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History of All Nations | 1857 | S.G. Goodrich
Posted on 09/28/2002 9:50 AM Eastern by
"Our account of the Spanish peninsula would be incomplete without a notice of that remarkable race, the Gypsies, who have long existed in this country, isolated from the rest of the community. they are also found in several other countries of Europe; but the accounts of those in Spain, where they are said to number some forty or fifty thousand individuals, are the most complete."
"For a period of more than four hundred years, this singular group of people have been strolling, with little change, over Europe, like foreigners and strangers. Their "hand against every man, and every man's hand against them", they are the Ishmaelites of civilization. Africa makes them no blacker, nor Europe whiter; they neither learn to be lazy in Spain, nor diligent in Germany; they neither reverence Christ in Christiandom, nor Mahomet in Turkey. The year in which they first made their appearance in Europe is nowhere recorded; but it is clear they did not originate in that quarter of the globe."
"Everywhere , the Gypsy race live the vagabond life."
"They generally reside in tents, which they pitch in bye-places; and, when the resources of that neighborhood are exhausted,--that is, when every henroost they can reach is robbed and every movable thing they can lay their hands on is pilfered; when the men have jockeyed all who will deal with them in horses, and prescribed for all men and animals who will be doctored by them; and when the fortunes of all the silly people of the vicinity have been told by the women,--the vagrant troop suddenly decampfrom their filthy lair, greatly to the relief of the inhabitants of the vicinity. Though probably one of the most beautiful races by nature,--as might be inferred from the beauty of their infants even now,--yet habitual exposure to the burning rays of the sun, the biting of the frost, and the peltin of the rain and snow, destroys their buaety at an early age, and the ugliness at an advanced period of life is no less remarkable than the lovliness of their infancy."
"Learned men trace them to the neighborhood of the River Indus, and supposed them to have been Hindoos of a very low caste, driven from their country by Tartar invaders. In Spain, they are also called Gitanos, and in England, Gypsies, from a general belief that they were originally Egyptians. The French call them Bohemians, as they first attracted attention in Bohemia, though they had been previously been long wondering in the remote parts of Sc;avonia. In their own language they call themselves and their language Rommany, a word of Sanscrit origin, signifying "The Husbands". The unchangeableness of their manners and institutions points to a very ancient and an oriental origin."
" In 1417, they are mentioned near the North Sea, and the next year in Switzerland; in 1422 in Italy, and, a few years after, in France and Spain. They did not travel in a single body, but in seperate hordes, each having its leader, sometimes called a 'Count' , as, in England, their chief is still called 'King of the Beggars'. Others gave themselves out for dukes and kings of Lesser Egypt. People believed then to be Egyptians and pilgrims, who were constrained to wander on some religious account.. The Gypsies told fabulous stories to spread this belief, and these were recieved with such credulity, that they were allowed everywhere free passage.. Even in Spain, the Inquisition overlooked these practical pagans, being, probably, intent at hawking at richer, and therefor more profitable game. In Hungary, too, they were no less free, though in the midst of slaves. The early golden age of the Gypsies, alluded to above, lasted half a century, when their impostures were exposed, and they were discovered to be inveterate vagabonds and robbers by profession. From this period, they began to suffer persecution."
"In Russia, Gypsies are found in all parts of the country, except St. Petersburg, from which place they have been banished. In most of the towns they support themselves by trading in and doctoring horses; but the greater part of them live an unsettled life upon upon the vast plains, which afford them pasturage for their herds , and plenty of wild game. Fortune-telling and robbery are among their employments. They resist cold to a wonderful degree; and it is not uncommon to find them encamped in the midst of snow, in slight canvas tents, when it is twenty-five degrees below zero. But, among the Gypsies of Moscow, there are many who inhabit stately houses, go abroad in stately equipages, intermarry in good society, and are not behind the higher order of Russians, either in appearance or mental acuirements. This arises mostly from the perfection of the female of this colony have acquired in the vocal art."
"In Hungary, the habits of this people are abominable; their hovels are sinks of filth, their dress is rags, and their food is vilest aliments. Yet no people are merrier. They sing and dance perpetually, and play the violin with great skill. They are addicted to horse-dealing, and are likewise tinkers and smiths in a small way. Thieving and fortune-telling are added to their occupations in this country, as everywhere else. Napoleon brought several of them, in his army, from Hungary to Spain; and many interesting scenes ensued between them and their compatriots, the Gitanos, who were astonished at the proficiency of their brethren in the art and mystery of thieving, and looked up to them, consequently, as superior beings."
"The race appeared in England [1550] , but a persecution, aiming at their extermination, was raised against them; and the gallows, that prominent characteristic of English civilization, groaned under the weight of Gypsy carcasses. But these days passed by, and the miserable remnant crept forth from the secret holes where they had burrowed, increased in numbers, and, each tribe or family taking a particular circuit, fairly divided the land, as for foraging ground, among them. The men are jockeys, evoting their leisure to tinkering; they are always to be found at the prize-fight and racecourse. The women tell fortunes. Both sexes are arrant cheats and thieves. They usually pitch their tents in some green lane, or on the side of a common, near a village, under the shelter of a high bank, trees, or a hedge. The english Gypsies are the handsomest of the race; they speak English with fluency, and, in their gait and demeanor, have the ease and grace of the free sons of the wild.
"In France, the police have nearly rid the country of them. In Italy, they are not allowed to remain two nights in any one place. They are scattered, though not in great numbers, over Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Many of the race are found in Turkey, especialy at Constantinople, where the females frequently enter the harems of women of rank, pretending to cure the children of the "evil-eye", and to interpret dreams. They also appear in the coffee houses as dancing girls, and peddle precious stones, and sometimes poisons. They are common in Moldovia, Walachia, and Servia."
"The Gypsies of Spain, for many years after their arrival in that country, made no change in the usual vagabond habits of the race, except that they became, from the disordered state of society there, even more unprincipled, reckless, lawless, and mischievous, than elsewhere. They were often in league with the 'contrabandistas', or smugglers.
[follows, a story of how the Spanish Gypsies gained a reputation for murdering their marks]
"Among the characteristics common to the Gypsy race in general, beside those of rejecting agriculture, and regular service of every kind, filtiness, jockeying, pilfering,iron-working, tinkering,and fortune-telling, already enumerated,--it may be remarked that they have many Oriental notions, are strongly attached to their own peculiar habits of life and modes of thinking, are destitute of Christian ideas of morality except in regard to female chastity, and live as athiests without worship or a belief in the immortality of the soul. They invariably preserve every custom or fancy which has once been current among them, be it ever so noxious or absurd, while any affection which has once predominated in their minds, retains its dominion for ages. Their marriage festivals are boisterous, bizarre, and often ruinously extravagant. The themes of their rude poetry, which generally consists of single verses, scraps, or catches, are, of course, the various incidents of Gypsy life, cattle stealing, prison adventures,assassination, revenge, etc. Amongst those effusions are sometimes found tender and beautiful thoughts; but they are few and far between, like the occasional flower or shrub adorning the rugged crags and gloomy dens in which most of the race love to harbor."
S.G. Goodrich, 1859
A Gypsy History
History of All Nations | 1857 | S.G. Goodrich