the
knot which no milder means could undo.
That this has been the mode of proceeding hitherto, will be frequently
proved in the course of the work. Even had the imagination not magnified
any thing, nor modelled circumstances agreeably to its own fancy, yet the
following, which is taken for granted, “_that two people resembling each
other in one or two particulars_, _must be descended from the same
stock_,” is an over-hasty conclusion. In the first place, reject that
the most different nations may agree in some points; further, make the
allowance for various parts of the world producing inhabitants of similar
shape and colour;—What, then, remains to prove that the Gipseys are
descended from any one of the people from whom they have been traced?
There are no records, or historical sources, leading to a direct
discovery of the origin of the Gipseys; those which have been thought so,
are not genuine. Nothing, therefore, remains, but to seek the truth,
through circuitous tracks; by this means, it may certainly be found. A
man must not go to tombstones, recently erected, in German church-yards,
nor adduce a single custom, or the name of a country bearing a
resemblance to that of Gipsey, as grounds of proof; and, on the other
hand, overlook a hundred difficulties, or even positive contradictions.
But if _the language of the Gipseys_, _their name_, _the conformation of
their bodies and minds_, _their customs and religious principles_, _mark
a country where it is possible for them to have been indigenous_; _when
History and Chronology corroborate the supposition_, _and there is not
any other country in the world to which the Gipseys_, _all these
particulars taken together_, _could belong_; then the country, where
these circumstances meet, must, in all probability, be their true mother
country.
Whether their Hindostan origin has so much in its favour, is more than we
dare venture to affirm; as it is very possible for the judgment to be so
deceived, that we may believe what does not, in fact, exist. However, on
perusing the subsequent pages, our readers will judge if, like our
predecessors, we have erred, or have discovered the truth.
SECTION I.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GIPSEYS, THEIR MANNER OF LIFE, THEIR CUSTOMS AND
PROPERTIES.
CHAPTER I.
_Various Appellations of these People_.
IT is not uncommon for the same people to be called by different names,
in different nations; such is the case with the Gipseys. The French
received their first accounts of them from Bohemia; which occasioned
their giving them the name of Bohemians (_Bohémiens_); the Dutch,
supposing they came from Egypt, called them Heathens (_Heydens_). In
Denmark, Sweden, and some parts of Germany, Tartars were thought of: the
Moors and Arabians, perceiving the propensity the Gipseys have to
thieving, adopted the name _Charami_ (robbers) for them. In Hungary,
they were formerly called Pharaohites (_Pharaoh nepek_, Pharaoh’s
people); and the vulgar, in Transylvania, continue that name for them.
The English do not differ much from these latter (calling them
Egyptians—Gipseys); any more than the Portuguese and Spaniards
(_Gitanos_). The Clementines, in Smyrnia, use the appellation _Madjub_;
and the inhabitants of the lesser Bucharia, that of _Diajii_. The name
of Zigeuner has obtained the most general adoption: the Gipseys are so
called not only in all Germany, Italy, and Hungary (_Tzigany_), but
frequently in Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia (_Cyganis_).
Moreover the Turks, and other eastern nations, have no other than this
name for them (_Tschingenés_); and perhaps the before-cited Diajii of the
Bucharians may be the very same. It has been said, they call themselves
Moors; but that is false; Moor is only an adjunct, not the name of any
people: it is really a pity, since this name would have been so fair a
pretence to make Amorites of them, as some writers have done! It is not
by any means proved, that the modern Greeks called them _Athingans_; this
opinion is supported more by the arbitrary assertions of some learned
men, than by real facts: which is also the case with the rest of the
catalogue of names that have been dispersed, in various treatises on the
origin of the Gipseys; as will be hereafter demonstrated.