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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: A History of the Gipsies + with Specimens of the Gipsy Language + +Author: Walter Simson + +Editor: James Simson + +Release Date: May 10, 2012 [EBook #39665] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE GIPSIES *** + + + + +Produced by Steven Gibbs, Harry Lamé and the Distributed +Proofreaders Team at pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tnbox"> +<p class="center">Please see <a href="#TN">Transcriber’s Notes</a> at the end of this text.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<h1 style="line-height: 2em;"><span class="fsize80">A</span><br /> +<span class="fsize150">HISTORY OF THE GIPSIES:</span><br /> +<span class="fsize80">WITH</span><br /> +<span class="oldtype fsize125">Specimens of the Gipsy Language.</span></h1> + +<p class="center smcap fsize150">By WALTER SIMSON.</p> + +<p class="center">EDITED, WITH<br /> +PREFACE, INTRODUCTION, AND NOTES, AND A DISQUISITION ON THE<br /> +PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF GIPSYDOM,</p> + +<p class="center smcap fsize125" style="line-height: 2em;">By JAMES SIMSON.</p> + +<div class="poem" style="margin-left: 20%;"><div class="stanza"><a name="Secref4" id="Secref4"></a> +<span class="i00">“Hast thou not noted on the bye way-side,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Where aged saughs lean o’er the lazy tide,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">A vagrant crew, far straggled through the glade,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With trifles busied, or in slumber laid;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their children lolling round them on the grass,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Or pestering with their sports the patient ass!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The wrinkled beldame there you may espy,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And ripe young maiden with the glossy eye;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Men in their prime, and striplings dark and dun,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Scathed by the storm and freckled with the sun;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Their swarthy hue and mantle’s flowing fold,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Bespeak the remnant of a race of old.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Strange are their annals—list! and mark them well—</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For thou hast much to hear and I to tell.”—<span class="smcap">Hogg.</span></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center fsize125" style="margin-top: 2.5em;">NEW YORK:<br /> +M. DOOLADY, 448 BROOME STREET.</p> + +<p class="center fsize125">LONDON:<br /> +SAMPSON LOW, SON & MARSTON.</p> + +<p class="center fsize125">1866.</p> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<p class="center fsize80">Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By JAMES SIMSON</span>,<br /> +In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District<br /> +of New York.</p> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS.<a name="FNanchor1" id="FNanchor1"></a><a href="#Footnote1" class="fnanchor" style="font-size: .5em;">[1]</a></h2> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<table summary="ToC"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="fsize80 right">PAGE</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="left top">EDITOR’S PREFACE</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="left top">EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="left top">INTRODUCTION</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="3" class="left fsize80">CHAPTER.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">I.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">CONTINENTAL GIPSIES</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">II.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">ENGLISH GIPSIES</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">III.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">SCOTTISH GIPSIES, DOWN TO THE YEAR 1715</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">IV.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">LINLITHGOWSHIRE GIPSIES</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">V.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">FIFE AND STIRLINGSHIRE GIPSIES</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">VI.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">TWEED-DALE AND CLYDESDALE GIPSIES</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">VII.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">BORDER GIPSIES</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">VIII.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE CEREMONIES</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">IX.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">LANGUAGE</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 top">X.</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 top">PRESENT CONDITION AND NUMBER OF THE GIPSIES IN SCOTLAND</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="left top">DISQUISITION ON THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF GIPSYDOM</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_371">371</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="2" class="left top">INDEX</td> +<td class="right padl1 bot"><a href="#Page_543">543</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote1" id="Footnote1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The +Contents of these Chapters will be found detailed in the <a href="#Page_543">Index</a>, forming an +epitome of the work, for reference, or studying the subject of the Gipsies.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>Ever since entering Great Britain, about the year 1506, the +Gipsies have been drawing into their body the blood of the ordinary +inhabitants and conforming to their ways; and so prolific has +the race been, that there cannot be less than 250,000 Gipsies of all +castes, colours, characters, occupations, degrees of education, culture, +and position in life, in the British Isles alone, and possibly +double that number. There are many of the same race in the +United States of America. Indeed, there have been Gipsies in +America from nearly the first day of its settlement; for many of +the race were banished to the plantations, often for very trifling +offences, and sometimes merely for being by “habit and repute +Egyptians.” But as the Gipsy race leaves the tent, and rises to +civilization, it hides its nationality from the rest of the world, so +great is the prejudice against the name of Gipsy. In Europe and +America together, there cannot be less than 4,000,000 Gipsies in +existence. John Bunyan, the author of the celebrated <i>Pilgrim’s +Progress</i>, was one of this singular people, as will be conclusively +shown in the present work. The philosophy of the existence of +the Jews, since the dispersion, will also be discussed and established +in it.</p> + +<p>When the “wonderful story” of the Gipsies is told, as it ought +to be told, it constitutes a work of interest to many classes of readers, +being a subject unique, distinct from, and unknown to, the rest +of the human family. In the present work, the race has been treated +of so fully and elaborately, in all its aspects, as in a great measure +to fill and satisfy the mind, instead of being, as heretofore, little +better than a myth to the understanding of the most intelligent +person.</p> + +<p>The history of the Gipsies, when thus comprehensively treated, +forms a study for the most advanced and cultivated mind, as well +as for the youth whose intellectual and literary character is still to +be formed; and furnishes, among other things, a system of science +not too abstract in its nature, and having for its subject-matter the +strongest of human feelings and sympathies. The work also seeks +to raise the name of Gipsy out of the dust, where it now lies; +while it has a very important bearing on the conversion of the +Jews, the advancement of Christianity generally, and the development +of historical and moral science.</p> + +<p class="ind5"><span class="smcap">New York</span>, <i>May 1st, 1866</i>.<br /></p> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></p> + +<h2>EDITOR’S PREFACE.</h2> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<p>This work should have been introduced to the world +long ere now. The proper time to have brought it forward +would have been about twenty years ago,<a name="FNanchor2" id="FNanchor2"></a><a href="#Footnote2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> when the subject +was nearly altogether new, and when popular feeling, in +Scotland especially, ran strongly toward the body it treats +of, owing to the celebrity of the writings of the great Scottish +novelist, in which were depicted, with great truthfulness, +some real characters of this wayward race. The inducements +then to hazard a publication of it were great; for by +bringing it out at that time, the author would have enjoyed, +in some measure, the sunshine which the fame of that great +luminary cast around all who, in any way, illustrated a subject +on which he had written. But for Sir Walter Scott’s +advice—an advice that can only be appreciated by those +who are acquainted with the vindictive disposition which +the Gipsies entertain toward those whom they imagine +to have injured them—our author would have published a +few magazine articles on the subject, when the tribe would +have taken alarm, and an end would have been made to +the investigation. The dread of personal danger, there is +no doubt, formed a considerable reason for the work being +so long withheld from the public: at the same time, our +author, being a timid and nervous man, not a little dreaded +the spleen of the party opposed to the literary society with +which he identified himself, and the idea of being made the +subject of one of the slashing criticisms so characteristic of +the times. But now he has descended into the tomb, with +most of his generation, where the abuse of a reviewer or +the ire of a wandering Egyptian cannot reach him.</p> + +<p>Since this work was written there has appeared one by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +Mr. Borrow, on the <i>Gitanos</i> or Spanish Gipsies. In the +year 1838, a society was formed in Scotland, under the +patronage of the Scottish Church, for the reformation of +the wandering portion of the body in that country, with +some eminent men as a committee of management, among +whom was a reverend gentleman of learning, piety, and +worth, who said that he himself was a Gipsy, and whose +fine swarthy features strongly marked the stock from which +he was descended. There are others in that country of a +like origin, ornaments to the same profession, and many in +other respectable walks of life, of whom I will speak in +my <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies, at the end of the work.</p> + +<p>Although a few years have elapsed since the principal +details of this work were collected, the subject cannot be +considered as old. The body in Scotland has become more +numerous since the downfall of Napoleon; but the improved +system of internal order that has obtained since that period, +has so very much suppressed their acts of depredation and +violence toward the community, and their savage outbursts +of passion toward those of their own race who had offended +them, that much which would have met with only a slight +punishment before, or in some instances been passed over, as +a mere Gipsy scuffle, would now be visited with the utmost +penalty the law could inflict. Hence the wild spirit, but not +the number, of the body has been very much crushed. +Many of them have betaken themselves to regular callings +of industry, or otherwise withdrawn from public observation; +but, in respect to race, are as much, at heart, Gipsies +as before. Many of the Scottish wandering class have +given way before an invasion of swarms of Gipsies from +Ireland.</p> + +<p>It is almost unnecessary to give a reason why this work +has been introduced here, instead of the country in which +it was written, and of which, for the most part, it treats. +Suffice it to say, that, having come to this country, I have +been led to bring it out here, where it may receive, sooner +or later, more attention from those at a distance from the +place and people it treats of, than from those accustomed to +see and hear of them daily, to many of whom they appear +as mere vagabonds; it being a common feature in the +human mind, that that which comes frequently under our +observation is but little thought of, while that at a distance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +and unknown to us, forms the subject of our investigations +and desires.<a name="FNanchor3" id="FNanchor3"></a><a href="#Footnote3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> In taking this view of the subject, the language +of Dr. Bright may be used, when he says: “The +condition and circumstances of the Gipsy nation throughout +the whole of Europe, may truly be considered amongst the +most curious phenomena in the history of man.” And +although this work, for the most part, treats of Scottish +Gipsies, it illustrates the history of the people all over +Europe, and, it may be said, pretty much over the world; +and affords materials for reflection on so singular a subject +connected with the history of our common family, and so +little known to mankind in general. To the American +reader generally, the work will illustrate a phase of life and +history with which it may be reasonably assumed he is not +much conversant; for, although he must have some knowledge +of the Gipsy race generally, there is no work, that I +am aware of, that treats of the body like the present. To +all kinds of readers the words of the celebrated Christopher +North, as quoted in the author’s <a href="#Page_55">Introduction</a>, may be +addressed:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Few things more sweetly vary civil life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than a barbarian, savage Tinkler<a name="FNanchor4" id="FNanchor4"></a><a href="#Footnote4" +class="fnanchor" style="font-size: 90%;">[4]</a> tale.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is a singular circumstance that, until comparatively +lately, little was known of this body in Scotland, beyond +their mere existence, and the depredations which they committed +on their neighbours; no further proof of which need<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +be given than a reference to the letters of Sir Walter +Scott and others, in the <a href="#Page_55">Introduction</a> to the work, and the +avidity with which the few articles of our author in Blackwood’s +Magazine were read.</p> + +<p>The higher we may rise in the scale of general information +and philosophic culture, the greater the attractions +will this moral puzzle have for our contemplation—the phenomenon +of a barbarous race of men, free as the air, with +little but the cold earth for a bed, and the canopy of heaven +for a covering, obtruding itself upon a civilized community, +and living so long in the midst of it, without any material +impression being made on the habits of the representative +part of it; the only instance of the kind in the modern +history of the world. In this solitary case, having nothing +from which to reason analogously as to the result, observation +alone must be had recourse to for the solution of the +experiment. It is from this circumstance that the subject, +in all its bearings, has been found to have such charms for +the curious and learned; being, as it were, a study in history +of the most interesting kind. It may be remarked +that Professor Wilson, the Christopher North of Blackwood, +is said to have accompanied some of the tribe in their +peregrinations over parts of England and Wales. Without +proceeding to the same length, our author, in his own +peculiar way, prosecuted his researches with much indefatigability, +assiduity, and patience. He kept an open house +for them at all times, and presented such allurements as the +skillful trapper of vermin will sometimes use in attracting +the whole in a neighbourhood; when if one Gipsy entered, +many would follow; although he would generally find them +so shy in their communications as sometimes to require years +of such baiting to ensure them for the elucidation of a +single point of their history. In this way he made himself +appear, in his associations with them, as very odd, and perhaps +not of very sound mind, in the estimation of the wise +ones around him.</p> + +<p>The popular idea of a Gipsy, at the present day, is very +erroneous as to its extent and meaning. The nomadic +Gipsies constitute but a portion of the race, and a very +small portion of it. A gradual change has come over their +outward condition, all over Europe, from about the commencement +of the first American war, but from what time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +previous to that, we have no certain data from which to +form an opinion. In the whole of Great Britain they have +been very much mixed with the native blood of the country, +but nowhere, I believe, so much so as in Scotland. There +is every reason to suppose that the same mixture has taken +place in Europe generally, although its effects are not so +observable in the southern countries—from the circumstance +of the people there being, for the most part, of dark hair +and complexion—as in those lying further toward the north. +But this circumstance would, to a certain extent, prevent the +mixture which has taken place in countries the inhabitants +of which have fair hair and complexions. The causes +leading to this mixture are various.</p> + +<p>The persecutions to which the Gipsies were exposed, +merely for being Gipsies, which their appearance would +readily indicate, seem to have induced the body to intermarry +with our race, so as to disguise theirs. That would +be done by receiving and adopting males of our race, +whom they would marry to females of theirs, who would +bring up the children of such unions as members of their +fraternity. They also adopted the practice to give their +race stamina, as well as numbers, to contend with the people +among whom they lived. The desire of having servants, +(for Gipsies, generally, have been too proud to do menial +work for each other,) led to many children being kidnapped, +and reared among them; many of whom, as is customary +with Oriental people, rose to as high a position in the tribe +as any of themselves.<a name="FNanchor5" id="FNanchor5"></a><a href="#Footnote5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>Then again, it was very necessary to have people of fair +complexion among them, to enable them the more easily to +carry on their operations upon the community, as well as to +contribute to their support during times of persecution. Owing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +to these causes, and the occasional occurrence of white +people being, by more legitimate means, received into their +body, which would be more often the case in their palmy days, +the half, at least, of the Scottish Gipsies are of fair hair and +blue eyes. Some would naturally think that these would +not be Gipsies, but the fact is otherwise; for, owing to the +dreadful prejudice which has always attached to the name +of Gipsy, these white and parti-coloured Gipsies, imagining +themselves, as it were, banished from society, on account of +their descent, cling to their Gipsy connection; as the other +part of their blood, they imagine, will not own them. They +are Gipsies, and, with the public, they think that is quite +enough. They take a pride in being descended from a race +so mysterious, so ancient, so universal, and cherish their +language the more from its being the principal badge of +membership that entitles them to belong to it. The nearer +they approach the whites as regards blood, the more acutely +do they feel the antipathy which is entertained for their race, +and the more bitter does the propinquity become to them. The +more enlightened they become, the stronger becomes their +attachment to the sept in the abstract, although they will +despise many of its members. The sense of such an ancient +descent, and the possession of such an ancient and secret +language, in the minds of men of comparatively limited +education and indifferent rearing, brought up in humble +life, and following various callings, from a tinker upward, +and even of men of education and intelligence, occupying +the position of lawyers, medical doctors, and clergymen, +possess for them a charm that is at once fascinating and +enchanting. If men of enlightened minds and high social +standing will go to such lengths as they have done, in their +endeavours to but look into their language, how much more +will they not cling to it, such as it is, in whose hearts it +is? Gipsies compounded for the most part of white blood, +but with Gipsy feelings, are, as a general thing, much +superior to those who more nearly approach what may +be called the original stock; and, singularly enough, speak +the language better than the others, if their opportunities +have been in any way favourable for its acquisition.</p> + +<p>The primitive, original state of the Gipsies is the tent and +tilted cart. But as any country can support only a limited +number in that way, and as the increase of the body is very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +large, it follows that they must cast about to make a +living in some other way, however bitter the pill may be +which they have to swallow. The nomadic Gipsy portion +resembles, in that respect, a water trough; for the water +which runs into it, there must be a corresponding quantity +running over it. The Gipsies who leave the tent resemble +the youth of our small seaports and villages; for there, +society is so limited as to compel such youth to take to the +sea or cities, or go abroad, to gain that livelihood which the +neighbourhood in which they have been reared denies to +them. In the same manner do these Gipsies look back to +the tent from which they, or their fathers, have sprung. +They carry the language, the associations, and the sympathies +of their race, and their peculiar feelings toward the +community, with them; and, as residents of towns, have +generally greater facilities, from others of their race residing +near them, for perpetuating their language, than when strolling +over the country.</p> + +<p>The prejudice of their fellow creatures, which clings to +the race to which they belong, almost overwhelms some of +them at times; but it is only momentary; for such is the +independence and elasticity of their nature, that they rise +from under it, as self-complacent and proud as ever. They +in such cases resort to the <i>tu quoque</i>—the <i>tit for tat</i> argument +as regards their enemies, and ask, “What is this white +race, after all? What were their forefathers a few generations +ago? the Highlands a nest of marauding thieves, and +the Borders little better. Or society at the present day—what +is it but a compound of deceit and hypocrisy? People +say that the Gipsies steal. True; some of them steal +chickens, vegetables, and such things; but what is that compared +to the robbery of widows and orphans, the lying and +cheating of traders, the swindling, the robberies, the murders, +the ignorance, the squalor, and the debaucheries of so +many of the white race? What are all these compared to +the simple vices of the Gipsies? What is the ancestry +they boast of, compared, in point of antiquity, to ours? +People may despise the Gipsies, but they certainly despise +all others not of their own race: the veriest beggar Gipsy, +without shoes to his feet, considers himself better than the +queen that sits upon the throne. People say that Gipsies +are blackguards. Well, if some of them are blackguards,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +they are at least illustrious blackguards as regards descent, +and so in fact; for they never rob each other, and far less +do they rob or ruin those of their own family.” And they +conclude that the odium which clings to the race is but a +prejudice. Still, they will deny that they are Gipsies, and +will rather almost perish than let any one, not of their own +race, know that they speak their language in their own +households and among their own kindred. They will even +deny or at least hide it from many of their own race.</p> + +<p>For all these reasons, the most appropriate word to apply +to modern Gipsyism, and especially British Gipsyism, and +more especially Scottish Gipsyism, is to call it a caste, and a +kind of masonic society, rather than any particular mode +of life. And it is necessary that this distinction should be +kept in mind, otherwise the subject will appear contradictory.</p> + +<p>The most of these Gipsies are unknown to the public as +Gipsies. The feeling in question is, for the most part, on +the side of the Gipsies themselves; they think that more +of them is known than actually is. In that respect a kind +of nightmare continually clings to them; while their peculiarly +distant, clannish, and odd habits create a kind of +separation between them and the other inhabitants, which +the Gipsy is naturally apt to construe as proceeding from a +different cause. Frequently, all that is said about them +amounts only to a whisper among some of the families in +the community in which they live, and which is confidentially +passed around among themselves, from a dread of +personal consequences. Sometimes the native families say +among themselves, “Why should we make allusion to their +kith and kin? They seem decent people, and attend +church like ourselves; and it would be cruel to cast up +their descent to them, and damage them in the estimation +of the world. Their cousins, (or second cousins, as it may +be,) travel the country in the old Tinkler fashion, no doubt; +but what has that to do with them?” The estimate of such +people never, or hardly ever, goes beyond the simple idea +of their being “descended from Tinklers;” few have the +most distant idea that they are Gipsies, and speak the +Gipsy language among themselves. It is certain that a +Gipsy can be a good man, as the world goes, nay, a very +good man, and glory in being a Gipsy, but not to the public.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +He will adhere to his ancient language, and talk it in his +own family; and he has as much right to do so, as, for example, +a Highlander has to speak Gaelic in the Lowlands, +or when he goes abroad, and teach it to his children. And +he takes a greater pride in doing it, for thus he reasons: +“What is English, French, Gaelic, or any other living language, +compared to mine? Mine will carry me through +every part of the known world: wherever a man is to be +found, there is my language spoken. I will find a brother +in every part of the world on which I may set my foot; I +will be welcomed and passed along wherever I may go. +Freemasonry indeed! what is masonry compared to the +brotherhood of the Gipsies? A language—a whole language—is +its pass-word. I almost worship the idea of +being a member of a society into which I am initiated by +my blood and language. I would not be a man if I did not +love my kindred, and cherish in my heart that peculiarity +of my race (its language) which casts a halo of glory +around it, and makes it the wonder of the world!”</p> + +<p>The feeling alluded to induces some of these Gipsies to +change their residences or go abroad. I heard of one +family in Canada, of whom a Scotchman spoke somewhat in +the following way: “I know them to be Gipsies. They +remind me of a brood of wild turkeys, hatched under a tame +bird; it will take the second or third descent to bring +them to resemble, in some of their ways, the ordinary barn-door +fowl. They are very restless and queer creatures, and +move about as if they were afraid that every one was going +to tramp on their corns.” But it is in large towns they feel +more at home. They then form little communities among +themselves; and by closely associating, and sometimes +huddling together, they can more easily perpetuate their +language, as I have already said, than by straggling, twos +or threes, through the country. But their quarrelsome disposition +frequently throws an obstacle in the way of such +associations. Secret as they have been in keeping their +language from even being heard by the public while wanderers, +they are much more so since they have settled in +towns.</p> + +<p>The origin of the Gipsies has given rise, in recent times, +to many speculations. The most plausible one, however, +seems to be that they are from Hindostan; an opinion our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +author supports so well, that we are almost bound to acquiesce +in it. In these controversies regarding the origin of +the Gipsies, very little regard seems to have been had to +what they say of themselves. It is curious that in every +part of Europe they have been called, and are now called, +Egyptians. No trace can now be found of any enquiry made +as to their origin, if such there was made, when they first +appeared in Europe. They seem then to have been taken +at their word, and to have passed current as Egyptians. +But in modern times their country has been denied them, +owing to a total dissimilarity between their language and +any of the dialects of modern Egypt. A very intelligent +Gipsy informed me that his race sprung from a body of +men—a cross between the Arabs and Egyptians—that left +Egypt in the train of the Jews.<a name="FNanchor6" id="FNanchor6"></a><a href="#Footnote6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> In consulting the record +of Moses, I find it said, in Ex. xii. 38, “and a mixed multitude +went up also with them” (the Jews, out of Egypt). +Very little is said of this mixed multitude. In Lev. xxiv. +10, mention is made of the son of an Israelitish woman, by +an Egyptian, being stoned to death for blasphemy, which +would almost imply that a marriage had taken place previous +to leaving Egypt. After this occurrence, it is said in +Num. xi. 4, “and the mixed multitude that was among +them fell a lusting” for flesh. That would imply that they +had not amalgamated with the Jews, but were only among +them. The Scriptures say nothing of what became of this +mixed multitude after the Jews separated from them (Neh. +xiii. 3), and leave us only to form a conjecture relative to +their destiny.</p> + +<p>We naturally ask, what could have induced this mixed +multitude to leave Egypt? and the natural reply is, that +their motive was the same that led to the exodus of the +Jews—a desire to escape from slavery. No commentator +that I have read gives a plausible reason for the mixed +multitude leaving Egypt with the Jews. Scott, besides +venturing four suppositions, advances a fifth, that +“some left because they were distressed or discontented.” +But that seems to fall infinitely short of the true reason. +Adam Clark says, “Probably they were refugees who came +to sojourn in Egypt, because of the dearth which had obliged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +them to emigrate from their own countries.” But that +dearth occurred centuries before the time of the exodus; so +that those refugees, if such there were, who settled in Egypt +during the famine, could have returned to their own countries +generations before the time of that event. Scott +says, “It is probable some left Egypt because it was desolate;” +and Henry, “Because their country was laid waste +by the plagues.” But the desolation was only partial; for +we are told that “He that feared the word of the Lord +among the servants of Pharaoh, made his servants and his +cattle flee into the houses;” by which means they escaped +destruction from the hail, which affected only those remaining +in the field. We are likewise told that, although the +barley and flax were smitten by the same hail-storm, the +wheat and rye, not being grown up, were left untouched. +These two latter (besides fish, roots and vegetables) would +form the staples of the food of the Egyptians; to say nothing +of the immense quantities in the granaries of the country. +If the Egyptians could not find bread in their own country, +how were they to obtain it by accompanying the Jews into +a land of which they knew nothing, and which had to be +conquered before it could be possessed? Where were they +to procure bread to support them on the journey, if it was +not to be had at home?</p> + +<p>The other reasons given by these commentators for the +departure of the mixed multitude from Egypt are hardly +worth controverting, when we consider the social manners +and religious belief of the Egyptians. We are told that, +for being shepherds, the Israelites were an abomination +unto the Egyptians (Gen. xlvi. 34); and that the Egyptians +considered it an abomination to eat bread with a Hebrew, +(Gen. xliii. 32,) so supreme was the reign of caste and of +nationality at that period in Egypt. The sacrifices of the +Jews were also an abomination to the Egyptians (Ex. viii. +26). The Hebrews were likewise influenced by feelings +peculiar to themselves, which would render any alliances +or even associations between them and their oppressors +extremely improbable; but if such there should have been, +the issue would be incorporated with the Hebrews.</p> + +<p>There could thus be no personal motive for any of the +Egyptians to accompany the Hebrews; and as little could +there be of that which pertains to the religious; for, as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +people, they had become so “vain in their imaginations,” +and had “their foolish hearts so darkened,” as to worship +almost every created thing—bulls, birds, serpents, leeks, +onions and garlic. Such a people were almost as well nigh +devoid of a motive springing from a sense of elevated religion, +as were the beasts, the reptiles and the vegetables +which they worshipped. A miracle performed before the +eyes of such a people would have no more salutary or lasting +influence than would a flash of lightning before the +eyes of many a man in every day life; it might prostrate +them for a moment, but its effects would be as transitory. +Like the Jews themselves, at a subsequent time, they might +credit the miracle to Beelzebub, the prince of devils; and, +like the Gergesenes, rise up in a body and beseech Moses +and his people to “depart out of their coasts.” Indeed, +after the slaying of the first-born of the Egyptians, we are +told that “the Egyptians were urgent upon the people that +they might send them out of the land in haste; for, they +said, We be all dead men.” Considering how hard a matter +it was for Moses to urge the Jews to undertake the +exodus; considering their stiff-necked and perverse grumbling +at all that befell them; notwithstanding that to them +“pertained the fathers, the adoption, the glory and the +covenant;” the commands and the bones of Joseph; the +grievous bondage they were enduring, and the almost daily +recourse to which Moses had for a miracle to strengthen +their faith and resolution to proceed; and we will perceive +the impossibility of the “mixed multitude” leaving Egypt +on any ground of religion.</p> + +<p>This principle might even be urged further. If we consider +the reception which was given to the miracles of +Christ as “a son over his own house, and therefore worthy +of more glory than Moses, who was but a servant,” we will +conclude that the miracles wrought by Moses, although personally +felt by the Egyptians, would have as little lasting +effect upon them as had those of the former upon the +Jews themselves; they would naturally lead to the Hebrews +being allowed to depart, but would serve no purpose of inducing +the Egyptians to go with them. For if a veil was +mysteriously drawn over the eyes of the Jews at the advent +of Christ, which, in a negative sense, hid the Messiah from +them (Mark iv. 11, 12; Matt. xi. 25, 26; and John xii. 39,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +40), how much more might it not be said, “He hath blinded +their eyes, and hardened their hearts, that they should not +see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts,” and +let the people of Israel go, “till they would thrust them out +hence altogether;” and particularly so when the object of +Moses’ mission was to redeem the Israelites from the bondage +of Egypt, and spoil and smite the Egyptians.</p> + +<p>The only reasonable conclusion to which we can come, as +regards a motive for the “mixed multitude” leaving Egypt +along with the Jews, is, that being slaves like themselves, +they took advantage of the opportunity, and slipped out with +them.<a name="FNanchor7" id="FNanchor7"></a><a href="#Footnote7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The Jews, on being reduced to a state of bondage, were +employed by Pharaoh to “build treasure cities, and work +in mortar and brick, and do all manner of service in the +field,” besides being “scattered abroad through all the land +of Egypt, to gather stubble in place of straw,” wherewith to +make their tale of bricks. In this way they would come +much in contact with the other slaves of the country; and, +as “adversity makes strange bed-fellows,” they would naturally +prove communicative to their fellow-sufferers, and +expatiate on the history of their people, from the days of +Abraham downward, were it only from a feeling of vanity +to make themselves appear superior to what they would consider +the ordinary dross around them. They would also +naturally allude to their future prospects, and the positive +promise, or at least general idea, which they had of their +God effecting their deliverance, and leading them into a +country (Gen. 1. 24, 25) where all the miseries they were +then enduring would be forgotten. They would do that +more especially after Moses had returned from his father-in-law +in Midian, to bring them out of Egypt; for we are told, +in Ex. iv. 29-31, that the elders of the children of Israel +were called together and informed of the intended redemption, +and that all the people believed. By such means as +these would the minds of some of the other slaves of Egypt +be inflamed at the very idea of freedom being perhaps in +immediate prospect for so many of their fellow-bondsmen.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thereafter happened the many plagues; the causes of +which must have been more or less known to the Egyptians +generally, from the public manner in which Moses would +make his demands (Ex. x. 7); and consequently to their +slaves; for many of the slaves would be men of intelligence, +as is common in oriental countries. Some of these slaves +would, in all probability, watch, with fear and trembling, the +dreadful drama played out (Ex. ix. 20). Others would, perhaps, +give little heed to the various sayings of the Hebrews +at the time they were uttered; the plagues would, perhaps, +have little effect in reminding them of them. As they experienced +their effects, they might even feel exasperated toward +the Hebrews for being the cause of them; still it is +more probable that they sympathized with them, as fellow-bondsmen, +and murmured against Pharaoh for their existence +and greater manifestation. But the positive order, nay +the entreaty, for the departure of the Israelites, and the +passage before their eyes of so large a body of slaves to obtain +their freedom, would induce many of them to follow +them; for they would, in all likelihood, form no higher +estimate of the movement than that of merely gaining that +liberty which slaves, in all nations, and under all circumstances, +do continually sigh after.</p> + +<p>The character of Moses alone was a sufficient guarantee +to the slaves of Egypt that they might trust themselves to +his leadership and protection (not to speak of the miraculous +powers which he displayed in his mission); for we are told +that, besides being the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, +he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and +mighty in word and deed. Having been, according to Josephus, +a great commander in the armies of Egypt, he must +have been the means of reducing to bondage many of the +slaves, or the parents of the slaves, then living in Egypt. At +the time of the exodus we are told that he was “very great +in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants, and +in the sight of the people” (Ex. xi. 3). The burying of the +“first-born” was not a circumstance likely to prevent a slave +gaining his freedom amid the dismay, the moaning, and +groaning, and howling throughout the land of Egypt. The +circumstance was even the more favourable for his escape, +owing to the Hebrews being allowed to go, till it pleased +God again to harden and stir up Pharaoh to pursue them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +(Ex. xiv. 2-5 and 8), in order that his host might be overthrown +in the Red Sea.</p> + +<p>The Jews, while in Egypt, seem to have been reduced to +a state of serfdom only—crown slaves, not chattels personal; +which would give them a certain degree of respect in the +eyes of the ordinary slaves of the country, and lead them, +owing to the dignity of their descent, to look down with +disdain upon the “mixed multitude” which followed them. +While it is said that they were “scattered over the land of +Egypt,” we are told, in Ex. ix. 4, that the murrain touched +not the cattle of Israel; and in the 26th verse, that “in the +land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, there was +no hail.” And Moses said to Pharaoh, “Our cattle also shall +go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for +thereof we must take to serve the Lord our God” (Ex. x. 26). +From this we would naturally conclude, that such of the +Jews only as were capable of work, were scattered over the +land of Egypt to do the work of Pharaoh, while the rest +were left in the land of Goshen. By both the Egyptians +and their slaves, the Hebrews would be looked upon as a +mysterious people, which the former would be glad to send +out of the land, owing to the many plagues which they had +been the cause of being sent upon them; and while they got +quit of them, as they did, there would be no earthly motive +for the Egyptians to follow them, through a wilderness, into +a country of which the Hebrews themselves knew nothing. +But it would be different with their slaves; they had everything +to hope from a change of condition, and would readily +avail themselves of the chance to effect it.</p> + +<p>The very term “mixed multitude” implies slaves; for the +Hebrew word <i>hasaphsuph</i>, as translated by Bochartus, means +<i>populi colluvies undecunque collecta</i>—“the dregs or scum of +the people gathered together from all parts.” But this interpretation +is most likely the literal meaning of a figurative +expression, which was intended to describe a body of men +such as the slaves of Egypt must have been, that is, a mixture +that was compounded of men from almost every part of +the world known to the Egyptians; the two principal ingredients +of which must have been what may be called the +Egyptian and Semitic. Moses seems to have used the word in +question in consequence of the vexation and snare which the +mixed multitude proved to him, by bringing upon the camp<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +of his people the plague, inflicted, in consequence of their +sins, in the midst of them. At the same time the Hebrews +were very apt to term “dregs and scum” all who did not +proceed from the loins of their father, Abraham. But I am +inclined to believe that the bulk or nucleus of the mixed +multitude would consist of slaves who were located in Goshen, +or its neighbourhood, when the Jews were settled +there by Pharaoh. These would be a mixture of the shepherd +kings and native Egyptians, held by the former as +slaves, who would naturally fall into the hands of the Egyptian +monarch during his gradual reconquest of the country; +and they would be held by the pure Egyptians in as little +esteem as the Jews themselves, both being, in a measure, of +the shepherd race. In this way it may be claimed that the +Gipsies are even descendants of the shepherd kings.</p> + +<p>After leaving Egypt, the Hebrews and the “mixed multitude,” +in their exuberance of feeling at having gained their +freedom, and witnessed the overthrow of their common oppressor +in the Red Sea, would naturally have everything in +common, till they regained their powers of reflection, and +began to think of their destiny, and the means of supporting +so many individuals, in a country in which provisions could +hardly be collected for the company of an ordinary caravan. +Then their difficulties would begin. It was enough for +Moses to have to guide the Hebrews, whose were the promises, +without being burdened and harassed by those who followed +them. Then we may reasonably assume that the +mixed multitude began to clamour for flesh, and lead the +Hebrews to join with them; in return for which a plague +was sent upon the people. They were unlikely to submit to +be led by the hand of God, and be fed on angels’ food, and, +like the Hebrews, leave their carcasses in the wilderness; +for their religious sentiments, if, as slaves of Egypt, they +had religious sentiments, would be very low indeed, and +would lead them to depend upon themselves, and leave the +deserts of Arabia, for some other country more likely to +support them and their children. Undoubtedly the two +people then separated, as Abraham and Lot parted when +they came out of Egypt.</p> + +<p>How to shake off this mixed multitude must have caused +Moses many an anxious thought. Possibly his father-in-law, +Jethro, from the knowledge and sagacity which he displayed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +in forming the government of Moses himself, may have +assisted him in arriving at the conclusion which he must +have so devoutly wished. To take them into the promised +land with him was impossible; for the command of God, +given in regard to Ishmael, the son of Abraham, by Hagar +the Egyptian, and which was far more applicable to the +mixed multitude, must have rung in his ears: “Cast out +this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman +shall not be heir with my son, Isaac;” “for in Isaac shall +thy seed be called.” As slaves of Egypt they would not +return to that country; they would not go north, for that +was the heritage of the people of Israel, which had to be +wrested from the fierce tribes of Palestine; they would not +go north-east, for there lay the powerful empire of Assyria, +or the germs out of which it sprung; they could not go +south, for the ocean hemmed them in, in that direction; and +their only alternative was to proceed east, through Arabia +Petrea, along the gulf of Persia, through the Persian +desert, into northern Hindostan, where they formed the +Gipsy caste, and whence they issued, after the lapse of so +many centuries, in possession of the language of Hindostan, +and spread themselves over the earth. What a strange +sensation passes through the mind, when such a subject is +contemplated! Jews and Gipsies having, in a sense, the +same origin, and, after such vicissitudes, meeting each +other, face to face, under circumstances so greatly alike, in +almost every part of the world, upward of 3000 years after +they parted company. What destiny awaited the Jews +themselves on escaping from Egypt? They had either to +subdue and take the place of some other tribe, or be reduced +to a state of slavery by it and perhaps others combined; or +they might possibly have been befriended by some great +empire as tributaries; or failing these three, what remained +for them was the destiny that befell the Gipsies.</p> + +<p>On leaving Egypt, the Gipsies would possess a common +language, which would hold them together as a body; as +slaves under the society of an Egyptian monarchy, they +would have few, if any, opinions of a religious nature; and +they would have but little idea of the laws of <i>meum</i> and +<i>tuum</i>. The position in which they would find themselves +placed, and the circumstances surrounding them, would +necessitate them to rob, steal, or appropriate whatever they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +found to be necessary to their existence; for whether they +turned to the right hand or to the left, they would always +find territory previously occupied, and property claimed by +some one; so that their presence would always be unwelcome, +their persons an intrusion everywhere; and having +once started on their weary pilgrimage, as long as they +maintained their personal independence, they would never +attain, as a body, to any other position than they have done, +in popular estimation, for the last four hundred and fifty +years in Europe.</p> + +<p>In entering Hindostan they would meet with a civilized +people, governed by rigid caste, where they would have no +alternative but to remain aloof from the other inhabitants. +Then, as now, that country had many wandering tribes +within its borders, and for which it is peculiarly favourable. +Whatever might have been the amount of civilization which +some of the Gipsies brought with them from Egypt, it could +not be otherwise than of that <i>quasi</i> nature which generally +characterizes that of slaves, and which would rapidly degenerate +into a kind of barbarism, under the change of circumstances +in which they found themselves placed. As runaway +slaves, they would naturally be shy and suspicious, and +be very apt to betake themselves to mountains, forests and +swamps, and hold as little intercourse with the people of +the country in which they were, as possible. Still, having +been reared within a settled and civilized state, they would +naturally hang around some other one, and nestle within it, +if the face of the country, and the character and ways of +the people, admitted of it. Having been bondsmen, they +would naturally become lazy after gaining their freedom, +and revel in the wild liberty of nature. They would do +almost anything for a living rather than work; and whatever +they could lay their hands on would be fairly come by, +in their imagination. But to carry out this mode of life, +they would naturally have recourse to some ostensible employment, +to enable them to travel through the country, and +secure the toleration of its inhabitants. Here their Egyptian +origin would come to their assistance; for as slaves of +that country, they must have had many among them who +would be familiar with horses, and working in metals, for +which ancient Egypt was famous; not to speak of some of +the occult sciences which they would carry with them from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +that country. In the first generation their new habits and +modes of life would become chronic; in the second generation +they would become hereditary; and from this strange +phenomenon would spring a race that is unique in the history +of the human family. What origin could be more worthy +of the Gipsies? What origin more philosophical?</p> + +<p>Arriving in India a foreign caste, the Gipsies would +naturally cling to their common origin, and speak their common +language, which, in course of ages, would be forgotten, +except occasional words, which would be used by them as +catch-words. At the present day my Gipsy acquaintances +inform me that, in Great Britain, five out of every ten of +their words are nothing but common Hindostanee. How +strange would it be if some of the other words of their +language were those used by the people of Egypt under the +Pharaohs. Mr. Borrow says: “Is it not surprising that the +language of <i>Petulengro</i>, (an English Gipsy,) is continually +coming to my assistance whenever I appear to be at a loss +with respect to the derivation of crabbed words. I have +made out crabbed words in Æschylus by means of his +speech; and even in my Biblical researches I have derived +no slight assistance from it.” “Broken, corrupted and half +in ruins as it is, it was not long before I found that it was +an original speech, far more so, indeed, than one or two +others of high name and celebrity, which, up to that time, +I had been in the habit of regarding with respect and veneration. +Indeed, many obscure points connected with the +vocabulary of these languages, and to which neither classic +nor modern lore afforded any clue, I thought I could now +clear up by means of this strange, broken tongue, spoken +by people who dwell among thickets and furze bushes, in +tents as tawny as their faces, and whom the generality of +mankind designate, and with much semblance of justice, as +thieves and vagabonds.”