SKETCH OF TIIEIR MIGRATIONS. At precisely what period the gypsy hordes left their early home in Northwestern India and commenced their long migration into the west cannot be determined. Historical information on this point is entirely wanting; but their language affords sure evi dence of the course of their wanderings, for their sojourn in each country has left its impress on their vocabulary. In addition, we are so for tunate as to have some slight records of their early apparition among the nations of Europe. They must have left their original home not later than the year 900, and how much before it is quite impossible to say. Perhaps the 'irruption of the hordes of Genghis Khan moved them from their earlier. abode and started them on their long march of centuries. They evidently took the direction of Kabulistan and Persia, and made a lengthy stay in each of these countries, as the presence of Kabul and Persian words in their language amply proves. Here they seem to have split into two main divisions, the one striking south through Syria into Egypt and Northern Africa, where their descendants are still to be found in considerable numbers; the other migrat ing west through Asia Minor into Turkey in Europe. Here they receive from the contem porary Byzantine writers the appellation of Athinganoi, or Atsinkanoi, the origin of the vari ous names by which they are familiarly known in the different countries of Eastern Europe and in Germany. Greece and the Greek-speaking coun tries of Southeastern Europe were their earliest abiding place on the European Continent, and there is no way of deciding how many decades or centuries they roamed about here before push ing their restless way still farther to the west. As early as 1398 we have mention of a gypsy chief named John as established with certain feudal privileges at Nauplia, in the Peloponnesus, under Venetian rule; and numerous ruined castles in that country still bear the name rvoroKagrgov, or gypsy castle, from the name by which they are known in Greece, rvOroi, or `Kopts' Earlier still, in 1370, we find feudal settlements of gyp sies in certain parts of the island of Corfu—a sort of gypsy `ghetto,' or reservation.
Early in this same century large bands of gyp sies began to stream north from Greece and Tur key into the wild and scantily populated Balkan countries, especially Wallachia, where they found ample room to gratify their nomadic instincts unmolested, and throve and increased in num bers amazingly. From here they readily found their way in vast numbers into Transylvania and Hungary. They were settled in these coun tries already before 1417, and the plains of Hun gary and the mountains of Transylvania may be regarded as the second important station in their European wanderings. They form an important and not useless part of the population, devoting themselves to a limited number of nomadic occu pations, notably the simpler kinds of smith work and music, and are neither maltreated nor de spised by the people.
The first appearance of the gypsies in Germany is recorded in 1417. At about the same time other bands passed through the whole of Europe. They are recorded in Switzerland in 1418; in Denmark, 1420; in Italy, 1422; in France and Spain, 1447; in Poland and Russia, about 1500; in England shortly after. At first they were treated kindly, and assisted in their poverty alike by people and Government; but their thievish habits soon caused them to be driven from place to place, and stringent laws were frequently passed against them. This probably explains their sudden appearance in such distant parts of Europe at about the same period. The curious notion that they were of Egyptian origin was already widespread. and the gypsies themselves found it to their purpose to lend credence to it. They invented an imaginary 'Little Egypt,' and their chiefs, riding their well-kept horses, clad in many-colored garments and coin-bedecked, and followed by the miserable rabble of their tribe, posed as 'counts' and 'dukes' and 'kings' of that land; or gave out that they were pilgrims on their way to Rome to do penance for apostasy, thus gaining the aid and good wishes of the simple. A large band wandered into Italy under
the leadership of a 'duke of Egypt' named An drew, and encamped before the gates of Bologna on July 18, 1422. The 'duke' himself entered the city and took lodgings at the 'Albergo del Re,' displaying a passport for himself and his tribe, signed by Sigismund, King of Hungary, and explaining to the town authorities that he and many others of 'Little Egypt' had turned against Christianity and consequently had been driven from their country by King Sigismund. He himself, and 4000 of his people, had there upon decided to renounce the error and return to the Church; and the King, after putting to death the most obstinate renegades, had imposed upon the others a penance of seven years' wan dering and the obligation of going to Rome to get the Papal absolution, as a condition of re ceiving back their lands and goods. For five years had they already wandered, and now were approaching Rome. This story served the 'duke' well for several years; but the imposition was ultimately discovered, and the whole band was expelled from Italy. In 1429 we find the city of Arnhem, in Gelderland, furnishing money and provisions "to the Count of Little Egypt, with his company," and another item "to the same count and the heathen women, for the honor of God." In 1459 the town of Zutphen made a like present to the 'King of Little Egypt,' and Duke Egmont granted a passport to "Count Martin Gnougy, geboren van so that he might be helped on his pilgrimage." Many more instances may be cited; and it may be observed that in all these cases the gypsies were from Hungary, and strangers in the lands through which they were wandering. In the course of time their fraud was naturally exposed; and then the 'dukes' and 'counts,' reduced to common vagabonds, either retraced their path to Hun gary or remained with their tribes and became severally German and Italian and Dutch gyp sies. As such they were treated as outcasts and often rigorously persecuted. In Germany, acts of banishment were passed against them in 1479, 1500, 1544, 1548, and 1577, each more stringent than the last; and that of 1725, under Frederick William I.. was the most cruel of all: "Gypsies, whether men or women, that are caught in the Prussian States, if over eighteen years of age, shall be sent to the gallows without mercy, and may previously also be punished with branding and flogging, whether they have come into the country for the first time singly or in company, and whether they have passes to show or not." Christian III. of Denmark gave the gypsies three months to leave the country in 1536, under pen alty of death in case of return, and a similar royal edict was passed against them by Sweden in 1662. In France they were never allowed to gain a foothold. Hungary, Rumania, Poland, Russia, and England, on the contrary, have on the whole been generous to them, they have thriven in Spain, and Italy has tolerated the comparatively few that dwell there. To-day the tent-dwelling gypsies seldom pass from one country to another; they have become habituated to their adopted country, and with the growth of popular education and the increasing difficulty of leading the nomadic life, they are gradually losing their peculiar character and becoming as similated to their neighbors. Their last migra tion is to the New World or to Australia; and here, in new surroundings, many thousands are already living, mostly English gypsies, but also bands from the Continent, especially from Hun gary and the Balkan States. The gypsies are most numerous in Rumania and various parts of the Balkan region, Hungary (with Transyl vania), and Russia. Their amtegate number in these countries is in the neighborhood of 500, 000. On the migrations of the gypsies, consult especially Von Wlislocki, Vont wandernden Zie geunervolke (Hamburg, 1890):