GYPSIES (Egyptians), [Fr. Bohemians; Germ. Zigeuner; Dutch, Heathens; Dan. and Swed. Tatars; Ital. Zingani; Span. Gitanes, Zineati; Hung, Czijdnyok, Pharaoneye•; Pers. Sisech; Hindu, 'fame/tee; Arab. Harami; Gyps. Rom. (man), Slate (from Ind), Cabo (black); nicknamed in Fr, cajou.r; Gene; Germ. etc.j, a mysterious vagabond race, scattered over the whole of Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. Whence they originally came, and what were the motives which drove them from their native soil, are questions which, after having passed through a long stage of helplessly absurd speculation, have of late years been ventilated by competent investigators, both linguists and historians, and are still but partially solved. So much only seems now established, that India, the cradle of ninny nations, was also the source from which they sprang. Whether, however, they are the Tsbanda]as of which the laws of Menou speak, or the kinsmen of the Bazeegars or Nuts of Calcutta; whether they belong to the Tshingani, a band of robbers near the mouth of the Indus, or are the of those Lillis—identical, according to Persian and Arabic authorities, with the 'bits or Djatts of northern India—whom Firdusi mentions as having been called into Persia by Bahrain Gur to the number of 10,000, about 420 . that they might act as mnsicians to the poor—cannot be affirmed with certainty, although there can lie no doubt that theirs must have been at all times one of the poorest and most obscure tribes of India. The first considerable body left Asia for Europe before the 12th c., perhaps in conse quence of disastrous encounters with the Arabian conquerors; and Tamerlane was unquestionably the cause of still more numerous emigrations in the 14th century. The first notice of them which occurs in European literature is embodied in a free paraphrase, in German, of the book of Genesis, written by an Austrian monk about 1122. They are there described as "Ishmaelites*and brasiers, who go peddling the wide world, having neither house nor home, cheating the people with their tricks, and deceiving mankind, but not openly." Two hundred years later, we find them settled in Hungary (under Belus II.), at Cyprus, and in Wallachia. In 1417 they traveled in great hordes into Moldavia and many parts of Germany. In 1418, five months after the council of
Constance, they appeared, about 1000 strong, before Zurich, commanded by a duke Michael "of Little Egypt," accompanied by several dukes and knights, and earryine. with them a good supply of money, sporting-dogs, and other " marks of nobility." From Switzerland they descended into Italy, and in 1422 they showed themselves at Bologne and Forli. Another band, numbering, this time, according to the old Swiss historian, Stumpf, 14.000, arrived in the same year at Basel. On Aug. 17, 1427, a band of them, coming from Bohemia, made their appearance before Paris, which, however, they were not allowed to enter, but were lodged at La Chapelle Saint Denis. Other hordes suc ceeded these in the following years, spreading in rapid succession over all parts of Ger many over Spain, England, Russia, Scandinavia, and, indeed, over the remotest parts of Europe. The account which they most frequently gave of themselves was, that they originally came from "Little Egypt;" that the king of Hungary had compelled about 4,000 of them to be baptized, had slain the remainder, and had condemned the baptized to seven years' wandering. Another version of their story was, that the Sara cens had gone to war with them in Egypt, had subdued them, and forced them to renounce Christianity; that, after some years. they had been reconquered by the Chris tians, and that the pope, Martin V., had laid upon them, as a penance for the renun ciation of the true faith, a life of wandering for the space of seven years, during which they were not to sleep in a bed. At the end of this period, they would be sent to a fine and fertile land. Yet another account was, that they were commanded by God to rmini through the world for that period, in expiation of their want of hospitality toward Joseph and Mary—a notion which has, curiously enough, been partly revived in our own day by Roberts, with this difference only, that he proves them, from the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, to be descendants of the ancient Egyptians, and their wanderings to be the predicted punishment of the various iniquities of their forefathers.