</p> + +<p>A difficulty somewhat similar to the origin of the Gipsies +has been started in reference to their language; whether it +is a speech distinct from any other surrounding it, or a few +slang words or expressions connected together by the usual +languages of the countries in which the race is to be found. +The slightest consideration will remove the doubt, and lead +us to the former conclusion. It is true there must needs be +some native words mixed up with it; for what language, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +ancient or modern times, has come down free of a mixture +with others? If that be the case with languages classified, +written, and spoken in a community, with no disturbing element +near it to corrupt it, is it to be expected that the +speech of a people like the Gipsies can be free of similar +additions or substitutions, when it possesses none of these +advantages for the preservation of its entirety and purity? +From the length of time the people have been in Europe, +and the frequency of intercourse which they have been +forced by circumstances, in modern times especially, to have +with its natives, it would appear beyond measure surprising +that even a word of their language is spoken at all. And +this fact adds great weight to Sir Walter Scott’s remark, +when he says that “their language is a great mystery;” and +to that of Dr. Bright, when he speaks of its existence as +being “little short of the miraculous.” But when we consider, +on strictly philosophical principles, the phenomenon of +the perpetuation of the Gipsy language, we will find that +there is nothing so very wonderful about it after all. The +race have always associated closely and exclusively together; +and their language has become to them like the worship of +a household god—hereditary, and is spoken among themselves +under the severest of discipline. It is certain that it +is spoken at the present day, by some of the race, nearly as +well as the Gaelic of many of the immediate descendants +of the emigrants in some of the small Highland settlements +in America, when it has not been learned by book, even to +the extent of conversing on any subject of ordinary life, +without apparently using English words. But, as is common +with people possessing two languages, the Gipsies often use +them interchangeably in expressing the smallest idea. Besides +the way mentioned by which the Gipsy language has +been corrupted, there is another one peculiar to all speeches, +and which is, that few tongues are so copious as not to stand +in need of foreign words, either to give names to things or +wants unknown in the place where the language originated, +or greater meaning or elucidation to a thing than it is capable +of; and preëminently so in the case of a barbarous +people, with few ideas beyond the commonest wants of daily +life, entering states so far advanced toward that point of +civilization which they have now reached. But the question +as to the extent of the Gipsy language never can be conclusively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +settled, until some able philologist has the unrestricted +opportunity of daily intercourse with the race; or, +as a thing more to be wished than obtained, some Gipsy +take to suitable learning, and confer a rarity of information +upon the reader of history everywhere: for the attempt +at getting a single word of the language from the Gipsies, +is, in almost every case, impracticable. Sir Walter Scott +seems to have had an intention of writing an account of the +Gipsies himself; for, in a letter to Murray, as given by +Lockhart, he writes: “I have been over head and ears in +work this summer, or I would have sent the Gipsies; indeed +I was partly stopped by finding it impossible to procure a +few words of their language.” For this reason, the words +furnished in this work, although few, are yet numerous, +when the difficulties in the way of getting them are considered. +Under the chapter of Language will be found +some curious anecdotes of the manner in which these were +collected.</p> + +<p>Of the production itself little need be said. Whatever +may be the opinion of the public in regard to it, this may be +borne in mind, that the collecting of the materials out of +which it is formed was attended with much trouble, and no +little expense, but with a singular degree of pleasure, to the +author; and that but for the urgent and latest request of +him whom, when alive or dead, Scotchmen have always delighted +to honour, it might never have assumed its present +form. It is what it professes to be—a history, in which the +subject has been stripped of everything pertaining to fiction +or even colouring; so that the reader will see depicted, in +their true character, this singular people, in the description +of whom, owing to the suspicion and secrecy of their nature, +writers generally have indulged in so much that is trifling +and even fabulous.</p> + +<p>Such as the work is, it is offered as a contribution toward +the filling up of that void in literature to which Dr. Bright +alludes, in the introduction to his travels in Hungary, when, +in reference to Hoyland’s Survey, and some scattered notices +of the Gipsies in periodicals, he says: “We may hope at +some time to collect, satisfactorily, the history of this extraordinary +race.” It is likewise intended as a response to the +call of a writer in Blackwood, in which he says: “<i>Our</i> duty +is rather to collect and store up the <i>raw materials</i> of literature—to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +gather into our repository scattered facts, hints and +observations—which more elaborate and learned authors +may afterwards work up into the dignified tissue of history +or science.”</p> + +<p>I deem it proper to remark that, in editing the work, I +have taken some liberties with the manuscript. I have, for +example, recast the <a href="#Page_55">Introduction</a>, re-arranged some of the +materials, and drawn more fully, in some instances, upon the +author’s authorities; but I have carefully preserved the +facts and sentiments of the original. I may have used some +expressions a little familiar and perhaps not over-refined in +their nature; but my excuse for that is, that they are illustrative +of a subject that allows the use of them.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote2" id="Footnote2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> It has been brought down, however, to the present time.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote3" id="Footnote3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> “Men of letters, while eagerly investigating the customs of Otaheite +or Kamschatka, and losing their tempers in endless disputes about Gothic +and Celtic antiquities, have witnessed, with apathy and contempt, the +striking spectacle of a Gipsy camp—pitched, perhaps, amidst the mouldering +entrenchments of their favourite Picts and Romans. The rest of the +community, familiar from infancy with the general character and appearance +of these vagrant hordes, have probably never regarded them with +any deeper interest than what springs from the recollected terrors of a +nursery tale, or the finer associations of poetical and picturesque description.”—<i>Blackwood’s +Magazine.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote4" id="Footnote4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Tinkler</i> is the name generally applied to the Scottish Gipsies. The +wandering, tented class prefer it to the term Gipsy. The settled and +better classes detest the word: they would much rather be called Gipsies; +but the term Egyptian is the most agreeable to their feelings. Tinkler +has a peculiar meaning that can be understood only by a Scotchman. In +its radical sense it means Tinker. The verb tink, according to Jamieson’s +Scottish Dictionary, means to “rivet, including the idea of the noise made +in the operation of riveting; a Gipsy word.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote5" id="Footnote5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Mr. Borrow labours under a very serious mistake when he asserts that +“The unfounded idea, that Gipsies steal children, to bring them up as +Gipsies, has been the besetting sin of authors, who have attempted to +found works of fiction on the way of life of this most singular people.” The +only argument which he advances to refute this belief in regard to Gipsies, +which is universal, is the following: “They have plenty of children of +their own, whom they can scarcely support; and they would smile at the +idea of encumbering themselves with the children of others.” This is +rather inconsistent with his own words, when he says, “I have dealt more +in facts than in theories, of which I am, in general, no friend.” As a matter +of fact, children have been stolen and brought up as Gipsies, and incorporated +with the tribe.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote6" id="Footnote6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The intelligent reader will not differ with me as to the weight to be attached +to the Gipsy’s remark on this point.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote7" id="Footnote7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Since the above was written, I have read Hengstenberg on the Pentateuch, +who supposes that the “mixed multitude” were an inferior order of +workmen, employed, like the Jews, as slaves, in the building of the pyramids.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + +<h2>EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<p>The discovery and history of barbarous races of men, besides +affording exquisite gratification to the general mind of +civilized society, have always been looked upon as important +means toward a right understanding of the history of our +species, and the relation in which it stands to natural and +revealed theology; and in their prosecution have produced, +in latter times, many instances of the most indefatigable disinterestedness +and greatest efforts of true courage of which +our nature is capable; many, in the person of the traveller, +philanthropist and missionary, cheerfully renouncing in their +pursuit every comfort of civilized life, braving death itself +in every variety of form, and leaving their bones on the distant +shore, or far away in the unknown interior of the dreary +continent, without a trace of their fate to console those most +dearly attached to them. The result of the discoveries +hitherto made has invariably confirmed the conclusions of a +few superior minds, formed without the assistance drawn +from such a source, that under whatever circumstances man +is placed, and whatever advantages he may enjoy, there is +very little real difference between the characters, intrinsically +considered, of the savage and man in what is considered +a civilized community. There is this difference between what +may be called barbarism, not unfrequently to be met with in +a civilized community, springing from the depravity natural +to man, and what obtains in a barbarous tribe or nation as +such, that, in the former, it forms the exception; the brother, +the father, or the son of the person of it often exhibiting the +most opposite nature and conduct; while, in the latter, it +forms the rule, and what the individual cannot, in a sense, +avoid. But, in making this distinction, is there nothing to be +found within the former sphere somewhat anomalous to the +position thus presented?</p> + +<p>The subject of the following enquiry forms the exception,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +and from its being the only instance to be met with in the +history of Europe, it may be said to merit the greatest consideration +of the statesman, the historian, the philosopher, +and the Christian.</p> + +<p>It does not appear possible, from the peculiar mould in +which the European mind has been cast, for it to have remained +in that state of immobility which, from the remotest +antiquity, seems to have characterized that of Asia; in which +continent society has remained torpid and inactive, contented +with what it has inherited, without making any effort at +change or advancement. This peculiarity of character, in +connexion with the influences of the Christian religion, seems +to have had the effect of bringing about that thorough amalgamation +of races and ideas in the various countries of Europe +in which more than one people happened to occupy the +same territory, or come under the jurisdiction of the same +government, when no material difference in religion existed. +In no country has such an amalgamation been more happily +consummated than in our own; if not altogether as to blood, +at least as to feeling, the more important thing of the two; +the physical differences, in occasional instances, appearing in +some localities, on the closest observation of those curious +individuals who make such a subject the object of their +learned researches.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding what has been said, how does it happen +that in Europe, but especially in our own country, there exists, +and has for four hundred years existed, a pretty numerous +body of men distinct in their feelings from the general +population, and some of them in a state of barbarism nearly +as great as when they made their appearance amongst us? +Such a thing would appear to us in no way remarkable in +the stationary condition so long prevalent in Asia; where, +in the case of India, for example, are to be found, inhabiting +the same territory, a heterogeneous population, made up of the +remnants of many nations; where so many languages are +spoken, and religions or superstitions professed, and the people +divided into so many castes, which are separated from +each other on the most trivial, and, to Europeans, ridiculous +and generally incomprehensible points; some eating +together, and others not; some eating mutton, and others +not; some beef and fowls, others vegetables, milk, butter +and eggs, but no flesh or fish; those going to sea not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +associating with those remaining at home; some not following +the occupation of others; and all showing the most determined +antipathy to associate with each other;—where, from +the numerous facilities so essential toward the perpetuation +of peculiar modes of life, and the want of the powerful elements +of assimilation and amalgamation so prominent in our +division of the human race, a people may continue in a stereotyped +state of mind and habits for an indefinite length of +time. But in a country that is generally looked upon as +the bulwark of the Reformation, and the stronghold of European +civilization, how does it happen that we find a people, +resembling in their nature, though not in the degree, the all +but fabulous tribe that was lately to be found in the dreary +wastes of Newfoundland, flying from the approach, and crossing +the imagination of the fishermen like a spectre? Or like +the wild men of the jungle, in some of the oceanic parts of +Asia, having no homes, roaming during the dry season in the +forests, and sleeping under or on the branches of trees, and +in the rainy season betaking themselves to caves or sheltering +beneath rocks, making their beds of leaves, and living +on what they can precariously find, such as roots and wild +honey; yet, under the influence of the missionary, many of +them now raising crops, building dwellings, erecting schoolhouses, +keeping the Sabbath, and praising God? But some +of the Gipsies with us may be said to do few of these things. +They live among us, yet are not of us; they come in daily +contact with us, yet keep such distance from the community +as a wild fowl, that occasionally finds its way into the farm-yard, +does in shrinking from the close scrutiny of the husbandman. +They cling like bats to ruined houses, caves, and +old lime-kilns; and pitch their tents in dry water-courses, +quarry-holes, or other sequestered places, by the way-side, +or on the open moor, and even on dung-heaps for the warmth +to be derived from them during the winter season, and live +under the bare boughs of the forest during the summer;—yet +amid all this apparent misery, through fair means or foul, +they fare well, and lead what some call a happy life; while +everything connected with them is most solicitously wrapt +up in inscrutable mystery. These Gipsies exhibit to the +European mind the most inexplicable moral problem on record; +in so far as such phenomena are naturally expected to +be found among a people whom the rays of civilization have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +never reached; while, in the case of the Gipsies, the first +principles of nature would seem to be set at defiance.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“And thus ’tis ever; what’s within our ken,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Owl-like, we blink at, and direct our search<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To fartherest Inde, in quest of novelties;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whilst here at home, upon our very thresholds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ten thousand objects hurtle into view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of interest wonderful.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But to give a fair description of the tented Gipsy life, I +cannot employ more appropriate language than that of +Doctor Bright, when, in reference to the English Gipsies, he +says: “I am confident that we are apt to appreciate much +too lightly the actual happiness enjoyed by this class of +people, who, beneath their ragged tents, in the pure air of +the heath, may well excite the envy of many of the poor, +though better provided with domestic accommodation, in the +unwholesome haunts of the town. At the approach of night, +they draw around their humble but often abundant board, +and then retiring to their tent, leave a faithful dog to guard +its entrance. With the first rays of morning, they again +meet the day, pursue their various occupations, or, rolling +up their tents and packing all their property on an ass, set +forward to seek the delights of some fresh heath, or the +protection of some shaded copse. I leave it to those who +have visited the habitations of the poor, to draw a comparison +between the activity, the free condition, and the pure +air enjoyed by the Gipsy, and the idleness, the debauchery, +and the filth in which the majority of the poorer classes are +enveloped.”—“No sooner does a stranger approach their fire +on the heath, than a certain reserve spreads itself through +the little family. The women talk to him in mystic language; +they endeavour to amuse him with secrets of futurity; they +suspect him to be a spy upon their actions; and he generally +departs as little acquainted with their true character as he +came. Let this, however, wear away; let him gain their +confidence, and he will find them conversable, amusing, sensible +and shrewd; civil, but without servility; proud of their +independence; and able to assign reasons for preferring +their present condition to any other in civilized society. +He will find them strongly attached to each other, and free +from many cares which too often render the married life a +source of discontent.”</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<p>In what direction may we look for the causes of such an +anomaly in the history of our common civilization? This +question, however, will be discussed by and by: in the +meantime let us consider the fact itself.</p> + +<p>In the early part of the fifteenth century there first appeared +in Europe large hordes of a people of singular complexion +and hair, and mode of life—apparently an Asiatic +race—which, in spite of the sanguinary efforts of the governments +of the countries through which they passed, continued +to spread over the continent, and have existed in +large numbers to this day; many of them in the same +condition, and following the same modes of life, now as +then; and preserving their language, if not in its +original purity, yet without its having lost its character. +This circumstance has given rise in recent times to several +researches, with no certain result, as to the country which +they left on entering Europe, and still less as to the place +or the circumstances of their origin. The latter is not to +be wondered at, when it is considered that, in the instances +of even the most polished nations of antiquity, nothing is +to be found as to their origin beyond what is contained in +the myths and fables of their earliest poets and historians. +But considering the traces that have been left of the origin +and early history of the people and kingdoms of Europe, +subsequent to the fall of the Roman Empire, amid the barbarism +and confusion attending their establishment, and, in +many respects, the darkness immediately and for a long time +following it, we would naturally think that, for an event +happening so recently as the fifteenth century, some reliable +traces would have been discovered and bequeathed to us on +a subject that has baffled the antiquarians of modern times.</p> + +<p>If, however, there is any doubt as to the country which +they left on entering Europe, and their place of origin, there +remains for us to consider the people generally, and in an +especial manner those who have located themselves in Scotland; +and give an account of their subsequent history in its +various aspects, and their present condition. But before +doing that, it would be well to take a general but cursory +view of the political as well as social condition of Europe +at the time they made their appearance in it, so as, in some +measure, to account for the circumstance of no trace being +left of their previous history; form an estimate of the relative<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +position in which they have stood to its general population +since; and attempt to realize the feeling with which +they have always been regarded by our own people, so as +to account for that singular degree of dread and awe which +have always been associated with the mention of their +name; the foundation of which has been laid in infancy.</p> + +<p>That which most forcibly strikes the mind of the student, +in reading the history of the age in which the Gipsies +entered Europe, is the political turmoil in which nearly the +whole of the continent seems to have been embroiled for +the greater part of a century. The desperate wars waged +by England against what has been termed her natural +enemy, for the recovery and retention of her ancient continental +possessions, and the struggle of the other for her bare +existence; the long and bloody civil wars of England, and +the distracted state of France, torn with dissensions within, +and menaced at various points from without; the long and +fanatical struggle of religion and race, between the Spaniards +and their invaders, for the possession of the peninsula; +the brave stand made by the Swiss for that independence so +much theirs by nature; the religious wars of the Hussites, +and the commotions throughout central Europe; the perpetual +internal feuds of the corrupt and turbulent southern +republics; the approaching dissolution of the dissolute +Byzantine empire; the appalling progress of that terrible +power that had emerged from the wilds of Asia, subdued +the empire, and threatened Europe from its vulnerable +point; all these seem to have been enough to have engrossed +the mental energies of the various countries of Europe, and +prevented any notice being taken of the appearance of the +race in question.</p> + +<p>But over and above these convulsions, sufficient as they +were to exclusively engage the attention of the small amount +of cultivated intellect then in the world, there was one +that was calculated even to paralyze the clergy, to whom, +in that age, fell the business of recording passing events, +and which seems to have prevented their even taking notice +of important matters in the history of that time. I mean +the schism that for so long rent the church into fragments, +the greatest schism, indeed, that the world ever saw, when, +for so many years, two and even three Popes reigned at +once, each anathematizing and excommunicating the other,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +for a schism which, after an infinity of intrigues, was ultimately +so happily patched up to the comfort of the church. +On the death of Urban V, Gregory XI became Pope, but +soon after died, and was succeeded by Urban VI; but the +Cardinals, who were in the French interest, after treating +him as Pope for a short time, annulled the whole proceedings, +on the plea of having been constrained in the election by +the turbulence of the Roman populace, but really on account +of the extraordinary harshness with which he began his +reign, and chose one of themselves in his stead, under the +name of Clement VII. The former remained at Rome, and +was supported by Italy, the Empire, England and the North; +while Clement proceeded to Avignon, and was acknowledged +by France, Spain, Scotland, and Sicily. Urban was +respectively succeeded by Boniface IX, Innocent VI, and +Gregory XII; and Clement, at his death, in 1394, by +Benedict XIII, the most implacable spirit in prolonging the +schism, from whose authority France for a time withdrew, +without acknowledging any other head, but afterwards +returned, at the same time urging his resignation of the +chair. At last the Cardinals, disgusted with the unprincipled +dissimulation of both, and at their wits’ end in +devising a way to stay the scandal, and build up the +influence of the whole church, then so rapidly sinking in the +estimation of the world, amidst such unheard of calamities, +deserted both, and summoned a council, which met at Pisa, +and in which both were deposed, and another, in the person +of Alexander V, elected to fill the chair. But in place of +proving a remedy, the step rendered the schism still more +furious. After that, John XXIII, successor to Alexander V, +was reluctantly prevailed on to call a council, which accordingly +met at Constance, in 1414, but in which he himself +was deposed. Martin V being chosen, was succeeded by +Eugenius IV. But the Fathers of Basle elected Felix V, +thus renewing the schism, and dividing the church for +some years, from France and the Empire observing a neutrality, +while England adhered to Eugenius, Aragon and +the smaller states to Felix; but the partisans of Felix +gradually losing their influence, Nicholas V, the successor +of Eugenius, after much cajolery, prevailed on him to resign +his claim, and thus restored peace to the world.</p> + +<p>At that time the kinds of learning taught were, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +greater part of Europe, confined to few, being almost entirely +monopolised by the clergy and a few laymen; by the former +for the dogmatism of the schools and the study of the canon +law, and by the latter for civil jurisprudence and medicine. +Even the sons of nobles were generally wholly illiterate, +one of them, only, being educated, to act as the clerk of the +family. We are even told of a noble, when a conspiracy +was detected, with the name of his son attached to it, saying, +“Thank God, none of my children were ever taught to +write.” The great mass of the people, and especially those +of the lower classes, were as ignorant of direct educational +training as a tribe of semi-barbarians at the present day. +Many of the nobility, although as scantily educated as the +lowest of our own people, and having as much difficulty in +inditing an epistle as some of these would now have, would +still admirably maintain their position in such a state of society, +by the influence which their high birth and breeding, +elevated bearing, superiority of character, and possession +of domain, gave them; and by the traditionary feudal awe +that had sunk so deeply into the feelings of their comparatively, +and often absolutely, abject dependents and followers, +extending itself, when unaccompanied by overt acts of oppression, +to the inhabitants of the smaller towns, where so +many restraints surrounded their personal independence, +from their precarious modes of living, owing to all so much +depending on each other for a subsistence, and the endless +jealousies prevailing among them.</p> + +<p>At the same time all classes, although frequently possessing +a sufficiency, if not an abundance, of the rough necessaries +of life, enjoyed nothing of the comfort and elegancies +of subsequent times. The house of many a noble presented +such a plainness in furnishing as a person, in very moderate +circumstances, would now be almost ashamed to possess. +The circumstances of the middle classes were much more +lowly; plain boards and wooden trenchers, few beds but +many <i>shake-downs</i>, rough stools and no chairs, with wonderfully +few apartments relative to the size of the family, +and much sleeping on straw-heaps in the <i>cock-loft</i>, marked +the style of living of a class now deemed very respectable. +The huts of the poorest class were as often composed of +“sticks and dirt” as any other material, with <i>plenishing</i> to +correspond. There was a marked exception to this state<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +of comparative barbarism to be found, however, in some of +the cities of Italy, and other parts of the Mediterranean, +the seats of the flourishing republics of the middle ages; +arising not only from the affluence which follows in the +wake of extended commerce and manufactures, but also +from the feelings with which the wreck of a highly polished +antiquity inspired a people in whom the seeds of the former +civilization had not died out; heightened, as it must have +been, by the influence of the once celebrated, but then decaying, +splendour which the court of the long line of eastern +emperors shed over the countries lying contiguous to it. +The inhabitants of the cities of the north, on the other +hand, were marked by a degree of substantial wealth and +comfort, sense and ease, civility and liberality, which were +apt to distinguish a people situated as they were, without +the traditions and objects, meeting the eye at every step in +the south, of the greatest degree of culture in the polite +arts of life unto which a people can attain. But, with the +exception of the inhabitants of these cities, and some of +those in a few of the cities of western Europe, the clergy +and some of the laity, the people, as such, were sunk in deep +ignorance and superstition, living in a state of which, in our +favoured times, we can form no adequate conception. Then, +life and property were held in little respect, and law trampled +upon, even if it existed under more than the shadow of +its present form; and no roads existed but such as were for +the greater part of the year impassable, and lay through +forests, swamps and other uncultivated wastes, the resorts of +numerous banditti. Then, almost no intercourse existed between +the people of one part of a country and another, +when all were exceedingly sanguinary and rude.</p> + +<p>What wonder, then, that, under such circumstances, the +race in question should have stolen into Europe unobserved, +without leaving a trace of the circumstances connected with +the movement? The way by which they are supposed to +have entered Western Europe was by Transylvania, a supposition +which, if not true, is at least most likely. Although, +when first publicly taken notice of in Europe, they were found +to move about in large bands, it is unlikely that they would +do that while entering, but only after having experienced +the degree of toleration and hospitality which the representation +of their condition called forth; at least if we judge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +from the cunning which they have displayed in moving about +after their true character became known. Asia having been +so long their home, where from time immemorial they are +supposed to have wandered, they would have no misgiving, +from their knowledge of its inhabitants, in passing through +any part of it. But in contemplating an entry into Europe +they must have paused, as one, without any experience of his +own or of others, would in entering on the discovery of an +unknown continent, and anxiously examined the merchants +and travellers visiting Europe, on the various particulars of +the country most essential to their prospects, and especially +as to the characteristics of the people. There seems no reason +for thinking that they were expelled from Asia against +their will; and as little for supposing that they fled rather +than submit to a particular creed, if we judge from the +great readiness with which, in form, they have submitted to +such in Europe, when it would serve their purpose. The +only conclusion, in regard to their motive or migration, to +which we can come, is, that having, in the course of time, +gradually found their way to the confines of Western Asia, +and most likely into parts of Northern Africa, and there +heard of the growing riches of modern Europe, they, with +the restlessness and unsettledness of their race, longed to +reach the Eldorado of their hopes—a country teeming with +what they were in quest of, where they would meet with no +rivals of their own race to cross their path. The step must +have been long and earnestly debated, possibly for generations, +ere it was taken; spies after spies may have surveyed +and reported on the country, and the movement been made +the subject of many deliberations, till at last the influence, +address, or resolution of some chief may have precipitated +them upon it, possibly at a time when some accidental or unavoidable +cause urged them to it. Nor would it be long +ere their example was followed by others of the tribe; some +from motives of friendship; others from jealousy at the idea +of all the imagined advantages being reaped by those going +before them; and others from the desire of revenging unsettled +injuries, and jealousy combined. After the die had +been cast, their first step would be to choose leaders to proceed +before the horde, spy out the richness of the land, and +organize stations for those to follow; and then continue the +migration till all the horde had passed over. Considering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +that the representative part of the Gipsies have retained +their peculiarities almost uncontaminated, it is in the highest +degree probable, it may even be assumed as certain, that this +was the manner in which they entered Europe: at first stragglers, +with systematic relays of stations and couriers, followed +up by such small, yet numerous and closely following, +companies, as almost to escape the notice of the authorities +of the countries through which they passed; a mode of travelling +which they still pursue in Great Britain. But when +any special obstacle was to be encountered in their journey—such, +for example, as the hostility of the inhabitants of any +particular place—they would concentrate their strength, so +as to force their way through. Their next step would be to +arrange among themselves the district of country each tribe +was to occupy. After their arrival, they seem to have appeared +publicly in large bands, growing emboldened by the generous +reception which they met with for some time after their +appearance; and they seem to have had the sagacity to +know, that if they secured the favour of the great, that of +the small would necessarily follow.</p> + +<p>But if the first appearance of the Gipsies in Europe had a +different complexion from what I have conjectured, there are +other causes to which may be attributed the fact of its not +being known. Among these is to be found the distracted +state of the Eastern Empire in its struggles with the Turks, +which led to the capture of its capital, and the subversion +of the Greek rule in the East. The literary and other men +of note, scattered over the provinces, likely to chronicle such +an event as the appearance of the Gipsies, must necessarily +have betaken themselves to the capital, as each district submitted +to the conquerors, and so lost the opportunity of witnessing +the migration, under such circumstances as would +have made it observable, assuming that the Gipsies travelled +in large companies, which, under all the circumstances of the +case, was not, on all occasions, likely. The surrounding +countries having been the theatre of so many changes in +the history of the human family, and the inhabitants having +undergone so many changes of masters, leading to so many +distinct races, from the intellectual and cultivated Greek to +the barbarous Arab and dusky Moor, of so various hues and +habits, many of whom would be found in such a city as Constantinople, +what peculiarity was there about the Gipsies to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +attract the notice of the haughty Greek, characterized as he +was by all the feelings of disdain which his ancestors displayed +in not even naming the Jews and early Christians? +Then, if we consider the peculiar turn which the new-born +literary pursuits of learned men assumed during that age—how +it was exclusively confined to the restoration of the +classics, and followed in Europe by the influx of the Greeks +during the troubles of their country, we will find another +reason for the manner of the first appearance of the Gipsies +not being known. Nor is it to be expected that any light +would be thrown on the subject by the memoirs of any of +our own countrymen, visiting the East at a time when so little +intercourse existed between the West and that part of +the world; nothing perhaps beyond a commercial or maritime +adventurer, under the flag of another nation, or one +whose whole acquirements consisted in laying lance in rest +and mounting the breach in an assault; it being a rare thing +even to see an English ship in the Mediterranean during the +whole of the fifteenth century.</p> + +<p>That the Gipsies were a tribe of Hindoo <i>Sudras</i>, driven, +by the cruelty of Timour, to leave Hindostan, is not for a +moment to be entertained; for why should that conqueror +have specially troubled himself with the <i>lowest</i> class of Hindoos? +or why should they, in particular, have left Hindostan? +It would have been the <i>ruling</i>, or at least the <i>higher</i>, +classes of Hindoo society against which Timour would have +exercised any acts of cruelty; the <i>lowest</i> would be pretty +much beneath his notice. Not only do we not read of such +a people as the Hindoos ever having left their country on +any such account—for it is contrary to their genius and feelings +of caste to do so—but the opinion that the Gipsies left +India on Timour’s account rests on no evidence whatever, +beyond the simple circumstance that they were first taken +notice of in Europe <i>about</i> the time of his overrunning India. +Mr. Borrow very justly remarks: “It appears singular that +if they left their native land to escape from Timour, they +should never have mentioned, in the western world, the name +of that scourge of the human race, nor detailed the history +of their flight and sufferings, which assuredly would have +procured them sympathy; the ravages of Timour being already +but too well known in Europe.” Still, Mr. Borrow +does not venture to give reasons for the trustworthiness or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +untrustworthiness of a passage in Arabschah’s life of +Timour, in which it is said that Gipsies were found in +Samarcand at a time before that conqueror had even directed +his thoughts to the invasion of India. The description +given of these Zingari or Gipsies of Samarcand is as applicable +to the Gipsies as possibly can be; for in it it is +said, “Some were wrestlers, others gladiators, others pugilists. +These people were much at variance, so that hostilities +and battling were continually arising amongst them. +Each band had its chief and subordinate officers.” How +applicable this description is to the Scottish Gipsies, down +to so late a period as the end of last century!</p> + +<p>If there is little reason for thinking that the Gipsies left +India owing to the cruelties of Timour, there is less for +supposing, as Mr. Borrow supposes, that their being called +Egyptians originated, not with themselves, but with others; +for he says that the tale of their being Egyptians “probably +originated amongst the priests and learned men of the east +of Europe, who, startled by the sudden apparition of bands +of people foreign in appearance and language, skilled in +divination and the occult arts, endeavoured to find in Scripture +a clue to such a phenomenon; the result of which was +that the Romas (Gipsies) of Hindostan were suddenly transformed +into Egyptian penitents, a title which they have ever +since borne in various parts of Europe.” Why should the +priests and learned men of the east of Europe go to the +Bible to find the origin of such a people as the Gipsies? +What did priests and learned men know of the Bible at the +beginning of the fifteenth century? Did every priest, at +that time, know there even was such a book as the Bible in +existence? The priests and learned men of the east of Europe +were more likely to turn to the eastern nations for the +origin of the Gipsies, than to Egypt, were the mere matter +of the skill of the Gipsies in divination and the occult arts +to lead them to make any enquiry into their history. But +what could have induced the priests and learned men to +take any such particular interest in the Gipsies? When +the Gipsies entered Europe, they would feel under the necessity +of saying who they were. Having committed themselves +to that point, how could they afterwards call themselves by +that name which Mr. Borrow supposes the priests and +learned men to have given them? Or, I should rather say,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +how could the priests and learned men think of giving them +a name after they themselves had said who they were? And +did the priests and learned men invent the idea of the Gipsies +being pilgrims, or bestow upon their leaders the titles +of dukes, earls, lords, counts and knights of Little Egypt? +Assuredly not; all these matters must have originated with +the Gipsies themselves. The truth is, Mr. Borrow has evidently +had no opportunities of learning, or, at least, has not +duly appreciated, the real mental acquirements of the early +Gipsies, an idea of which will be found in the history of +the race on their first general arrival in Scotland, about a +hundred years after they were first taken notice of in Europe, +during which time they are not supposed to have +made any great progress in mental condition. I may venture +to say that the prophecy of Ezekiel,<a name="FNanchor8" id="FNanchor8"></a><a href="#Footnote8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> in regard to the +scattering of the Egyptians, does not apply to the Gipsies, +for this reason, that such of these Egyptians as were <i>carried +away captive</i> would become lost among other nations, while +the “mixed multitude” which left Egypt with the Jews, travelled +East, <i>their own masters</i>, and became the origin of the +Gipsy nation throughout the world. If we could but find +traces of an Egyptian origin among the Gipsies of Asia, say +Central and Western Asia, the question would be beyond +dispute. But that might be a matter of some trouble. I +am inclined to believe that the people in India corresponding +to the Gipsies in Europe, will be found among those tented +tribes who perform certain services to the British armies; +at all events there is such a tribe in India, who are called +Gipsies by the Europeans who come in contact with them. +A short time ago, one of these people, who followed the occupation +of a camel driver in India, found his way to England,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +and “pulled up” with some English Gipsies, whom he recognized +as his own people; at least he found that they had the +ways and ceremonies of them. But it would be unreasonable +to suppose that such a tribe in India did not follow various +occupations. Bishop Heber, on several occasions, speaks of +certain tents of people whom he met in India, as Gipsies. +But I can conceive nothing more difficult than an attempt to +elucidate the history of any of the infinity of sects, castes, or +tribes to be met with in India.<a name="FNanchor9" id="FNanchor9"></a><a href="#Footnote9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> What evidently leads Mr. +Borrow and others astray, in the matter of the origin of the +Gipsies, is, that they conclude that, because the language +spoken by the Gipsies is apparently, or for the most part, +Hindostanee, therefore the people speaking it originated in +Hindostan; as just a conclusion as it would be to maintain +that the Negroes in Liberia originated in England because +they speak the English language!</p> + +<p>The leaders of the Gipsies, on the arrival of the body in +Europe, and for a long time afterwards, seem to have been +a superior class to those known as Gipsies to-day; although, +if the more intelligent of the race were observable to the +general eye, they would, in many respects, compare most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +favourably with many of our middle classes. If the leaders +of the Gipsies, at that time, fell behind some of even the nobility, +in the pittance of the education of letters which the +latter possessed, they made up for it in that practical sagacity, +the acquisition of which is almost unavoidable in the school in +which, from infancy, they had been educated—that of providing +for the shifts and exigencies of which their lives, as a +whole, consisted; besides showing that superior aptitude for +many of the things of every-day life, so inseparable from the +success to which a special pursuit will lead. A Gipsy leader +stood, then, somewhat in the position towards a gentleman +that a swell does to-day; with this difference, that he was +not apt to commit himself by the display of that ignorance +which unmasks the swell; an ignorance which the gentleman, +in spite of his little learning, no less shared in. If the latter +happened to be well educated, the Gipsy could still pass +muster, from being as well, or rather as ill, informed as many +with whom the gentleman associated. The Gipsy being +alert, capable of playing many characters, often a good musician, +an excellent player at games of hazard, famous at tale +and repartee, clever at sleight of hand tricks, ready with his +weapon, at least in the boast of it, apt at field and athletic +sports, suspicious of everything and everybody around him, +the whole energies of his mind given to, and his life spent in, +circumventing and plundering those around him, while, in +appearance, “living in peaceable and catholic manner,” and +“doing a lawful business,” and having that thorough knowledge +of men acquired by mixing with all classes, in every +part of the country—he became even more than a match for +the other, whose life was spent in occasional forays, field +sports and revellings, with so little to engage his intellectual +nature, from his limited education, the non-existence of books, +and the forms of government and social institutions, with +those beautifully complicated bearings and interests towards +general society which the present age displays. At such a +time, conversation must have been confined to the ordinary +affairs of common life, the journal of much of which, beyond +one’s own immediate neighbourhood, would be found in the +conversation of the accomplished Gipsy, who had the tact of +ingratiating himself, in a manner peculiar to himself, with all +kinds of society, even sometimes the very best. And it is +remarkable that, when the Gipsies were persecuted, it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +seldom, if ever, at the instance of private individuals, but +almost always by those acting under authority. If they +were persecuted by a private individual, they would naturally +leave for another district, and place themselves, for a +time, in the nominal position of a clansman to such barons as +would be always ready to receive them. The people at large +generally courted their friendship, for the amusement which +they afforded them, and the various services which they rendered +them, the most important of which was the safety of +property which followed from such an acquaintance. That +being the case even with people of influence, it may be judged +what position the Gipsies occupied towards the various +classes downwards; the lowest of which they have always +despised, and delighted to tyrannize over. In coming among +them, the Gipsies, from the first, exhibited ways of life and +habits so dissimilar to those of the natives, and such tricks +of legerdemain so peculiar to Eastern nations, and such +claims of seeing into the future, as to cause many to believe +them in league with the evil one; a conclusion very easily +arrived at, in the darkness in which all were wrapped. Although +the rabble of the Gipsies is said to have presented, +in point of accoutrements, a most lamentable appearance, +that could much more have been said of the same class of +the natives, then, and long after, if we judge of a Highland +“tail,” of a little more than a century ago, as described by +the author of Waverly; or even of the most unwashed of +what has been termed the “unwashed multitude” of to-day. +In point of adaptability to their respective modes of life, the +poorest of the Gipsies far excelled the others. To carry out +the character of pilgrims, the bulk of the Gipsies would go +very poorly dressed; it would only be the chiefs who would +be well accoutred.</p> + +<p>But the Gipsies that appear to the general eye have fallen +much from what they were. The superior class of Scottish +Gipsies, possessing the talents and policy necessary to accommodate +themselves to the change of circumstances around +them, have adopted the modes of ordinary life to such an +extent, and so far given up their wandering habits, as to +baffle any chance of discovery by any one unacquainted with +their history, and who will not, like a bloodhound, follow +them into the retreats in which they and their descendants +are now to be found. Such Gipsies are still a restless race,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +and nourish that inveterate attachment to their blood and +language which is peculiar to all of them. When we consider +the change that has come over the face of society during +the last hundred years, or even during a much shorter +time, we will find many causes that have contributed to that +which has come over the Gipsy character in its more atrocious +aspect. All classes of our own people, from the highest +to the lowest, have experienced the change; and nowhere +to a greater extent than in the Highlands, where, in little +more than a hundred years, a greater reformation has been +effected, than took almost any other part of the world perhaps +three centuries to accomplish; and where the people, +as a body, have emerged, from a state of sanguinary barbarism, +into the most lawful and the most moral and religious +subjects of the British Empire. The Gipsies have likewise +felt the change. Even the wildest of them have had the +more outrageous features of their character subdued; but it +is sometimes as an animal of prey, sans teeth, sans claws, sans +everything. Officials, in the zeal of their callings, often +greatly distress those that go about—compelling them, in +their wanderings, to “move on;” and look after them so +closely, that when they become obnoxious to the inhabitants, +the offence has hardly occurred, ere, to use an expression, +they are snapped up before they have had time to squeak. +Amid such a state of things, it is difficult for Gipsies to +flourish in their glory; still, such of them as go about in the +olden form are deemed very annoying.</p> + +<p>The dread which has always been entertained toward the +Gipsies has been carefully fostered by them, and has become +the principal means contributing to their toleration. They +have always been combined in a brotherhood of sentiment +and interest, even when deadly feuds existed among them; +an injury toward one being generally taken up by others; +and have presented that union of sympathy, and lawless +violence toward the community, which show what a few +audacious and desperate men, under such circumstances, will +sometimes do in a well regulated society. Sir Walter Scott, +relative to the original of one of his heroines, says: “She +was wont to say that she could bring, from the remotest +parts of the island friends, to revenge her quarrel, while she +sat motionless in her cottage; and frequently boasted that +there was a time when she was of still more considerable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +importance, when there were at her wedding fifty saddled +asses, and unsaddled asses without number.” But of their +various crimes, none have had such terrors for the grown-up +person as those of fire-raising and child-stealing. The Gipsy +could easily steal into a well guarded but scattered premises, +by night, and, in an instant, spread devastation around him, +and irretrievable ruin to the rural inhabitant. But that +which has, perhaps, contributed most to the feeling in question, +has been their habit of child-stealing, the terrors of +which have grown up with the people from infancy. This +trait in the Gipsy character has certainly not been so common, +in latter times, as some others; still, it has taken place. +As an instance, it may be mentioned that Adam Smith, the +author of the great work called “An Enquiry into the +Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” was actually carried off +by the Gipsies, when a child, and was some hours in their +possession before recovery. It is curious to think what +might have been the political state of so many nations, and +of Great Britain in particular, at the present time, if the +father of political economy and free-trade, as he is generally +called, had had to pass his life in a Gipsy encampment, and, +like a white transferred to an Indian wigwam, under similar +circumstances, acquired all their habits, and become more +incorrigibly attached to them than the people themselves; +tinkering kettles, pots, pans and old metal, in place of separating +the ore of a beautiful science from the débris which +had been for generations accumulating around it, and working +it up into one of the noblest monuments of modern times.</p> + +<p>When a child will become unruly, the father will often +say, in the most serious manner, “Mother, that canna be +our bairn—the Tinklers must have taken ours, and left +theirs—are you sure that this is ours? Gie him back to +the Gipsies again, and get our ain.” The other children +will look as bewildered, while the subject of remark will +instantly stop crying, and look around for sympathy; but +meeting nothing but suspicion in the faces of all, will +instinctively flee to its mother, who as instinctively clasps it +to her bosom, quieting its terrors, as a mother only can, +with the lullaby,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Hush nae, hush nae, dinna fret ye;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The black Tinkler winna get ye.”