At first they were well received, The romance with which they surrounded them selves, their pretended state of penitence, abbve all, the pomp and wealth they displayed, were sufficient to secure the good-will of the countries through which they passed—so much so, that letters of safe-conduct were given them by the emperor Sipsniund, the genuineness of which there is no reason to doubt. Soon, however, the tide began to turn. Their resources gone, they were everywhere treated with contumely, and despised chiefly on account of the degrading arts of chiromaney, magic, and thieving, to which they again resorted for their support, like their earlier brethren, described by the monk. And with the reckless brutality characteristic of the ages, edict after edict was hurled against these "diviners and wicked heathens:: The govern ments of Europe vied with each other in banishing, outlawing, and slaying them when ever and wherever found. and in most severely punishing those that dared to slither i them, chiefly "because of their traffic with the devil." These edicts remained in force in many countries down to the 18th c.; and Frederick the great, in 1748, renewed the law that every' gypsy beyond the age of 18, found in his states, should be hanged forthwith. In England the most barbarous decrees against them were issued by Henry VIII. in 1581, and Elizabeth in 1563. In Scotland, where, tinder James V., a certain Johnny Faa had been officially recognized by the crown as lord and count of Little Egypt, some of the severest edicts date from 1570, 1603, and 1609; and in 1624 Helen Faa, a descendant of Johnny, together with fifteen other women of the seed-royal, were condemned to be drowned. Towards the latter half of last century, however, more humane measures were adopted towards them, with a view to the improvement of their social and moral state. Maria Theresa, in 176S and 1773 issued ordinances for the education of their children, and their gradual settlement as cultivators of the soil, chiefly in Hungary and Transylvania, where they swarmed in large numbers; special streets were built for them at the ends of the villages, and the name of 1.1j-Magyar. Uj Parasztok (new peasants), was officially bestowed upon them. Joseph 11. renewed these edicts in 1732 with certain modifications. Various other methods of gradually amalgamating them with the general population were tried elsewhere (a society was formed for that purpose at Southampton by the Rev. Mr. Crabb in 1832) but with com paratively little effect. They have continued—with few exceptions—their peculiar nomad life, with all its questionable resources and practices, its joys and its sorrows, unchanged, up to this day; and even gypsy children, brought up far from their tribe, in the midst of Christian families, have, driven by some mysterious and uncontrollable impulse, run away from their civilized homes as soon as a favorable opportunity offered.
Before proceeding to give a general outline of their present condition, we must briefly mention what have been the opinions held about them since the 15th c. by the learned. They have been, then, by turns set down as Egyptians, Nubians, Tartars, Cilicians, Mesopotamians, Assyrians, Ethiopians, Moors, Armenians. Ban ditti, and German Jews. More recently, they were, on account of the name of Zingari or Zingani—probably a corruption from their own name Sinte (from Ind), by which they are known in many countries of Europe—brought in connection with the Sigynnai, a people of Median origin, settled on the Danube, mentioned by Herodotus; with the Sigynni of Strabo, in the Caucasus; with the Usbecks, and a host of other tribes known and unknown. Again, their name has been derived from one Zingancus, %vim, in 1517, when they had long been known as Zingani, fled with his followers to escape the ven geance of Selim. The now recognized theory of their Indian origin, proved incontes tably by their language, was first positively advanced by Rtidiger in 1782: and in his track followed, with more or less success—collecting, comparing, or arranging new and old linguistic materials—Grellmann, Alter, Seetzen, Pottinger, Hoyland, Puchmayer, Ouseley, Dauilowicz, Bischoff, Domeny de Rienzi, Graffnnder, Richardson, bishop Heber, Pott (whose wonderfully exhaustive work on this subject made him the facile princeps of gypsologists), and more recently Paspati, Miklosich, Borrow, Leland, Smart, and Crofton. Bataillard wrote on the history of the gypsies without discussing speci ally their language.
This their language, then—a daughter of the old Sanscrit—has, besides giving the only real clue to their origin, also shed some rays over the dark period between their first emigration and their appearance in Europe. Originally the distinct mode of speech of a single and special border tribe of northern India, it has, during the many wanderings of the race. appropriated words from every country through which they passed; while, on the other hand, it lost many of its own words, and still more of its own inherent power and elegance, and much also of its resemblance to its mother and sisters. These adopted foreign words, their respective number, and their more or less corrupted state, point plainly to the gypsies having passed first into-Persia, to their hav ing remained there for a considerable time, to their having then wended their way to some Greek country, perhaps Asia Minot (the designations fur 7, 8, and 9 being still Greek), and to their descent thence into Hungary, Cyprus, etc.