<a name="FNanchor10" id="FNanchor10"></a><a href="#Footnote10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>And the result is, that it will remain a “good bairn” for a +long time after. This feeling, drawn into the juvenile mind, +as food enters into the growth of the body, acts like the +influence of the stories of ghosts and hobgoblins, often so +inconsiderately told to children, but differs from it in this +respect, that what causes it is true, while its effects are +always more or less permanent. It has had this effect upon +our youth—in connection with the other habits of the people, +so outlandish when compared with the ways of our own—that +should they happen to go a little distance from home, on such +expeditions as boys are given to, and fall in with a Gipsy +camp, a strange sensation of fear takes possession of them. +The camp is generally found to be pitched in some little dell +or nook, and so hidden from view as not to be noticed till +the stranger is almost precipitated into its midst ere he is +aware of it. What with the traditionary feeling toward +the Gipsies, and the motley assemblage of wild looking +men, and perhaps still wilder looking women, ragged little +urchins, ferocious looking dogs, prepared for an assault with +an instinct drawn from the character of their masters, and +the droll appearance of so many <i>cuddies</i> (asses,) startled in +their browsing—animals that generally appear singly, but, +when driven by Gipsies, come in battalions;—the boys, at +first rivetted to the spot with terror, will slip away as +quietly as possible till a little way off, and then run till +they have either arrived at home, or come within the reach +of a neighbourhood or people likely to protect them, +although, it might be, the Gipsies had not even noticed +them.<a name="FNanchor11" id="FNanchor11"></a><a href="#Footnote11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Curiosity is so strong in our youth, in such cases, +as often to induce them to return to the spot, after being +satisfied that the Gipsies have decamped for another district. +They will then examine the débris of the encampment with +a great degree of minuteness, wreaking their vengeance on +what is left, by turning up with their feet the refuse of +almost everything edible, particularly as regards the bones +and feathers of fowl and game, and, if it happened to be +near the sea, crab, limpet, and whelk shells, and heaps of +tin clippings and horn scrapings. In after life, they will +often think of and visit the scenes of such adventures. At +other times, our youth, when rambling, will often make a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +detour of several miles, to avoid falling in with the dreaded +Gipsies. The report of Gipsies being about acts as a salutary +check upon the depredatory habits of the youth of our +country towns on neighbouring crops; for, as the farmers +make up their minds to lose something by the Gipsies, at any +rate, the wholesome dread they inspire, even in grown-up +lads, is such as, by night especially, to scare away the thieves +from those villages, whose plunderings are much greater, +and more unwillingly submitted to, from the closeness of +residence of the offenders; so that the arrival of the Gipsies, +in some places, is welcomed, at certain times of the year, +as the lesser of two evils; and, to that extent, they have +been termed the “farmers’ friends.” And if a little encouragement +is given them—such as the matter of “dogs’ +payment,” that is, what they can eat and drink, and a mouthful +of something for the <i>cuddy</i>, for the first day after their +arrival—the farmer can always enlist an admirable police, +who will guard his property against others, with a degree +of faithfulness that can hardly be surpassed. I heard of a +Scottish farmer, very lately, getting the Gipsies to take up +their quarters every year on the corner of a potato or turnip +field, with the express purpose of using them, as half constables +half scare-crows, against the common rogues of the +neighbourhood. “Now,” said he to the principal Gipsy, “I +put you in charge of this property. If you want anything +for yourselves, come to the barn.” Whatever might have +been the experience of farmers near by, this farmer never +missed anything while the Gipsies were on his premises.</p> + +<p>But a greater degree of awe is inspired by the females +than the males of the Gipsies. In their periodical wanderings, +they will generally, with their fortune-telling, turn the +heads of the country girls in matters of matrimony—setting +them all agog on husbands; and render them, for the time, +of but little use to their employers. In teaching them the +“art of love,” they will professedly so instruct them as to +have as many lovers at once as their hearts can desire. But +if a country girl, with her many admirers, has one to get +quit of, who is “no’ very weel faured, but a clever fellow,” +or another, who is “no’ very bright in the upper story, but +strapping enough to become the dish-clout,” she will call in +the assistance of the strolling Gipsy; who, after carefully +weighing the circumstances of the case, will sometimes, after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +ordinary means have failed, collect, unknown to her, a +bucket full of everything odious about a dwelling, wait at +the back door the return of the rustic Adonis, and, ere he is +aware, dash it full in his face; then fold her arms akimbo, +and quietly remark, “That will cool your ears, and your +courting too, my man!” Such Gipsy women are peculiarly +dreaded by the males of our own people, who will much +sooner encounter those of the other sex; for, however much +some of them may be satisfied, in their cooler moments, that +these Gipsy women will not attempt what they will sometimes +threaten, they generally deem them “unco uncanny,” +at any time, and will flee when swearing that they will <i>gut</i> +or <i>skin alive</i> all who may have anything to say to them.</p> + +<p>To people unacquainted with the peculiarities of the Gipsies, +it may appear that this picture is overdrawn. But Sir +Walter Scott, who is universally allowed to be a true depicter +of Scottish life, in every form, says, in reference to the +original of Meg Merrilies, in Guy Mannering: “I remember +to have seen one of her grand-daughters; that is, as Dr. +Johnson had a shadowy recollection of Queen Anne—a stately +lady in black, adorned with diamonds; so my memory is +haunted by a solemn remembrance of a woman, of more than +female height, dressed in a long, red cloak, who commenced +acquaintance by giving me an apple, but whom, nevertheless, +I looked on with as much awe as the future Doctor could +look upon the Queen.” And he approvingly quotes another +writer, as to her daughter, as follows: “Every week, she paid +my father a visit for her <i>awmons</i>, when I was a little boy, +and I looked on her with no common degree of awe and +terror.” The same feeling, somewhat modified, I have heard +expressed by Germans, Spaniards, and Italians. In England, +the people do not like to trouble the Gipsies, owing to +their being so “spiteful,” as they express it. The feeling in +question cannot well be realized by people reared in towns, +who have, perhaps, never seen Gipsies, or heard much about +them; but it is different with youths brought up in the country. +When the Gipsies, in their peregrinations, will make +their appearance at a farmer’s house, especially if it is in the +pastoral districts, and the farmer be a man of information +and reflection, he will often treat them kindly, from the interest +with which their singular history inspires him; and +others, not unkindly, from other motives. The farmer’s sons,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +who are young and hasty, probably but recently returned +from a town, where they have been jeered at for their cowardice +in being afraid to meddle with the Gipsies, will show +a disposition to use them roughly, on the cry arising in the +house, that “the Tinklers are coming.” But the old father, +cautious with the teachings of years gone by, will become +alarmed at such symptoms, and, before the Gipsies have +approached the premises, will urge his children to treat them +kindly. “Be canny now, bairns—be canny; for any sake +dinna anger them; gie them a’ they want, and something +more.” With this, a good fat sheep will sometimes be killed, +and the band regaled with <i>kail</i>, and its accompaniments; or, +if they are very <i>nice gabbit</i>, it will be served up to them in a +roasted form. Thereafter, they will retire to the barn, and +start in the morning on something better than an empty +stomach.</p> + +<p>And yet it is singular that, if the Gipsies are met in the +streets of a town, or any considerably frequented place, people +will, in passing them, edge off a little to the side, and +look at them with a degree of interest, which, on ordinary +occasions, the Gipsies will but little notice. But if a person +of respectable appearance will scrutinize them in an ominous +way, they will observe it instantly; and, as a swell-mobsman, +on being stared at by a detective, on the mere suspicion of +his being such, generally turns the first cross street, and, in +turning, anxiously looks after his enemy, who, after calculating +the distance, has also turned to watch his movements, +so the Gipsy will become excited, soon turning round to +watch the movements of the object of his dread; a fear that +will be heightened if any of his band has been spoken to. +And such is the masonic secrecy with which they keep their +language, that should they at the time have rested on the +road-side, and the stranger assume the most impressive tone, +and say: “<i>Sallah, jaw drom</i>“—(curse you, take the road), +the effects upon them are at first bewildering, and followed +by a feeling of some dire calamity that is about to befall +them. When any of the poorest kind can be prevailed upon +to express a candid sentiment, and be asked how they really +do get on, they will reply, “It’s only day and way we want, +ye ken—what a farmer body ne’er can miss; foreby selling a +spoon, and tinkering a kettle now and then.”</p> + +<p>In viewing the effects of civilization upon a barbarous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +race, we are naturally led to confine our reflections to some +of the instances in which the civilized race has carried its +influence abroad to those beyond its pale, to the exclusion +of those instances, from their infrequency of occurrence, in +which the barbarous race, of its own accord or otherwise, +has come within its circle. There are but two instances, in +modern times, in which the latter has happened, and they are +well worthy of our notice. The one is, the existence of the +Gipsies, in the very heart of civilization; the other, that of +the Africans in the various European settlements in the +New World; and between these a short comparison may +be instituted, although at the risk of it being deemed a +digression.</p> + +<p>The forcible introduction of barbarous men into the colonies +of civilized nations, in spite of the cruelties which many +of them have undergone, has greatly improved their condition—their +moral and intellectual nature—at the expense +of the melancholy fact of it being advanced as a reason of +justification for that sad anomaly in the history of our times. +The African, it is admitted, was forcibly brought under +the influence of the refinement, religion, and morals of +the whites, whether as a domestic under the same roof, +a field labourer, in the immediate vicinity of the master, or +in some other way under his direct control and example. +Not only was he, as it were, forced to become what he is, +but his obedient, light-hearted, and imitative nature, even +under many bodily sufferings, instinctively led him to enter +immediately into the spirit of a new life, presenting to his +barbarous imagination, so destitute of everything above the +grossest of animal wants and propensities, those wonderfully +incessant and complicated employments of a being, appearing +to him as almost a god, when compared with his own savage +and unsophisticated nature. The importations comprised +Negroes of many dialects, which were distributed on arrival +in every direction. A large proportion would live singly +with the poorer classes of the colonists, as domestics; two +or three would be the limited number with many others, and +the remainder would be disposed of, in larger or smaller +numbers, for the various services necessary in civilized life. +Single domestics would be under the necessity of learning the +language of the master; and, having none speaking their +own dialect to commune with, or only occasionally meeting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +such, momentarily, they would soon forget it. When several +of different dialects lived together, they would naturally +follow the same course, to communicate with each other. +All these circumstances, with the frequent changes of masters +and companions, and the general influence which the whites +exercised so supremely over them, have had the effect of almost +erasing every trace of the language, customs, and superstitions +of Africa, in parts of the United States of America, +in little more than one generation. The same may especially +be said of what pertains to the religious; for a race of men, +in a state of nature, or but slightly civilized, depending for +such instruction on the adjunct of a superior grade, in the +person of a priest, would, on being deprived of such, soon +lose recollection of what had been taught them. Such an +instance as to language, and, I understand, to a great extent +as to religion, is to be found in St. Domingo; French and +Spanish being spoken in the parts of that island which belonged +to these countries respectively. Still, such traces are +to be found in Cuba; but, were importations of Africans into +that island to cease, the same result would, in course of time, +follow. From such causes as those stated, the Negroes in +the United States have, to a very great extent, nay, as far +as their advantages and opportunities have gone, altogether, +acquired the ways of civilized life, and adopted the morals +and religion of the white race; and their history compares +favourably with that of a portion of the Gipsy race, which, +being unique, and apparently incomprehensible, I will institute +a short enquiry into some of the causes of it.</p> + +<p>While the language and common origin of the Gipsies hold +them together as a body, their mode of life has taken such a +hold on the innate nature of the representative part of them, +as to render it difficult to wean them from it. Like the +North American Indians, they have been incapable of being +reduced to a state of servitude;<a name="FNanchor12" id="FNanchor12"></a><a href="#Footnote12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> and, in their own peculiar +way, have been as much attached to a life of unrestricted +freedom of movement. Being an Oriental people, they have +displayed the uniformity of attachment to habit, that has +characterized the people of that part of the world. Like +the maidens of Syria, wearing to-day the identical kind of +veil with which Rebecca covered herself when she met<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +Isaac, they have, with few exceptions, adhered to all that +originally distinguished them from those among whom they +are found. In entering Europe, they would meet with few +customs which they would willingly adopt in preference to +their own. Their chiefs, being men of ambition, and fond +of a distinguished position in the tribe, would influence the +body to remain aloof from the people at large; and society +being divided between the nobles and their various grades +of dependents, and the restrained inhabitants of towns, with +what part of the population could the Gipsies have been incorporated? +With the lowest classes only, and become +little better than serfs—a state to which it was almost impossible +for a Gipsy to submit. His habits rendered him +unfit to till the soil; the close and arbitrary laws of municipalities +would debar him from exercising almost any mechanical +trade, in a way suitable to his disposition; and, no +matter what might have been his natural propensities, he +had almost no alternative left him but to wander, peddle, +tinker, tell fortunes, and “find things that nobody ever lost.” +His natural disposition was to rove, and partake of whatever +he took a liking to; nothing coming so acceptably and so +sweetly to him, as when it required an exercise of ingenuity, +and sometimes a degree of danger, in its acquisition, and +caused a corresponding chagrin to him from whom it was +taken, without affording him any trace of the purloiner. +He must also enjoy the sports of the river and lake, the +field, hill and forest, and the pleasure of his meal, cooked +after his own fashion, in some quiet spot, where he would +pitch his tent, and quench his thirst at his favourite +springs. Then followed the persecution of his race; both +by law and society it was declared outcast, although, by a +large part of the latter, it was, from selfish motives, tolerated, +and, in a measure, courted. The Gipsy’s mode of life; his +predatory habits; his vindictive disposition toward his enemies; +his presumptuous bearing toward the lower classes, who +had purchased his friendship and protection; his astuteness +in doubling upon and escaping his pursuers; his audacity, +under various disguises and pretences, in bearding justice, +and the triumphant manner in which he would generally +escape its toils; his utter destitution of religious opinions, +or sentiments; his being a foreigner of such strongly marked +appearance, under the legal and social ban of proscription;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +and the hereditary name which has, in consequence, attached +to his race, have created those broad and deep-drawn lines of +isolation, fear and antipathy, which, in the popular mind, +have separated him from other men. To escape from the +dreadful prejudice that is, in consequence, entertained toward +his race, the Gipsy will, if it be possible, hide the fact of his +being a Gipsy; and more especially when he enters upon +settled life, and mixes with his fellow-men in the world.</p> + +<p>In the general history of Europe, we can find nothing to +illustrate that of the Gipsies. But if we take a glance at +the history of the New World, we will find, in a mild and +harmless form, something that bears a slight resemblance to +it. In various parts of the eastern division of North +America are to be found remnants of tribes of Indians, +living in the hearts of the settlements, on reserves of lands +granted to them for their support; a race bearing somewhat +the same resemblance to the European settlers that the +Gipsies, with their dark complexion, and long, coarse, black +hair, seem to have borne to the natives of Europe. Few of +these Indians, although in a manner civilized, and professing +the Christian religion, and possessing houses, schools and +churches, have betaken, or, if they support their numbers, +will ever betake, themselves to the ways of the other inhabitants. +They will engage in many things to make a +living, and a bare living; in that respect very much resembling +some of the Gipsies. They will often leave their +home, and build their wigwams whenever and wherever +they have a mind, and indulge in the pleasures of hunting +and laziness; and often make numerous small wares for +sale, with the proceeds of which, and of the timber growing +on their lots of land, they will manage to pass their lives in +little better than sloth, often accompanied by drunkenness. +If it prove otherwise, it is generally from the Indian, or +rather half or quarter breed, having been wholly or partly +reared with whites, or otherwise brought up under their +immediate influence; or from the ambition of their chiefs to +raise themselves in the estimation of the white race, leading, +from the influence which they possess, to some of the lower +grades of the tribes following their example. It may be +that the “poor Indian” has voluntarily exiled himself, in a +fit of melancholy, from the wreck of his patrimony, to make +a miserable shift for himself elsewhere, as he best may. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +this respect the resemblance fails: that the Indian in America +is aboriginal, the Gipsy in Europe foreign, to the soil; but both +are characterized by a nature that renders them almost +impervious to voluntary change. In this they resemble +each other: that they are left to live by themselves, and +transmit to their descendants their respective languages, +and such of their habits as the change in their outward circumstances +will permit. But in this they differ: that these +Indians really do die out, while the Gipsies are very prolific, +and become invigorated by a mixture of the white blood; +under the cover of which they gradually leave the tent, and +become scattered over and through society, enter into the +various pursuits common to the ordinary natives, and become +lost to the observation of the rest of the population.</p> + +<p>The peculiar feeling that is entertained for what is popularly +understood to be a Gipsy, differs from that which is +displayed toward the Negro, in that it attaches to his traditional +character and mode of life alone. The general prejudice +against the Negro is, to a certain extent, natural, +and what any one can realize. If the European has a +difficulty in appreciating the feeling which is exhibited by +Americans against the African, in their general intercourse +of daily life, few Americans can realize the feeling which is +entertained toward the tented Gipsy. Should such a Gipsy +be permitted to enter the dwelling of a native, the most he +will let him come in contact with will be the chair he will +give him to sit on, and the dish and spoon out of which he +will feed him, all of which can again be cleaned. His +guest will never weary his patience, owing to the embodiment +of restlessness which characterizes his race; nor will +his feelings ever be tried by his asking him for a bed, for +what the herb commonly called catnip is to the animal somewhat +corresponding to that word, a bundle of straw in an +out-house is to the tented Gipsy.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote8" id="Footnote8"></a><a href="#FNanchor8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Ezek. xxix. 12,-14, and xxx. 10, 23, and 26.—The scattering of the +Egyptians, here foretold, is a subject about which very little is known. +Scott, in commenting on it, says: “History informs us that Nebuchadnezzar +conquered Egypt, and carrying multitudes of prisoners hence, dispersed +them in different parts of his dominions: and doubtless great numbers +perished, or took shelter in other nations at the same time. But we are +not sufficiently informed of the transactions of those ages, to show the exact +fulfilment of this part of the prophecy, as has been done in other instances.”</p> + +<p>The bulk of the Egyptians were doubtless restored to their country, as +promised in Ezek. xxix. 13, 14, and it is not impossible that the Gipsies are +the descendants of such as did not return to Egypt. The language which +they now speak proves nothing to the contrary, as, since the time in question, +they have had opportunities to learn and unlearn many languages.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote9" id="Footnote9"></a><a href="#FNanchor9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Abbé Dubois says: “In every country of the Peninsula, great numbers +of foreign families are to be found, whose ancestors had been obliged +to emigrate thither, in times of trouble or famine, from their native land, and +to establish themselves amongst strangers. This species of emigration is +very common in all the countries of India; but what is most remarkable is, +<i>that in a foreign land, these emigrants preserve, from generation to generation, +their own language and national peculiarities</i>. Many instances might be +pointed out of such foreign families, settled four or five hundred years in the +district they now inhabit, without approximating in the least to the manners, +fashions, or even to the language, of the nation where they have been +for so many generations naturalized. They still preserve the remembrance +of their origin, and keep up the ceremonies and usages of the land where +their ancestors were born, without ever receiving any tincture of the particular +habits of the countries where they live.”—Preface xvii.</p> + +<p>At page 470, he gives an instance of a wandering tribe in the Mysore and +Telinga country, originally employed in agriculture, who, a hundred and +fifty years previously, took up their vagrant and wandering life, in consequence +of the severe treatment which the governor of the province was +going to inflict upon some of their favourite chiefs. To this kind of life they +have grown so much accustomed, that it would be impossible to reclaim +them to any fixed or sedentary habits; and they have never entertained a +thought of resuming their ancient manners. They sojourn in the open +fields, under small tents of bamboo, and wander from place to place as +humour dictates. They amount to seven or eight thousand individuals, +are divided into tribes, and are under the government of chiefs, and maintain +a great respect for the property of others.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote10" id="Footnote10"></a><a href="#FNanchor10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The Gipsies frighten their children in the same manner, by saying +that they will give them to the <i>Gorgio</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote11" id="Footnote11"></a><a href="#FNanchor11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> As children, have we not, at some time, run affrighted from a Gipsy?—<i>Grellmann +on the Hungarian Gipsies.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote12" id="Footnote12"></a><a href="#FNanchor12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> There is an exception, however, to this rule in the Danubian Principalities, +to which I will again refer.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></p> + +<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<p>The new era which the series of splendid works, called +the Waverly Novels, created in literature, produced, among +other effects, that of directing attention to that singular +anomaly in civilization—the existence of a race of men +scattered over the world, and known, wherever the English +language is spoken, as Gipsies; a class as distinct, in some +respects, from the people among whom they live, as the Jews +at the present day. The first of the series in which their +singular characters, habits, and modes of life were illustrated, +was that of Guy Mannering; proving one of the few happy +instances in which a work of fiction has been found to serve +the end of specially stirring up the feelings of the human +mind, in its various phases, toward a subject with which it +has a common sympathy. The peasant and the farmer at +once felt attracted by it, from the dread of personal danger +which they had always entertained for the race, and the uncertainty +under which they had lived, for the safety of their +property from fire and robbery, and the desire which they +had invariably shown to propitiate them by the payment of +a species of blackmail, under the form of kind treatment, +and a manner of hospitality when occasion called for it. +The work at the same time struck a chord in the religious +and humane sentiments of others, and the result, but a very +tardily manifested one, was the springing up of associations +for their reformation; with comparatively little success, +however, for it was found, as a general thing, that while +some of the race allowed their children, very indifferently, +even precariously, to attend school, yet to cure them of their +naturally wandering and other peculiar dispositions, was +nearly as hopeless as the converting of the American +Indians to some of the ways of civilized life. That general +class was also interested, which consist of the more or less<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +educated, moral, or refined, to whom anything exciting +comes with relish. To the historical student, the subject +was fraught with matter for curious investigation, owing to +the race having been ignored, for a length of time, as being +in no respect different from a class to be found in all countries; +and, whatever their origin, as having had their +nationality extinguished in that general process which has +been found to level every distinction of race in our country. +The antiquary and philologist, in their respective pursuits, +found also a sphere which they were unlikely to leave unexplored, +considering that they are often so untiring in their +researches in such matters as sometimes to draw upon themselves +a smile from the rest of mankind: and while the +latter was thinking that he had exhausted the languages of +his native land, and was contemplating others elsewhere, he +struck accidentally upon a mine under his feet, and at once +turned up a specimen of virgin ore; coming all the more +acceptably to him, from those in possession of it keeping it +as secret as if their existence depended on its being concealed +from others around them. All, indeed, but especially +those brought up in rural places, knew from childhood more +or less of the Gipsies, and dreaded them by day or night, +in frequented or in lonely places, knowing well that, if +insulted, they would threaten vengeance, if they could not +execute it then; which they in no way doubted, with the +terror of doomed men.</p> + +<p>Among others, I felt interested in the subject, from having +been brought up in the pastoral district of Tweed-dale, the +resort of many Gipsies, who were treated with great favour +by the inhabitants, for many reasons, the most important +of which were the desire of securing their good-will, for +their own benefit, and the use which they were to them in +selling them articles in request, and the various mechanical +turns which they possessed; and often from the natural +generosity of people so circumstanced. My curiosity was +excited, and having various sources of information at command, +I proceeded to write a few short articles for Blackwood’s +Magazine, which were well received, as the following +letters from Mr. William Blackwood will show:</p> + +<p>“I now send a proof of No. 2 Gipsy article. I hope you +are pleased, and will return it with your corrections on +Monday or Tuesday. We shall be glad to hear you are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +going on with the continuation, for I assure you your former +article has been as popular as anything almost we ever had +in the magazine.”</p> + +<p>Again,</p> + +<p>“Your magazine was sent this morning by the coach, but +I had not time to write you last night. Mr. Walter Scott +is quite delighted with the Gipsies.”</p> + +<p>Again,</p> + +<p>“I am this moment favoured with your interesting packet. +Your Gipsies, from the slight glance I have given them, +seem to be as amusing as ever.”</p> + +<p>And again,</p> + +<p>“It was not in my power to get your number sent off. It +is a very interesting one. You will be much pleased with +Mr. Scott’s little article on Buckhaven, in which he pays +you some very just compliments.”<a name="FNanchor13" id="FNanchor13"></a><a href="#Footnote13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>At the same time I was much encouraged, by the author +of Guy Mannering, to prosecute my enquiries, by receiving +several communications from him, and conversing with him +at Abbotsford, on the subject.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>I received a letter from Sir Walter, in which he says:</p> + +<p>“This letter has been by me many weeks, waiting for a +frank, and besides, our mutual friend, Mr. Laidlaw, under +whose charge my agricultural operations are now proceeding +in great style, gave me some hope of seeing you in this +part of the country. I should like much to have asked you +some questions about the Gipsies, and particularly that great +mystery—their language. I cannot determine, in my own +mind, whether it is likely to prove really a corrupt eastern +dialect, or whether it has degenerated into mere jargon.”</p> + +<p>About the same time I received the following letter from +Mr. William Laidlaw, the particular friend of Sir Walter +Scott, and manager of his estate at Abbotsford, as mentioned +in the foregoing letter; the author of “Lucy’s Flittin,” +and a contributor to Blackwood:</p> + +<p>“I was very seriously disappointed at not seeing you +when you were in this (part of the) country, and so was no +less a person than the mighty minstrel himself. He charged +me to let him know whenever you arrived, for he was very +anxious to see you. What would it be to you to take the +coach, and three days before you, and again see your father +and mother, come here on an evening, and call on Mr. Scott +next day? We would then get you full information upon +the science of defence in all its departments. Quarterstaff +is now little practised; but it was a sort of legerdemain +way of fighting that I never had <i>muckle broo of</i>, although I +know somewhat of the method. It was a most unfortunate +and stupid trick of the man to blow you up with your kittle +acquaintances. I hope they will forgive and forget. I am +very much interested about the language (Gipsy). Mr. +Scott has repeatedly said, that whatever you hear or see, you +should <i>never let on to naebody</i>, no doubt excepting himself. +Be sure and come well provided with specimens of the +vocables, as he says he might perhaps have it in his power +to assist you in your enquiries.”</p> + +<p>Shortly after this, Sir Walter wrote me as follows:</p> + +<p>“The inclosed letter has long been written. I only now +send it to show that I have not been ungrateful, though late +in expressing my thanks. The progress you have been able +to make in the Gipsy language is most extremely interesting. +My acquaintance with most European languages, and with +slang words and expressions, enables me to say positively,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +that the Gipsy words you have collected have no reference +to either, with the exception of three or four.<a name="FNanchor14" id="FNanchor14"></a><a href="#Footnote14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> I have +little doubt, from the sound and appearance, that they are +Oriental, probably Hindostanee. When I go to Edinburgh, +I shall endeavour to find a copy of Grellmann, to compare +the language of the German Gipsies with that of the Scottish +tribes. As you have already done so much, I pray you +to proceed in your enquiries, but by no means to make anything +public, as it might spread a premature alarm, and +obstruct your future enquiries. It would be important +to get the same words from different individuals; and in +order to verify the collection, I would recommend you to +set down the names of the persons by whom they were communicated. +It would be important to know whether they +have a real language, with the usual parts of speech, or +whether they have a collection of nouns, combined by our own +language. I suspect the former to be the case, from the +specimens I have had. I should like much to see the article +you proposed for the magazine. I am not squeamish about +delicacies, where knowledge is to be sifted out and acquired. +I like Ebony’s<a name="FNanchor15" id="FNanchor15"></a><a href="#Footnote15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> idea of a history of the Gipsies very much, +and I wish you would undertake it. I gave all my scraps +to the magazine at its commencement, but I think myself +entitled to say that you are welcome to the use of them, +should you choose to incorporate them into such a work. +Do not be in too great a hurry, but get as many materials +as you can.”<a name="FNanchor16" id="FNanchor16"></a><a href="#Footnote16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>And again as follows:</p> + +<p>“An authentic list of Gipsy words, as used in Scotland, +especially if in such numbers as may afford any reasonable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +or probable conjecture as to the structure of the language, +is a desideratum in Scottish literature which would be very +acceptable to the philologist, as well as an addition to general +history. I am not aware that any such exists, though +there is a German publication on the subject, which it would +be very necessary to consult.<a name="FNanchor17" id="FNanchor17"></a><a href="#Footnote17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> That the language exists, I +have no doubt, though I should rather think the number to +which it is known is somewhat exaggerated. I need not +point out to you the difference between the <i>cant</i> language, +or <i>slang</i>, used by thieves or flash men in general, and the +peculiar dialect said to be spoken by the Gipsies.<a name="FNanchor18" id="FNanchor18"></a><a href="#Footnote18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> The +difference ought to be very carefully noticed, to ascertain +what sort of language they exactly talk; whether it is an +original tongue, having its own mode of construction, or a +speech made up of cant expressions, having an English or +Scotch ground-work, and only patched up so as to be unintelligible +to the common hearer. There is nothing else +occurs to me by which I can be of service to your enquiry. +My own opinion leads me to think that the Gipsies have a +distinct and proper language, but I do not consider it is +extensive enough to form any settled conclusion. If there +occur any facts which I can be supposed to know, on which +you desire information, I will be willing to give them, in +illustration of so curious an enquiry. I have found them, in +general, civil and amenable to reason; I must, nevertheless, +add that they are vindictive, and that, as the knowledge +of their language is the secret which their habits and ignorance +make them tenacious of, I think your researches, +unless conducted with great prudence, may possibly expose +you to personal danger. For the same reason, you ought +to complete all the information you can collect, before +alarming them by a premature publication, as, after you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +have published, there will be great obstructions to future +communications on the subject.”</p> + +<p>From what has been said, it will be seen that the following +investigation has had quite a different object than a +description of the manners and habits of the common vagrants +of the country; for no possible entertainment could have +been derived from such an undignified undertaking. And +yet many of our youth, although otherwise well informed, +have never made this distinction; owing, no doubt, to the +encreased attention which those in power have, in late years, +bestowed on the internal affairs of the country, and the +unseen, but no less surely felt, pressure of the advancement +of the general mass, and especially of the lower classes +of the community, forcing many of these people into positions +beyond the observation of those unacquainted with +their language and traits of character. When it is, therefore, +considered, that the body treated of, is originally an +exotic, comprising, I am satisfied, no less than five thousand +souls in Scotland,<a name="FNanchor19" id="FNanchor19"></a><a href="#Footnote19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> speaking an original and peculiar language, +which is mysteriously used among themselves with +great secrecy, and differing so widely from the ordinary natives +of the soil, it may well claim some little portion of public +attention. A further importance attaches to the subject, +when it is considered that a proportionate number is to be +found in the other divisions of the British Isles, and large +hordes in all parts of Europe, and more or less in every +other part of the world; in all places speaking the same +language, with only a slight difference in dialect, and manifesting +the same peculiarities. In using the language of Dr. +Bright, it may be said, that the circumstance is the most +singular phenomenon in the history of man; much more +striking, indeed, than that of the Jews. For the Jews have +been favoured with the most splendid antecedents; a common +parentage; a common history; a special and exclusive +revelation; a deeply rooted religious prejudice, and antipathy; +a common persecution; and whatever might appear +necessary to preserve their identity in the world, excepting +an isolated territorial and political existence.<a name="FNanchor20" id="FNanchor20"></a><a href="#Footnote20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> The Gipsies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +on the other hand, have had none of these advantages. But +it is certain that the leaders of their bands, in addition to +their piteous representations, must have had something striking +about them, to recommend them to the favourable notice +which they seem to have met with, at the hands of some of +the sovereigns of Europe, when they made their appearance +there, and spread over its surface. Still, their assumptions +might, and in all probability did, rest merely upon an amount +of general superiority of character, of a particular kind, +without even the first elements of education, which in that +age would amount to something; a leading feature of character +which their chiefs have ever since maintained; and +yet, although everything has been left by them to tradition, +the Gipsies speak their language much better than the Jews.</p> + +<p>Gipsies and Jews have many things in common. They +are both strangers and sojourners, in a sense, wherever they +are to be found; “dwelling in tents,” the one literally, the +other figuratively. They have each undergone many bloody +persecutions; the one for his stubborn blindness to the advent +of the Messiah, the other for being a heathen, and +worse than a heathen—for being nothing at all, but linked +with the evil one, in all manner of witchcraft and sin. +Each race has had many crimes brought against it; the +Gipsy, those of a positive, and the Jew, those of a constructive +and arbitrary nature. But in these respects they +differ: the Jew has been known and famed for doing almost +anything for money; and the Gipsy for the mere gratification +of his most innate nature—that of appropriating to +himself, when he needs it, that which is claimed by any out +of the circle of his consanguinity. The one’s soul is given +to accumulating, and, if it is in his power, he becomes rich; +the other more commonly aims at securing what meets his +ordinary wants, and, perhaps, some little thing additional;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +or, if he prove otherwise, he liberally spends what he acquires. +The Gipsy is humane to a stranger, when he has +been rightly appealed to; but when that circumstance is +wanting, he will never hesitate to rob him, unless when he +stands indebted to him, or, it may be, his immediate relations, +for previous acts of kindness. To indulge his hatred towards +an enemy, a Jew will oppress him, if he is his debtor, +“exacting his bond;” or if he is not his debtor, he will often +endeavour to get him to become such, with the same motive; +or it may be, if his enemy stands in need of accommodation, +he will not supply his wants; at other times, if he is poor, +he will ostentatiously make a display of his wealth, to spite +him; and, in carrying out his vengeance, will sometimes display +the malignity, barring, perhaps, the shedding of blood, +of almost every other race combined. In such a case, a +Gipsy will rob, burn, maltreat, maim, carry off a child, and +sometimes murder, but not often the two last at the present +day.<a name="FNanchor21" id="FNanchor21"></a><a href="#Footnote21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> The two races are to be found side by side, in +countries characterized by almost every degree of climate +and stage of civilization, each displaying its peculiar type of +feature, but differing in this respect, that the Gipsies readily +adopt others into their tribe, at such a tender age as to +secure an infallible attachment to their race and habits. +This circumstance has produced, in many instances, a change +in the colour of the hair and eyes of the descendants of +those adopted. In some such cases, it requires an intimate +knowledge of the body, to detect the peculiarity common to +all, and especially in those who have conformed to the ways +of the other inhabitants. In this they agree—that they despise +and hate, and are despised and hated by, those among +whom they live. But in this they differ—that the Jew entered +Europe, as it were, singly and by stealth, pursuing +pretty much the avocations he yet follows; but the Gipsies, +in bands, and openly, although they were forced to betake +themselves to places of retreat, and break up into smaller +bands. It is true that the Jew was driven from his home +eighteen centuries ago, and that it is not yet five since the +Gipsy appeared in Europe. We know who the Jew is, and +something of the providence and circumstances under which +he suffers, and what future awaits him; but who is this singular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +and unfortunate exile, whose origin and cause of banishment +none can comprehend—who is this wandering Gipsy?</p> + +<p>After the receipt of the second of Sir Walter Scott’s +letters, already alluded to, I discontinued the few short articles +I had written for Blackwood, on the Fifeshire Gipsies; +but I have incorporated the most interesting part of them +into the work, forming, however, only a small part of the +whole. Since it was written, I have seen Mr. Borrow on +the Gipsies in Spain, and the short report of the Rev. Mr. +Baird, to the Scottish Church Society; the latter printed in +1840, and the former in 1841. The <i>Gitanos</i> in Spain and +the <i>Tinklers</i> in Scotland are, in almost every particular, the +same people, while the Yetholm Gipsy words in Mr. Baird’s +report and those collected by me, for the most part, between +the years 1817 and 1831, are word for word the same.</p> + +<p>In submitting this work to the public, I deem it necessary +to say a word or two as to the authorities upon which the +facts contained in it rest. My authorities for those under +the heads of Fife and Linlithgowshire Gipsies, were aged and +creditable persons, who had been eye-witnesses to the greater +part of the transactions; in some cases, the particulars were +quite current in their time. The details under the head of +Gipsies who frequented Tweed-dale, Ettrick Forest, Annandale, +and the upper ward of Lanarkshire, were chiefly derived +from the memories of some of my relatives, and other +individuals of credit, who had many opportunities of observing +the manners of these wanderers, in the South of Scotland, +the greater number being confirmed by the Gipsies, on being +interrogated. The particulars under the head of the ceremonies +of marriage and divorce, and the sacrifice of horses, +were related by Gipsies, and confirmed by other undoubted +testimony, as will appear in detail. Almost every recent +occurrence and matter relative to the present condition, +employment, and number of the body, is the result of my own +personal enquiries and observations, while the whole specimens +of the language, and the facts immediately connected +therewith, were written down, with my own hand, from the +mouths of the Gipsies themselves, and confirmed, at intervals, +by others. Indeed, my chief object has been to produce facts +from an original source, in Scotland, as far as respects manners, +customs, and language, for the purpose of ascertaining +the origin of this mysterious race, and the country from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +which they have migrated; and the result, to my mind, is a +complete confirmation of Grellmann, Hoyland, and Bright, +that they are from Hindostan.</p> + +<p>In writing the history of any barbarous race, if history it +can be called, the field for our observation must necessarily +be very limited. This may especially be said of a people +like the Gipsies; for, having, as a people, neither literature, +records, nor education,<a name="FNanchor22" id="FNanchor22"></a><a href="#Footnote22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> all that can be drawn together of +their history, from themselves, must be confined to that of +the present, or of such time as the freshness of their tradition +may suffice to illustrate; unless it be a few precarious +notices of them, that may have been elicited from their having +come, it may be, in violent contact with their civilized neighbours +around them. In attempting such a work, in connection +with so singular a people, the difficulties in the way of succeeding +in it are extraordinarily great, as the reader may +have perceived, from what has already been written, and as +the “blowing up,” alluded to in Mr. Laidlaw’s letter, will +illustrate, and which was as follows:</p> + +<p>I had obtained some of the Gipsy language from a principal +family of the tribe, on condition of not publishing +names, or place of residence; and, at many miles’ distance, I +had also obtained some particulars relative to the customs +and manners of the race, from a highly respectable farmer, +in the south of Scotland. At his farm, the family alluded +to always took up their quarters, in their periodical journeys +through the country. The farmer, without ever thinking of +the consequences, told them that I was collecting materials +for a publication on the Tinklers, in Scotland, and that everything +relative to their tribe would be given to the world. +The aged chief of the family was thrown into the greatest +distress, at the idea of the name and residence of himself +and family being made public. I received a letter from the +family, deeply lamenting that they had ever communicated a +word to me relative to their language, and stating that the old +man was like to break his heart, at his own imprudence, being +in agony at the thought of his language being published to the +world. I assured them, however, that they had no cause for +fear, as I had never so much as mentioned their names to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +their friend, the farmer, and that I would strictly adhere to +the promise I had given them. This was one of the many +instances in which I was obstructed in my labours, for, however +cautious I might personally be, others, who became in +some way or other acquainted with my object, were, from +inconsiderate meddling, the cause of many difficulties being +thrown in my way, and the consequent loss of much interesting +information. But for this unfortunate circumstance, I +am sanguine, from the method I took in managing the Gipsies, +I would have been able to collect songs, and sentences +of their language, and much more information than what +has been procured, at whatever value the reader may estimate +that; for the Gipsies are always more or less in communication +with each other, in their various divisions of the +country, especially when threatened with anything deemed +dangerous, which they circulate among themselves with astonishing +celerity.</p> + +<p>Professor Wilson, in a poetical notice of Blackwood’s +Magazine, writes:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Few things more sweetly vary civil life<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than a barbarian, savage Tinkler tale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our friend, who on the Gipsies writes in Fife,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We verily believe promotes our sale.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And, in revising his works, in 1831, Sir Walter Scott, in a +note to Quentin Durward, says, relative to the present work:</p> + +<p>“It is natural to suppose, the band, (Gipsy), as it now +exists, is much mingled with Europeans; but most of these +have been brought up from childhood among them, and +learned all their practices. . . . When they are in +closest contact with the ordinary peasants around them, they +still keep their language a mystery. There is little doubt, +however, that it is a dialect of the Hindostanee, from the +specimens produced by Grellmann, Hoyland, and others who +have written on the subject. But the author, (continues Sir +Walter,) has, besides their authority, personal occasion to +know, that an individual, out of mere curiosity, and availing +himself, with patience and assiduity, of such opportunities as +offered, has made himself capable of conversing with any +Gipsy whom he meets, or can, like the royal Hal, drink +with any tinker, in his own language.<a name="FNanchor23" id="FNanchor23"></a><a href="#Footnote23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> The astonishment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +excited among these vagrants, on finding a stranger participant +of their mystery, occasions very ludicrous scenes. It +is to be hoped this gentleman will publish the knowledge he +possesses on so singular a topic. There are prudential +reasons for postponing this disclosure at present, for, although +much more reconciled to society since they have +been less the objects of legal persecution, the Gipsies are +still a ferocious and vindictive people.”<a name="FNanchor24" id="FNanchor24"></a><a href="#Footnote24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote13" id="Footnote13"></a><a href="#FNanchor13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> The following is the article alluded to: “The following enquiries are +addressed to the author of the Gipsies in Fife, being suggested by the research +and industry which he has displayed in collecting memorials of that +vagrant race. They relate to a class of persons who, distinguished for +honest industry in a laborious and dangerous calling, have only this in +common with the Egyptian tribes, that they are not originally native of the +country which they inhabit, and are supposed still to exhibit traces of a +foreign origin. . . . . I mean the colony of fishermen in the village of +Buckhaven, in Fife . . . . .</p> + +<p>“I make no apology to your respectable correspondent for engaging him +in so troublesome a research. The local antiquary, of all others, ought, in +the zeal of his calling, to feel the force of what Spencer wrote and Burke +quoted: ‘Love esteems no office mean.’—‘Entire affection scorneth nicer +hands.’ The curious collector who seeks for ancient reliques among the +ruins of ancient Rome, often pays for permission to trench or dig over +some particular piece of ground, in hopes to discover some remnant of +antiquity. Sometimes he gets only his labour, and the ridicule of having +wasted it, to pay for his pains; sometimes he finds but old bricks +and shattered pot-sherds; but sometimes also his toil is rewarded by a +valuable medal, cameo, bronze, or statue. And upon the same principle it +is, by investigating and comparing popular customs, often trivial and foolish +in themselves, that we often arrive at the means of establishing curious +and material facts in history.”</p> + +<p>This extract is given for the benefit of the latter part of it, which applies +admirably to the present subject; yet falls as much short of it as the +interest in the history of an Egyptian mummy falls short of that of a living +and universally scattered race, that appears a riddle to our comprehension.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote14" id="Footnote14"></a><a href="#FNanchor14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> I sent him a specimen of forty-six words. [Many words used in Scotland, +in every day life, are evidently derived from the Gipsy, owing, doubtless, +to the singularity of the people who have used them, or the happy +peculiarity of circumstances under which they have been uttered; the +original cause of such passing current in a language, no less than that +degree of personal authority which sometimes occasions them to be adopted. +<i>Randy</i>, a disreputable word for a bold, scolding, and not over nicely worded +woman, is evidently derived from the Gipsy <i>raunie</i>, the chief of a tribe of +viragos; so that the exceptions spoken of are as likely to have been derived +from the Gipsy as <i>vice versa</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote15" id="Footnote15"></a><a href="#FNanchor15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> The name by which Mr. Blackwood was known in the celebrated +Chaldee manuscript, published in his magazine.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote16" id="Footnote16"></a><a href="#FNanchor16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Previous to this, Mr. Blackwood wrote me as follows: “I received +your packet some days ago, and immediately gave it to the editor. He +desires me to say that your No. 5, though very curious, would not answer, +from the nature of the details, to be printed in the magazine. In a regular +history of the Gipsies, they would, of course, find a place.” This was what +suggested the idea of the present work.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote17" id="Footnote17"></a><a href="#FNanchor17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Grellmann. I am not aware that he ever compared the words I sent +him with those in this publication, as he wrote he would do, in the previous +letter quoted.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote18" id="Footnote18"></a><a href="#FNanchor18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Throughout the whole of his works there does not appear, I believe, a +single word of the proper Scottish Gipsy; although slang and cant expressions +are to be found in considerable numbers. [Some of these are of +Gipsy extraction.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote19" id="Footnote19"></a><a href="#FNanchor19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> There cannot be less then 100,000 Gipsies in Scotland. See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> +on the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote20" id="Footnote20"></a><a href="#FNanchor20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The following is a description of the Jews, throughout the world, as +given by them, in their letters to Voltaire: “A Jew in London bears as +little resemblance to a Jew at Constantinople, as this last resembles a +Chinese Mandarin! A Portuguese Jew, of Bordeaux, and a German Jew, +of Metz, appear two beings of a different nature! It is, therefore, impossible +to speak of the manners of the Jews in general, without entering into a +very long detail, and into particular distinctions. The Jew is a chamelion, +that assumes all the colours of the different climates he inhabits, of the +different people he frequents, and of the different governments under which +he lives.”</p> + +<p>These words are much more applicable to the Gipsy tribe, in consequence +of their drawing into their body the blood of other people.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote21" id="Footnote21"></a><a href="#FNanchor21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> This, I need hardly say, is a description of what may be called a <i>wild</i> +Gipsy.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote22" id="Footnote22"></a><a href="#FNanchor22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> There are, comparatively speaking, few Gipsies in Scotland that have +not some education, in common with the ordinary natives of the soil; but +the same cannot be said of England.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote23" id="Footnote23"></a><a href="#FNanchor23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Allowance must be made for the enthusiasm of the novelist.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote24" id="Footnote24"></a><a href="#FNanchor24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Abbotsford, 1st Dec., 1831.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>CONTINENTAL GIPSIES.</h3> + +<p>Before giving an account of the Gipsies in Scotland, I +shall, by way of introduction, briefly notice the periods of +time at which they were observed in the different states on +the continent of Europe, and point out the different periods +at which their governments found it necessary to expel them +from their respective territories. I shall also add a few +facts illustrative of the manners of the continental tribes, for +the purpose of showing that those in Scotland, England, and +Ireland, are all branches of the same stock. I shall, likewise, +add a few facts illustrative of the tribe who found +their way into England. I am indebted for my information +on the early history of the continental Gipsies, chiefly to +the works of Grellmann, Hoyland and Bright.</p> + +<p>It appears that none of these wanderers had been seen in +Christendom before the year 1400.<a name="FNanchor25" id="FNanchor25"></a><a href="#Footnote25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> But, in the beginning +of the fifteenth century, this people first attracted notice, +and, within a few years after their arrival, had spread themselves +over the whole continent. The earliest mention +which is made of them, was in the years 1414 and 1417, +when they were observed in Germany. In 1418, they were +found in Switzerland; in 1422, in Italy; in 1427, they are +mentioned as being in the neighbourhood of Paris; and +about the same time, in Spain.<a name="FNanchor26" id="FNanchor26"></a><a href="#Footnote26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p>They seem to have received various appellations. In +France, they were called <i>Bohemians</i>; in Holland, <i>Heydens</i>—heathens; +in some parts of Germany, and in Sweden and +Denmark, they were thought to be <i>Tartars</i>; but over Germany, +in general, they were called <i>Zigeuners</i>, a word which +means wanderers up and down. In Portugal, they received<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +the name of <i>Siganos</i>; in Spain, <i>Gitanos</i>; and in Italy, <i>Cingari</i>. +They were also called in Italy, Hungary, and Germany, +<i>Tziganys</i>; and in Transylvania, <i>Cyganis</i>. Among +the Turks, and other eastern nations, they were denominated +<i>Tschingenes</i>; but the Moors and Arabians applied to them, +perhaps, the most just appellation of any—<i>Charami</i>, robbers.<a name="FNanchor27" id="FNanchor27"></a><a href="#Footnote27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p>“When they arrived at Paris, 17th August, 1427, nearly +all of them had their ears bored, with one or two silver rings +in each, which, they said, were esteemed ornaments in their +country. The men were black, their hair curled; the women +remarkably black, and all their faces scarred.”<a name="FNanchor28" id="FNanchor28"></a><a href="#Footnote28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> Dr. +Hurd, in his account of the different religions of the world, +says, that the hair of these men was “frizzled,” and that +some of the women were witches, and “had hair like a +horse’s tail.” It is, I think, to be inferred from this passage, +that the men had designedly curled their hair, and that the +hair of the females was long and coarse—not the short, woolly +hair of the African. I have, myself, seen English female +Gipsies with hair as long, coarse, and thick as a black +horse’s tail.</p> + +<p>“At the time of the first appearance of the Gipsies, no +certain information seems to have been obtained as to the +country from which they came. It is, however, supposed +that they entered Europe in the south-east, probably through +Transylvania. At first, they represented themselves as +Egyptian pilgrims, and, under that character, obtained considerable +respect during half a century; being favoured by +different potentates with passports, and letters of security. +Gradually, however, they really became, or were fancied, +troublesome, and Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, +successively attempted their expulsion, in the sixteenth century.”<a name="FNanchor29" id="FNanchor29"></a><a href="#Footnote29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>With the exception of Hungary and Transylvania, it is +believed that every state in Europe attempted either their +expulsion or extermination; but, notwithstanding the dreadful +severity of the numerous laws and edicts promulgated +against them, they remained in every part of Europe, in +defiance of every effort made by their respective governments +to get rid of their unwelcome guests.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>“German writers say that King Ferdinand of Spain, who +esteemed it a good work to expatriate useful and profitable +subjects—Jews, and even Moorish families—could much less +be guilty of an impropriety, in laying hands on the mischievous +progeny of Gipsies. The edict for their extermination +was published in the year 1492. But, instead of passing the +boundaries, they only slunk into hiding places, and shortly +after appeared in as great numbers as before. The Emperor, +Charles V, persecuted them afresh; as did Philip II. Since +that time, they nestled in again, and were threatened with +another storm, but it blew over without taking effect.</p> + +<p>“In France, Francis I passed an edict for their expulsion, +and at the assembly of the states of Orleans, in 1561, +all governors of cities received orders to drive them out +with fire and sword. Nevertheless, in process of time, they +collected again, and encreased to such a degree that, in 1612, +a new order came out for their extermination. In the year +1572, they were compelled to retire from the territories of +Milan and Parma; and, at a period somewhat earlier, they +were chased beyond the Venetian jurisdiction.</p> + +<p>“They were not allowed the privilege of remaining in +Denmark, as the code of Danish law specifies: ‘The Tartar +Gipsies, who wander about everywhere, doing great damage +to the people, by their lies, thefts and witchcraft, shall be +taken into custody by every magistrate.’ Sweden was not +more favourable, having attacked them at three different +times. A very sharp order for their expulsion came out in +1662. The diet of 1723 published a second; and that of +1727 repeated the foregoing, with additional severity.</p> + +<p>“They were excluded from the Netherlands, under the +pain of death, by Charles V, and afterwards, by the United +States, in 1582. But the greatest number of sentences of +exile have been pronounced against them in Germany. The +beginning was made under Maximilian I, at the Augsburg +Diet, in 1500; and the same business occupied the attention +of the Diet in 1530, 1544, 1548, and 1551; and was also +again enforced, in the improved police regulations of Frankfort, +in 1577.”<a name="FNanchor30" id="FNanchor30"></a><a href="#Footnote30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> The Germans entertained the notion that +the Gipsies were spies for the Turks. They were not allowed +to pass through, remain, or trade within the Empire. They +were ordered to quit entirely the German dominions, by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +certain day, and whoever injured them, after that period, was +considered to have committed no crime.</p> + +<p>“But a general extermination never did happen, for the +law banishing them passed in one state before it was +thought of in the next, or when a like order had long become +obsolete, and sunk into oblivion. These undesirable guests +were, therefore, merely compelled to shift their quarters to +an adjoining state, where they remained till the government +began to clear them away, upon which the fugitives either +retired whence they came, or went on progressively to a +third place—thus making a continual circle.”<a name="FNanchor31" id="FNanchor31"></a><a href="#Footnote31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>That almost the whole of Christendom had been so provoked +by the conduct of the Gipsies as to have attempted +their expulsion, or rather their extermination, merely because +they were jugglers, fortune-tellers, astrologers, warlocks, +witches and impostors, is a thing not for a moment to be +supposed. I am inclined to believe that the true cause of +the promulgation of the excessively sanguinary laws and +edicts, for the extermination of the whole Gipsy nation in +Europe, must be looked for in much more serious crimes +than those mentioned; and that these greater offences can +be no other than theft and robbery, and living upon the +inhabitants of the countries through which they travelled, +at free quarters, or what we, in Scotland, call sorning.<a name="FNanchor32" id="FNanchor32"></a><a href="#Footnote32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +But, on the other hand, I am convinced that the Gipsies +have committed few murders on individuals <i>out</i> of their own +tribe. As far as our authorities go, the general character +of these people seems to have been the same, wherever they +have made their appearance on the face of the earth; and +the chief and leading feature of that extraordinary character +appears to me to have been, in general, an hereditary +propensity to theft and robbery, in men, women and children.</p> + +<p>In whatever country we find the Gipsies, their manners, +habits, and cast of features are uniformly the same. Their +occupations are in every respect the same. They were, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +the continent, horse-dealers, innkeepers, workers in iron, +musicians, astrologers, jugglers, and fortune-tellers by palmistry. +They are also accused of cheating, lying, and witchcraft, +and, in general, charged with being thieves and robbers. +They roam up and down the country, without any +fixed habitations, living in tents, and hawking small trifles +of merchandise for the use of the people among whom they +travel. The whole race were great frequenters of fairs. +They seldom formed matrimonial alliances out of their own +tribe.<a name="FNanchor33" id="FNanchor33"></a><a href="#Footnote33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> It will be seen, in another part of this work, that +the language of the continental Gipsies is the same as that +of those in Scotland, England and Ireland. As to the +religious opinions of the continental Gipsies, they appear to +have had none at all. It is said they were “worse than +heathens.” “It is, in reality,” says Twiss, “almost absurd +to talk of the religion of this set of people, whose moral +characters are so depraved as to make it evident they believe +in nothing capable of being a check to their passions.” +“Indeed,” adds Hoyland, “it is asserted that no Gipsy has +any idea of submission to any fixed profession of faith.” It +appears to me that, to secure to themselves protection from +the different governments, they only conformed outwardly +to the customs and religion of the country in which they +happened to reside at the time.</p> + +<p>Cantemir, according to Grellmann, says that the Gipsies +are dispersed all over Moldavia, where every baron has +several families subject to him. In Wallachia and the +Sclavonian countries they are quite as numerous. In Wallachia +and Moldavia they are divided into two classes—the +princely and boyardish. The former, according to Sulzer, +amount to many thousands; but that is trifling in comparison +with the latter, as there is not a single Boyard in Wallachia +who has not at least three or four of them for slaves; the +rich have often some hundreds under their command,<a name="FNanchor34" id="FNanchor34"></a><a href="#Footnote34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Grellmann +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>divides those in Transylvania into four classes: 1st. +city Gipsies, who are the most civilized of all, and maintain +themselves by music, smith-work, selling old clothes, horse-dealing, +&c.; 2d. gold-washers; 3d. tent Gipsies; and 4th. +Egyptian Gipsies. These last are more filthy, and more +addicted to stealing than any of the others. Those who +are gold-washers, in Transylvania and the Banat, have no +intercourse with others of their nation; nor do they like to +be called Gipsies. They sift gold sand in summer, and in +winter make trays and troughs, which they sell in an honest +way. They seldom beg, and more rarely steal. Dr. Clarke +says of the Wallachian Gipsies, that they are not an idle +race; they ought rather to be described as a laborious +race; and the majority honestly endeavour to earn a livelihood.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>“Bessarabia, all Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania +swarm with Gipsies; even in Constantinople they are innumerable. +In Romania, a large tract of Mount Hæmus, +which they inhabit, has acquired from them the name of +<i>Tschenghe Valken</i>—Gipsy Mountain. This district extends +from the city of Aydos quite to Phillippopolis, and contains +more Gipsies than any other province in the Turkish +empire.</p> + +<p>“They were universally to be found in Italy, insomuch +that even Sicily and Sardinia were not free. But they were +most numerous in the dominions of the Church; probably +because there was the worst police, with much superstition. +By the former, they were left undisturbed; and the latter +enticed them to deceive the ignorant, as it afforded them an +opportunity of obtaining a plentiful contribution by their +fortune-telling and enchanted amulets. There was a general +law throughout Italy, that no Gipsy should remain more +than two nights in any one place. By this regulation, it is +true, no place retained its guests long; but no sooner was +one gone than another came in his room: it was a continual +circle, and quite as convenient to them as a perfect toleration +would have been. Italy rather suffered than benefited +by this law; as, by keeping these people in constant motion, +they would do more mischief there, than in places where +they were permitted to remain stationary.</p> + +<p>“In Poland and Lithuania, as well as in Courland, there +are an amazing number of Gipsies. A person may live many +years in Upper Saxony, or in the districts of Hanover and +Brunswick, without seeing a single Gipsy. When one +happens to stray into a village or town, he occasions as +much disturbance as if the black gentleman with his cloven +foot appeared; he frightens children from their play, and +draws the attention of the older people, till the police get +hold of him, and make him again invisible. In some of the +provinces of the Rhine, a Gipsy is a very common sight. +Some years ago, there were such numbers of them in the +Duchy of Wurtemberg, that they were seen lying about everywhere; +but the government ordered departments of soldiers +to drive them from their holes and lurking-places throughout +the country, and then transported the congregated swarm, +in the same manner as they were treated by the Duke of +Deuxponts. In France, before the Revolution, there were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +but few Gipsies, for the obvious reason that every Gipsy +who could be apprehended fell a sacrifice to the +police.”<a name="FNanchor35" id="FNanchor35"></a><a href="#Footnote35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>As regards the Gipsies of Spain, Dr. Bright remarks: +That the disposition of the Gitano is more inclined to a +fixed residence than that of the Gipsy of other countries, is +beyond doubt. The generality are the settled inhabitants of +considerable towns, and, although the occupations of some +necessarily lead them to a more vagrant life, the proportion +is small who do not consider some hovel in a suburb as a +home. ‘Money is in the city—not in the country,’ is a saying +frequently in their mouths. In the vilest quarters of every +large town of the southern provinces, there are Gitanos living +together, sometimes occupying whole barriers. But +Seville is, perhaps, the spot in which the largest proportion +is found. Their principal occupation is the manufacture +and sale of articles of iron. Their quarters may always be +traced by the ring of the hammer and anvil, and many amass +considerable wealth. An inferior class have the exclusive +trade in second-hand articles, which they sell at the doors +of their dwellings, or at benches at the entrance of towns, or +by the sides of frequented walks. A still inferior order +wander about, mending pots, and selling tongs and other +trifling articles. In Cadiz, they monopolize the trade of +butchering, and frequently amass wealth. Others, again, +exclusively fill the office of Matador of the Bull Plaza, while +the Toreros are for the most part of the same race. Others +are employed as dressers of mules and asses; some as figure-dancers, +and many as performers in the theatre. Some gain +a livelihood by their musical talents. Dancing, singing, +music and fortune-telling are the only objects of general +pursuit for the females. Sometimes they dance in the inferior +theatres, and sing and dance in the streets. Palmistry +is one of their most productive avocations. In Seville, a +few make and sell an inferior kind of mat. Besides these, +there is a class of Gipsies in Spain who lead a vagrant life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +throughout—residing chiefly in the woods and mountains, +and known as mountaineers. These rarely visit towns, and +live by fraud and pillage. There are also others who wander +about the country—such as tinkers, dancers, singers, and +jobbers in asses and mules.</p> + +<p>Bishop Pocoke, prior to 1745, mentions having met with +Gipsies in the northern part of Syria, where he found them +in great numbers, passing for Mahommedans, living in tents +or caravans, dealing in milch cows, when near towns, manufacturing +coarse carpets, and having a much better character +than their relations in Hungary or England. By the census +of the Crimea, in 1793, the population was set down at +157,125, of which 3,225 were Gipsies. Bishop Heber states +that the Persian Gipsies are of much better caste, and much +richer than those of India, Russia or England. In India, he +says, the Gipsies are the same tall, fine-limbed, bony, slender +people, with the same large, black, brilliant eyes, lowering +forehead, and long hair, curled at the extremities, which are +to be met with on a common in England. He mentions, in +his journal of travels through Bengal, having met with a +Gipsy camp on the Ganges. The women and children followed +him, begging, and had no clothes on them, except a +coarse kind of veil, thrown back from the shoulders, and a +ragged cloth, wrapped round their waists, like a petticoat. +One of the women was very pretty, and the forms of all the +three were such as a sculptor would have been glad to take +as his models.</p> + +<p>Besides those in Europe, it is stated by Grellmann that +the Gipsies are also scattered over Asia, and are to be found +in the centre of Africa. In Europe alone, he supposes (in +1782), their number will amount to between seven and eight +hundred thousand. So numerous did they become in France, +that the king, in 1545, sixteen years before they were expelled +from that kingdom, entertained an idea of embodying +four thousand of them, to act as pioneers in taking Boulogne, +then in possession of England. It is impossible to ascertain, +at the present day, how many Gipsies might be even in a +parish; but, taking in the whole world, there must be an +immense number in existence.</p> + +<p>About the time the Gipsies first appeared in Europe, their +chiefs, under the titles of dukes, earls, lords, counts, and +knights of Little Egypt, rode up and down the country on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +horseback, dressed in gay apparel, and attended by a train +of ragged and miserable inferiors, having, also, hawks and +hounds in their retinue. It appears to me, that the excessive +vanity of these chiefs had induced them, in imitation of the +customs of civilized society, to assume these high-sounding +European titles of honour. I have not observed, on record, +any form of government, laws or customs, by which the internal +affairs of the tribe, on the Continent, were regulated. +On these important points, if I am not mistaken, all the authors, +with the exception of Grellmann, who have written +on the Gipsies, are silent. Grellmann says of the Hungarian +Gipsies: “They still continue the custom among themselves +of dignifying certain persons, whom they make heads over +them, and call by the exalted Sclavonian title of Waywode. +To choose their Waywode, the Gipsies take the opportunity, +when a great number of them are assembled in one place, +commonly in the open field. The elected person is lifted up +three times, amidst the loudest acclamation, and confirmed +in his dignity by presents. His wife undergoes the same +ceremony. When this solemnity is performed, they separate +with great conceit, imagining themselves people of more +consequence than electors returning from the choice of an +emperor. Every one who is of a family descended from a +former Waywode is eligible; but those who are best +clothed, not very poor, of large stature, and about the middle +age, have generally the preference. The particular distinguishing +mark of dignity is a large whip, hanging over the +shoulder. His outward deportment, his walk and air, also +plainly show his head to be filled with notions of authority.” +According to the same authority, the Waywode of the Gipsies +in Courland is distinguished from the principals of the +hordes in other countries, being not only much respected by +his own people, but even by the Courland nobility. He is +esteemed a man of high rank, and is frequently to be met +with at entertainments, and card parties, in the first families, +where he is always a welcome guest. His dress is uncommonly +rich, in comparison with others of his tribe; generally +silk in summer, and constantly velvet in winter.</p> + +<p>As a specimen of the manners and ferocious disposition of +the German Gipsies, so late as the year 1726, I shall here +transcribe a few extracts from an article published in Blackwood’s +Magazine, for January, 1818. This interesting article<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +is partly an abridged translation, or rather the substance, +of a German work on the Gipsies, entitled “A Circumstantial +Account of the Famous Egyptian Band of Thieves, and +Robbers, and Murderers, whose Leaders were executed at +Giessen, by Cord, and Sword, and Wheel, on the 14th and +15th November, 1726, &c.” It is edited by Dr. John Benjamin +Wiessenburch, an assessor of the criminal tribunal by +which these malefactors were condemned, and published at +Frankfort and Leipsic, in the year 1727. The translator of +this work is Sir Walter Scott, who obligingly offered me the +use of his “scraps” on this subject. The following are the +details in his own words.</p> + +<p>“A curious preliminary dissertation records some facts +respecting the German Gipsies, which are not uninteresting.</p> + +<p>“From the authorities collected by Wiessenburch, it appears +that these wanderers first appeared in Germany during +the reign of Sigismund. The exact year has been +disputed; but it is generally placed betwixt 1416 and 1420. +They appeared in various bands, under chiefs, to whom +they acknowledged obedience, and who assumed the titles +of dukes and earls. These leaders originally affected a certain +degree of consequence, travelling well equipped, and on +horseback, and bringing hawks and hounds in their retinue. +Like John Faw, ‘Lord of Little Egypt,’ they sometimes +succeeded in imposing upon the Germans the belief in their +very apocryphal dignity, which they assumed during their +lives, and recorded upon their tombs, as appears from three +epitaphs, quoted by Dr. Wiessenburch. One is in a convent +at Steinbach, and records that on St. Sebastians’ eve, 1445, +‘died the Lord Pannel, Duke of Little Egypt, and Baron of +Hirschhorn, in the same land.’ A monumental inscription +at Bautmer, records the death of the ‘Noble Earl Peter, of +Lesser Egypt, in 1453;’ and a third, at Pferz, as late as +1498, announces the death of the ‘high-born, Lord John, +Earl of Little Egypt, to whose soul God be gracious and +merciful.’</p> + +<p>“In describing the state of the German Gipsies, in 1726, +the author whom we are quoting gives the leading features +proper to those in other countries. Their disposition to +wandering, to idleness, to theft, to polygamy, or rather promiscuous +licence, are all commemorated; nor are the women’s +pretentions to fortune-telling, and their practice of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +stealing children, omitted. Instead of travelling in very +large bands, as at their first arrival, they are described as +forming small parties, in which the females are far more +numerous than the men, and which are each under command +of a leader, chosen rather from reputation than by right of +birth. The men, unless when engaged in robbery or theft, +lead a life of absolute idleness, and are supported by what +the women can procure by begging, stealing or telling fortunes. +These resources are so scanty that they often suffer +the most severe extremities of hunger and cold. Some of +the Gipsies executed at Giessen pretended that they had +not eaten a morsel of bread for four days before they were +apprehended; yet are they so much attached to freedom, +and licence of this wandering life, that, notwithstanding its +miseries, it has not only been found impossible to reclaim +the native Gipsies, who claim it by inheritance, but even +those who, not born in that state, have associated themselves +with their bands, and become so wedded to it, as to prefer +it to all others.<a name="FNanchor36" id="FNanchor36"></a><a href="#Footnote36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>“As an exception, Wiessenburch mentions some gangs, +where the men, as in Scotland, exercise the profession of +travelling smiths, or tinkers, or deal in pottery, or practise +as musicians. Finally, he notices that in Hungary the +gangs assumed their names from the countries which they +chiefly traversed, as the band of Upper Saxony, of Brandenburg, +and so forth. They resented, to extremity, any attempt +on the part of other Gipsies to intrude on their province; +and such interference often led to battles, in which they shot +each other with as little remorse as they would have done +to dogs.<a name="FNanchor37" id="FNanchor37"></a><a href="#Footnote37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> By these acts of cruelty to each other, they became +gradually familiarized with blood, as well as with +arms, to which another cause contributed, in the beginning +of the 18th century.</p> + +<p>“In former times, these outcasts were not permitted to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +bear arms in the service of any Christian power, but the +long wars of Louis XIV had abolished this point of delicacy; +and both in the French army, and those of the confederates, +the stoutest and boldest of the Gipsies were +occasionally enlisted, by choice or compulsion. These men +generally tired soon of the rigour of military discipline, and +escaping from their regiments on the first opportunity, went +back to their forests, with some knowledge of arms, and +habits bolder and more ferocious than those of their predecessors. +Such deserters soon become leaders among the +tribes, whose enterprises became, in proportion, more audacious +and desperate.</p> + +<p>“In Germany, as in most other kingdoms of Europe, +severe laws had been directed against this vagabond people, +and the Landgraves of Hesse had not been behind-hand in +such denunciations. They were, on their arrest, branded +as vagabonds, punished with stripes, and banished from the +circle; and, in case of their return, were put to death without +mercy. These measures only served to make them desperate. +Their bands became more strong and more open +in their depredations. They often marched as strong as +fifty or a hundred armed men; bade defiance to the ordinary +police, and plundered the villages in open day; +wounded and slew the peasants, who endeavoured to protect +their property; and skirmished, in some instances successfully, +with parties of soldiers and militia, dispatched +against them. Their chiefs, on these occasions, were John +La Fortune, a determined villain, otherwise named Hemperla; +another called the Great Gallant; his brother, +Antony Alexander, called the Little Gallant; and others, +entitled Lorries, Lampert, Gabriel, &c. Their ferocity +may be judged of from the following instances:</p> + +<p>“On the 10th October, 1724, a land-lieutenant, or officer +of police, named Emerander, set off with two assistants to +disperse a band of Gipsies who had appeared near Hirzenhayn, +in the territory of Stolberg. He seized on two or +three stragglers whom he found in the village, and whom, +females as well as males, he seems to have treated with +much severity. Some, however, escaped to a large band +which lay in an adjacent forest, who, under command of the +Great Gallant, Hemperla, Antony Alexander, and others, +immediately put themselves in motion to rescue their comrades,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +and avenge themselves of Emerander. The land-lieutenant +had the courage to ride out to meet them, with +his two attendants, at the passage of a bridge, where he +fired his pistol at the advancing gang, and called out +‘charge,’ as if he had been at the head of a party of cavalry. +The Gipsies, however, aware, from the report of the fugitives, +how weakly the officer was accompanied, continued to +advance to the end of the bridge, and ten or twelve, dropping +each on one knee, gave fire on Emerander, who was +then obliged to turn his horse and ride off, leaving his two +assistants to the mercy of the banditti. One of these men, +called Hempel, was instantly beaten down, and suffered, +especially at the hands of the Gipsy women, much cruel +and abominable outrage. After stripping him of every rag +of his clothes, they were about to murder the wretch outright; +but at the earnest instance of the landlord of the +inn, they contented themselves with beating him dreadfully, +and imposing on him an oath that he never more would persecute +any Gipsy, or save any <i>fleshman</i>, (dealer in human +flesh,) for so they called the officers of justice or police.<a name="FNanchor38" id="FNanchor38"></a><a href="#Footnote38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>“The other assistant of Emerander made his escape. +But the principal was not so fortunate. When the Gipsies +had wrought their wicked pleasure on Hempel, they compelled +the landlord of the little inn to bring them a flagon +of brandy, in which they mingled a charge of gunpowder +and three pinches of salt; and each, partaking of this singular +beverage, took a solemn oath that they would stand +by each other until they had cut thongs, as they expressed +it, out of the fleshman’s hide. The Great Gallant at the +same time distributed to them, out of a little box, billets, +which each was directed to swallow, and which were supposed +to render them invulnerable.</p> + +<p>“Thus inflamed and encouraged, the whole route, amounting +to fifty well armed men, besides women armed with +clubs and axes, set off with horrid screams to a neighbouring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +hamlet, called Glazhutte, in which the object of their +resentment sought refuge. They took military possession +of the streets, posting sentinels to prevent interruption or +attack from the alarmed inhabitants. Their leaders then +presented themselves before the inn, and demanded that +Emerander should be delivered up to them. When the innkeeper +endeavoured to elude their demand, they forced their +way into the house, and finding the unhappy object of pursuit +concealed in a garret, Hemperla and others fired their +muskets at him, then tore his clothes from his body, and precipitated +him down the staircase, where he was dispatched +with many wounds.</p> + +<p>“Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the village began to take +to arms; and one of them attempted to ring the alarm-bell, +but was prevented by an armed Gipsy, stationed for that +purpose. At length their bloody work being ended, the +Gipsies assembled and retreated out of the town, with shouts +of triumph, exclaiming that the fleshman was slain, displaying +their spoils and hands stained with blood, and headed +by the Great Gallant, riding on the horse of the murdered +officer.</p> + +<p>“I shall select from the volume another instance of this +people’s cruelty still more detestable, since even vengeance +or hostility could not be alleged for its stimulating cause, as +in the foregoing narrative. A country clergyman, named +Heinsius, the pastor of a village called Dorsdorff, who had +the misfortune to be accounted a man of some wealth, was +the subject of this tragedy.</p> + +<p>“Hemperla, already mentioned, with a band of ten Gipsies, +and a villain named Essper George, who had joined himself +with them, though not of their nation by birth, beset the +house of the unfortunate minister, with a resolution to break +in and possess themselves of his money; and if interrupted +by the peasants, to fire upon them, and repel force by force. +With this desperate intention, they surrounded the parsonage-house +at midnight; and their leader, Hemperla, having +cut a hole through the cover of the sink or gutter, endeavoured +to creep into the house through that passage, holding in his +hand a lighted torch made of straw. The daughter of the +parson chanced, however, to be up, and in the kitchen, at +this late hour, by which fortunate circumstance she escaped +the fate of her father and mother. When the Gipsy saw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +there was a person in the kitchen, he drew himself back out +of the gutter, and ordered his gang to force the door, regarding +the noise which accompanied this violence as little +as if the place had been situated in a wilderness, instead of +a populous hamlet. Others of the gang were posted at the +windows of the house, to prevent the escape of the inmates. +Nevertheless, the young woman, already mentioned, let herself +down from a window which had escaped their notice, +and ran to seek assistance for her parents.</p> + +<p>“In the meanwhile the Gipsies had burst open the outward +door of the house, with a beam of wood which chanced +to be lying in the court-yard. They next forced the door +of the sitting apartment, and were met by the poor clergyman, +who prayed them at least to spare his life and that of +his wife. But he spoke to men who knew no mercy; Hemperla +struck him on the breast with a torch; and receiving +the blow as a signal for death, the poor man staggered back +to the table, and sinking in a chair, leaned his head on his +hand, and expected the mortal blow. In this posture +Hemperla shot him dead with a pistol. The wife of the +clergyman endeavoured to fly, on witnessing the murder of +her husband, but was dragged back, and slain by a pistol-shot, +fired either by Essper George, or by a Gipsy called +Christian. By a crime so dreadful those murderers only +gained four silver cups, fourteen silver spoons, some trifling +articles of apparel, and about twenty-two florins in money. +They might have made more important booty, but the sentinel, +whom they left on the outside, now intimated to them +that the hamlet was alarmed, and that it was time to retire, +which they did accordingly, undisturbed and in safety.</p> + +<p>“The Gipsies committed many enormities similar to those +above detailed, and arrived at such a pitch of audacity as +even to threaten the person of the Landgrave himself; an +enormity at which Dr. Wiessenburch, who never introduces +the name or titles of that prince without printing them in +letters of at least an inch long, expresses becoming horror. +This was too much to be endured. Strong detachments of +troops and militia scoured the country in different directions, +and searched the woods and caverns which served the banditti +for places of retreat. These measures were for some +time attended with little effect. The Gipsies had the advantages +of a perfect knowledge of the country, and excellent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +intelligence. They baffled the efforts of the officers detached +against them, and, on one or two occasions, even engaged +them with advantage. And when some females, unable to +follow the retreat of the men, were made prisoners on such +an occasion, the leaders caused it to be intimated to the +authorities at Giessen that if their women were not set at +liberty, they would murder and rob on the high roads, and +plunder and burn the country. This state of warfare lasted +from 1718 until 1726, during which period the subjects of +the Landgrave suffered the utmost hardships, as no man was +secure against nocturnal surprise of his property and person.</p> + +<p>“At length, in the end of 1725, a heavy and continued +storm of snow compelled the Gipsy hordes to abandon the +woods which had long served them as a refuge, and to approach +more near to the dwellings of men. As their movements +could be traced and observed, the land-lieutenant, +Krocker, who had been an assistant to the murdered Emerander, +received intelligence of a band of Gipsies having +appeared in the district of Sohnsassenheim, at a village +called Fauerbach. Being aided by a party of soldiers and +volunteers, he had the luck to secure the whole gang, being +twelve men and women. Among these was the notorious +Hemperla, who was dragged by the heels from an oven in +which he was attempting to conceal himself. Others were +taken in the same manner, and imprisoned at Giessen, with +a view to their trial.</p> + +<p>“Numerous acts of theft, and robbery, and murder were +laid to the charge of these unfortunate wretches; and, according +to the existing laws of the empire, they were interrogated +under torture. They were first tormented by means +of thumb-screws, which they did not seem greatly to regard; +the Spanish boots, or ‘leg-vices,’ were next applied, and +seldom failed to extort confession. Hemperla alone set +both means at defiance, which induced the judges to believe +he was possessed of some spell against these agonies. +Having in vain searched his body for the supposed charm, +they caused his hair to be cut off; on which he himself observed +that, had they not done so, he could have stood the +torture for some time longer. As it was, his resolution gave +way, and he made, under the second application of the Spanish +boots, a full confession, not only of the murders of which +he was accused, but of various other crimes. While he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +in this agony, the judges had the cruelty to introduce his +mother, a noted Gipsy woman, called the crone, into the torture-chamber; +who shrieked fearfully, and tore her face with +her nails, on perceiving the condition of her son, and still +more on hearing him acknowledge his guilt.</p> + +<p>“Evidence of the guilt of the other prisoners was also +obtained from their confessions, with or without torture, +and from the testimony of witnesses examined by the fiscal. +Sentence was finally passed on them, condemning four Gipsies, +among whom were Hemperla and the Little Gallant, to +be broken on the wheel, nine others to be hanged, and thirteen, +of whom the greater part were women, to be beheaded. +They underwent their doom with great firmness, upon the +14th and 15th November, 1726.</p> + +<p>“The volume contains . . . . . . . some rude prints, representing +the murders committed by the Gipsies, and the manner +of their execution. There are also two prints representing +the portraits of the principal criminals, in which, +though the execution be indifferent, the Gipsy features may +be clearly traced.”</p> + +<p>Leaving this view of the character of the continental +Gipsies, we may take the following as illustrative of one of +its brighter aspects. So late as the time of the celebrated +Baron Trenck, it would appear that Germany was still infested +with prodigiously large bands of Gipsies. In a +forest near Ginnen, to which he had fled, to conceal himself +from the pursuit of his persecutors, the Baron says: “Here +we fell in with a gang of Gipsies, (or rather banditti,) +amounting to four hundred men, who dragged me to their +camp. They were mostly French and Prussian deserters, +and, thinking me their equal, would force me to become one +of their band. But venturing to tell my story to their +leader, he presented me with a crown, gave us a small portion +of bread and meat, and suffered us to depart in peace, +after having been four-and-twenty hours in their company.”<a name="FNanchor39" id="FNanchor39"></a><a href="#Footnote39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>I shall conclude the notices of the continental Gipsies by +some extracts from an article published in a French periodical +work, for September, 1802, on the Gipsies of the Pyrenees; +who resemble, in many points, the inferior class of our +Scottish Tinklers, about the beginning of the French war, +more, perhaps, than those of any other country in Europe.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>“There exists, in the department of the Eastern Pyrenees, +a people distinct from the rest of the inhabitants, of a foreign +origin, and without any settled habits. It seems to have +fixed its residence there for a considerable time. It changes +its situation, multiplies there, and never connects itself by +marriage with the other inhabitants. This people are called +Gitanos, a Spanish word which signifies Egyptians. There +are many Gitanos in Catalonia, who have similar habits to +the above-mentioned, but who are very strictly watched. +They have all the vices of those Egyptians, or Bohemians, +who formerly used to wander over the world, telling fortunes, +and living at the expense of superstition and credulity. +These Gitanos, less idle and less wanderers than their predecessors, +are afraid of publicly professing the art of fortune-tellers; +but their manner of life is scarcely different.</p> + +<p>“They scatter themselves among villages, and lonesome +farms, where they steal fruit, poultry, and often even cattle; +in short, everything that is portable. They are almost always +abroad, incessantly watching an opportunity to practise +their thievery; they hide themselves with much dexterity +from the search of the police. Their women, in particular, +have an uncommon dexterity in pilfering. When they enter +a shop, they are watched with the utmost care; but with +every precaution they are not free from their rapines. They +excel, above all, in hiding the pieces of silver which are +given in exchange for gold, which they never fail to offer in +payment, and they are so well hidden that they are often +obliged to be undressed before restitution can be obtained.</p> + +<p>“The Gitanos affect, externally, a great attachment to the +Catholic religion; and if one was to judge from the number +of reliques they carry about with them, one would believe +them exceedingly devout; but all who have well observed +them assure us they are as ignorant as hypocritical, and that +they practise secretly a religion of their own. It is not rare +to see their women, who have been lately brought to bed, +have their children baptized several times, in different places, +in order to obtain money from persons at their ease, whom +they choose for godfathers. Everything announces among +them that moral degradation which must necessarily attach +to a miserable, insulated caste, as strangers to society, which +only suffers it through an excess of contempt.</p> + +<p>“The Gitanos are disgustingly filthy, and almost all covered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +with rags. They have neither tables, chairs, nor beds, +but sit and eat on the ground. They are crowded in huts, +pell-mell, in straw; and their neglect of the decorum of society, +so dangerous to morals, must have the most melancholy +consequences on wretched vagabonds, abandoned to themselves. +They consequently are accused of giving themselves +up to every disorder of the most infamous debauchery, and +to respect neither the ties of blood nor the protecting laws +of the virtues of families.</p> + +<p>“They feed on rotten poultry and fish, dogs and stinking +cats, which they seek for with avidity; and when this resource +fails them, they live on the entrails of animals, or +other aliments of the lowest price. They leave their meat +but a very few minutes on the fire, and the place where they +cook it exhales an infectious smell.</p> + +<p>“They speak the Catalonian dialect, but they have, besides, +a language to themselves, unintelligible to the natives +of the country, from whom they are very careful to hide the +knowledge of it.</p> + +<p>“The Gitanos are tanned like the mulattoes, of a size +above mediocrity, well formed, active, robust, supporting all +the changes of seasons, and sleeping in the open fields, whenever +their interest requires it. Their features are irregular, +and show them to belong to a transplanted race. They +have the mouth very wide, thick lips, and high cheek-bones.</p> + +<p>“As the distrust they inspire causes them to be carefully +watched, it is not always possible for them to live by stealing: +they then have recourse to industry, and a trifling trade, +which seems to have been abandoned to them; they show +animals, and attend the fairs and markets, to sell or exchange +mules and asses, which they know how to procure at a cheap +rate. They are commonly cast-off animals, which they have +the art to dress up, and they are satisfied, in appearance, +with a moderate profit, which, however, is always more than +is supposed, because they feed these animals at the expense +of the farmers. They ramble all night, in order to steal +fodder; and whatever precautions may have been taken +against them, it is not possible to be always guarded against +their address.</p> + +<p>“Happily the Gitanos are not murderers. It would, +without doubt, be important to examine if it is to the natural +goodness of their disposition, to their frugality, and the few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +wants they feel in their state of half savage, that is to be +attributed the sentiment that repels them from great crimes, +or if this disposition arises from their habitual state of alarm, +or from that want of courage which must be a necessary +consequence of the infamy in which they are plunged.”<a name="FNanchor40" id="FNanchor40"></a><a href="#Footnote40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote25" id="Footnote25"></a><a href="#FNanchor25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Sir Thomas Brown’s vulgar errors.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote26" id="Footnote26"></a><a href="#FNanchor26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Bright’s travels in Hungary.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote27" id="Footnote27"></a><a href="#FNanchor27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Hoyland’s historical survey of the Gipsies.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote28" id="Footnote28"></a><a href="#FNanchor28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Ibid.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote29" id="Footnote29"></a><a href="#FNanchor29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Bright.