But their language also (Romany Tschib), though split into different dialects, has also remained almost the only tie which binds the widely-scattered nomad members together. Those of their branches who for centuries have had no intercourse with each other, would, although the strange elements in the other's speech would be incom prehensible to them, yet recognize each other at once by certain words and formulas indelibly written in the memory of the whole race. The outward appearance of the gypsies, who have been pronounced by competent writers to be one of the handsom est races of humanity, varies in some degree according to the climate under which they are born and in which they roam. Their chief characteristics, however, remain every where the same: tawniness of skin; slightly projecting, but agreeably formed cheek bones; long hail, of the color and luster of coal; large black eyes. exquisitely shaped months, ruddy lips, teeth of a dazzling whiteness, slenderness and agility of limb, expres sive features, and well-proportioned, often elegant build. Their women are, indeed, exquisitely beautiful when young, but they lose their good-looks at a very early period, par;ly on account of the squalor of their habits, and partly from their unsettled and precarious life. Like children, they are fond of showy colors in dress, and do not disdain to adorn themselves with even dubious trinkets and fine garments in a forward state of decay; lint they always arrange their clothes, however poor, with great taste. Of their other qualities, their manners and customs, we can only say that they were, and still are, supposed to be cowardly, revengeful, and treacherous; that they allow themselves to be used as spies; are the associates of ro'Thers and thieves; and that their women. chaste tbefuselyes,. ply all sorts of questionahle trades, chiefly selling poisons, and acting as gd-betwe'ens. It thht theiHanguage has-110 word for God, immortality, soul—that, in fact, they have no religion whatever; that their marriages, contracted very early. are not binding; that they were, or are, wont to eat their parents; and that they are altogether a very criminal race. How much of all these charges is more founded on fact than their intercourse with demons, for which they have been so dastardly slaughtered in former days, we are not able to decide; certain it is, however, that their ethical code differs most essentially from that of other people (Gorgio), whom they despise on account of their childish credulity and brutal cruelty. They have proved themselves, on several occasions, bold and courageous as lions, but they prefer running away to fighting the battles of the foreigners; and it is also agreed on all bands, that they are passionately attached to their relations; that they are fatalists, and have a got I. of fetichism or pantheism, though its peculiar form has never been revealed by diem to any inquisitive tourist. At the same time, they belong outwardly to the religion of every country which they happen to inhabit, and repeat the process of baptism its Oftzu as they can, with a view, as some have it, to the presents of godfathers and god mothers. They believe in a metempsychosis or transmigration of souls, and refrain for that reason from eating certain animals (eels, etc.), although, generally, they are any Whig but choice in their food. They are dirty, lazy, fond of drinking and smoking. Their talent for music is remarkable in the extreme; their ears seize, and their instil meats reproduce, after the first hearing, the most difficult and complicated pieces, even Entire symphonies. Many famous artists (Kecskemecz, Bunks, etc.) have issued from their ranks; and their own melodies sounding over the wide Hungarian pushtas, the steppes of Russia, or through the streets of Jassy, are not easily forgotten. Some of them have indeed become the much-valued property of other nations, or are embodied in some of our favorite operas. No less wonderful is the grace and charm of their wild dances. Altogether, the gypsies are one of the most gifted races, the lost geniuses, so to say, of humanity. The real truth about them, their traditions, and religion, will we fear, be ever kept a secret. The statement of Borrow, who has lived so long among them, that their entire catechism is summed up in the three precepts: " Be true to your people---be faithful to your husbands—and never pay any debts except those owing to your own kindred," must, we fear, be received with the same degree of caution which, we are sorry to say, has to be applied to many other statements about their manners and customs contained in his othewise useful Gypsies in Spain. The incredibly absurd descriptions of the Jewish marriage-ceremonies, about which we do possess the fullest and most authoritative information, given there as a counterpart to those of the gypsies, show plainly how easily and abundantly his good-natured credulity must have been worked upon.