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote30" id="Footnote30"></a><a href="#FNanchor30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Hoyland.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote31" id="Footnote31"></a><a href="#FNanchor31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Grellmann.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote32" id="Footnote32"></a><a href="#FNanchor32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Dr. Hurd says, at page 785, “Our over credulous ancestors vainly imagined +that those Gipsies or Bohemians were so many spies for the Turks; +and that, in order to expiate the crimes which they had committed in their +own country, they were condemned to steal from and rob the Christians.”</p> + +<p>[Living at free quarters by force, or masterful begging, or “sorning,” is +surely a trifling, though troublesome, offence for the original condition of +a wandering tribe, which has so progressed as, at the present day, to fill +some of the first positions in Scotland.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote33" id="Footnote33"></a><a href="#FNanchor33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Hoyland.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote34" id="Footnote34"></a><a href="#FNanchor34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> In the narrative of the Scottish Church Mission of Enquiry to the +Jews, in 1839, are to be found the following remarks relative to the Gipsies +of Wallachia:</p> + +<p>“They are almost all slaves, bought and sold at pleasure. One was +lately sold for 200 piastres, but the general price is 500. Perhaps £3 is +the average price, and the female Gipsies are sold much cheaper. The sale +is generally carried on by private bargain. The men are the best mechanics +in the country; so that smiths and masons are taken from this +class. The women are considered the best cooks, and therefore almost +every wealthy family has a Gipsy cook. Their appearance is similar to +that of the Gipsies in other countries; being all dark, with fine black eyes, +and long black hair. They have a language peculiar to themselves, and +though they seem to have no system of religion, yet are very superstitious +in observing lucky and unlucky days. They are all fond of music, both +vocal and instrumental, and excel in it. There is a class of them called the +Turkish Gipsies, who have purchased their freedom from government; but +these are few in number, and all from Turkey. Of these latter, there are +twelve families in Galatz. The men are employed as horse-dealers, and the +women in making bags, sacks, and such articles. In winter, they live in +town, almost under ground; but in summer, they pitch their tents in the +open air, for, though still within the bounds of the town, they would not +live in their winter houses during summer.”</p> + +<p>That these Gipsies should be in a state of slavery is, perhaps, a more +marked exception to their race than the Indians in Spanish America were +to those found in the territories colonised by the Anglo-Saxons. The Empress +Maria Theresa could make nothing of the Gipsies in Hungary, where +they are said to be almost as little looked after as the wolves of the forest; +so that the slavery of the Gipsies in Wallachia must be of a very nominal +or mild nature, or the subjects of it must be far in excess of the demand, +if £3 is the average price of a good smith or mason, and less for a good +female cook. These Wallachian Gipsies evidently prefer a master whose +property they will consider as their own, and whose protection will relieve +them from the interference and oppression of others. A slavery that is +not absolute or oppressive must gratify the vanity of the owner, and be +easily borne by a race that is semi-civilized and despised by others +around it.</p> + +<p>Since the conclusion of the Russian war, the manumission of the Gipsies +of the Principalities was debated and carried by a majority of something +like thirteen against eleven; but I am not aware of its having been put in +force. They are said to have been greatly attached to the late Sultan—calling +him the “good father,” for the interest he took in them. As spies, +they rendered his generals efficient services, while contending with the +Russians on the Danube.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote35" id="Footnote35"></a><a href="#FNanchor35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Grellmann.—I would suppose that these severe edicts of the French +would drive the Gipsies to adopt the costume and manners of the other +inhabitants. In this way they would disappear from the public eye. The +officers of justice would of course direct their attention to what would be +understood to be Gipsies—that is tented Gipsies, or those who professed the +ways of Gipsies, such as fortune telling. I have met with a French Gipsy +in the streets of New York, engaged as a dealer in candy.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote36" id="Footnote36"></a><a href="#FNanchor36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> The natives here alluded to were evidently Germans, married to Gipsy +women, or Germans brought up from infancy with the Gipsies, or mixed +Gipsies, taking after Germans in point of appearance.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote37" id="Footnote37"></a><a href="#FNanchor37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> This is the only continental writer, that I am aware of, who mentions +the circumstance of the Gipsies having districts to themselves, from which +others of their race were excluded. This author also speaks of the German +Gipsies stealing children. John Bunyan admits the same practice in England, +when he compares his feelings, as a sinner, to those of a child carried +off by Gipsies. He gives the Gipsy <i>women</i> credit for this practice.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote38" id="Footnote38"></a><a href="#FNanchor38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Great allowance ought to be made for the conduct of these Gipsies. +Even at the present day, a Gipsy, in many parts of Germany, is not +allowed to enter a town; nor will the inhabitants permit him to live in the +street in which they dwell. He has therefore to go somewhere, and live +in some way or other. In speaking of the Gipsies, people never take +these circumstances into account. The Gipsies alluded to in the text +seem to have been very cruelly treated, in the first place, by the authorities.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote39" id="Footnote39"></a><a href="#FNanchor39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Life of Baron Trenck, translated by Thomas Holcroft, Vol. I, page 138.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote40" id="Footnote40"></a><a href="#FNanchor40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Annales de Statistique, No. III, page 31-37.</i>—What the writer of this +article says of the aversion which the Gipsies have to the shedding of +human blood, <i>not of their own fraternity</i>, appears to have been universal +among the tribe; but, on the other hand, they seem to have had little or +no hesitation in putting to death <i>those of their own tribe</i>. This writer also +says, that the Gipsies of the Pyrenees have a religion of their own, which +they practise <i>secretly</i>, without mentioning what this secret religion is. It +is probable that his remark is applicable to the sacrifice of horses, as described +in <a href="#Page_257">chapter viii</a>.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>ENGLISH GIPSIES.</h3> + +<p>The first arrival of the Gipsies in England appears to +have been about the year 1512,<a name="FNanchor41" id="FNanchor41"></a><a href="#Footnote41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> but this does not seem to +be quite certain. It is probable they may have arrived +there at an earlier period. The author from which the +fact is derived published his work in 1612, and states, generally, +that “this kind of people, about a hundred years +ago, began to gather an head, about the southern parts. +And this, I am informed and can gather, was their beginning: +Certain Egyptians, banished their country, (belike +not for their good condition,) arrived here in England; +who, for quaint tricks and devices, not known here at that +time among us, were esteemed, and held in great admiration; +insomuch that many of our English loiterers joined +with them, and in time learned their crafty cozening.</p> + +<p>“The speech which they used was the right Egyptian +language, with whom our Englishmen conversing at least +learned their language. These people, continuing about +the country, and practising their cozening art, purchased +themselves great credit among the country people, and got +much by palmistry and telling of fortunes; insomuch that +they pitifully cozened poor country girls both of money, +silver spoons, and the best of their apparel, or any goods +they could make.”<a name="FNanchor42" id="FNanchor42"></a><a href="#Footnote42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> + +<p>From this author it is collected they had a leader of the +name of Giles Hather, who was termed their king; and a +woman of the name of Calot was called queen. These, +riding through the country on horseback, and in strange +attire, had a pretty train after them.<a name="FNanchor43" id="FNanchor43"></a><a href="#Footnote43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>It appears, from this account, that the Gipsies had been +observed on the continent about a hundred years before +they visited England. According to Dr. Bright, they +seemed to have roamed up and down the continent of Europe, +without molestation, for about half a century, before +their true character was perfectly known. If 1512 was +really the year in which these people first set foot in England, +it would seem that the English government had not +been so easily nor so long imposed on as the kings of Scotland, +and the authorities of Europe generally. For we +find that, within about the space of ten years from this +period, they are, by the 10th chapter of the 22d Henry +VIII, denominated “an outlandish people, calling themselves +Egyptians, using no craft nor feat of merchandise, +who have come into this realm, and gone from shire to +shire, and place to place, in great company; and used great +subtlety and crafty means to deceive the people—bearing +them in hand that they, by palmistry, could tell men’s and +women’s fortunes; and so, many times, by craft and subtlety, +have deceived the people for their money; and also have +committed many heinous felonies and robberies.” As far +back as the year 1549, they had become very troublesome +in England, for, on the 22d June of that year, according to +Burnet’s History of the Reformation, “there was privy +search made through all Sussex for all vagabonds, Gipsies, +conspirators, prophesiers, players, and such like.”</p> + +<p>The Gipsies in England still continued to commit numberless +thefts and robberies, in defiance of the existing +statutes; so that each succeeding law enacted against them +became severer than the one which preceded it. The following +is an extract from the 27th Henry VIII: “Whereas, +certain outlandish people, who do not profess any craft or +trade whereby to maintain themselves, but go about in +great numbers, from place to place, using insidious means to +impose on his majesty’s subjects, making them believe that +they understand the art of foretelling to men and women +their good and evil fortunes, by looking in their hands, +whereby they frequently defraud people of their money; +likewise are guilty of thefts and highway robberies: It is +hereby ordered that the said vagrants, commonly called +Egyptians, in case as thieves and rascals . . . . and on the +importation of any such Egyptians, he, the importer, shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +forfeit forty pounds for every trespass.” So much had the +conduct of the Gipsies exasperated the government of Queen +Elizabeth, that it was enacted, during her reign, that “If +any person, being fourteen years, whether natural born subject +or stranger, who had been seen in the fellowship of such +persons, or disguised like them, and remain with them one +month at once, or at several times, it should be felony without +benefit of clergy.”<a name="FNanchor44" id="FNanchor44"></a><a href="#Footnote44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> It would thus appear that, when +the Gipsies first arrived in England, they had not kept +their language a secret, as is now the case; for some of the +Englishmen of that period had acquired it by associating +with them.<a name="FNanchor45" id="FNanchor45"></a><a href="#Footnote45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> + +<p>In carrying out the foregoing extraordinary enactments, +the public was at the expense of exporting the Gipsies to +the continent; and it may reasonably be assumed that great +numbers of these unhappy people were executed under these +sanguinary laws. A few years before the restoration of +Charles II, thirteen Gipsies were executed “at one Suffolk +assize.” This appears to have been the last instance of inflicting +the penalty of death on these unfortunate people in +England, merely because they were Gipsies.<a name="FNanchor46" id="FNanchor46"></a><a href="#Footnote46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> But although +these laws of blood are now repealed, the English Gipsies +are liable, at the present day, to be proceeded against under +the Vagrant Act; as these statutes declare all those persons +“pretending to be Gipsies, or wandering in the habit +and form of Egyptians, shall be deemed rogues and vagabonds.”</p> + +<p>In the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was thought England +contained above 10,000 Gipsies; and Mr. Hoyland, in his +historical survey of these people, supposes that there are +18,000 of the race in Britain at the present day. A member +of Parliament, it is reported, stated, in the House of +Commons, that there were not less than 36,000 Gipsies in +Great Britain. I am inclined to believe that the statement +of the latter will be nearest the truth; as I am convinced +that the greater part of all those persons who traverse England +with earthenware, in carts and waggons, are a superior +class of Gipsies. Indeed, a Scottish Gipsy informed me,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +that almost all those people are actually Gipsies. Now Mr. +Hoyland takes none of these potters into his account, when +he estimates the Gipsy population at only 18,000 souls. +Besides, Gipsies have informed me that Ireland contains a +great many of the tribe; many of whom are now finding +their way into Scotland.<a name="FNanchor47" id="FNanchor47"></a><a href="#Footnote47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>I am inclined to think that the greater part of the English +Gipsies live more apart from the other inhabitants of +the country, reside more in tents, and exhibit a great deal +more of their pristine manners, than their brethren do in +Scotland.<a name="FNanchor48" id="FNanchor48"></a><a href="#Footnote48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>The English Gipsies also travel in Scotland, with earthenware +in carts and waggons. A body of them, to the number +of six tents, with sixteen horses, encamped, on one occasion, +on the farm of Kingledoors, near the source of the +Tweed. They remained on the ground from Saturday night +till about ten o’clock on Monday morning, before they +struck their tents and waggons.</p> + +<p>At St Boswell’s fair I once inspected a horde of English +Gipsies, encamped at the side of a hedge, on the Jedburgh +road as it enters St. Boswell’s Green. Their name was +Blewett, from the neighbourhood of Darlington. The chief +possessed two tents, two large carts laden with earthenware, +four horses and mules, and five large dogs. He was attended +by two old females and ten young children. One of the +women was the mother of fourteen, and the other the +mother of fifteen, children. This chief and the two females +were the most swarthy and barbarous looking people I ever +saw. They had, however, two beautiful children with them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +about five years of age, with light flaxen hair, and very fair +complexions. The old Gipsy women said they were twins; +but they might have been stolen from different parents, for +all that, as there was nothing about them that had the +slightest resemblance to any one of the horde that claimed +them. Apparently much care was taken of them, as they +were very cleanly and neatly kept.<a name="FNanchor49" id="FNanchor49"></a><a href="#Footnote49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> + +<p>This Gipsy potter was a thick-set, stout man, above the +middle size. He was dressed in an old dark-blue frock coat, +with a profusion of black, greasy hair, which covered the +upper part of his broad shoulders. He wore a high-crowned, +narrow-brimmed, old hat, with a lock of his black hair +hanging down before each ear, in the same manner as the +Spanish Gipsies are described by Swinburn. He also wore +a pair of old full-topped boots, pressed half way down his +legs, and wrinkled about his ankles, like buskins. His visage +was remarkably dark and gloomy. He walked up and +down the market alone, without speaking to any one, with a +peculiar air of independence about him, as he twirled in his +hand, in the Gipsy manner, by way of amusement, a strong +bludgeon, about three feet long, which he held by the centre. +I happened to be speaking to a surgeon in the fair, at the +time the Gipsy passed me, when I observed to him that that +strange-looking man was a Gipsy; at which the surgeon +only laughed, and said he did not believe any such thing. +To satisfy him, I followed the Gipsy, at a little distance, +till he led me straight to his tents at the Jedburgh road +already mentioned.</p> + +<p>This Gipsy band had none of their wares unpacked, nor +were they selling anything in the market. They were +cooking a lamb’s head and pluck, in a pan suspended from a +triangle of rods of iron, while beside it lay an abundance +of small potatoes, in a wooden dish. The females wore +black Gipsy bonnets. The visage of the oldest one was remarkably +long, her chin resting on her breast. These three +old Gipsies were, altogether, so dark, grim, and outlandish-looking, +that they had little or no appearance of being +natives of Britain. On enquiring if they were Gipsies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +and could speak the language, the oldest female gave me +the following answer: “We are potters, and strangers in +this land. The people are civil unto us. I say, God bless +the people; God bless them all.” She spoke these words in +a decided, emphatic, and solemn tone, as if she believed +herself possessed of the power to curse or bless at pleasure. +On turning my back, to leave them, I observed them burst +out a laughing; making merry, as I supposed, at the idea of +having deceived me as to the tribe to which they belonged.</p> + +<p>The following anecdote will give some idea of the manner +of life of the Gipsies in England.</p> + +<p>A man, whom I knew, happened to lose his way, one dark +night, in Cambridgeshire. After wandering up and down +for some time, he observed a light, at a considerable distance +from him, within the skirts of a wood, and, being overjoyed +at the discovery, he directed his course toward it; but, before +reaching the fire, he was surprised at hearing a man, a +little way in advance, call out to him, in a loud voice, “Peace +or not peace?” The benighted traveller, glad at hearing +the sound of a human voice, immediately answered, “Peace; +I am a poor Scotchman, and have lost my way in the dark.” +“You can come forward then,” rejoined the sentinel. When +the Scotchman advanced, he found a family of Gipsies, with +only one tent; but, on being conducted further into the +wood, he was introduced to a great company of Gipsies. +They were busily employed in roasting several whole sheep—turning +their carcasses before large fires, on long wooden +poles, instead of iron spits. The racks on which the spits +turned were also made of wood, driven into the ground, +cross-ways, like the letter X. The Gipsies were exceedingly +kind to the stranger, causing him to partake of the victuals +which they had prepared for their feast. He remained with +them the whole night, eating and drinking, and dancing with +his merry entertainers, as if he had been one of themselves. +When day dawned, the Scotchman counted twelve tents +within a short distance of each other. On examining his +position, he found himself a long way out of his road; but +a party of the Gipsies voluntarily offered their services, +and went with him for several miles, and, with great kindness, +conducted him to the road from which he had wandered.</p> + +<p>The crimes of some of the English Gipsies have greatly +exceeded those of the Scottish, such as the latter have been.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +The following details of the history of an English Gipsy +family are taken from a report on the prisons in Northumberland. +The writer of this report does not appear to have +been aware, however, of the family in question being Gipsies, +speaking an Oriental language, and that, according to +the custom of their tribe, a dexterous theft or robbery is +one of the most meritorious actions they can perform.</p> + +<h4>“<i>Crime in Families. William Winters’ Family.</i></h4> + +<p>“William himself, and one of his sons, were hanged together +for murder. Another son committed an offence for +which he was sent to the hulks, and, soon after his release, +was concerned in a murder, for which he was hanged. Three +of the daughters were convicted of various offences, and the +mother was a woman of notorious bad character. The +family was a terror to the neighbourhood, and, according to +report, had been so for generations. The father, with a +woman with whom he cohabited, (himself a married man,) +was hanged for house-breaking. His first wife was a woman +of very bad character, and his second wife was transported. +One of the sons, a notorious thief, and two of the +daughters, were hanged for murder. Mr. Blake believes +that the only member of the family that turned out well was +a girl, who was taken from the father when he was in prison, +previous to execution, and brought up apart from her +brothers and sisters. The grandfather was once in a lunatic +asylum, as a madman. The father had a quarrel with one +of his sons, about the sale of some property, and shot him +dead. The mother co-habited with another man, and was +one morning found dead, with her throat cut. One of the +sons, (not already spoken of,) had a bastard child by one of +his cousins, herself of weak intellect, and, being under suspicion +of having destroyed the child, was arrested. While in +prison, however, and before the trial came on, he destroyed +himself by cutting his throat.”</p> + +<p>This family, I believe, are the Winters noticed by Sir +Walter Scott, in Blackwood’s Magazine, as follows:</p> + +<p>“A gang (of Gipsies), of the name of Winters, long inhabited +the wastes of Northumberland, and committed many +crimes; among others, a murder upon a poor woman, with +singular atrocity, for which one of them was hung in chains<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +near Tonpitt, in Reedsdale. The mortal reliques having +decayed, the lord of the manor has replaced them by a +wooden effigy, and still maintains the gibbet. The remnant +of this gang came to Scotland, about fifteen years ago, and +assumed the Roxburghshire name of Wintirip, as they found +their own something odious. They settled at a cottage +within about four miles of Earlston, and became great plagues +to the country, until they were secured, after a tight battle, +tried before the circuit court at Jedburgh, and banished +back to their native country of England. The dalesmen of +Reedwater showed great reluctance to receive these returned +emigrants. After the Sunday service at a little chapel near +Otterbourne, one of the squires rose, and, addressing the congregation, +told them they would be accounted no longer +Reedsdale men, but Reedsdale women, if they permitted this +marked and atrocious family to enter their district. The +people answered that they would not permit them to come +that way; and the proscribed family, hearing of the unanimous +resolution to oppose their passage, went more southernly, +by the heads of the Tyne, and I never heard more of +them, but I have little doubt they are all hanged.”<a name="FNanchor50" id="FNanchor50"></a><a href="#Footnote50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote41" id="Footnote41"></a><a href="#FNanchor41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Hoyland.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote42" id="Footnote42"></a><a href="#FNanchor42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> A quarto work by S. R., published to detect and expose the art of +juggling and legerdemain, in 1612.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote43" id="Footnote43"></a><a href="#FNanchor43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Hoyland.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote44" id="Footnote44"></a><a href="#FNanchor44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> English acts of Parliament.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote45" id="Footnote45"></a><a href="#FNanchor45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> This does not appear to be necessarily the case. These Englishmen +may have married Gipsies, become Gipsies by adoption, and so learned +the language, as happens at the present day.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote46" id="Footnote46"></a><a href="#FNanchor46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Hoyland.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote47" id="Footnote47"></a><a href="#FNanchor47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> The number of the British Gipsies mentioned here is greatly understated. +See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote48" id="Footnote48"></a><a href="#FNanchor48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> In no part of the world is the Gipsy life more in accordance with the +general idea that the Gipsy is like Cain—a wanderer on the face of the +earth—than in England; for there, the covered cart and the little tent are +the houses of the Gipsy; and he seldom remains more than three days in +the same place. So conducive is the climate of England to beauty, that +nowhere else is the appearance of the race so prepossessing as in that +country. Their complexion is dark, but not disagreeably so; their faces +are oval, their features regular, their foreheads rather low, and their hands +and feet small. The men are taller than the English peasantry, and far +more active. They all speak the English language with fluency, and in +their gait and demeanour are easy and graceful; in both respects standing +in striking contrast with the peasantry, who, in speech, are slow and uncouth, +and, in manner, dogged and brutal.—<i>Borrow.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote49" id="Footnote49"></a><a href="#FNanchor49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> It does not follow, from what our author says about these two children, +that they were stolen. I have seen some of the children of English Gipsies +as fair as any Saxon. It sometimes happens that the flaxen hair of a +Gipsy child will change into raven black before he reaches manhood.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote50" id="Footnote50"></a><a href="#FNanchor50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> It is but just to say that this family of Winters is, or at least was, the +worst kind of English Gipsies. Their name is a by-word among the race +in England. When they say, “It’s a winter morning,” they wish to express +something very bad. It is difficult to get them to admit that the +Winters belong to the tribe—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>SCOTTISH GIPSIES, DOWN TO THE YEAR 1715.</h3> + +<p>That the Gipsies were in Scotland in the year 1506 is +certain, as appears by a letter of James IV, of Scotland, to +the King of Denmark, in favour of Anthonius Gawino, Earl +of Little Egypt, a Gipsy chief. But there is a tradition, recorded +in Crawford’s Peerage, that a company of Gipsies, +or Saracens, were committing depredations in Scotland before +the death of James II, which took place in 1460, being +forty-six years after the Gipsies were first observed on the +continent of Europe, and it is, therefore, probable that these +wanderers were encamped on Scottish ground before the +year 1460, above mentioned. As I am not aware of Saracens +ever having set foot in Scotland, England, or Ireland, I +am disposed to think, if there is any truth in this tradition, +it alludes to the Gipsies.<a name="FNanchor51" id="FNanchor51"></a><a href="#Footnote51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> The story relates to the estate +and family of McLellan of Bombie, in Galloway, and is as +follows:</p> + +<p>In the reign of James II, the Barony of Bombie was again +recovered by the McLellans, (as the tradition goes,) after +this manner: In the same reign, says our author of small +credit, (Sir George McKenzie, in his baronage M.S.,) it happened +that a company of Saracens or Gipsies, from Ireland,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span><a name="FNanchor52" id="FNanchor52"></a><a href="#Footnote52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> +infested the county of Galloway, whereupon the king intimated +a proclamation, bearing, that whoever should disperse +them, and bring in their captain, dead or alive, should have +the Barony of Bombie for his reward. It chanced that a +brave young gentleman, the laird of Bombie’s son, fortunated +to kill the person for which the reward was promised, and +he brought his head on the point of his sword to the king, +and thereupon he was immediately seized in the Barony of +Bombie; and to perpetuate the memory of that brave and +remarkable action, he took for his crest a Moor’s head, and +‘Think on’ for his motto.<a name="FNanchor53" id="FNanchor53"></a><a href="#Footnote53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p>As armorial bearings were generally assumed to commemorate +facts and deeds of arms, it is likely that the crest of +the McLellans is the head of a <i>Gipsy</i> chief. In the reign +of James II, alluded to, we find “away putting of <i>sorners</i>, +(forcible obtruders,) fancied fools, vagabonds, out-liers, masterful +beggars, <i>bairds</i>, (strolling rhymers,) and such like +runners about,” is more than once enforced by acts of parliament.<a name="FNanchor54" id="FNanchor54"></a><a href="#Footnote54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> + +<p>But the earliest authentic notice which has yet been discovered +of the first appearance of the Gipsies in Scotland, is +the letter of James IV, to the King of Denmark, in 1506. +At this period these vagrants represented themselves as +Egyptian pilgrims, and so far imposed on our religious and +melancholy monarch, as to procure from him a favourable +recommendation to his uncle of Denmark, in behalf of one of +these “Earls,” and his “lamentable retinue.” The following +is a translation of this curious epistle:</p> + +<p>“Most illustrious, &c.—Anthonius Gawino, Earl of Little +Egypt, and the other afflicted and lamentable tribe of his retinue, +whilst, through a desire of travelling, and, by command +of the Pope,<a name="FNanchor55" id="FNanchor55"></a><a href="#Footnote55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> (as he says,) pilgriming, over the Christian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +world, according to their custom, had lately arrived on the +frontiers of our kingdom, and implored us that we, out of +humanity, would allow him to approach our limits without +damage, and freely carry about all things, and the company +he now has. He easily obtains what the hard fortune +wretched men require. Thus he has sojourned here, (as we +have been informed,) for several months, in peaceable and +catholic manner. King and uncle, he now proposes a voyage +to Denmark to thee. But, being about to cross the ocean, +he hath requested our letters, in which we would inform +your Highness of these, and at the same time commend the +calamity of this tribe to your royal munificence. But we +believe that the fates, manners, and race of the wandering +Egyptians are better known to thee than us, because Egypt +is nearer thy kingdom, and a greater number of such men +sojourn in thy kingdom.—Most illustrious, &c.”<a name="FNanchor56" id="FNanchor56"></a><a href="#Footnote56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> + +<p>From 1506 to 1540, the 28th of the reign of James V, +we find that the true character of the Gipsies had not +reached the Scottish court; for, in 1540, the king of Scotland +entered into a league or treaty with “John Faw, +Lord and Earl of Little Egypt;” and a writ passed the +Privy Seal, the same year, in favour of this Prince or <i>Rajah</i> +of the Gipsies. As the public edicts in favour of this race +are extremely rare, I trust a copy of this curious document, +in this place, may not be unacceptable to the reader.<a name="FNanchor57" id="FNanchor57"></a><a href="#Footnote57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> + +<p>“James, by the grace of God, King of Scots: To our +sheriffs of Edinburgh, principal and within the constabulary +of Haddington, Berwick, Roxburgh, &c., &c.; provosts, +aldermen, and baillies of our burghs and cities of Edinburgh, +&c., &c., greeting: Forasmuch as it is humbly meant and +shown to us, by our loved John Faw, Lord and Earl of Little +Egypt, that whereas he obtained our letter under our great +seal, direct you all and sundry our said sheriffs, stewarts, +baillies, provosts, aldermen, and baillies of burghs, and to +all and sundry others having authority within our realm, to +assist him in execution of justice upon his company and +folk, conform to the laws of Egypt, and in punishing of all +them that rebel against him: nevertheless, as we are informed, +Sebastiane Lalow Egyptian, one of the said John’s +company, with his accomplices and partakers under written, +that is to say, Anteane Donea, Satona Fingo, Nona Finco, +Phillip Hatseyggaw, Towla Bailyow, Grasta Neyn, Geleyr +Bailyow, Bernard Beige, Demeo Matskalla (or Macskalla), +Notfaw Lawlowr, Martyn Femine, rebels and conspirators +against the said John Faw, and have removed them all +utterly out of his company, and taken from him divers sums +of money, jewels, clothes and other goods, to the quantity +of a great sum of money; and on nowise will pass home +with him, howbeit he has bidden and remained of long time +upon them, and is bound and obliged to bring home with +him all them of his company that are alive, and a testimony +of them that are dead: and as the said John has the said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +Sebastiane’s obligation, made in Dunfermline before our +master household, that he and his company should remain +with him, and on nowise depart from him, as the same bears: +In contrary to the tenor of which, the said Sebastiane, by +sinister and wrong information, false relation, circumvention +of us, has purchased our writings, discharging him and the +remnant of the persons above written, his accomplices and +partakers of the said John’s company, and with his goods +taken by them from him; causes certain our lieges assist +them and their opinions, and to fortify and take their part +against the said John, their lord and master; so that he on +nowise can apprehend nor get them, to have them home +again within their own country, after the tenor of his said +bond, to his heavy damage and <i>skaith</i> (hurt), and in great +peril of losing his heritage, and expressly against justice: +Our will is, therefore, and we charge you straightly and +command that . . . . . . . . . . ye and every one of you +within the bounds of your offices, command and charge all +our lieges, that none of them take upon hand to reset, +assist, fortify, supply, maintain, defend, or take part with +the said Sebastiane and his accomplices above written, for +no body’s nor other way, against the said John Faw, their +lord and master; but that they and ye, in likewise, take +and lay hands upon them wherever they may be apprehended, +and bring them to him, to be punished for their demerits, +conform to his laws; and help and fortify him to punish and +do justice upon them for their trespasses; and to that effect +lend him your prisons, stocks, fetters, and all other things +necessary thereto, as ye and each of you, and all other our +lieges, will answer to us thereupon, and under all highest +pain and charge that after may follow: So that the said +John have no cause of complaint thereupon in time coming, +nor to resort again to us to that effect, notwithstanding any +our writings, sinisterly purchased or to be purchased, by the +said Sebastiane on the contrary: And also charge all our +lieges that none of them molest, vex, unquiet, or trouble the +said John Faw and his company, in doing their lawful business, +or otherwise, within our realm, and in their passing, +remaining, or away-going forth of the same, under the pain +above written: And such-like that ye command and charge +all skippers, masters and mariners of all ships within our +realm, at all ports and havens where the said John and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +company shall happen to resort and come, to receive him +and them therein, upon their expenses, for furthering of them +forth of our realm to the parts beyond sea, as you and each +of them such-like will answer to us thereupon, and under +the pain aforesaid. Subscribed with our hand, and under +our privy seal at Falkland, the fifteenth day of February, +and of our reign the 28th year.”<a name="FNanchor58" id="FNanchor58"></a><a href="#Footnote58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>This curious league of John Faw with the Scottish king, +who acknowledges the laws and customs of the Gipsies +within his kingdom, was of very short duration. Like that +of many other favourites of princes, the credit which the +“Earl of Little Egypt” possessed at court was, the succeeding +year, completely annihilated, and that with a vengeance, +as will appear by the following order in council. The Gipsies, +quarrelling among themselves, and publicly bringing +their matters of dispute before the government, had, perhaps, +contributed to produce an enquiry into the real character +and conduct of these foreigners; verifying the ancient +adage, that a house divided against itself cannot stand. +But the immediate cause assigned for the sudden change of +mind in the king, so unfortunate for the Gipsies, is handed +down to us in the following tradition, current in Fife:</p> + +<p>King James V, as he was travelling through part of his +dominions, disguised under the character of the Gaberlunzie-man, +or Guid-man of Ballangiegh, prosecuting, as was his +custom, his low and vague amours, fell in with a band of +Gipsies, in the midst of their carousals, in a cave, near +Wemyss, in Fifeshire. His majesty heartily joined in their +revels, but it was not long before a scuffle ensued, wherein +the king was very roughly handled, being in danger of his +life.<a name="FNanchor59" id="FNanchor59"></a><a href="#Footnote59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> The Gipsies, perceiving at last that he was none of +their people, and considering him a spy, treated him with +great indignity. Among other humiliating insults, they +compelled his royal majesty, as an humble servant of a Tinkler, +to carry their budgets and wallets on his back, for +several miles, until he was exhausted; and being unable to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +proceed a step further, he sank under his load. He was +then dismissed with scorn and contempt by the merciless +Gipsies. Being exasperated at their cruel and contemptuous +treatment of his sacred person, and having seen a fair specimen +of their licentious manner of life, the king caused an order +in council immediately to be issued, declaring that, if <i>three</i> +Gipsies were found together, one of the three was instantly +to be seized, and forthwith hanged or shot, by any one of +his majesty’s subjects that chose to put the order in execution.</p> + +<p>This tradition is noticed by the Rev. Andrew Small, in +his antiquities of Fife, in the following words. His book +came into my hands after I had written down my account +of the tradition.</p> + +<p>“But, surely, this would be the last tinker that ever he +would dub (a knight). If we may judge from what happened, +one might imagine he, (James V,) would be heartily +sick of them, (tinkers,) being taken prisoner by three of them, +and compelled to stay with them several days, so that his +nobles lost all trace of him, and being also forced, not only +to lead their ass, but likewise to assist it in carrying part of +the panniers! At length he got an opportunity, when they +were bousing in a house at the east end of the village of +Milnathort, where there is now a new meeting-house built, +when he was left on the green with the ass. He contrived +to write, some way, on a slip of paper, and gave a boy half-a-crown +to run with it to Falkland, and give it to his nobles, +intimating that the guid-man of Ballangiegh was in a +state of captivity. After they got it, and knew where he +was, they were not long in being with him, although it was +fully ten miles they had to ride. Whenever he got assistance, +he caused two of the tinkers, that were most harsh +and severe to him, to be hanged immediately, and let the +third one, that was most favourable to him, go free. They +were hanged a little south-west of the village, at a place +which, from the circumstance, is called the Gallow-hill to +this day. The two skeletons were lately found after the +division of the commonty that recently took place. He also, +after this time, made a law, that whenever three tinkers, or +Gipsies, were found going together, two of them should be +hanged, and the third set at liberty.”<a name="FNanchor60" id="FNanchor60"></a><a href="#Footnote60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>The following order in council is, perhaps, the one to +which this tradition alludes:</p> + +<p>“Act of the lords of council respecting John Faw, &c., +June 6, 1541. The which day anent the complaint given +by John Faw and his brother, and Sebastiane Lalow, +Egyptians, to the King’s grace, ilk ane plenizeand . . . . +upon other and divers faults and injuries; and that it is +agreed among them to pass home, and have the same decided +before the Duke of Egypt.<a name="FNanchor61" id="FNanchor61"></a><a href="#Footnote61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> The lords of council, being +advised with the points of the said complaints, and understanding +perfectly the great thefts and <i>skaiths</i> (hurts) done +by the said Egyptians upon our sovereign lord’s lieges, wherever +they come or resort, ordain letters to be directed to the +provosts and baillies of Edinburgh, St. Johnstown (Perth), +Dundee, Montrose, Aberdeen, St. Andrews, Elgin, Forres, +and Inverness; and to the sheriffs of Edinburgh, Fife, +Perth, Forfar, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Elgin and Forres, +Banff, Cromarty, Inverness, and all other sheriffs, stewarts, +provosts and baillies, where it happens the said Egyptians to +resort.<a name="FNanchor62" id="FNanchor62"></a><a href="#Footnote62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> To command and charge them, by open proclamation, +at the market crosses of the head burghs of the sheriffdoms, +to depart forth of this realm, with their wives, children, +and companies, within xxx days after they be charged +thereto, under the pain of death; notwithstanding any +other letters or privileges granted to them by the king’s +grace, because his grace, with the advice of the lords, has +discharged the same for the causes aforesaid: with certification +that if they be found in this realm, the said xxx days +being past, they shall be taken and put to death.”<a name="FNanchor63" id="FNanchor63"></a><a href="#Footnote63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<p>This sharp order in council seems to have been the first +edict banishing the Gipsies as a whole people—men, women,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +and children—from Scotland. But the king, whom, according +to tradition, they had personally so deeply offended, dying +in the following year, (1542) a new reign brought new +prospects to the denounced wanderers.<a name="FNanchor64" id="FNanchor64"></a><a href="#Footnote64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> They seem to have +had the address to recover their credit with the succeeding +government; for, in 1553, the writ which passed the privy +seal in 1540, forming a sort of league with “John Faw, Lord +and Earl of Little Egypt,” was renewed by Hamilton, Earl +of Arran, then Regent during the minority of Queen Mary. +McLaurin, in his criminal trials, when speaking of John +Faw, gravely calls him “this peer.” “There is a writ,” +says he, “of the same tenor in favour of this peer from Queen +Mary, same record, 25 April, 1553; and 8 April, 1554, he +gets remission for the slaughter of Ninian Small.” In Blackwood’s +Magazine it is mentioned that “Andro Faw, Captain +of the Egyptians,<a name="FNanchor65" id="FNanchor65"></a><a href="#Footnote65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> and twelve of his gang specified by name, +obtained a remission for the slaughter of Ninian Small, committed +within the town of Linton, in the month of March +last by past upon suddenly.” This appears to be the slaughter +to which McLaurin alludes. The following are the +names of these thirteen Gipsies: “Andro Faw, captain of +the Egyptians, George Faw, Robert Faw, and Anthony Faw, +his sons, Johnne Faw, Andrew George Nichoah, George +Sebastiane Colyne, George Colyne, Julie Colyne, Johnne +Colyne, James Haw, Johnne Browne, and George Browne, +Egyptians.”</p> + +<p>From the edict above mentioned, it is evident that the +Gipsies in Scotland, at that time, were allowed to punish the +criminal members of their own tribe, according to their own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +peculiar laws, customs and usages, without molestation. And +it cannot be supposed that the ministers of three or four succeeding +monarchs would have suffered their sovereigns to be +so much imposed on, as to allow them to put their names to +public documents, styling poor and miserable wretches, as +we at the present day imagine them to have been, “Lords +and Earls of Little Egypt.” Judging from the accounts +which tradition has handed down to us, of the gay and fashionable +appearance of the principal Gipsies, as late as about +the beginning of the eighteenth century, as will be seen in +my account of the Tweed-dale bands, I am disposed to believe +that Anthonius Gawino, in 1506, and John Faw, in +1540, would personally, as individuals, that is, as Gipsy +Rajahs,<a name="FNanchor66" id="FNanchor66"></a><a href="#Footnote66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> have a very respectable and imposing appearance +in the eyes of the officers of the crown. And besides, John +Faw appears to have been possessed of “divers sums of +money, jewels, clothes and other goods, to the quantity of a +great sum of money;” and it would seem that some of the +officers of high rank in the household of our kings had fingered +the cash of the Gipsy pilgrims. If there is any truth +in the popular and uniform tradition that, in the seventeenth +century, a Countess of Cassilis was seduced from her duty +to her lord, and carried off by a Gipsy, of the name of John +Faa, and his band, it cannot be imagined, that the seducer +would be a poor, wretched, beggarly Tinkler, such as many +of the tribe are at this day. If a handsome person, elegant +apparel, a lively disposition, much mirth and glee, and a constant +boasting of extraordinary prowess, would in any +way contribute to make an impression on the heart of the +frail countess, these qualities, I am disposed to think, would +not be wanting in the “Gipsy Laddie.” And, moreover, +John Faw bore, on paper at least, as high a title as her +husband, Lord Cassilis, from whom she absconded. It is +said the individual who seduced the fair lady was a Sir +John Faw, of Dunbar, her former sweetheart, and not a +Gipsy; but tradition gives no account of a Sir John Faw, of +Dunbar.<a name="FNanchor67" id="FNanchor67"></a><a href="#Footnote67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> The Falls, merchants, at Dunbar, were descended +from the Gipsy Faas of Yetholm.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>It is pretty clear that the Gipsies remained in Scotland, +with little molestation, from 1506 till 1579—the year in +which James VI took the government into his own hands, +being a period of about seventy-three years, during which +time these wanderers roamed up and down the kingdom, +without receiving any check of consequence, excepting the +short period—probably about one year—in which the severe +order of James V remained in force, and which, in all probability, +expired with the king.<a name="FNanchor68" id="FNanchor68"></a><a href="#Footnote68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p> + +<p>The civil and religious contests in which the nation had +been long engaged, particularly during the reign of Queen +Mary, produced numerous swarms of banditti, who committed +outrages in every part of the country. The slighter depredations +of the Gipsy bands, in the midst of the fierce and +bloody quarrels of the different factions that generally prevailed +throughout the kingdom, would attract but little attention, +and the Gipsies would thereby escape the punishment +which their actions merited. But the government being +more firmly established, by the union of the different parties +who distracted the country, and the king assuming the supreme +authority, which all acknowledged, vigorous measures +were adopted for suppressing the excess of strolling vagabonds +of every description. In the very year the king was +placed at the head of affairs, a law was passed, “For punishment +of strong and idle beggars, and relief of the poor and +impotent.”</p> + +<p>Against the Gipsies this sweeping statute is particularly +directed, for they are named, and some of their practices +pointed out, in the following passage: “And that it may be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +known what manner of persons are meant to be strong and +idle beggars and vagabonds, and worthy of the punishment +before specified, it is declared that all idle persons going +about the country of this realm, using subtle, crafty and unlawful +plays—as jugglery, fast-and-loose, and such others, the +idle people calling themselves Egyptians, or any other that +fancy themselves to have knowledge of prophecy, charming, +or other abused sciences, whereby they persuade the people +that they can tell their weirds, deaths, and fortunes, and +such other fantastical imaginations.”<a name="FNanchor69" id="FNanchor69"></a><a href="#Footnote69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> And the following is +the mode prescribed for punishing the Gipsies, and the other +offenders associated with them in this act of parliament: +“That such as make themselves fools and are <i>bairds</i>, (strolling +rhymers,) or other such like runners about, being apprehended, +shall be put in the king’s ward, or irons, so long as +they have any goods of their own to live on, and if they have +not whereupon to live of their own, that their ears be nailed +to the tron or other tree, and cut off, and (themselves) banished +the country; and if thereafter they be found again, +that they be hanged.”<a name="FNanchor70" id="FNanchor70"></a><a href="#Footnote70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> + +<p>This statute was ratified and confirmed in the 12th parliament +of James VI, cap. 147, 5th June, 1592, wherein the +incorrigible Gipsies are again referred to: “And for the +better trial of common <i>sorners</i> (forcible obtruders,) vagabonds, +and masterful beggars, fancied fools, and counterfeit +Egyptians, and to the effect that they may be still preserved +till they be compelled to settle at some certain +dwelling, or be expelled forth of the country, &c.” +The next law in which the Gipsies are mentioned, with +other vagabonds, was passed in the 15th parliament of the +same reign, 19th December, 1597, entitled, “Strong beggars, +vagabonds, and Egyptians should be punished.” The +statute itself reads as follows: “Our sovereign lord and estates +of parliament ratify and approve the acts of parliament<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +made before, against strong and idle beggars, vagabonds, +and Egyptians,” with this addition: “That strong beggars +and their children be employed in common works, and their +service mentioned in the said act of parliament, in the year +of God, 1579, to be prorogate in during their life times, &c.”<a name="FNanchor71" id="FNanchor71"></a><a href="#Footnote71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> + +<p>All the foregoing laws were again ratified and enforced +by another act, in the same reign, 15th November, 1600. +The following extract will serve to give some explanation +how these statutes were neglected, and seldom put in force: +“And how the said acts have received little or no effect or +execution, by the oversight and negligence of the persons +who were nominated justices and commissioners, for putting +of the said acts to full and due execution, so that the strong +and idle beggars, being for the most part thieves, <i>bairds</i>, +(strolling rhymers,) and counterfeit <i>limmers</i>, (scoundrels,) +living most insolently and ungodly, without marriage or baptism, +are suffered to <i>vaig</i> and wander throughout the whole +country.”<a name="FNanchor72" id="FNanchor72"></a><a href="#Footnote72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> “But,” says Baron Hume, “all ordinary means +having proved insufficient to restrain so numerous and so +sturdy a crew, the privy council at length, in June, 1603, +were induced to venture on the more effectual expedient, +(recommended by the example of some other realm,) of at +once ordering the whole race to leave the kingdom by a certain +day, and never to return under the pain of death.<a name="FNanchor73" id="FNanchor73"></a><a href="#Footnote73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> A +few years after, this proclamation was converted into perpetual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +law, by statute 1609, cap. 13, with this farther convenient, +but very severe, provision toward the more effectual +execution of the order, that it should be lawful to condemn +and execute them to the death, upon proof made of the single +fact ‘that they are called, known, repute and holden Egyptians’!” +As this is the only statute exclusively relating to, +and denouncing, the Gipsies, I shall give it at length.</p> + +<p>“13. Act anent the Egyptians. Our sovereign lord and +estates of parliament ratify, approve, and perpetually confirm +the act of secret council, made in the month of June or +thereby, 1603 years, and proclamation following thereupon, +commanding the vagabonds, <i>sorners</i> (forcible obtruders), and +common thieves, commonly called Egyptians, to pass forth +of this kingdom, and remain perpetually forth thereof, and +never to return within the same, under pain of death; and +that the same have force and execution after the first day +of August next to come. After the which time, if any of +the said vagabonds, called Egyptians, as well women as +men, shall be found within this kingdom, or any part thereof, +it shall be lawful to all his majesty’s good subjects, or +any one of them, to cause take, apprehend, imprison, and +execute to death the said Egyptians, either men or women, +as common, notorious, and condemned thieves, by one assize +only to be tried, that they are called, known, repute and +holden Egyptians: In the which cause, whosoever of the +assize happen to <i>clenge</i> (exculpate) any of the aforesaid +Egyptians pannelled, as said is, shall be pursued, handled +and censured as committers of wilful error: And whoever +shall, any time thereafter, reset, receive, supply, or entertain +any of the said Egyptians, either men or women, shall lose +their escheat, and be warded at the judge’s will: And that +the sheriffs and magistrates, in whose bounds they shall publicly +and avowedly resort and remain, be called before the +lords of his highness’ secret council, and severely censured +and punished for their negligence in execution of this act: +Discharging all letters, protections, and warrants whatsoever, +purchased by the said Egyptians, or any of them, from his +majesty or lords of secret council, for their remaining within +this realm, as surreptitiously and deceitfully obtained by +their knowledge: Annulling also all warrants purchased, +or hereafter to be purchased, by any subject of whatsoever +rank within this kingdom, for their reset, entertaining, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +doing any manner of favour to the said Egyptians, at any +time after the said first day of August next to come, for now +and ever.”<a name="FNanchor74" id="FNanchor74"></a><a href="#Footnote74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> In a subsequent enactment, in 1617, appointing +justices of the peace and constables, the destruction of +the proscribed Egyptians is particularly enjoined, in defining +the different duties of the magistrates and their peace +officers.<a name="FNanchor75" id="FNanchor75"></a><a href="#Footnote75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p> + +<p>But so little respected was the authority of the government, +that in 1612, three years after the passing of the +Gipsy act, his majesty was under the humiliating necessity +of entering into a contract with the clan Scott, and their +friends, by which the clan bound themselves “to give up all +bands of friendship, kindness, oversight, maintenance or assurance, +if any we have, with common thieves and broken +clans, &c.” It is certain there would be many bonds of the +same nature with other turbulent clans throughout the kingdom. +That Scotchmen of respectability and influence protected +the Gipsies, and afforded them shelter on their lands, +after the promulgation of the cruel statute of 1609, is manifest +from the following passages, which I extract from Blackwood’s +Magazine, for 1817; the conductor of which seems +to have been careful in examining the public records for the +documents quoted by him; having been guided in his researches, +I believe, by Sir Walter Scott.</p> + +<p>“In February, 1615, we find a remission under the privy +seal, granted to William Auchterlony, of Cayrine, for resetting +of John Faw and his followers.<a name="FNanchor76" id="FNanchor76"></a><a href="#Footnote76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> On the 14th July, +1616, the sheriff of Forfar is severely reprimanded for delaying +to execute some Gipsies, who had been taken within his +jurisdiction, and for troubling the council with petitions in +their behalf. In November following appears a proclamation +against Egyptians and their resetters. In December, +1619, we find another proclamation against resetters of them;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +in April, 1620, another proclamation of the same kind, and +in July, 1620, a commission against resetters, all with very +severe penalties. The nature of these acts will be better +understood from the following extract from that of the 4th +July, 1616, which also very well explains the way in which +the Gipsies contrived to maintain their footing in the country, +in defiance of all the efforts of the legislature to extirpate +them.” “It is of truth that the thieves and <i>limmers</i> +(scoundrels), aforesaid, having for some short space after the +said act of parliament, (1609,) . . . dispersed themselves +in certain secret and obscure places of the country . . . +they were not known to wander abroad in troops and companies, +according to their accustomed manner, yet, shortly +thereafter, finding that the said act of parliament was neglected, +and that no enquiry nor . . . was made for +them, they began to take new breath and courage, and . . . +unite themselves in infamous companies and societies, under +. . . commanders, and continually since then have remained +within the country, committing as well open and +avowed <i>rieffis</i> (robberies) in all parts . . . murders, +. . . <i>pleine stouthe</i> (common theft) and pickery, where +they may not be mastered; and they do shamefully and mischievously +abuse the simple and ignorant people, by telling +fortunes, and using charms, and a number of juggling tricks +and falseties, unworthy to be heard of in a country subject +to religion, law, and justice; and they are encouraged to +remain within the country, and to continue in their thievish +and juggling tricks and falseties, not only through default +of the execution of the said act of parliament, but, what is +worse, that great numbers of his majesty’s subjects, of whom +some outwardly pretend to be famous and unspotted gentlemen, +have given and give open and avowed protection, reset, +supply and maintainance, upon their grounds and lands, to +the said vagabonds, <i>sorners</i>, (forcible obtruders,) and condemned +thieves and <i>limmers</i>, (scoundrels,) and suffer them to +remain days, weeks, and months together thereupon, without +controulment, and with connivance and oversight, &c.” “So +they do leave a foul, infamous, and ignominious spot upon +them, their houses, and posterity, that they are patrons to +thieves and <i>limmers</i>, (scoundrels,)” &c.<a name="FNanchor77" id="FNanchor77"></a><a href="#Footnote77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>From their first arrival in the country till 1579, the Gipsies, +as already mentioned, appear to have been treated as a +separate people, observing their own laws and customs. In +the year 1587, such was the state of society in Scotland, +that laws were passed by James VI, compelling all the +baronial proprietors of lands, chiefs and captains of clans, +on the Borders and Highlands of Scotland, to find pledges +and securities for the peaceable conduct of their retainers, +tenants, clansmen, and other inhabitants of their respective +estates and districts.<a name="FNanchor78" id="FNanchor78"></a><a href="#Footnote78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> In the same parliament another act +was passed, allowing vagabonds and broken and unpledged +men to produce pledges and securities for their good conduct. +The Gipsies, under these statutes, would remain unmolested, +as they would readily find protection by becoming, +nominally, clansmen, and assuming the surnames, of those +chieftains and noblemen who were willing and able to afford +them protection.<a name="FNanchor79" id="FNanchor79"></a><a href="#Footnote79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> Indeed, the act allowing vagabonds to +find sureties would include the Gipsy bands, for, about this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +period, they seem to have been only classed with our own +native vagabonds, moss-troopers, Border and Highland +thieves, broken clans and masterless men. It appears by +the act of 1609, that the Gipsies had even purchased their +protection from the government. The inhabitants of Scotland +being at this period still divided into clans, would +greatly facilitate the escape of the Gipsies from the laws +passed against them. The clans on the Borders and Highlands +were in a state of almost constant warfare with one +another; and frequently several of the clans were united in +opposition to the regular government of the country, to +whose mandates they paid little or no regard. The Gipsies +had no settled residence, but roamed from place to place +over the whole country; and when they found themselves +in danger in one place, they had no more to do but remove +into the district inhabited by a hostile clan, where they +would immediately find protection. Besides, the Borderers +and Highlanders, themselves plunderers and thieves, would +not be very active in apprehending their brother thieves, +the Gipsies. Even, according to Holinshed, “the poison of +theft and robbery pervaded almost all classes of the Scottish +community about this period.”</p> + +<p>The excessive severity of the sanguinary statute of 1609, +and the unrelenting manner in which it was often carried +into effect, were calculated to produce a great outward +change on the Scottish Gipsies. Like stags selected from a +herd of deer, and doomed to be hunted down by dogs, these +wanderers were now singled out, and separated from the +community, as objects to whom no mercy was to be shown.<a name="FNanchor80" id="FNanchor80"></a><a href="#Footnote80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> +The word Egyptian would never be allowed to escape their +lips; not a syllable of their peculiar speech would be uttered, +unless in the midst of their own tribe. It is also highly +probable that every part of their dress by which their fraternity +could be recognized, would be carefully discontinued. +To deceive the public, they would also conform <i>externally</i> +to some of the religious rites, ceremonies, observances, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +other customs of the natives of Scotland. I am further inclined +to think that it would be about this period, and chiefly +in consequence of these bloody enactments, the Gipsies +would, in general, assume the ordinary christian and surnames +common at that time in Scotland. And their usual +sagacity pointed out to them the advantages arising from +taking the cognomens of the most powerful families in +the kingdom, whose influence would afford them ample +protection, as adopted members of their respective clans. +In support of my opinion of the origin of the surnames of +the Gipsies of the present day, we find that the most prevailing +names among them are those of the most influential +of our noble families of Scotland; such as Stewart, Gordon, +Douglas, Graham, Ruthven, Hamilton, Drummond, Kennedy, +Cunningham, Montgomery, Kerr, Campbell, Maxwell, Johnstone, +Ogilvie, McDonald, Robertson, Grant, Baillie, Shaw, +Burnet, Brown, Keith, &c.<a name="FNanchor81" id="FNanchor81"></a><a href="#Footnote81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> If, even at the present day, +you enquire at the Gipsies respecting their descent, the +greater part of them will tell you that they are sprung +from a bastard son of this or that noble family, or other +person of rank and influence, of their own surname.<a name="FNanchor82" id="FNanchor82"></a><a href="#Footnote82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> This +pretended connexion with families of high rank and power +has saved some of the tribe from the gallows even in our own +time. The names, however, of the two principal families, +Faw, (now Faa,) and Bailyow, (now Baillie,) appear not to +have been changed since the date of the order in council or +league with James V, in the year 1540, as both of these +names are inserted in that document.</p> + +<p>Baron Hume, on the criminal law of Scotland, gives the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +following account of some of the trials and executions of +the Gipsies:</p> + +<p>“The statute (1609) annuls at the same time all protection +and warrants purchased by the Egyptians from his majesty’s +privy council, for their remaining within the realm; as also +all privileges purchased by any person to reset, entertain, or +do them any favour. It appears, indeed, from a paper in +the appendix to McLaurin’s Cases, that even the king’s servants +and great officers had not kept their hands entirely +pure of this sort of treaty with the Egyptian chiefs, from +whom some supply of money might in this way be occasionally +obtained.</p> + +<p>“The first Gipsies that were brought to trial on the +statute, were four persons of the name of Faa, who, on the +31st July, 1611, were sentenced to be hanged. They had +pleaded upon a special license from the privy council, to +abide within the country; but this appearing to be clogged +with a condition of finding surety for their appearance +when called on, and their surety being actually at the horn, +for failure to present themselves, they were held to have infringed +the terms of their protection.</p> + +<p>“The next trial was on the 19th and 24th July, 1616, in +the case of other two Faas and a Baillie, (which seem to +have been noted names among the Gipsies;) and here was +started that plea which has since been repeated in almost +every case, but has always been overruled, viz: that the act +and proclamation were temporary ordinances, and applicable +only to such Egyptians as were in the country at their date. +These pannels, upon conviction, were ordered by the privy +council to find caution to the extent of 1,000 merks, to leave +Scotland and never to return; and having failed to comply +with this injunction, they were in consequence condemned to +die.</p> + +<p>“In January, 1624, follows a still more severe example; +no fewer than eight men, among whom Captain John Faa +and other five of the name of Faa, being convicted, were +doomed to death on the statute. Some days after, there +were brought to trial Helen Faa, relict of Captain Faa, +Lucretia Faa, and other women to the number of eleven; all +of whom were in like manner convicted, and condemned to +be drowned! But, in the end, their doom was commuted +for banishment, (under pain of death,) to them and all their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +race. The sentence was, however, executed on the male +convicts; and it appears that the terror of their fate had +been of material service; as, for the space of more than 50 +years from that time, there is no trial of an Egyptian.”</p> + +<p>But notwithstanding this statement of Baron Hume, of +the Gipsy trials having ceased for half a century, we find, +twelve years after 1624, the date of the above trials, the +following order of the privy council: “Anent some Egyptians. +At Edinburgh, 10th November, 1636. Forasmuch as Sir +Arthur Douglas of Quhittinghame having lately taken and +apprehended some of the vagabond and counterfeit thieves +and <i>limmers</i>, (scoundrels,) called the Egyptians, he presented +and delivered them to the sheriff principal of the sheriffdom +of Edinburgh, within the constabulary of Haddington, +where they have remained this month or thereby: and +whereas the keeping of them longer, within the said tolbooth, +is troublesome and burdensome to the town of Haddington, +and fosters the said thieves in an opinion of impunity, to +the encouraging of the rest of that infamous <i>byke</i> (hive) of +lawless <i>limmers</i> (scoundrels) to continue in their thievish +trade: Therefore the lords of secret council ordain the +sheriff of Haddington, or his deputies, to pronounce doom +and sentence of death against so many of these counterfeit +thieves as are men, and against so many of the women as +want children; ordaining the men to be hanged, and the +women to be drowned; and that such of the women as have +children, to be scourged through the burgh of Haddington, +and burned in the cheek; and ordain and command the +provost and baillies of Haddington to cause this doom be +executed upon the said persons accordingly.”<a name="FNanchor83" id="FNanchor83"></a><a href="#Footnote83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> + +<p>“Towards the end of that century,” continues Baron +Hume, “the nuisance seems to have again become troublesome. +On the 13th of December, 1698, John Baillie and +six men more of the same name, along with the wife of one +of them, were indicted as Egyptians, and also for sundry +special misdeeds; and being convicted, (all but the woman,) +they were ordered for execution. But in this case it is to +be remarked, that the court had so far departed from the +rigour of the statute as not to sustain a relevancy on the +habit and repute of being an Egyptian of itself, but only +‘along with one or other of the facts of picking and little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +thieving;’ thus requiring some proof of actual guilt in aid +of the fame. In the next trial, which was that of William +Baillie, June 26th, 1699, a still further indulgence was introduced; +for the interlocutor required a proof, not of <i>one</i> +only, but of <i>several</i>, of the facts of ‘picking or little thieving, +or of several acts of beating and striking with invasive +weapons.’ He was only convicted as an Egyptian, and of +<i>one</i> act of striking with an invasive weapon, and he escaped +in consequence with his life.</p> + +<p>“This lenient course of dealing with the Gipsies was not +taken, however, from any opinion of it as a necessary thing, +nor was there any purpose of prescribing it as a rule for +other times, or for further cases of the kind where such an +indulgence might seem improper, as appears from the interlocutor +of relevancy in the case of John Kerr, and Helen +Yorkston, and William Baillie and other seven; in both of +which the simple fame and character of being an Egyptian +is again found <i>separatum</i> relevant to infer the pain of death, +(10th and 11th August, 1714.) Kerr and Yorkston had a +verdict in their favour; Baillie and two of his associates +were condemned to die; but as far as concerns Baillie, (for +the others were executed,) his doom was afterwards mitigated +into transportation, under pain of death in case of return.</p> + +<p>“As early as the month of August, 1715, the same man, (as +I understand it,) was again indicted, not only for being +found in Britain, but for continuing his former practices and +course of life. Notwithstanding this aggravation, the interlocutor +is again framed on the indulgent plan, and only infers +the pain of death, from the fame and character of being +an Egyptian, joined with various acts of violence and sorning, +to the number of three, that are stated in the libel. +Though convicted nearly to the extent of the interlocutor, +he again escaped with transportation.<a name="FNanchor84" id="FNanchor84"></a><a href="#Footnote84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></p> + +<p>“Nor have I observed that the court, in any later case, +have thought it necessary to proceed upon the repute alone, +unavouched by evidence of, at least, one act of theft or violence; +so that, upon the whole, according to the practice of +later times, this sort of charge seems to be reduced nearly +to the level of the charge of being habit and repute a thief +at common law.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>It is noticed by Baron Hume that the Faas and the Baillies +were noted names among the Gipsies. Indeed, the +trials referred to by him are all of persons bearing these two +surnames, except two individuals only. The truth is, the +Faas and the Baillies were the two principal families among +the Gipsies; giving, according to their customs, kings and +queens to their countrymen in Scotland. They would be +more bold, daring, and presumptuous in their conduct than +the most part of their followers; and, being leaders of the +banditti, government, in all probability, would fix upon them +as the most proper objects for destruction, as the best and +easiest method of overawing and dispersing the whole tribe +in the country, by cutting off their chiefs. As I have already +mentioned, these two principal clans of Faw and Bailyow +appear to be the only Gipsy families in Scotland who have +retained the original surnames of their ancestors, at least of +those whose names are inserted in the treaty with James V, +in 1540.</p> + +<p>It will be seen, under the head Tweed-dale and Clydesdale +Gipsies, that tradition has represented William Baillie, who +was tried in 1714 and 1715, as a bastard son of the ancient +family of Lamington, (his mother being a Gipsy). It appears +to me that the Gipsy policy of joining themselves to some +family of rank was, in Baillie’s case, of very important service, +not only to himself but to the whole tribe in Scotland.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span><a name="FNanchor85" id="FNanchor85"></a><a href="#Footnote85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> +The extraordinary lenity shown to him by the court, after +such repeated aggravation, cannot be accounted for in any +other way than that great interest had been used in his behalf, +in some quarter or other; and that, by creating a merciful +precedent in his case, it was afterwards followed in the +trial of all others of the race in Scotland.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote51" id="Footnote51"></a><a href="#FNanchor51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> There is no reason to doubt that these were Gipsies. They were evidently +a roving band, from some of the continental hordes, that had passed +over into Scotland, to “prospect” and plunder. They would, very naturally, +be called Saracens by the natives of Scotland, to whom any black +people, at that time, would appear as Saracens. We may, therefore, assume +that the Gipsies have been fully four hundred years in Scotland. I may +mention, however, that Mediterranean corsairs occasionally landed and +plundered on the British coast, to as late a period as the reign of Charles +I.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote52" id="Footnote52"></a><a href="#FNanchor52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Almost all the Scottish Gipsies assert that their ancestors came by +way of Ireland into Scotland.</p> + +<p>[This is extremely likely. On the publication of the edict of Ferdinand +of Spain, in 1492, some of the Spanish Gipsies would likely pass over to the +south of Ireland, and thence find their way into Scotland, before 1506. +Anthonius Gawino, above referred to, would almost seem to be a Spanish +name. We may, therefore, very safely assume that the Gipsies of Scotland +are of Spanish Gipsy descent.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote53" id="Footnote53"></a><a href="#FNanchor53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Crawford’s Peerage, page 238.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote54" id="Footnote54"></a><a href="#FNanchor54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Glendook’s Scots’ acts of parliament.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote55" id="Footnote55"></a><a href="#FNanchor55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Mr. Hoyland makes some very judicious remarks upon the capacity of +the Gipsies, when they first appeared in Europe. He says: “The first of +this people who came into Europe must have been persons of discernment +and discrimination, to have adapted their deceptions so exactly to the genius +and habits of the different people they visited, as to ensure success in all +countries. The stratagem to which they had recourse, on entering France, +evinces consummate artifice of plan, and not a little adroitness and dexterity +in the execution. The specious appearance of submission to Papal +authority, in the penance of wandering seven years, without lying in a bed, +contained three distinct objects. They could not have devised an expedient +more likely to recommend them to the favour of the ecclesiastics, or better +concerted for taking advantage of the superstitious credulity of the people, +and, at the same time, for securing to themselves the gratification of their +own nomadic propensities. So complete was the deception they practised, +that we find they wandered up and down France, under the eye of the magistracy, +not for seven years only, but for more than a hundred years, without +molestation.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hoyland’s remarks cover only half of the question, for, being “pilgrims,” +their chiefs must also assume very high titles, to give them consideration +with the rulers of Europe—such as dukes, earls, lords, counts +and knights. To carry out the character of pilgrims, the body would go +very poorly clad; it would only be the chiefs who would be flashily accoutred. +It is, therefore, by no means wonderful that the Gipsies should have +succeeded so well, and so long, in obtaining an entrance, and a toleration, +in every country of Europe.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote56" id="Footnote56"></a><a href="#FNanchor56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Illustrissime, &c.—Anthonius Gawino, ex Parva Egypto comes, et +cætera ejus comitatus, gens afflicta et miseranda, dum Christianam orbem +peregrinationes studio. Apostolicæ sedis, (ut refert) jussu, suorum more +peregrinans, fines nostri regni dudum advenerat, atque in sortis suæ, et +miseriarum hujus populi, refugium, nos pro humanitate imploraverat ut +nostros limites sibi impune adire, res cunctas, et quam habet societatem +libere circumagere liceret. Impetrat facile quæ postulat miserorum hominum +dura fortuna. Ita aliquot menses bene et catholice, (sic accepimus,) +hic versatus, ad te, Rex et avuncule, in Daciam transitum paret. Sed +oceanum transmissurus nostras literas exoravit; quibus celsitudinem tuam +horum certiorum redderemus, simul et calamitatem ejus gentis Regiæ tuæ +munificentiæ commendaremus. Ceterum errabundæ Egypti fata, moresque, +et genus, eo tibe quam nobis credimus notiora, quo Egyptus tuo regno +vicinior, et major hujusmodi hominum frequentia tuo diversatur imperio. +Illustrissime, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>&c.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote57" id="Footnote57"></a><a href="#FNanchor57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> I have taken the liberty of translating the various extracts from the +Scottish acts of parliament, quoted in this chapter, as the original language +is not very intelligible to English or even Scottish readers. For doing +this, I may be denounced as a Vandal by the ultra Scotch, for so treating +such “rich old Doric,” as the language of the period may be termed.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote58" id="Footnote58"></a><a href="#FNanchor58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Ex. Registro Secreti Sigilli, Vol. XIV, fol. 59. Blackwood. Appendix +to McLaurin’s Criminal Trials.</p> + +<p>This document may well be termed the most curious and important record +of the early history of the Gipsy race in Europe; and it is well worthy of +consideration. The meaning of it is simply this: John Faw had evidently +been importuned by the Scottish Court, (at which he appears to have been +a man of no small consequence,) to bring his so-called “pilgrimage,” which +he had undertaken “by command of the Pope,” to an end, so far, at least, +as remaining in Scotland was concerned. Being pressed upon the point, +he evidently, as a last resource, formed a plan with Sebastiane Lalow, and +the other “rebels,” to leave him, and carry <i>off</i>, (as he said,) his property. +To give the action an air of importance, and make it appear as a real rebellion, +they brought the question into court. Then, John could turn round, +and reply to the king: “May it please your majesty! I can’t return to +my own country. My company and folk have conspired, rebelled, robbed, +and left me. I can’t lay my hands upon them; I don’t even know where +to find them. I must take them home with me, or a testimony of them +that are dead, under the great peril of losing my heritage, at the hands of +my lord, the Duke of Egypt. However, if your majesty will help me to +catch them, I will not be long in taking leave of <i>your</i> kingdom, with all +my company. In the meantime, your majesty will be pleased to issue +your commands to all the shipowners and mariners in the kingdom, to be +ready, <i>when I gather together my folk(!)</i> to further our passage to Egypt, +for which I will pay them handsomely.” The whole business may be +termed a piece of “thimble-rigging,” to prolong their stay—that is, enable +them to remain permanently—in the country. Our author, I think, is quite +in error in supposing this to have been a real quarrel among the Gipsies. +If it had been a real quarrel, the Gipsies would soon have settled the question +among themselves, by their own laws; it would have been the last +thing, under all the circumstances of the case, they would have thought +of, to have brought it before the Scottish court. The Gipsies, according +to Grellmann, assigned the following reason for prolonging their stay in +Europe: “They endeavoured to prolong the term (of their pilgrimage) by +asserting that their return home was prevented by soldiers, stationed to +intercept them; and by wishing to have it believed that new parties of +pilgrims were to leave their country every year, otherwise their land would +be rendered totally barren.”</p> + +<p>The quarrel between the Faas and the Baillies, for the <i>Gipsy crown</i>, in +after times, did not, in all probability, arise from this business, but most +likely, as the English Gipsies believe, from some marriage between these +families. The Scottish Gipsies, like the two Roses, have had, and for aught +I know to the contrary, may have yet, two rival kings—Faa and Baillie, +with their partisans—although the Faas, from the prominent position which +they have always occupied in Scottish history, have been the only kings +known to the Scottish public generally.</p> + +<p>In perusing this work, the reader will be pleased to take the above mentioned +document as the starting point of the history of the Gipsies in +Scotland; and consider the Gipsies of that time as the progenitors of all +those at present in Scotland, including the great encrease of the body, by +the mixture of the white blood that has been brought within their community. +He will also be pleased to divest himself of the childish prejudices, +acquired in the nursery and in general literature, against the name +of Gipsy; and consider that there are people in Scotland, occupying some +of the highest positions in life, who are Gipsies; not indeed Gipsies in point +of purity of blood, but people who have Gipsy blood in their veins, and +who hold themselves to be Gipsies, in the manner which I have, to a certain +extent, explained in the <a href="#Page_5">Preface</a>, and will more fully illustrate in my +<a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote59" id="Footnote59"></a><a href="#FNanchor59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> The Gipsies assert that, on this occasion, the king attempted to take +liberties with one of their women: and that one of the male Gipsies +“came crack over his head with a bottle.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote60" id="Footnote60"></a><a href="#FNanchor60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Small’s Roman Antiquities of Fife, pages 285 and 286. Small also records +a song composed on James V dubbing a Tinker a knight.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote61" id="Footnote61"></a><a href="#FNanchor61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> It would seem that John Faw had become frightened at the mishap of one +of his folk “coming crack over the king’s head with a bottle,” and that, to +pacify his majesty, he had at once gone before him, and informed him that +he had prevailed on his “rebellious subjects” to <i>pass home</i>, and have the +matter in dispute decided by the <i>Duke of Egypt</i>. This would, so far, satisfy +the king; but to make sure of getting rid of his troublesome visitors, he +issued his commands to the various authorities to see that they really did +leave the country.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote62" id="Footnote62"></a><a href="#FNanchor62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> It would appear, from the mention that is made here of the authorities +of so many towns and counties, “where it happens the said Egyptians to +resort,” that the race was scattered over all Scotland at this time, and that +it must have been numerous.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote63" id="Footnote63"></a><a href="#FNanchor63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> M. S. Act. Dom. Con. vol 15, fol. 155.—<i>Blackwood’s Magazine.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote64" id="Footnote64"></a><a href="#FNanchor64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> It is perfectly evident that the severe decree of James V against the +Gipsies arose from the personal insult alluded to, owing to the circumstance +of its falling to the ground after his death, and the Gipsies recovering their +position with his successor. Apart from what the Gipsies themselves say +on this subject, the ordinary tradition may be assumed to be well founded. +If the Gipsies were spoken to on the subject of the insult offered to the +king, they would naturally reply, that they did not know, from his having +been dressed like a beggar, that it was the king; an excuse which the court, +knowing his majesty’s vagabond habits, would probably receive. But it +is very likely that John Faw would declare that the guilty parties were +those rebels whom he was desirous to catch, and take home with him to +Egypt! This Gipsy king seems to have been a master of diplomacy.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote65" id="Footnote65"></a><a href="#FNanchor65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> The Gipsy chiefs were partial to the title of Captain; arising, I suppose, +from their being leaders of large bands of young men employed in theft +and robbery. [In Spain, such Gipsy chiefs, according to Mr. Borrow, assumed +the name of Counts.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote66" id="Footnote66"></a><a href="#FNanchor66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> <i>Rajah</i>—The Scottish Gipsy word for a chief, governor, or prince.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote67" id="Footnote67"></a><a href="#FNanchor67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> The author, (Mr. Finlay,) who claims a Sir John Faw, of Dunbar, to +have been the person who carried off the Countess of Cassilis, gives no authority, +as a writer in Blackwood says, in support of his assertion. Nor +does he account for a person of that name being any other than a Gipsy. +Indeed, this is but an instance of the ignorance and prejudice of people generally +in regard to the Gipsies. The tradition of the hero being a Gipsy, +I have met with among the English Gipsies, who even gave me the name +of the lady. John Faw, in all probability the king of the Gipsies, who carried +off the countess, might reasonably be assumed to have been, in point +of education, on a par with her, who, in that respect, would not, in all probability, +rise above the most humble Scotch cow-milker at the present day, +whatever her personal bearing might have been.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote68" id="Footnote68"></a><a href="#FNanchor68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> During these seventy-three years of peace, the Gipsies in Scotland +must have multiplied prodigiously, and, in all probability, drawn much of +the native blood into their body. Not being, at that time, a proscribed +race, but, on the contrary, honoured by leagues and covenants with the +king himself, the ignorant public generally would have few of those objections +to intermarry with them, which they have had in subsequent times. +The thieving habits of the Gipsies would prove no bar to such connections, +as the Scottish people were accustomed to thieving of all kinds.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote69" id="Footnote69"></a><a href="#FNanchor69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> In this act of parliament are denounced, along with the Gipsies, “all +minstrels, songsters, and tale-tellers, not avowed by special licence of some +of the lords of parliament or great barons, or by the high burghs and +cities, for their common minstrels.” “All <i>vagabond scholars</i>(<i>!</i>) of the universities +of St Andrews, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, not licenced by the rector +and dean of faculty to <i>ask alms</i>.” It would seem, from this last extract, +that the Scottish Universities granted diplomas to their students to beg! +The Gipsies were associated or classed with good company at this time. +But beggar students, or student-beggars, were common in other parts of +Europe during that age.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote70" id="Footnote70"></a><a href="#FNanchor70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Glendook’s Scots Acts, James VI, 6th Par. cap. 74—20th Oct. 1579.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote71" id="Footnote71"></a><a href="#FNanchor71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> By the above, and subsequent statutes, in the reign of James VI, +“Coal and salt-masters might apprehend, and put to labour, all vagabonds +and sturdy beggars.” The truth is, these kidnapped individuals and their +children were made slaves of to these masters. The colliers were emancipated +only within these fifty years. It has been stated to me that some of +the colliers in the Lothians are of Gipsy extraction. [Our author might +have said <i>Gipsies</i>; for being “of Gipsy extraction,” and “Gipsies,” are expressions +quite synonymous, notwithstanding the application by the public +of the latter term to the more original kind of Gipsies only.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote72" id="Footnote72"></a><a href="#FNanchor72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> If Fletcher of Saltoun be correct, when he states that, in his time, which +was about the end of the 17th century, there were two hundred thousand +people, (about one-fifth of the whole population,) begging from door to door +in Scotland, it would be a task of no little difficulty, for those in power, to +put in force the laws against the Gipsies, and vagabonds generally. The +editor of Dr. Pennicuick’s history of Tweed-dale, thinks Fletcher’s is an +over-charged picture. Some are of opinion that, when he made his statement, +he included the greater part of the inhabitants of the Scottish Border, +and also those in the north of Scotland; for, he said, the Highlands “was an +inexhaustible source of beggars,” and wished these banditti transplanted +to the low country, and to people the Highlands from hence.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote73" id="Footnote73"></a><a href="#FNanchor73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> The records in which this order is contained are lost.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote74" id="Footnote74"></a><a href="#FNanchor74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Glendook’s Scots Act.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote75" id="Footnote75"></a><a href="#FNanchor75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Ib.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote76" id="Footnote76"></a><a href="#FNanchor76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> The nature of this crime in Scotch law is fully explained in the following +extract from the original, which also appears curious in other respects. +The pardon is granted “pro receptione, supportatione, et detentione supra +terra suas de Belmadie, et infra eius habitationis domium, aliaq. edificia +eiusdem, <i>Joannis Fall</i>, <i>Ethiopis</i>, <i>lie Egiptian</i>, eiusq. uxoris, puerorum, servorum +et associatorum; Necnon pro ministrando ipsis cibum, potum, pecunias, +hospicium, aliaq. necessaria, quocunq. tempore vel occasione preterita, +contra acta nostri Parliamenti vel secreti concilii, vel contra quecunq. leges, +alia acta, aut constitutiones huius nostri regni Scotiæ in contrarium facta.” +Regist. secreti sigilli vol. lxxxiii, fol. 291, <i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote77" id="Footnote77"></a><a href="#FNanchor77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> The same state of things existed in Spain. Charles II. passed a law +on the 12th June, 1695, the 16th article of which, as given by Mr. Borrow, +enacts: “And because we understand that the continuance of those who +are called Gitanos has depended on the favour, protection, and assistance +which they have experienced from persons of <i>different stations</i>, we do ordain +that whosoever against whom shall be proved the fact of having, since the +day of the publication hereof, favoured, received, or assisted the said +Gitanos, in any manner whatever, whether <i>within their houses</i> or without, +<i>provided he is a noble</i>, shall be subjected to the fine of <i>six thousand ducats</i>, +. . . . and <i>if a plebeian</i>, to a <i>punishment of ten years in the galleys</i>.” +Such an enactment would surely prove that the Gipsies in Spain were +<i>greatly</i> favoured by the Spanish people generally, even two centuries after +they entered the country.</p> + +<p>The causes to which may be attributed this toleration, even encouragement, +of the Gipsies, are various. Among these may be mentioned a fear +of consequences to person and property, tinkering, trafficking and amusement, +and corruption on the part of those in power. But in the character +of the Gipsies itself may be found a general cause for their escaping the +effects of the laws passed against them, viz., <i>wheedling</i>. The term Gitano +has been variously modified in the Spanish language, thus:</p> + +<p>Gitano. <i>Gipsy</i>, <i>flatterer</i>; Gitanillo, <i>a little Gipsy</i>; Gitanismo, <i>the Gipsy +tribe</i>; Gitanesco, <i>Gipsy-like</i>; Gitanear, <i>to flatter</i>, <i>entice</i>; Gitaneria, <i>wheedling</i>, +<i>flattery</i>; Gitanamento, <i>in a sly, winning manner</i>; Gitanada, <i>blandishment</i>, +<i>wheedling</i>, <i>flattery</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote78" id="Footnote78"></a><a href="#FNanchor78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> There were 17 clans on the Borders, and 34 clans in the Highlands, +who appear to have had chiefs and captains over them. There were 22 +baronial proprietors connected with the Borders, and 106 connected with +the Highlands, named in a roll, who were likewise ordered to find pledges.—<i>Glendook’s +Scots Acts.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote79" id="Footnote79"></a><a href="#FNanchor79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> It sometimes happened, when an internal quarrel took place in a clan, +portions of the tribe left their chief, and united themselves to another, whose +name they assumed and dropped their original one.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote80" id="Footnote80"></a><a href="#FNanchor80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> The reader will see that the Gipsies, at this time, were not greater +“vagabonds” than great numbers of native Scotch, if as great. But, being +strangers in the country, sojourners according to their own account, the +king would naturally enough banish them, as they seem always to have +been saying that they were about leaving for “their own country.” Their +living in tents, a mode of life so different from that of the natives, would, +of itself, make them obnoxious to the king personally.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote81" id="Footnote81"></a><a href="#FNanchor81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> The English Gipsies say that native names were assumed by their +race in consequence of the proscription to which it was subjected. German +Gipsies, on arrival in America, change, at least modify, their names. There +are many of them who go under the names of Smith, Miller, and Waggoner. +Jews frequently bear names common to the natives of the countries +in which they are to be found, and sometimes, at the present day, assume +Christian ones. I knew two German Jews, of the name of Cohen, who +settled in Scotland. One of them, who was a priest, retained the original +name; but the other, who was a watchmaker, assumed the name of Cowan, +which, singularly enough, the priest said, was a corruption of Cohen.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote82" id="Footnote82"></a><a href="#FNanchor82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> It is stated by Paget, in his Travels in Hungary, that the Gipsies in +that country have a profound regard for aristocracy; and that they invariably +follow that class in the matter of religious opinions. Grellmann +says as much in regard to the Gipsy’s desire of getting hold of a distinguished +old coat to put on his person.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote83" id="Footnote83"></a><a href="#FNanchor83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Blackwood’s Magazine.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote84" id="Footnote84"></a><a href="#FNanchor84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> This, and part of the preceding paragraph, will be quoted again, under +the chapter of <a href="#Page_185">Tweed-dale and Clydesdale Gipsies</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote85" id="Footnote85"></a><a href="#FNanchor85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> From the time of arrival of the Gipsies in the country, in 1506, till +1611, the date of the first trials of the tribe, as given by Baron Hume, a +period of 105 years had elapsed; during which time there had doubtless +been five generations of Gipsies added to the population, as Scottish subjects; +to put whom to death, on the mere ground of being Egyptians, was contrary +to every principle of natural justice. The cruelty exercised upon +them was quite in keeping with that of reducing to slavery the individuals, +and their descendants, who constituted the colliers, coal-bearers, and salters +referred to in the following interesting note, to be found in “My Schools +and Schoolmasters,” of Hugh Miller.</p> + +<p>“The act for manumitting our Scotch colliers was passed in the year +1775, forty-nine years prior to the date of my acquaintance with the class of +Niddry. But though it was only such colliers of the village as were in +their fiftieth year when I knew them, (with, of course, all the older ones,) +who had been born slaves, even its men of thirty had actually, though not +nominally, come into the world in a state of bondage, in consequence of +certain penalties attached to the emancipation act, of which the poor ignorant +workers under ground were both too improvident and too little ingenious +to keep clear. They were set free, however, by a second act passed +in 1799. The language of both these acts, regarded as British ones of the +latter half of the last century, and as bearing reference to British subjects +living within the limits of the island, strikes with startling effect. ‘Whereas,’ +says the preamble of the older act—that of 1775—‘by the statute law of +Scotland, as explained by the judges of the courts of law there, many colliers, +and coal-bearers, and salters, are in a state of <i>slavery or bondage</i>, +bound to the collieries or salt works, where they work <i>for life, transferable +with the collieries or salt works</i>; and whereas, the emancipation,’ &c., &c. A +passage in the preamble of the act of 1799 is scarcely less striking: it declares +that, notwithstanding the former act, ‘many colliers and coal-bearers +<i>still continue in a state of bondage</i>’ in Scotland. The history of our Scotch +colliers would be found a curious and instructive one. Their slavery seems +not to have been derived from the ancient time of general serfship, but to +have originated in comparatively modern acts of the Scottish Parliament, +and in decisions of the Court of Session—in acts of Parliament in which +the poor ignorant subterranean men of the country were, of course, wholly +unrepresented, and in decisions of a court in which no agent of theirs ever +made appearance in their behalf.”</p> + +<p>What is here said of a history of Scotch colliers being “curious and instructive,” +is applicable in an infinitely greater degree to that of the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>LINLITHGOWSHIRE GIPSIES.<a name="FNanchor86" id="FNanchor86"></a><a href="#Footnote86" class="fnanchor" +style="font-size: 70%; font-weight: normal;">[86]</a></h3> + +<p>The Gipsies who frequented the banks of the Forth, and +the counties northward, appear to have been more daring +than those who visited some other parts of Scotland.</p> + +<p>Within these sixty years, a large horde, of very desperate +character, resided on the banks of the Avon, near the burgh +of Linlithgow. At first, they quartered higher up on the +Stirling side of the stream, at a place called Walkmilton; +but latterly they took up their abode in some old houses, on +the Linlithgow side of the river, at or near the bridge of +Linlithgow.</p> + +<p>These Gipsies displayed much sagacity in carrying on their +trade, by selecting the neighbourhood of Falkirk and Linlithgow +for their headquarters, as this was, perhaps, the most +advantageous position in all Scotland that a Gipsy band +could occupy. The district was of itself very populous, and +a very considerable trade and bustle then existed at the port +of Bo’ness, in the vicinity. All the intercourse between +Edinburgh and Glasgow passed a few miles to the south of +their quarters. The traffic, by carts, between Glasgow and +the west of Scotland, and the shipping at Carron-shore, Elphingston-Pow +and Airth, on the Forth, before the canal was +cut, was immense; all which traffic, as well as that between +Fife and the western districts, passed a few miles north of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +their position. The road for travellers and cattle from the +Highlands, by way of Stirling, crossed the above-mentioned +roads, and led, through Falkirk and Linlithgow, to Edinburgh, +the eastern and southern counties of Scotland, and +England.</p> + +<p>The principal surnames of this Gipsy band were McDonald, +Jamieson, Wilson, Gordon and Lundie. Frequently the +number that would assemble together would amount to upwards +of thirty souls, and it was often observed that a great +many females and children were seen loitering about their +common place of residence. No protection was given by +them to our native vagrants, nor were any of our common +plunderers, vagabonds, or outlaws suffered to remain among +them. When at home, or traversing the country, the trade +and occupation of this band were exactly the same as those +of their friends in other parts of Scotland, viz: making wool-cards, +cast-iron soles for ploughs, smoothing-irons, horn +spoons, and repairing articles in the tinker line. The old +females told fortunes, while the women in general assisted +their husbands in their work, by blowing the bellows, scraping +and polishing the spoons with glass and charred wood, +and otherwise completing their articles for sale. Many of +the males dealt in horses, with which they frequented fairs—that +great resort of the Gipsies; and these wanderers, in +general, were considered excellent judges of horses. Numbers +of them were fiddlers and pipers, and the tribe often +amused themselves with feasting and dancing.<a name="FNanchor87" id="FNanchor87"></a><a href="#Footnote87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> + +<p>Like their race generally, these Gipsies were extremely +civil and obliging to their immediate neighbours, and those +who lived nearest to their quarters, and had the most intercourse +with them, in the ordinary affairs of life, were the +least afraid of them.<a name="FNanchor88" id="FNanchor88"></a><a href="#Footnote88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> But the farmers and others at a distance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +who frequented the markets at Falkirk, and other +fairs in the neighbourhood, were always a plentiful harvest +for the plundering Tinklers. Their plunderings on such +occasions spread a general alarm over the country. But +that good humour, mirth, and jocund disposition, peculiar to +many of the males of the Gipsies, seldom failed to gain the +good-will of those who deigned to converse with them with +familiarity, or treated them with kindness. They even +formed strong attachments to certain individuals of the community, +and afforded them protection on all occasions, giving +them tokens to present to others of their fraternity, while +travelling under night. Notwithstanding the good disposition +which they always showed under these circumstances, +the fiery Tinklers often fell out among themselves, on dividing, +at home, the booty which they had collected at fairs, +and excited feelings of horror in the minds of their astonished +neighbours, when they beheld the hurricanes of wrath +and fury exhibited by both sexes, and all ages, in the heat +of their battles.</p> + +<p>The children of these Gipsies attended the principal school<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +at Linlithgow, and not an individual at the school dared to +cast the slightest reflection on, or speak a disrespectful word +of, either them or their parents, although their robberies were +everywhere notorious, yet always conducted in so artful a +manner that no direct evidence could ever be obtained of +them. Such was the fear that the audacious conduct of +these Gipsies inspired, that the magistrates of the royal +burgh of Linlithgow stood in awe of them, and were deterred +from discharging their magisterial duties, when any matter +relative to their conduct came before their honours. The +truth is, the magistrates would not interfere with them at all, +but stood nearly on the same terms with them that a tribe +of American Indians, who worshipped the devil—not from +any respect which they had for his Satanic majesty, but from +being in constant dread of his diabolical machinations. Not +a justice of the peace gave the horde the least annoyance, +but, on the contrary, allowed them to remain in peaceable +possession of some old, uninhabited houses, to which they +had no right whatever. Instead of endeavouring to repress +the unlawful proceedings of the daring Tinklers, numbers +of the most respectable individuals in Linlithgowshire +deigned to play at golf and other games with the principal +members of the body. The proficiency which the Gipsies +displayed on such occasions was always a source of interest +to the patrons and admirers of such games. At throwing +the sledge-hammer, casting the putting-stone, and all other +athletic exercises, not one was a match for these powerful +Tinklers. They were also remarkably dexterous at handling +the cudgel, at which they were constantly practising +themselves.</p> + +<p>The honourable magistrates, indeed, frequently admitted +the presumptuous Tinklers to share a social bowl with them +at their entertainments and dinner parties. Yet these +friends and companions of the magistrates and gentlemen of +Linlithgowshire were no other than the occasional tenants +of kilns, or temporary occupiers of the ground floor of some +ruinous, half-roofed houses, without furniture, saving a few +blankets and some straw, to prevent their persons from resting +upon the cold earth. But, nevertheless, these Gipsies +made themselves of considerable importance, and possessed +an influence over the minds of the community to an extent +hardly to be credited at the present day. It was well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +known that the provost of Linlithgow, who was much exposed +by riding at all times through the country, in the way +of his business as a brewer, had himself received from the +Gipsies assurance that he would not be molested by the +band, and that he was, therefore, at all times, and on all occasions, +perfectly safe from being plundered. Having in +this manner rendered the local authorities entirely passive, +or rather neutral, from fear and interest, the audacious Gipsies +prosecuted their system of plunder and robbery to an +alarming extent.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the fear which these Gipsies inspired in +the mind of the community, there were yet individuals of +courage who would brave them, if circumstances rendered a +meeting with them unavoidable. None, indeed, would dream +of wantonly molesting them, but, if brought to the pinch, +some would not shrink from encountering them, when acting +under the influences of those feelings which call forth the +latent courage of even the most timid and considerate of +people. Such a rencounter resulted in the death of the +chief of the Linlithgow band, of the name of McDonald, to +whom the others of the tribe gave the title of captain.</p> + +<p>In a dark night, a gentleman of the name of H——, an +officer in the army, and a man of courage, while travelling +on the high road, from the eastward to Stirlingshire, to visit, +as was said, his sweetheart, had occasion to stop, for refreshment, +at a public-house near the bridge of Linlithgow. The +landlord advised him to go no further that night, owing to +the road being “foul,” meaning that the Tinklers had been +seen lurking in the direction in which he was travelling. +Foul or not foul, he would proceed; his particular engagement +with the lady making him reluctant to break his promise, +and turn back. He called for a gill of brandy, which +he shared with the landlord, and deliberately loaded, in his +presence, a brace of pistols which he carried about his person. +His courage rose with the occasion, and he declared +that whoever dared to molest him should not go unpunished. +He then mounted his horse and rode forward. On arriving +at a place called Sandy-ford-burn, a man, in the dark, sprang +out from the side of the road, and, laying hold of the bridle +of his horse, demanded his money. The horseman being on +the alert, and quite prepared for such a demand, with his +spirits, moreover, elevated by his dram of brandy, instantly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +replied by firing one of his pistols at the robber, who fell +to the ground. He, however, held fast the bridle reins in +his convulsive death grasp, and the horse, being urged forward, +dragged him a short distance along the ground. +Hardly had the shot been fired, ere a voice, close by, was +heard to exclaim, “There goes our captain,” while a confused +cry of vengeance was uttered on all sides, against him +by whom he had fallen. But the rider, clapping his spurs +to his horse, instantly galloped forward, yet made a narrow +escape, for several shots were fired at him, which were heard +by the landlord of the public-house which he had just left.</p> + +<p>The Gipsies, in this awkward predicament, carried the +body of their chieftain home, and gave out to their neighbours, +the country people, the following morning, (Sunday,) +that he had died very suddenly of iliac passion. His lyke-wake +was kept up in their usual manner, and great feastings +and drinkings were held by them while his body lay uninterred. +After several days of carousing, the remains of the +robber were buried in the church-yard of Linlithgow.<a name="FNanchor89" id="FNanchor89"></a><a href="#Footnote89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> His +funeral was very respectable, having been attended by the +magistrates of Linlithgow, and a number of the most genteel +persons in the neighbourhood. The real cause of the sudden +death of the Tinkler began to spread abroad, a short +time after the burial, but no enquiry was made into the matter. +The individual who had done the public a service, by +taking off the chief of the banditti, mentioned the circumstance +afterwards to his friends, and was afraid of the band +for some time thereafter; although it was improbable that, +in the dark, they were able to make out, or afterwards ascertain, +the person who had made himself so obnoxious to them.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding this prompt and well-merited chastisement +which the Gipsies received, in their leader being shot +dead in his attempt at highway robbery, in the immediate +vicinity of their ordinary place of rendezvous, they continued +their depredations in their usual manner, but generally +took care, as is their custom, to give no molestation to their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +nearest neighbours. The deceased captain was succeeded, in +the chieftainship of the tribe, by his son, Alexander McDonald, +who also assumed the title of captain. This man +trod in the footsteps of his father in every respect, and exercised +his hereditary profession of theft and robbery, with +an activity and audacity unequalled by any among his tribe +in that part of Scotland. The very name of McDonald +and his gang appalled the boldest hearts of those who ventured +to travel under night with money in their pockets, in +certain parts of the country. His band appears to have +been very numerous, as among them some held the subordinate +rank of lieutenants, as if they had been organized like +a regular military company. James Jamieson, his brother-in-law, +was also styled captain in this notorious band of +Gipsies, who were connected with similar bands in England +and Ireland.</p> + +<p>McDonald and his brother-in-law, Jamieson, were considered +remarkably stout, handsome, and fine-looking men. +By constant training at all kinds of athletic exercises, they +brought themselves to perform feats of bodily strength and +agility which were almost incredible. They were often +elegantly dressed in the finest clothes of the first fashion, +with linen to correspond. At the same time they were perfect +chameleons in respect to their appearance and apparel. +McDonald was frequently observed in three or four different +dresses in one market-day. At one time of the day, he was +seen completely attired in the best of tartan, assuming the +appearance and manners of a highland gentleman in full costume. +At another time, he appeared ruffled at hands and +breast, booted and spurred, on horseback, as if he had been +a man of some consideration. He would again be seen in a +ragged coat, with a budget and wallet on his back—a common +travelling Tinkler. Both of these men often dealt in +horses, and were themselves frequently mounted on the best +of animals. The Arabians and Tartars are scarcely more +partial to horses than the Gipsies.</p> + +<p>The pranks and tricks played by McDonald were numerous, +and many a story is yet remembered of his extraordinary +exploits. He took great pains in training and learning +some of his horses various evolutions and tricks. He had, +at one time, a piebald horse so efficiently trained, and so +completely under his management, that it, in some respects,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +assisted him in his depredations. By certain signals and +motions, he could, when he found it necessary, make it clap +close to the ground, like a hare in its furrow. It +would crouch down in a hollow piece of ground, in a ditch, +or at the side of a hedge, so as to hide itself, when McDonald’s +situation was like to expose him to detection. With +the assistance of one of these well trained-horses, this man, +on one occasion, saved his wife, Ann Jamieson, from prison, +and perhaps from the gallows. Ann was apprehended near +Dunfermline for some of her unlawful practices. As the +officers of the law were conducting her to prison, McDonald +rode up to the party, and requested permission to speak +with their prisoner, which was readily granted, as, from +McDonald’s appearance, the officers supposed he had something +to say to the woman. He then drew her aside, under +the pretence of conversing with her in private, when, in an +instant, Ann, with his assistance, sprang upon the horse, behind +him, and bade good-bye to the messengers, who were +amazed at the sudden and unexpected escape of their prisoner. +Ann was a little, handsome woman, and was considered +one of the most expert of the Scottish Gipsies at +conducting a plundering at a fair; and was, on that account, +much respected by her tribe.</p> + +<p>McDonald and Jamieson, like others of the superior classes +of Gipsies, gave tokens of protection to their particular +friends of the community generally. The butchers of Linlithgow, +when they went to the country, with money to buy +cattle, frequently procured these assurances from the Gipsies. +The shoemakers did likewise, when they had to go to +distant markets with their shoes. Linlithgow appears even +to have been under the special protection of these banditti. +Mr. George Hart, and Mr. William Baird, two of the most +respectable merchants of Bo’ness, who had been peddlers in +their early years, scrupled not to say that, when travelling +through the country, they were seldom without tokens from +the Gipsies. But if the Gipsies were kind to those who +kept on good terms with them, they, on the other hand, vindictively +tormented their enemies. They would steal sheep, +and put the blood and parts of the animal about the premises +of those they hated, that they might be suspected of the +theft, searched and affronted by the enquiries made about +the stolen property.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>When McDonald and Jamieson attacked individuals on +the highway, or elsewhere, and were satisfied that they had +little or no money, they were just as ready to supply their +wants as to rob them. The idea of plundering the wealthy, +and giving the booty to the poor, gives the Gipsies great +satisfaction. The standard by which this people’s conduct +can be measured, must be sought for among the robber tribes +of Tartary, Afghanistan, or Arabia. Many of our Scottish +Gipsies have, indeed, been as ready to give a purse as take +one; and it cannot be said that they have lacked in the display +of a certain degree of honour peculiar to themselves, +as the following well-authenticated fact will illustrate.<a name="FNanchor90" id="FNanchor90"></a><a href="#Footnote90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p> + +<p>A gentleman, whose name is not mentioned, while travelling, +under night, between Falkirk and Linlithgow, fell in, +on the road, with a man whom he did not know. During +the conversation which ensued, he mentioned to the stranger +that he was afraid of being attacked, for many a one, he observed, +had been robbed on that road. He then urged that +they should return, as the safest plan for them both. The +stranger, however, replied that he had often travelled the +road, yet had never been troubled by any one. After some +further conversation, he put his hand into his pocket, and +gave the traveller a knife, with which he was desired to proceed +without fear.<a name="FNanchor91" id="FNanchor91"></a><a href="#Footnote91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> The traveller now perfectly understood +the relation that existed between them, and continued his +journey with confidence; but he had not proceeded far ere +he was accosted by a foot-pad, to whom he produced the +knife. The pad looked at it carefully, said nothing, but +passed on, without giving the traveller the slightest annoyance. +It is needless to say that the mysterious stranger was +no other than the notorious Captain McDonald. The traveller, +by his fears and the nature of his conversation, had +plainly informed McDonald of his being possessed of money—a +considerable quantity of which he had, indeed, with him—and +had the love of booty been the Gipsy’s sole and constant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +object, how easily could he, in this instance, have possessed +himself of it. But the stronger had put himself, in a +measure, under the protection of the robber, who disdained +to take advantage of the confidence reposed in him.</p> + +<p>Another instance of a Gipsy’s honour, generosity, or caprice, +or by whatever word the act may be expressed, occurred +between McDonald and a farmer of the name of Campbell, +and exhibits a singular cast of character, which has not been +uncommon among the Scottish Gipsies. On this occasion, +it would appear, the Gipsy had been influenced rather by a +desire of enjoying the extraordinary surprise of the simple +countryman, than of obtaining booty. The occurrence will +also give some idea of the part which the cautious chiefs take +in plundering at a fair. The particulars are derived from +a Mr. David McRitchie, of whom I shall again make mention.</p> + +<p>While Campbell was on his way to a market in Perth, he +fell in with Captain McDonald. Being unacquainted with +the character of his fellow-traveller, the unsuspecting man +told him, among other things, that he had just as much money +in his pocket as would purchase one horse, for his four-horse +plough, having other three at home. McDonald heard all +this with patience till he came to a solitary part of the road, +when, all at once, he turned upon the astonished farmer, and +demanded his money. The poor man, having no alternative, +immediately produced his purse. But in parting, the robber +desired him to call next day at a certain house in Perth, +where he would find a person who might be of some service +to him. Campbell promised to do as desired, and called at +the house appointed, and great was his surprise, when, on +being ushered into a room, he found himself face to face with +the late robber, sitting with a large bowl of smoking toddy +before him. The Gipsy, in a frank and hearty manner, invited +his visitor to sit down and share his toddy with him; +a request which he readily complied with, although bewildered +with the idea of the probable fate of his purse, and +the result of his personal adventure. He had scarcely got +time, however, to swallow one glass, before he was relieved +of his suspense, by the Gipsy returning him every farthing +of the money he had robbed him of the day before. Being +now pleased with his good fortune, and the Gipsy pressing +him to drink, Campbell was in no hurry to be gone, his +spirits having become elevated with his good cheer, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +confidence with which his host’s conduct had inspired him. +But his suspicions returned upon him, as he saw pocket-book +after pocket-book brought in to his entertainer, during the +time he was enjoying his hospitality. The Gipsy chief was, +in fact, but following a very important branch of his calling, +and was, on that day, doing a considerable business, having +a number of youths ferreting for him in the market, and +coming in and going out constantly.</p> + +<p>But this crafty Gipsy, and his brother-in-law, Jamieson, +were at last apprehended for house-breaking and robbery. +Their trials took place at Edinburgh, on the 9th and 13th +of August, 1770, and “the fame of being Egyptians” made +part of the charge against them in the indictment; a charge +well founded, as both of them spoke the “right Egyptian +language.” It was the last instance, I believe, that the fact +of their being “called, known, repute, and holden Egyptians,” +made part of the indictment against any of the tribe +in Scotland, under the sanguinary statute of James VI, +chap. 13, passed in 1609. So cunning are the Gipsies, however, +in committing crimes, that, in this instance, the criminals, +it was understood, would have escaped justice, for want +of sufficient proof, had not one of their own band, of the +name of Jamieson, a youth of about twenty-two years of age, +turned king’s evidence against his associates. The two unhappy +men were then found guilty by the jury, and condemned +to die. They were ordered to be executed at +Linlithgow bridge, near the very spot where their band had +their principal rendezvous, with the apparent object of daunting +their incorrigible race.</p> + +<p>Immediately after the trial, a report was spread, and +generally believed, that the Gipsies would attempt a rescue +of the criminals on the way to execution, or even from under +the gallows itself; and it was particularly mentioned that +thirty stout and desperate members of the race had undertaken +to set their chieftains free. Every precaution was +therefore taken, by the authorities, to prevent any such +attempt being made. A large proportion of the gentlemen +and farmers of the shire of Linlithgow were requested, +with what arms they could procure, to attend, on foot or +horseback, the execution of the desperate Tinklers. Indeed, +every third man of all the fencible men of the county was +called upon to appear on the occasion; while a company of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +pensioners, with a commissioned officer at their head, and a +strong body of the military, completed the force deemed +necessary for the due execution of justice. Besides guarding +against the possibility of a rescue on the part of the +Gipsies, it was generally understood that the steps taken by +the authorities, in bringing together so large a body of men, +had in view the object of exhibiting to the people the ignominious +death of two men who had not only been allowed +to remain among them, but, in many instances, countenanced +by some of the most respectable inhabitants of the county; +and that not only in out-door amusements, but even in some +of the special hospitalities of daily life, while in fact they +were nothing but the leaders of a band of notorious thieves +and robbers.</p> + +<p>These precautions being completed, the condemned Gipsies +were bound hand and foot, and conveyed, by the sheriff of +Edinburgh and a company of the military, to the boat-house +bridge, on the river Almond—the boundary of the two +counties—and there handed over to the sheriff of Linlithgow; +under whose guard they were carried to the jail of +the town of Linlithgow, and securely bound in irons, to wait +their execution on the morrow.<a name="FNanchor92" id="FNanchor92"></a><a href="#Footnote92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> As night approached, fires +were kindled at the door of the prison, and guards posted +in the avenues leading to the building, while all the entrances +to the town were guarded, and all ingress and egress prohibited, +as if the burgh had been in a state of siege. So +strictly were these orders put in force, that many of the inhabitants +of Bo’ness, who had gone to Linlithgow, to view +the bustle occasioned by the assemblage of so great a number +of armed men, were forced to remain in the town over +night; so alarmed were the authorities for the onset of the +resolute Gipsies. It was soon perceived, by some sagacious +individuals, that the fires would do more harm than good, +as the light would show the prison, expose the sentinels, and +guide the Gipsy bands. They were accordingly extinguished,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +and the guards placed in such positions as would enable +them, with the most advantage, to repel any attack that +might be attempted: yet the enemy that caused all this +alarm and precaution was nowhere visible.</p> + +<p>On the following morning, McDonald’s wife requested +permission to visit her husband before being led to execution, +with what particular object can only be conjectured; a +favour which was readily granted her, in the company of a +magistrate. On beholding the object of her affection, she +became overwhelmed with grief; she threw her arms around +his neck, and embraced him most tenderly; and after giving +vent to her sorrow in sobs and tears, she tore herself from +him, and, turning to the magistrate, exclaimed, with a bursting +heart, “Is he not a pretty man? What a pity it is to +hang him!”</p> + +<p>Arrangements were then made to carry the prisoners to +the place of execution, at the bridge of Linlithgow, which +lay about a mile from the town. The armed force was +drawn up at the town-cross, and those who carried muskets +were ordered to load them with ball cartridge, and hold +themselves ready, at the word of command, upon the least +appearance of an attempt at rescue, to fire upon the aggressors. +The whole scene presented such an alarming and war-like +appearance, that the people of the town and surrounding +country compared it to the bustle and military parade which +took place, twenty-five years before, when the rebel army +made its appearance in the neighbourhood. The judicious +arrangements adopted by the officers of the crown had the +desired effect; for not the slightest symptom of disturbance, +not even a movement, was observed among the Gipsies, +either on the night before, or on the morning of the execution. +The formidable armed bands, ready to overwhelm +the presumptuous Gipsies, clearly showed them that they +had not the shadow of a chance for carrying out their intended +rescue. All was peace and silence throughout the +immense crowd surrounding the gallows, patiently waiting +the appearance of the criminals. In due time the condemned +made their appearance, in a cart, accompanied by Charles +and James Jamieson, two youths, sitting beside their father +and uncle, busily eating rolls, and, to all appearance, totally +indifferent to the fate of their relatives, and the awful circumstances +surrounding them.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>On ascending the platform, Jamieson’s demeanour was +suitable to the circumstances in which he found himself +placed; but McDonald appeared quite unconcerned. He +was observed frequently to turn a quid of tobacco in his +mouth, and squirt the juice of it around him; it was even +evident, from his manner, that he expected to be delivered +from the gallows by his tribe; and more especially as he +had been frequently heard to say that the hemp was not +grown that would hang him. He then began to look frequently +and wistfully around him for the expected aid, yet +none made its appearance; and his heart began to sink +within him. Indeed, the overwhelming force then surrounding +him rendered a deliverance impossible. Every hope +having failed him, and seeing his end at hand, McDonald +resigned himself, with great firmness, to his fate, and exclaimed: +“I have neither friends on my right hand nor on +my left; I see I now must die.” Jamieson, who appeared +from the first never to indulge in vain expectations of being +rescued, exclaimed to his fellow-sufferer: “Sandie, Sandie! +it is all over with us, and I told you so long ago.” McDonald +then turned to the executioner, whose name was +John Livingston, and dropping into his hand something, +supposed to be money, undauntedly said to him: “Now, +John, don’t bungle your job.” Both of the unhappy men +were then launched into eternity. Ever afterwards, the inhabitants +of Linlithgow pestered the hangman, by calling to +him: “Now, John, don’t bungle your job. What was it the +Tinkler gave you, John?”<a name="FNanchor93" id="FNanchor93"></a><a href="#Footnote93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> + +<p>McDonald’s wife had stood by, a quiet spectator, among +the promiscuous crowd, of the melancholy scene displayed +before her. But when she had witnessed the closing act of +an eventful life—the heroism and fortitude which all she +held as dear displayed in his last moments—and enjoyed the +satisfaction which it had given her, nature, which the odium +of her fellow-creatures, not of her blood, could not destroy, +burst forth with genuine expression. The silence attending +the awful tragedy was abruptly broken by the lamentable +yells and heart-rending screams which she gave vent to, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +she beheld her husband turned off the scaffold. Two gentlemen, +who were present, informed me that she foamed at the +mouth, and tore her hair out of her head, and was so completely +frantic with grief and rage, that the spectators were +afraid to go near her.</p> + +<p>On the bodies being taken down from the scaffold, an attempt +was made to restore them to life, by opening a vein, +but without effect. It is said they were buried in the moor +near Linlithgow, by the Gipsies, and that the magistrates of +the town ordered them to be taken up, and interred in the +east end of the church-yard of Linlithgow. However that +may be, the bodies were buried in the church-yard of Linlithgow; +but the populace, delivered from the terror with +which these daring Gipsies inspired them, treated with ignominy +the remains of those whom they dared scarcely look +in the face when alive. They dug them out of the place of +Christian sepulture, and interred them in a solitary field in +the neighbourhood. A clump of trees, I believe, marks the +spot, and the gloomy pine now waves, in the winds of heaven, +over the silent and peaceful graves of the restless and lawless +Gipsies.</p> + +<p>McDonald, it would appear, was married, first of all, to a +daughter of a Gipsy of the name of Eppie Lundie, with +whom he lived unhappy, and was divorced from her over a +horse sacrificed for the occasion, a ceremony which I will +describe in another <a href="#Page_257">chapter</a>.<a name="FNanchor94" id="FNanchor94"></a><a href="#Footnote94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> He was more fortunate in +his second matrimonial alliance, for, in Ann Jamieson, he +found a wife after his own heart in every way. Previous to +his own execution, she had witnessed the violent deaths of +at least six of her own nearest relatives. But, if anything +could have influenced, in the slightest degree, a reformation +in her own character, it would have been the melancholy +scene attending his miserable end; yet, we find it had not +the slightest effect upon her after career, for she continued, +to the last, to follow the practices of her race, as an anecdote +told of her will show.</p> + +<p>At the North Queensferry was a very respectable inn, kept +by a Mr. McRitchie, which was much frequented and patronized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +by the Gipsies. On such occasions they did not visit +the house in whole families or hordes, fluttering in rags, but +as well-dressed individuals, arriving from different directions, +as if by chance. In this house they were always treated +with consideration and kindness, for other reasons than that +of the liberal custom which they brought to it, and, as a +natural consequence, the landlord and his family became +great favourites with them. One of the members of the +family, David McRitchie, my informant, happened one day +to purchase a horse, at a fair in Dunfermline, but in feeling +for his pocket-book, to pay for the animal, he found, to his +surprise and grief, that book and money were gone. The +person from whom he bought the horse commenced at once +to abuse him as an impostor, for he not only would not believe +his tale, but would not trust him for a moment. Under +these distressing circumstances, he sought out Ann Jamieson, +or Annie McDonald, after her husband’s name, for he knew +well enough where his money had gone to, and the sovereign +influence which Ann exercised over her tribe. Being well +acquainted with her, from having often met her in his father’s +house, he went up to her, and putting his hand gently +on her shoulder, in a kind and familiar manner, and with a +long face, told her of his misfortune, and begged her friendly +assistance to help him out of the difficulty, laying much stress +on the horse-dealer charging him with an attempt to impose +on him. “Some o’ my laddies will hae seen it, Davie; I’ll +enquire,” was her immediate reply. She then took him to a +public-house, called for brandy, saw him seated, and desired +him to drink. Taking the marks of the pocket-book, she +entered the fair, and, after various doublings and windings +among the crowd, proceeded to her temporary depot of +stolen goods. In about half an hour she returned, with the +book and all its contents. The cash, bills, and papers which +it contained, were in the same parts of the book in which the +owner had placed them. This affair was transacted in as +cool and business-like a manner as if Annie and her “laddies” +had been following any of the honest callings in ordinary +life. Indeed, no example, however severe, no punishment, +however awful, seems to have had any beneficial effect upon +the minds of these Gipsies, or their friends who frequented +the surrounding parts of the country, for they continued to +follow the ways of their race, in spite of the sanguinary laws<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +of the country. A continuation of their history, up to a +period, is little better than a melancholy narrative of a series +of imprisonments, banishments, and executions.</p> + +<p>Ann Jamieson’s two nephews, Charles and James Jamieson, +who rode alongside of their father and uncle to the +place of their execution, eating rolls, as if nothing unusual +was about to befall them, and who had witnessed their +miserable end, in 1770, were themselves executed in 1786 +for robbing the Kinross mail. It was their intention to +have committed the deed upon the highway, for, the night +before the robbery, their mother, Euphan Graham, to prevent +detection, insisted upon the post-boy being put to death, +to which bloody proposition her sons would not consent. It +was then agreed that they should secure their prize in the +stable yard of an inn in the town, where the post-boy usually +stopped. The two highwaymen were traced to a small +house near Stirling, in which they made a desperate resistance. +One of them attempted to ascend the chimney, to +effect his escape; but, failing in that, they attacked the officers, +and tore at them with their teeth, after having struck +furiously at them with a knife. But they were overpowered, +and secured in irons. Two females were in their company +at the time, on whom some of the money was found, most +artfully concealed about their persons. So illiterate were +these two men that, in crossing the Forth at Kincardine, +they presented a twenty-pound note, to be changed, instead +of a twenty-shilling one. According to Baron Hume, the +trial of these two Gipsies took place on the 18th December, +1786. They were assisted in the robbery by other members +of their band, including women and children. Their mother +was said to have been transported for the part which she +took in the affair; while another member of the gang was +below the age at which criminals can be tried and punished +in this country. The two brothers, before they committed +the crime, measured themselves in a room in Kinross, kept +by a Mary Barclay, and marked their heights on the wall. +The one stood six feet two inches, and the other five feet +four inches.<a name="FNanchor95" id="FNanchor95"></a><a href="#Footnote95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote86" id="Footnote86"></a><a href="#FNanchor86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> This and the following three chapters are illustrative of the Gipsies, in +their wild state, previous to their gradual settlement and civilization, and +are applicable to the same class in every part of the world. <a href="#Page_185">Chapter VI</a>, +on the Gipsies of Tweed-dale and Clydesdale, might have been taken the +first in order, as descriptive of the tribe in its more primitive condition, +but I have allowed it to remain where it stands. A description of the +habits peculiar to the race will be found, more or less, in all of these chapters, +where they can be consulted, for the better identification of the facts +given.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote87" id="Footnote87"></a><a href="#FNanchor87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> It appears that, at this period, James Wilson, town-piper, and John +Livingston, hangman, of Linlithgow, were both Gipsies. [Formerly the +Gipsies were exclusively employed in Hungary and Transylvania as hangmen +and executioners. <i>Grellmann.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote88" id="Footnote88"></a><a href="#FNanchor88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> This trait in the character of the Scottish Gipsies is well illustrated in +the following anecdote, which appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine. It was +obtained by an individual who frequently heard the clergyman in question +relate it.</p> + +<p>“The late Mr. Leek, minister of Yetholm, happened to be riding home +one evening from a visit in Northumberland, when, finding himself likely +to be benighted, for sake of a near cut, he struck into a wild, solitary track, +or drove-road, across the fells, by a place called the Staw. In one of the +derne places through which this path led him, there stood an old deserted +shepherd’s house, which, of course, was reputed to be haunted. The minister, +though little apt to be alarmed by such reports, was, however, somewhat +startled on observing, as he approached close to the cottage, a ‘grim +visage’ staring out past a <i>window claith</i>, or sort of curtain, which had been +fastened up to supply the place of a door, and also several ‘dusky figures,’ +skulking among the bourtree-bushes that had once sheltered the shepherd’s +garden. Without leaving him any time for speculation, however, the knight +of the curtain bolted forth upon him, and, seizing his horse by the bridle, +demanded his money. Mr. Leek, though it was now dark, at once recognised +the gruff voice, and the great, black, burly head of his next-door +neighbour, <i>Gleid Neckit Will</i>, the Gipsy chief. ‘Dear me, William,’ said +the minister, in his usual quiet manner,‘can this be you? ye’re surely no +serious wi’ me? ye wadna sae far wrang your character for a good neighbour, +for the bit trifle I ha’e to gi’e, William?’—‘Lord saif us, Mr. Leek!’ +said Will, quitting the rein, and lifting his hat, with great respect, ‘Whae +wad hae thought o’ meeting you out owre here away? Ye needna gripe +for ony siller to me—I wadna touch a plack o’ your gear, nor a hair o’ your +head, for a’ the gowd o’ Tividale. I ken ye’ll no do us an ill turn for this +mistak—and I’ll e’en see ye safe through the eirie Staw—it’s no reckoned a +very <i>canny bit</i>, mair ways nor ane; but I wat ye’ll no be feared for the +<i>dead</i>, and I’ll tak care o’ the <i>living</i>.’ Will accordingly gave his reverend +friend a safe convoy through the haunted pass, and, notwithstanding this +ugly mistake, continued ever after an inoffensive and obliging neighbour to +the minister, who, on his part, observed a prudent and inviolable secrecy +on the subject of this rencounter, during the life time of <i>Gleid Nickit Will</i>.”</p> + +<p>I understand this anecdote to apply to old Will Faa, mentioned in the +Border Gipsies, under <a href="#Page_236">chapter VII</a>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote89" id="Footnote89"></a><a href="#FNanchor89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Some of the Gipsies only put a paper cap on the head, and paper +round the feet, of their dead; leaving all the body bare, excepting that +they place upon the breast, opposite the heart, a circle made of red and +blue ribbons, in form something like the shape of the variegated cockade, +worn in the hats of newly-enlisted recruits in the army. [In England it +was customary with the Gipsies, at one time, to burn the dead, but now +they only burn the clothes, and some of the effects of the deceased.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote90" id="Footnote90"></a><a href="#FNanchor90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Instances have occurred in which an Afghan has received a stranger +with all the rights of hospitality, and afterwards, meeting him in the open +country, has robbed him. The same person, it is supposed, who would +plunder a cloak from a traveller who had one, would give a cloak to one +who had none.—<i>Hugh Murray’s Asia, vol. 2, page 508.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote91" id="Footnote91"></a><a href="#FNanchor91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> A pen-knife, a snuff-box, and a ring are some of the Gipsy pass-ports. +It is what is marked upon them that protects the bearer from being disturbed +by others of the tribe.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote92" id="Footnote92"></a><a href="#FNanchor92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> “This morning, a little after nine o’clock, McDonald and Jamieson +were transported from the Tolbooth here, (Edinburgh,) escorted by a party +of the military, and attended by the sheriff-depute on horseback, with the +officers of court, armed with broad-swords, amidst an innumerable crowd +of spectators. They were securely pinioned to a cart, and are to be +received by the sheriff-depute of Linlithgow, on the confines of this county, +whither they are to be conveyed, in order to their execution to-morrow, +near Linlithgow-bridge, pursuant to their sentence.”—<i>Ruddiman’s Weekly +Magazine</i>, vol 9, page 384.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote93" id="Footnote93"></a><a href="#FNanchor93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> “On Friday last, about three o’clock, McDonald and Jamieson were +hanged, at the end of Linlithgow bridge. The latter appeared very penitent, +but the former very little affected, and, as the saying is, <i>died hard</i>.”—<i>Ruddiman’s +Weekly Magazine</i>, vol. 9, page 416.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote94" id="Footnote94"></a><a href="#FNanchor94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> This Eppie Lundie lived to the advanced age of a hundred years, and +was a terror wherever she travelled. Without the least hesitation or +scruple, she frequently stripped defenceless individuals of their wearing +apparel, leaving them sometimes naked in the open fields.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote95" id="Footnote95"></a><a href="#FNanchor95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Perhaps the author intended to say, six feet two inches, and six feet +four inches. Still, it might have been as stated in the MS.; for with Gipsies +of mixed blood, the individual, if he takes after the Gipsy, is apt to be +short and thick-set. The mixture of the two people produces a strong race +of men.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>FIFE AND STIRLINGSHIRE GIPSIES.</h3> + +<p>In this account of the Gipsies in Fife, the horde which at +one period resided at the village of Lochgellie are frequently +referred to. But it is proper to premise that this noted +band were not the only Gipsies in Fife. This populous +county contained, at one time, a great number of nomadic +Gipsies. The Falkland hills and the Falkland fairs were +greatly frequented by them;<a name="FNanchor96" id="FNanchor96"></a><a href="#Footnote96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> and, not far from St. Andrews, +some of the tribe had, within these fifty years, a small farm, +containing about twenty acres of waste land, on which they +had a small foundry, which the country people, on that account, +called “Little Carron.” As my materials for this +chapter are chiefly derived from the Lochgellie band, and +their immediate connexions in other districts not far from +Fife, their manners and customs are, on that account, brought +more under review.</p> + +<p>The village of Lochgellie was, at one time, a favourite resort +of the Gipsies. The grounds in its immediate vicinity +are exactly of that character upon which they seem to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +fixed their permanent, or rather winter’s residence, in a +great many parts of Scotland. By the statistical account of +the parish of Auchterderran, Lochgellie was almost inaccessible +for nearly six months in the year. The bleak and +heathy morasses, and rushy wastes, with which the village +is surrounded, have a gloomy and melancholy aspect. The +scenery and face of the adjoining country are very similar +to those in the neighbourhood of Biggar, in Lanarkshire, +and Middleton, in Midlothian, which were also, at that time, +Gipsy stations. A little to the south of the spot where the +Linlithgow band, at one period, had their quarters, the country +becomes moory, bleak, and barren. The village of Kirk-Yetholm, +at present full of Gipsies, is also situated upon the +confines of a wild, pastoral tract, among the Cheviot hills.<a name="FNanchor97" id="FNanchor97"></a><a href="#Footnote97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> +The Gipsies, in general, appear to have located themselves +upon grounds of a flattish character, between the cultivated +and uncultivated districts; having, on one side, a fertile and +populous country, and, on the other, a heathy, boggy, and +barren waste, into which they could retire in times of danger.<a name="FNanchor98" id="FNanchor98"></a><a href="#Footnote98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> + +<p>In the statistical account of Auchterderran, just alluded +to, is to be found the following notice of the Lochgellie Gipsies: +“There are a few persons called <i>Tinkers</i> and <i>Horners</i>, +half resident and half itinerant, who are feared and +suspected by the community. Two of them were banished +within these six years.” This horde, at one time, consisted +of four or five families of the names of Graham, Brown, +Robertson, &c. The Jamiesons and Wilsons were also often +seen at Lochgellie; but such were the numbers that were +coming and going about the village, that it was difficult to +say who were residenters, and who were not. Some of +them had fens from the proprietor of the estate of Lochgellie. +They were dreaded for their depredations, and +were well known to the country people, all over the shires +of Fife, Kinross, Perth, Forfar, Kincardine and Aberdeen, +by the name of the “Lochgellie band.” The chiefs of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +this band were the Grahams, at the head of which was old +Charles Graham, an uncommonly stout and fine-looking man. +He was banished the kingdom for his many crimes. Charlie +had been often in courts of justice, and on one occasion, +when he appeared for some crime or other, the judge, in a +surly manner, demanded of him, what had brought him +there?—“The auld thing again, my lord, but nae proof,” +was the Tinkler’s immediate reply. Ann Brown, one of his +wives, and the chief female of the band, was also sentenced to +banishment for fourteen years; seven of which, however, she +spent in the prison of Aberdeen. She remained altogether +nine years at Botany Bay, married a Gipsy abroad, returned +to Scotland, with more than a hundred pounds in cash, and +now sells earthenware at St. Andrews.<a name="FNanchor99" id="FNanchor99"></a><a href="#Footnote99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> Being asked why +she left Botany Bay, while making so much money there, +she said, “It was to let them see I could come back again.”</p> + +<p>Young Charlie Graham, son and successor, as chief, to old +Charlie, was hanged at Perth, about thirty years ago, for +horse-stealing. The anecdotes which are told of this singular +man are numerous. When he was apprehended, a number +of people assembled to look at him, as an object of wonder; +it being considered a thing almost impossible to take +him. His dog had discovered to the messengers the place +of his concealment, having barked at them as they came +near the spot. His feelings became irritated at the curiosity +of the people, and he called out in great bitterness to +the officers: “Let me free, and gie me a stick three feet +lang, and I’ll clear the knowe o’ them.” His feet and hands +were so handsome and small, in proportion to the other +parts of his athletic body, that neither irons nor hand-cuffs +could be kept on his ankles or wrists; without injury to his +person the gyves and manacles always slipped over his +joints. He had a prepossessing countenance, an elegant +figure, and much generosity of heart; and, notwithstanding +all his tricks, was an extraordinary favourite with the public. +Among the many tricks he played, it is related that he +once, unobserved, in a grass park, converted a young colt +into a gelding. He allowed the animal to remain for some +time in the possession of the owner, and then stole it. He was +immediately detected, and apprehended; but as the owner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +swore positively to the description of his horse, and Charlie’s +being a gelding, he got off clear. The man was amazed +when he discovered the trick that had been played upon +him, but when, where, and by whom done, he was entirely +ignorant. Graham sold the animal to a third person, again +stole it, and replaced it in the park of the original owner. +He seemed to take great delight in stealing in this ingenious +manner, trying how dexterously he could carry off the +property of the astonished natives. He sometimes stole +from wealthy individuals, and gave the booty to the indigent, +although they were not Gipsies; and so accustomed +were the people, in some places, to his bloodless robberies, +that some only put their spurs to their horses, calling out, as +they passed him: “Ah ha, Charlie lad, ye hae missed your +mark to-night!” A widow, with a large family, at whose +house he had frequently been quartered, was in great distress +for want of money to pay her rent. Graham lent her +the amount required; but as the factor was returning home +with it in his pocket, Charlie robbed him, and, without loss +of time, returned to the woman, and gave her a full discharge +for the sum she had just borrowed from him.</p> + +<p>He was asked, immediately before his execution, if he had +ever performed any good action during his life, to recommend +him to the mercy of his offended God. That of giving +the widow and fatherless the money of which he immediately +afterwards robbed the factor, was the only instance he adduced +in his favour; thinking that thereby he had performed +a virtuous deed. In the morning of the day on which he +was to suffer, he sent a messenger to one of the magistrates, +requesting a razor to take off his beard; at the same time, +in a calm manner, desiring the person to tell the magistrate +that, “unless his beard was shaven, he could appear before +neither God nor man.” A short time before he was taken +out to the gallows, he was observed reclining very pensively +and thoughtfully on a seat. All at once he started up, exclaiming, +in a mournful tone of voice, “Oh, can ony o’ ye +read, sirs; will some o’ ye read a psalm to me?” at the +same time regretting much that he had not been taught to +read. The fifty-first psalm was accordingly read to him, by +a gentleman present, which soothed his feelings exceedingly, +and gave him much ease and comfort. He was greatly +agitated after ascending the platform—his knees knocking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +against each other; but just before he was cast off, his inveterate +Gipsy feelings returned upon him with redoubled +violence. He kicked from his feet both of his shoes, in +sight of the spectators—to set at nought, as was supposed, +some prophecy that he would die with them on; and addressed +the assembled crowd in the following words: “I +am this day to be married to the gallows-tree, by suffering +in the manner of many of my ancestors; and I am extremely +glad to see such a number of respectable people at my wedding.” +A number of the band attended his execution, and, +when his body was returned to them, they all kissed it with +great affection, and held the usual lyke-wake over it. His +sweetheart, or widow, I am uncertain which, of the name +of Wilson, his own cousin, put his corpse into hot lime, then +buried it, and sat on his grave, in a state of intoxication, +till it was rendered unfit for the use of the medical gentlemen; +it having been reported that he was to be taken out +of his grave for the purpose of dissection. This man +boasted greatly, while under sentence of death, of never +having spilled human blood by committing murder.</p> + +<p>Hugh Graham, brother to Charlie, above-mentioned, was +stabbed with a knife by his own cousin, John Young, in +Aberdeenshire. These powerful Gipsies never fell in with +each other but a wrestling bout took place. Young generally +came off victorious, but Graham, although worsted, +would neither quit Young nor acknowledge his inferiority +of strength. Young frequently desired Graham to keep +out of his way, as his obstinate disposition would prove +fatal to one of them some time or other. They, however, +met again, when a desperate struggle ensued. Graham was +the aggressor; he drew his knife to stab Young, who +wrested it out of his hand, and stabbing him in the upper +part of the stomach, close to the breast, laid his opponent +dead at his feet.<a name="FNanchor100" id="FNanchor100"></a><a href="#Footnote100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> In this battle the Gipsy females, in +their usual manner, took a conspicuous part, by assisting the +combatants on either side.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>Jenny Graham, sister of these Grahams, was kept by a +gentleman as his mistress; but, although treated with affection, +such was her attachment to her old wandering way of +life, that she left her protector and his wealth, and rejoined +her erratic associates in the gang. She was a remarkably +handsome and good-looking woman, and, while she traversed +the country, she frequently rode upon an ass, which was +saddled and bridled. On these occasions, she was sometimes +dressed in a blue riding-habit and a black beaver hat. It +was generally supposed that the stolen articles of value belonging +to the family were committed to the care of Jenny. +Margaret Graham, another sister, is still living, and is a +woman of uncommon bodily strength; so much so, that she +is considered to be a good deal stronger than the generality +of men. She was married to William Davidson, a Gipsy, +at Wemyss. They have a large family, and sell earthenware +through the country.</p> + +<p>John Young, who stabbed his cousin, Hugh Graham, was +one of seven sons, and though above five feet ten inches in +height, his mother used to call him “the dwarf o’ a’ my +bairns.” He was condemned and hanged at Aberdeen for +the murder. He wrote a good hand, and the country-people +were far from being displeased with his society, while +he was employed in repairing their pots and pans in the way +of his calling. Sarah Graham, his mother, was of the highest +Tinkler mettle. She lost a forefinger in a Gipsy fray. +Peter Young, another son of Sarah’s, was also hanged at +Edinburgh, after breaking a number of prisons in which he +was confined. He is spoken of as a singular man. Such +was his generosity of character, that he always exerted himself +to the utmost to set his fellow-prisoners free, although +they happened not to be in the same apartment of the +prison. The life of this man was published about the time +of his execution. When any one asked old John Young +where his sons were, his reply was, “They are all hanged.” +They were seven in number, and it was certainly a fearful +end of a whole family. The following is an extract of a +letter addressed to Mr. Blackwood, from Aberdeen, relative +to Peter Young: “It is said, in your far-famed magazine, +that Peter Young, brother to John Young, the Gipsy, likewise +suffered at <i>Aberdeen</i>. It is true that he received sentence +to die there, but the prison and all the irons the persons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +were able to load him with, somehow or other, were +found insufficient to prevent him from making his escape. +After he had repeatedly broken loose, and had been as often +retaken, the magistrates at last resolved that he should be +effectually secured; and, for that purpose, ordered a great +iron chain to be provided, and Peter to be fast bound in +it. As the jailer was making everything, as he thought, +most secure, Peter, with a sigh, gazed on him, and said, +‘Ay, ay, I winna come out now till I come out at the +door;’ making him believe that he would not be able to +make his escape again, nor come out till the day fixed for +his execution. But the great iron chain, bolts and bars, +were all alike unable to withstand his skill and strength: +he came out, within a few nights, at the ‘door,’ along with +such of his fellow-prisoners as were inclined to avail +themselves of the ‘catch;’ but he was afterwards taken, and +conveyed to Edinburgh, and there made to suffer the penalty +which his crimes deserved.—D. C.”<a name="FNanchor101" id="FNanchor101"></a><a href="#Footnote101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>Charles Brown, one of the principal members of the +Lochgellie band, was killed in a desperate fight at Raploch, +near Stirling. A number of Gipsy boys, belonging to +several gangs in the south, obtained a considerable quantity +of plunder, at a fair in Perth, and had, in the +division of the spoil, somehow or another, imposed on the +Lochgellie tribe, and their associates. Charles Graham, already +mentioned, and Charles Brown, went south in pursuit +of the young depredators, for the purpose of compelling them +to give up their ill-gotten booty to those to whom, by the +Gipsy regulations, it of right belonged. After an arduous +chase, the boys were overtaken near Stirling, when a furious +battle immediately commenced. Both parties were +armed with bludgeons. After having fought for a considerable +time, with equal success on both sides, Graham, from +some unknown cause, fled, leaving his near relation, Brown, +to contend alone with the youths, in the best way he could. +The boys now became the assailants, and began to press hard +upon Brown, who defended himself long and manfully with +his bludgeon, displaying much art in the use of his weapon, +in warding off the lighter blows of his opponents, which +came in upon him from all quarters. At length he was +forced to give way, although very few of the blows reached +his person. On retreating, with his front to his assailants, +his foot struck upon an old feal dyke, when he fell to the +ground. The enraged youths now sprang in upon him, like +tigers, and, without showing him the least mercy, dispatched +him on the spot, by literally beating out his brains with +their bludgeons. Brown’s coat was brought home to Lochgellie, +by some of his wife’s friends, with the collar and +shoulders besmeared all over with blood and brains, with +quantities of his hair sticking in the gore. It was preserved +for some time in this shocking condition by his wife, and exhibited +as a proof that her husband had not fled, as well as to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +arouse the clan to vengeance. My informant, a man about +fifty years of age, with others, saw this dreadful relique of +Brown, in the very state in which it is now described.</p> + +<p>Alexander Brown, another member of the Lochgellie band, +happened, on one occasion, to be in need of butcher meat, for +his tribe. He had observed, grazing in a field, in the county +of Linlithgow, a bullock that had, by some accident, lost about +three-fourths of its tail. He procured a tail of a skin of the +same colour as that of the animal, and, in an ingenious manner, +made it fast to the remaining part of its tail. Disguised +in this way, he drove off his booty; but after shipping the +beast at the Queens-ferry, on his way to the north, a servant, +who had been dispatched in quest of the depredator, +overtook him as he was stepping into the boat. An altercation +immediately commenced about the ox. The countryman +said he could swear to the identity of the animal in +Brown’s possession, were it not for its long tail; and was +proceeding to examine it narrowly, to satisfy himself on that +particular, when the ready-witted Gipsy, ever fertile in expedients +to extricate himself from difficulties, took his knife +out of his pocket, and, in view of all present, cut off the tail +above the juncture, drawing blood instantly; and, throwing +it into the sea, called out to the pursuer, with some warmth: +“Swear to the ox now, and be —— to ye.” The countryman +said not another word, but returned home, while the +Tinkler proceeded on his journey with his prize.<a name="FNanchor102" id="FNanchor102"></a><a href="#Footnote102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>But this Gipsy was not always so fortunate as he was on +this occasion. Being once apprehended near Dumblane, it was +the intention of the messengers to carry him direct to Perth, +but they were under the necessity of lodging him in the +nearest prison for the night. Brown was no sooner in custody +than he began to meditate his escape. He requested, +as a favour, that the officers would sit up all night with him, +in a public-house, instead of a prison, promising them as +much meat and drink, for their indulgence and trouble, as +they should desire. His request having been granted, four +or five officers were placed in and about the room in which +he was confined, as a guard on his person, being aware of +the desperate character they had to deal with. He took +care to ply them well with the bottle; and early next morning, +before setting out, he desired one of them to put up the +window a little, to cool the apartment. After walking +several times across the room, the Gipsy, all at once, threw +himself out of the window, which was a considerable height +from the ground. The hue and cry was at his heels in an +instant; and as some of the messengers were gaining on +him, he boldly faced about, drew forth, from below his coat, +a dagger, which he brandished in the air, and threatened +death to the first who should approach him. He was, on +this occasion, suffered to make his escape, as none had the +courage to advance upon him.</p> + +<p>When in full dress, Brown wore a hat richly ornamented +and trimmed with beautiful gold lace, which was then fashionable +among the first ranks in Scotland, particularly +among the officers of the army. His coat was made of +superfine cloth, of a light green colour, long in the tails, and +having one row of buttons at the breast. His shirt, of the +finest quality, was ruffled at hands and breast, with a black<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +stock and buckle round the neck. He also wore a pair of handsome +boots, with silver-plated spurs, all in the fashion +of the day. Below his garments he carried a large knife, +and in the shaft or butt-end of his large whip, a small spear, +or dagger, was concealed. His brother-in-law, Wilson, was +frequently dressed in a similar garb, and both rode the best +horses in the country. Having the appearance of gentlemen +in their habits, and assuming the manners of such, which +they imitated to a wonderful degree, few persons took these +men for Gipsies. Like many of their race, they are represented +as having been very handsome, tall, and stout-made +men, with agreeable and manly countenances. Among the +numerous thefts and robberies which they committed in +their day, they were never known to have taken a sixpence +from people of an inferior class, but, on the contrary, rather +to have assisted the poor classes in their pecuniary matters, +with a generous liberality, not at all to be looked for from +men of their singular habits and manner of life. The following +particulars are descriptive of the manner and style +in which some of the Gipsies of rank, at one time, traversed +this country.</p> + +<p>Within these forty-five years, Mr. McRitchie, already +alluded to, happened to be in a smithy, in the neighbourhood +of Carlisle, getting the shoes of his riding-horse roughened +on a frosty day, to enable him to proceed on his journey, +when a gentleman called for a like purpose. The animal +on which he was mounted was a handsome blood-horse, which +was saddled and bridled in a superior manner. He was himself +dressed in superfine clothes, with a riding-whip in his hand; +was booted and spurred, with saddle-bags behind him; and +had, altogether, man and horse, the equipment and appearance +of a smart English mercantile traveller, riding in the +way of his business. There being several horses in the +smithy, he, in a haughty and consequential manner, enquired +of the smith, very particularly, whose turn it was first: indicating +a strong desire to be first served, although he was +the last that had entered the smithy. This bold assurance +made my acquaintance take a steady look at the intrusive +stranger, whom he surveyed from head to foot. And what +was his astonishment when he found the mighty gentleman +to be no other than Sandie Brown, the Tinkler’s son, from +the neighbourhood of Crieff; whom he had often seen strolling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +through the country in a troop of Gipsies, and frequently +in his father’s house, at the North Queensferry. He could +scarcely believe his eyes, so to prevent any disagreeable +mistake, politely asked the “gentleman” if his name was not +Brown; observing that he thought he had seen him somewhere +before. The surprised Tinkler hesitated considerably +at the unexpected question, and, after having put some +queries on his part, answered that “he would not deny +himself—his name was really Brown.” He had, in all likelihood, +been travelling under a borrowed name, a practice +very common with the Gipsies. When he found himself +detected, yet seeing no danger to be apprehended from the +accidental meeting, he very shrewdly showed great marks +of kindness to his acquaintance. Being now quite free from +embarrassment, he, in a short time, began to display, as is +the Gipsy custom, extraordinary feats of bodily strength, +by twisting with his hands strong pieces of iron; taking +bets regarding his power in these practices, with those who +would wager with him. Before parting with my friend, +Brown very kindly insisted upon treating him with a bottle +of any kind of liquor he would choose to drink. At some +sequestered station of his tribe, on his way home, the equestrian +Tinkler would unmask himself—dispose of his horse, +pack up his fine clothes, and assume his ragged coat, leathern +apron, and budget—before he would venture among the +people of the country, who were acquainted with his real +character. Here we see a haughty, overbearing, highway +robber, clothed in excellent apparel, and mounted on a good +steed, metamorphose himself, in an instant, into a poor, +wandering, beggarly, and pitiful Gipsy.</p> + +<p>This Alexander Brown, and his brother-in-law, Wilson, +carried on conjointly a considerable trade in horse-stealing +between Scotland and England. The horses which were +stolen in the South were brought to Scotland, and sold there; +those stolen in Scotland were, on the other hand, disposed +of in the South by English Gipsies. The crime of horse-stealing +has brought a great many of these wanderers to an +untimely end on the gallows. Brown was at last hanged at +Edinburgh, to expiate the many crimes he had, from time +to time, committed. It is said that his brother-in-law, Wilson, +was hanged along with him on the same day, having +been also guilty of a number of crimes. Brown was taken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +in a wood in Rannach, having been surprised and overpowered +by a party of Highlanders, raised for the purpose of +apprehending him, and dispersing his band, who lay in the +wood in which he was captured. He thought to evade them +by clapping close to the ground, like a wild animal. Upon +being seized, a furious scuffle ensued; and during the violent +tossing and struggling which took place, while they +were securing this sturdy wanderer, he took hold of the +bare thigh of one of the Highlanders, and bit it most cruelly. +Martha, the mother of Brown, and the mother-in-law +of Wilson, was apprehended in the act of stealing a pair of +sheets while attending their execution.</p> + +<p>Charles, by some called William, a brother of Alexander +Brown, was run down by a party of the military and some +messengers, near Dundee. He was carried to Perth, where +he was tried, condemned and executed, to atone for the numerous +crimes of which he was guilty. He was conveyed +to Perth by water, in consequence of it being reported that +the Gipsies of Fife, with the Grahams and Ogilvies at their +head, were in motion to rescue him. He, also, was a man +of great personal strength; and regretting, after being +handcuffed, having allowed himself to be so easily taken, he, +in wrath, drove the messengers before him with his feet, as +if they had been children. While in the apartment of the +prison called the condemned cell, or the cage, he freed himself +from his irons, and by some means set on fire the damp +straw on which he lay, with the design of making his escape +in the confusion. Surprised at the building being on fire, +and suspecting Brown to have been the cause of it, and that +he was free from his chains, ramping like a lion in his den, +no one, in the hurry, could be found with resolution enough +to venture near him, till a sergeant of the forty-second regiment +volunteered his services. Before he would face the +Tinkler, however, he requested authority from the magistrates +to defend himself with his broad-sword, and, in case +the prisoner became desperate, to cut him down. This permission +being obtained, the sergeant drew his sword, and, +assisted by the jailer’s daughter, unbarred the doors, till he +came to the cage, whence the prison was being filled with +smoke. As he advanced to the door, he asked with a loud +voice, “Who is there?” “The devil,” vociferated the Gipsy, +through fire and smoke. “I am also a devil, and of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +black-watch,” thundered back the intrepid Highlander. The +resolute reply of the soldier sounded like a death knell to +the artful Tinkler—he knew his man—it daunted him completely; +for, after some threats from the sergeant, he quietly +allowed himself to be again loaded with irons, and +thoroughly secured in his cell, whence he did not stir till the +day of his execution.</p> + +<p>Lizzy Brown, by some called Snippy, a member of the +same family, was a tall, stout woman, with features far from +being disagreeable. She lost her nose in a battle, fought in +the shire of Angus. In this rencounter, the Gipsies fought +among themselves with highland dirks, exhibiting all the +fury of hostile tribes of Bedouin Arabs of the desert. When +this woman found that her nose was struck off, by the sweep +of a dirk, she put her hand to the wound, and, as if little +had befallen her, called out, in the heat of the scuffle, to +those nearest her: “But, in the middle o’ the meantime, +where is my nose?” Poor Lizzy’s tall figure was conspicuous +among the tribe, owing to the want of that ornamental +part of her face.</p> + +<p>The Grahams of Lochgellie, the Wilsons of Raploch, near +Stirling, and the Jamiesons, noticed under the head of Linlithgowshire +Gipsies, were all, by the female side, immediately +descended from old Charles Stewart, a Gipsy chief, at +one period of no small consequence, among these hordes.<a name="FNanchor103" id="FNanchor103"></a><a href="#Footnote103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> +When I enquired if the Robertsons, who lived, at one time, +at Menstry, were related to the Lochgellie band, the answer +which I received was: “The Tinklers are a’ sib”—meaning +that they are all connected with one another by the ties of +blood, and considered as one family. This is a most powerful +bond of union among these desperate clans, which almost +bids defiance to the breaking up of their strongly cemented +society. Old Charles Stewart was described to +me as a stout, good-looking man, with a fair complexion; +and I was informed that he lived to a great age. He affirmed, +wherever he went, that he was a descendant of the +royal Stewarts of Scotland. His descendants still assert +that they are sprung from the royal race of Scotland. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +support of this pretension, Stewart, in the year 1774, at a +wedding, in the parish of Corstorphine, actually wore a large +cocked hat, decorated with a beautiful plume of white feathers, +in imitation of the white cockade of the Pretender. +On this occasion, he wore a short coat, philabeg and purse, +and tartan hose. He sometimes wore a piece of brass, as a +star, on his left breast, with a cudgel in his hand. Such +ridiculous attire corresponds exactly with the taste and +ideas of a Gipsy.<a name="FNanchor104" id="FNanchor104"></a><a href="#Footnote104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> These pretensions of Stewart are exactly +of a piece with the usual Gipsy policy of making +the people believe that they are descended from families +of rank and influence in the country. At the same time, it +cannot be denied that some of our Scottish kings, especially +James V, the “Gaberlunzie-man,”<a name="FNanchor105" id="FNanchor105"></a><a href="#Footnote105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> were far from being scrupulous +or fastidious in their vague amours. As old Charles +Stewart was, on one occasion, crossing the Forth, at Queensferry, +chained to his son-in-law, Wilson, in charge of messengers, +he, with considerable shame in his countenance, observed +David McRitchie, whose father, as already mentioned, +kept a first-rate inn at the north-side, and in which the +Tinkler had frequently regaled himself with his merry companions. +Stewart called McRitchie to him, and, taking five +shillings out of his pocket, said to him, “Hae, Davie, there’s +five shillings to drink my health, man; I’ll laugh at them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +a’.” He did laugh at them all, for nothing could be proved +against him and he was immediately set at liberty. It was, +as Charles Graham said—“The auld thing again, but nae +proof.”<a name="FNanchor106" id="FNanchor106"></a><a href="#Footnote106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + +<p>Another very singular Gipsy, of the name of Jamie Robertson, +a near relation of the Lochgellie tribe, resided at +Menstry, at the foot of the Ochil hills. James was an excellent +musician, and was in great request at fairs and country +weddings. Although characterized by a dissoluteness +of manners, and professed roguery, this man, when trusted, +was strictly honest. A decent man in the neighbourhood, +of the name of Robert Gray, many a time lent him sums of +money, to purchase large ox horns and other articles, in the +east of Fife, which he always repaid on the very day he +promised, with the greatest correctness and civility. The +following anecdote will show the zeal with which he would +resent an insult which he conceived to be offered to his +friend: In one of his excursions through Fife, he happened +to be lying on the ground, basking himself in the sun, while +baiting his ass, on the roadside, when a countryman, an +entire stranger to him, came past, singing, in lightness of +heart, the song of “Auld Robin Gray,” which, unfortunately +for the man, Robertson had never heard before. On the +unconscious stranger coming to the words “Auld Robin +Gray was a kind man to me,” the hot-blooded Gipsy started +to his feet, and, with a volley of oaths, felled him with his +bludgeon to the ground; repeating his blows in the most +violent manner, and telling him, “Auld Robin Gray was a +kind man to him indeed, but it was not for him to make a +song on Robin for that.” In short, he nearly put the innocent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +man to death, in the heat of his passion, for satirizing, +as he thought, his friend in a scurrilous song. It was an invariable +custom with Robertson, whenever he passed Robert +Gray’s house, even were it at the dead hour of night, to +draw out his “bread winner,” and give him a few of his +best airs, in gratitude for his kindness.</p> + +<p>Robertson’s wife, a daughter of Martha, whose son and +son-in-law, Brown and Wilson, were executed, as already +mentioned, was sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay; +but, owing to her advanced years, it was not thought worth +the expense and trouble of sending her over seas, and she +was set at liberty. Her grandson, Joyce Robertson, would +also have been transported, if not hanged, but for the assistance +of some of his clan rescuing him from Stirling jail. +So coolly and deliberately did he go about his operations, in +breaking out of the prison, that he took along with him his +oatmeal bag, and a favourite bird, in a cage, with which he +had amused himself during his solitary confinement. The +following anecdote of this audacious Gipsy, which was told +to me by an inhabitant of Stirling, who was well acquainted +with the parties, is, I believe, unequalled in the history of +robberies: While Robertson was lying in jail, an old man, +for what purpose is not mentioned, went to the prison window, +to speak to him through the iron stauncheons. Joyce, +putting forth his hand, took hold of the unsuspecting man +by the breast of his coat, and drew him close up to the iron +bars of the window; then thrusting out his other hand, and +pointing a glittering knife at his heart, threatened him with +instant death, if he did not deliver him the money he had on +him. The poor man, completely intimidated, handed into +the prison all the money he had; but had it returned, on +the jailer being informed of the extraordinary transaction.<a name="FNanchor107" id="FNanchor107"></a><a href="#Footnote107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> +After escaping from confinement, this Gipsy stole a watch +from a house at Alva, but had hardly got it into his possession +before he was discovered, and had the inhabitants of +the village in pursuit of him. A man, of the name of Dawson, +met him in his flight, and, astonished at seeing the crowd +at his heels, enquired, impatiently, what was the matter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +“They are all running after me, and you will soon run too,” +replied the Tinkler, without shortening his step. He took +to Tullibody plantations, but was apprehended, and had the +watch taken from him.</p> + +<p>I will notice another principal Gipsy, closely connected +by blood with the Fife bands, and of that rank that entitled +him to issue tokens to the members of his tribe. The name +of this chief was Charles Wilson, and his place of residence, +at one time, was Raploch, close by Stirling castle, where he +possessed some heritable property in houses. He was a +stout, athletic, good-looking man, fully six feet in stature, +and of a fair complexion; and was, in general, handsomely +dressed, frequently displaying a gold watch, with many seals +attached to its chain. In his appearance he was respectable, +very polite in his manners, and had, altogether, little or +nothing about him which, at first sight, or to the general +public, indicated him to be a Gipsy. But, nevertheless, I +was assured by one of the tribe, who was well acquainted +with him, that he spoke the language, and observed all the +customs, and followed the practices of the Gipsies.</p> + +<p>He was a pretty extensive horse-dealer, having at times +in his possession numbers of the best bred horses in the +country. He most commonly bought and sold hunters, and +such as were suitable for cavalry; and for some of his horses +he received upwards of a hundred guineas apiece. In his +dealings he always paid cash for his purchases, but accepted +bills from his customers of respectability. Many a one purchased +horses of him; and he was taken notice of by many +respectable people in the neighbourhood; but the community +in general looked upon him, and his people, with suspicion +and fear, and were by no means fond of quarrelling with +any of his vindictive fraternity. When any of his customers +required a horse from him, and told him that the matter was +left wholly to himself, as regards price, but to provide an +animal suitable for the purpose required, no man in Scotland +would act with greater honour than Charles Wilson. He +would then fit his employer completely, and charge for the +horse exactly what the price should be. To this manner of +dealing he was very averse, and endeavoured to avoid it as +much as possible. It is said he was never known to deceive +any one in his transactions, when entire confidence was +placed in him. But, on the other hand, when any tried to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +make a bargain with him, without any reference to himself, +but trusting wholly to their own judgment, he would take +three prices for his horses, if he could obtain them, and +cheat them, if it was in his power. It is said his people +stole horses in Ireland, and sent them to him, to dispose of +in Scotland. On one occasion his gang stole and sold in +Edinburgh, Stirling and Dumbarton a grey stallion, three +different times in one week. Wilson himself was almost +always mounted on a blood-horse of the highest mettle.</p> + +<p>At one time, Charles Wilson travelled the country with a +horse and cart, vending articles which his gang plundered +from shops in Glasgow and other places. He had an associate +who kept a regular shop, and when Wilson happened +to be questioned about his merchandise, he always had fictitious +bills of particulars, invoices and receipts, ready to +show that the goods were lawfully purchased from his merchant, +who was no other than his friend and associate. As +Charles was chief of his tribe, he received the title of captain, +to distinguish him from the meaner sort of his race. +Like others of his rank among the Gipsies, he generally had +a numerous gang of youths in fairs, plundering for him in all +directions, among the heedless and unthinking crowd. But +he always managed matters with such art and address that, +however much he might be suspected, no evidence could +ever be found to show that he acted a part in such transactions. +It was well understood, however, that Charlie, as +he was commonly called, divided the contents of many a +purse with his band; all the plundered articles being in +fact brought to him for distribution.</p> + +<p>This chief, as I have already mentioned, issued tokens to +the members of his own tribe; a part of the polity of the +Gipsies which will be fully described in the <a href="#Page_185">following chapter</a>. +But, besides these regular Gipsy tokens, he, like many +of his nation, gave tokens of protection to his particular +friends of the community at large. The following is one +instance, among many, of this curious practice among the +Gipsies. I received the particulars from the individual +himself who obtained the token or passport from Wilson. +My informant, Mr. Buchanan, a retired officer of the Excise, +chanced, in his youth, to be in a fair at Skirling, in Peebles-shire, +when an acquaintance of his, of the name of John +Smith, of Carnwath Mill, received, in a tent, fifty pounds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +for horses which he had sold in the market. Wilson, who +was acquainted with both parties, was in the tent at the +time, and saw the latter receive the money. On leaving the +tent, Smith mentioned to his friend that he was afraid of +being robbed in going home, as Wilson knew he had money +in his possession. Mr. Buchanan, being well acquainted +with Wilson, went to him in the fair, and told him the plain +facts; that Smith and himself were to travel with money on +their persons, and that they were apprehensive of being +robbed of it, on their way home. The Gipsy, after hesitating +for a moment, gave Buchanan a pen-knife, which he +was to show to the first person who should offer to molest +them; at the same time enjoining him to keep the affair +quite private. After my informant and his friend had +travelled a considerable distance on their way home, they +observed, at a little distance before them, a number of +Tinklers—men and women—fighting together on the side +of the road. One of the females came forward to the +travellers, and urged them vehemently to assist her husband, +who, she said, was like to be murdered by others who had +fallen upon him on the highway. My friend knew quite +well that all the fighting was a farce, got up for the purpose +of robbing him and his companion, the moment they interfered +with the combatants in their feigned quarrel. Instead +of giving the woman the assistance she asked, he privately +and very quietly, as if he wished nobody to see it, showed +her Wilson’s knife in his hand, when she immediately exclaimed, +“You are our friends,” and called, at the same +moment, to those engaged in the scuffle, in words to the +same effect. Both the travellers now passed on, but, on +looking behind them, they observed that the squabble had +entirely ceased. The pen-knife was returned to Wilson the +day following.</p> + +<p>I may give, in this place, another instance of these tokens +being granted by the Gipsies to their particular favourites +of the community. The particulars were given to me by +the individual with whom the incident occurred; and the +Gipsy mentioned I have myself seen and spoken to: A—— +A——, a small farmer, who resided in the west of Fife, +happened to be at one of the Falkland fairs, where, in the +evening, he fell in with old Andrew Steedman, a Gipsy horse-dealer +from Lochgellie, with whom he was well acquainted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +They entered a public-house in Falkland to have a dram together, +before leaving the fair, and after some conversation +had passed, on various subjects, Steedman observed to his +acquaintance that it would be late in the night before he +could reach his home, and that he might be exposed to some +danger on the road; but he would give him his snuff-box, +to present and offer a snuff to the first person who should +offer to molest him. My informant, possessed of the Gipsy’s +snuff-box, mounted his horse, and left his acquaintance and +Falkland behind for his home. He had not proceeded far +on his journey, before a man in the dark seized the bridle +of his horse, and ordered him to stop; without, however, +enforcing his command to surrender in that determined tone +and manner common to highwaymen with those they intend +to rob. The farmer at once recognized the robber to be no +other than young Charles Graham, one of the Lochgellie +Tinklers, whom he personally knew. Instead of delivering +him his purse, he held out to him the snuff-box, as if nothing +had happened, and, offering him a pinch, asked him if he was +going to Lochgellie to-night. A sort of parley now ensued, +the farmer feeling confident in the strength of his protection, +and Graham confounded at being recognized by an acquaintance +whom he was about to rob, and who, moreover, +was in possession of a Gipsy token. At first a dry conversation +ensued, similar to that between persons unacquainted +with each other when they happen to meet; but Graham, +recovering his self-possession, soon became very frank and +kind, and insisted on the farmer accompanying him to a +public-house on the road-side, where he would treat him to +a dram. The farmer, a stout, athletic man, and no coward, +complied with the Gipsy’s invitation without hesitation. +While drinking their liquor, Graham took up the snuff-box, +and examined it all over very attentively, by the light of +the candle, and returned it, without making a single remark, +relative either to the untoward occurrence or the snuff-box +itself. The farmer was equally silent as to what had taken +place; but he could not help noticing the particular manner +in which the Gipsy examined the token. They drank a +hearty dram together, and parted the best of friends; the +farmer for his home, and Graham, as he supposed, for the +highway, to exercise his calling. Graham, about this period, +resided in a house belonging to Steedman, in Lochgellie.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>Instances occurred of individuals, who happened to be +plundered, applying to Charles Wilson for his assistance to +recover their property. The particulars of the following +case are in the words of a friend who gave me the anecdote: +“A boy, having received his hard-earned fee, at the +end of a term, set out for Stirling to purchase some clothes +for himself. On the road he was accosted by two men, who +conversed with and accompanied him to Stirling. The lad +proceeded accordingly to fit himself in a shop with a new +suit, but, to his utter disappointment and grief, his small +penny-fee was gone. The merchant questioned him about +the road he had come, and whether he had been in company +with any one on the way or otherwise. Upon the appearance +of his companions being described, the shop-keeper +suspected they might have picked his pocket unobserved. +As a last resource, the boy was advised to call upon Charlie +Wilson, and relate to him the particulars of his misfortune; +which he accordingly did. Charles heard his story to the +end, and desired him to call next day, when he might be +able to give him some information relative to his loss. The +young lad kept the appointment, and, to his great joy, the +Tinkler chief paid him down every farthing of his lost +money; but at the same time told him to ask no questions.”</p> + +<p>This Gipsy chief died within these thirty-five years in his own +house, on the castle-hill at Stirling, whither he had removed +from Raploch. It is stated that, for a considerable time before +his death, he relinquished his former practices, and died +in full communion with the church.<a name="FNanchor108" id="FNanchor108"></a><a href="#Footnote108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> He was, about the +latter end of his life, reduced to considerable poverty, and +was under the necessity of betaking himself to his original +occupation of making horn spoons for a subsistence. In +the days of his prosperity, Charles was considered a very +kind-hearted and generous man to the poor; and it seldom +happened that poverty and distress were not relieved by +him, when application was made to him by the needy. Although +many of the more original kind of Gipsies have a +respectable appearance, and may possess a little money, +during the prime of life, yet the most of them, in their old +age, are in a condition of poverty and misery.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>Charles Wilson had a family of very handsome daughters, +one of whom was considered a perfect beauty. She did not +travel the country, like the rest of her family, but remained +at home, and acted as her father’s housekeeper; and, when +any of the tribe visited him, they always addressed her by +the title of “my lady,” (<i>raunie</i>,) and otherwise treated her +with great respect. This beautiful girl was, about the year +1795, kept as a mistress by an adjutant of a Scotch regiment +of fencible cavalry. She was frequently seen as handsomely +and fashionably attired as the first females in Stirling; and +some of the troopers were not displeased to see their adjutant’s +mistress equal in appearance to the highest dames in +the town. But Wilson’s daughters were all frequently +dressed in a very superior manner, and could not have been +taken for Gipsies.</p> + +<p>To suit their purposes of deception, in practising their +pilfering habits, the female Gipsies, as well as the males, +often changed their wearing apparel. Some of them have +been seen in four different dresses in one fair day, varying +from the appearance of a sturdy female beggar to that of a +young, flirting wench, fantastically dressed, and throwing +herself, a perfect lure, in the way of the hearty, ranting, +half-intoxicated, and merry young farmers, for the sole purpose +of stripping them of their money.<a name="FNanchor109" id="FNanchor109"></a><a href="#Footnote109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> The following is +given as an instance of this sort of female deception:—On a +fair-day, in the town of Kinross, a Brae-laird,<a name="FNanchor110" id="FNanchor110"></a><a href="#Footnote110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> in the same +county, fell in with a Gipsy harpy of the above character, +of the name of Wilson, one of Charles’ daughters, it was +understood. She had a fine person, an agreeable and prepossessing +countenance, was handsomely dressed, and was, +altogether, what one would pronounce a pretty girl. Her +charms made a very sudden and deep impression on the susceptible +laird; and as it was an easy matter, in those times,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +to make up acquaintance at these large and promiscuous +gatherings, the enamoured rustic soon found means to introduce +himself to the stranger lady. He treated her in a +gallant manner, and engaged to pay his respects to her at +her place of residence. It happened, however, that a number +of Tinklers were, that very evening, apprehended in the +fair, for picking pockets, and a great many purses were +found in their custody. Proclamation was made by the +authorities, that all those who had lost their money should +appear at a place named, and identify their property. The +Brae-laird, among others, missed his pocket-book and purse, +and accordingly went to enquire after them. His purse was +produced to him; but greatly was he ashamed and mortified +when the thief was also shown to him, lying in prison—the +very person of his handsome and beautiful sweetheart, now +metamorphosed into a common Tinkler wench. Whether he +now provoked the ire of his dulcinea, by harsh treatment, is +not mentioned; but the woman sent, as it were, a dagger to +his heart, by calling out before all present: “Ay, laird, ye’re +no sae kind to me noo, lad, as when ye treated me wi’ wine +in the forenoon.” The man, confounded at his exposure, +was glad to get out of her presence, and, rather than bear +the cutting taunts of the Gipsy, fled from the place of investigation, +leaving his money behind him.<a name="FNanchor111" id="FNanchor111"></a><a href="#Footnote111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></p> + +<p>It is almost needless to mention that the Stirlingshire +Gipsies contributed their full proportion to the list of victims +to the offended laws of the country. Although Charles +Wilson, the chieftain of the horde, dexterously eluded justice +himself, two of his brothers were executed within the memory +of people still living. Another of his relatives, of the +name of Gordon, also underwent the last penalty of the law, +at Glasgow, where an acquaintance of mine saw him hanged. +Wilson had a son who carried a box of jewelry through the +country, and was suspected of having been concerned in +robbing a bank, at, I believe, Dunkeld. Some of the descendants +of this Stirlingshire tribe still roam up and down +the kingdom, nearly in the old Gipsy manner; and several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +of them have their residence, when not on the tramp, in the +town of Stirling.</p> + +<p>The great distinguishing feature in the character of the +Gipsies is an incurable propensity for theft and robbery, +and taking openly and forcibly (sorning) whatever answers +their purpose. A Gipsy, of about twenty-one years of age, +stated to me that his forefathers considered it quite lawful, +among themselves, to take from others, not of their own fraternity, +any article they stood in need of. Casting his eyes +around the inside of my house, he said: “For instance, were +they to enter this room, they would carry off anything that +could be of service to them, such as clothes, money, victuals, +&c.:” “but,” added he, “all this proceeded from ignorance; +they are now quite changed in their manners.” Another +Gipsy, a man of about sixty years of age, informed me that +the tribe have a complete and thorough hatred of the whole +community, excepting those who shelter them, or treat them +with kindness; and that a dexterous theft or robbery, committed +on any of the natives among whom they travel, is +looked upon as one of the most meritorious actions which a +Gipsy can possibly perform.</p> + +<p>But the Gipsies are by no means the only nation in the world +that have considered theft reputable. In Sparta, under the +celebrated law-giver Lycurgus, theft was also reputable. In +Hugh Murray’s account of an embassy from Portugal to the +Emperor of Abyssinia, in 1620, we find the following curious +passage relative to thieves in that part of the world: “As +the embassy left the palace, a band of thieves carried off a +number of valuable articles, while a servant who attempted +to defend them was wounded in the leg. The ambassadors, +enquiring the mode of obtaining redress for this outrage, +were assured that these thieves formed a regular part of the +court establishment, and that officers were appointed who +levied a proportion of the articles stolen, for behoof his imperial +majesty.”<a name="FNanchor112" id="FNanchor112"></a><a href="#Footnote112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> In another part of Africa, there is a horde +of Moors who go by the name of the tribe of thieves. This +wandering, vagabond horde do not blush at adopting this +odious denomination. Their chief is called chief of the +tribe of thieves.<a name="FNanchor113" id="FNanchor113"></a><a href="#Footnote113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> In Hugh Murray’s Asia, we have the following +passage relative to the professed thieves in India.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>“Nothing tends more to call in question the mildness of +the Hindoo disposition than the vast scale of the practice +of decoity. This term, though essentially synonymous with +robbery, suggests, however, very different ideas. With us, +robbers are daring and desperate outlaws, who hide themselves +in the obscure corners of great cities, shunned and +detested by all society. In India, they are regular and +reputable persons, who have not only houses and families, +but often landed property, and have much influence in the +villages where they reside. This profession, like all others, +is hereditary; and a father has been heard, from the gallows, +carefully admonishing his son not to be deterred, by his fate, +from following the calling of his ancestors. They are very +devout, and have placed themselves under the patronage of +the goddess Kali, revered in Bengal above all other deities, +and who is supposed to look with peculiar favour on achievements +such as theirs. They are even recognized by the old +Hindoo laws, which contain enactments for the protection +of stolen goods, upon a due share being given to the magistrate. +They seldom, however, commit depredations in their +own village, or even in that immediately adjoining, but seek +a distant one, where they have no tie to the inhabitants. +They are formed into bands, with military organization, so +that when a chief dies, there is always another ready to succeed +him. They calculate that they have ten chances to one +of never being brought to justice.”</p> + +<p>The old Hindoo law alluded to in the above passage is, I +presume, the following enactment in the Gentoo Code, translated +by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, page 146: “The mode +of shares among robbers is this: If any thieves, by the command +of the magistrate, and with his assistance, have committed +depredations upon, and brought any booty from, another +province, the magistrate shall receive a share of +one-sixth of the whole; if they receive no command or +assistance from the magistrate, they shall give the magistrate, +in that case, one-tenth of his share; and of the +remainder, their chief shall receive four shares: and whosoever +among them is perfect master of his occupation, shall +receive three shares; also whichever of them is remarkably +strong and stout, shall receive two shares; and the rest shall +receive each one share. If any one of the community of +thieves happens to be taken, and should be released from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +the Cutchery, (court of justice), upon payment of a sum of +money, all the thieves shall make good that sum by equal +shares.”—“In the Gentoo code containing this law, there +are many severe enactments against theft and robbery of +every description; but these laws refer to domestic disturbers +of their own countrymen, or violators of the first principles +of society. The law which regulates these shares of robbers, +refers only to such bold and hardy adventurers as sally forth +to levy contributions in a foreign province.”</p> + +<p>Now our Gipsies are, in one point, exactly on a level with +the adventurers here mentioned. They look upon themselves +as being in a foreign land, and consider it fair game to rob, +plunder, and cheat all and every one of the “strangers” +among whom they travel. I am disposed to believe that +there were also rules among the Gipsy bands for dividing +their booty, something like the old Hindoo law alluded to.<a name="FNanchor114" id="FNanchor114"></a><a href="#Footnote114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></p> + +<p>We find the following curious particulars mentioned of a +tribe among the mountains in India, who are supposed to be +the aborigines of Hindostan. They are called Kookies or +Lunctas. “Next to personal valour, the accomplishment +most esteemed in a warrior is superior address in stealing; +and if a thief can convey, undiscovered, to his own house, +his neighbour’s property, it cannot afterwards be reclaimed; +nor, if detected in the act, is he otherwise punished than by +exposure to the ridicule of the Porah, and being obliged to +restore what he may have laid hold of.” “It is a great +recommendation in obtaining a wife, when a Kookie can +say that his house is full of stolen articles.”<a name="FNanchor115" id="FNanchor115"></a><a href="#Footnote115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> There are +several other tribes in the world among whom theft and robbery +are considered meritorious actions. It appears that +among the Coords “no one is allowed to marry a wife till +he has committed some great act of robbery or murder.” In +an account of Kamtschatka, it is mentioned that “among all +these barbarous nations, excepting the Kamtschadales, theft<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +is reputable, provided they do not steal in their own tribe, +or if done with such art as to prevent discovery: on the +other hand, it is punished very severely if discovered; not +for the theft, but for the want of address in the art of stealing. +A Tschukotskoe girl cannot be married before she has +shown her dexterity in this way.”<a name="FNanchor116" id="FNanchor116"></a><a href="#Footnote116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></p> + +<p>Halhed, in apologizing for the Hindoo magistrate participating +in the plunder of banditti, which applies equally well +to the Gipsies, remarks that, “unjust as this behaviour may +appear in the eye of equity, it bears the most genuine stamp +of antiquity, and corresponds entirely with the manners of +the early Grecians, at or before the period of the Trojan +war, and of the western nations before their emersion from +barbarism; a practice still kept up among the piratic States +of Barbary, to its fullest extent by sea, and probably among +many hordes of Tartars and Arabian banditti by land.” It +is proper to mention that the Gipsies seldom or never steal +from one another; at least, I never could find out an instance +of a theft having been committed by a Gipsy on one of his +own tribe.</p> + +<p>It will be seen, from the following details, that the sanguinary +laws which have been, from time to time, promulgated +all over Europe against the Gipsies, were not enacted +to put down fanciful crimes, as an author of the present day +seems, in his travels, to insinuate. To plunder the community +with more safety to their persons, the Gipsies appear +to have had a system of theft peculiar to themselves. Those +of Lochgellie trained all their children to theft. Indeed, +this has been the general practice with the tribe all over +Scotland. Several individuals have mentioned to me that +the Lochgellie band were exercised in the art of thieving +under the most rigid discipline. They had various ways of +making themselves expert thieves. They frequently practised +themselves by picking the pockets of each other. +Sometimes a pair of breeches were made fast to the end of +a string, suspended from a high part of the tent, kiln, or +outhouse in which they happened to be encamped. The +children were set at work to try if they could, by sleight of +hand, abstract money from the pockets of the breeches hanging +in this position, without moving them. Sometimes they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +used bells in this discipline. The children who were most +expert in abstracting the money in this manner, were rewarded +with applause and presents; while, on the other hand, those +who proved awkward, by ringing the bell, or moving the +breeches, were severely chastised. After the youths were +considered perfect in this branch of their profession, a purse, +or other small object, was laid down in an exposed part of +the tent or camp, in view of all the family. While the +ordinary business of the Gipsies was going forward, the +children again commenced their operations, by exerting their +ingenuity and exercising their patience, in trying to carry +off the purse without being perceived by any one present. +If they were detected, they were again beaten; but if they +succeeded unnoticed, they were caressed and liberally rewarded. +As far as my information goes, this systematic +training of the Gipsy youth was performed by the chief +female of the bands. These women seem to have had great +authority over their children. Ann Brown, of the Lochgellie +tribe, could, by a single stamp of her foot, cause the +children to crouch to the ground, like trembling dogs under +the lash of an angry master. The Gipsies, from these constant +trainings, became exceedingly dexterous at picking +pockets. The following instance of their extraordinary address +in these practices, will show the effects of their careful +training, as well as exhibit the natural ingenuity which they +will display in compassing their ends.</p> + +<p>A principal male Gipsy, of a very respectable appearance, +whose name it is unnecessary to mention, happened, on a +market day, to be drinking in a public-house, with several +farmers with whom he was well acquainted. The party +observed, from the window, a countryman purchase something +at a stand in the market, and, after paying for it, thrust +his purse into his watch-pocket, in the band of his breeches. +One of the company remarked that it would be a very difficult +matter to rob the cautious man of his purse, without +being detected. The Gipsy immediately offered to bet two +bottles of wine that he would rob the man of his purse, in +the open and public market, without being perceived by him. +The bet was taken, and the Gipsy proceeded about the difficult +and delicate business. Going up to the unsuspecting +man, he requested, as a particular favour, if he would ease +the stock about his neck, which buckled behind—an article<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +of dress at that time in fashion. The countryman most +readily agreed to oblige the stranger gentleman—as he supposed +him to be. The Gipsy, now stooping down, to allow +his stock to be adjusted, placed his head against the countryman’s +stomach, and, pressing it forward a little, he reached +down one hand, under the pretence of adjusting his shoe, +while the other was employed in extracting the farmer’s +purse. The purse was immediately brought into the company, +and the cautious, unsuspecting countryman did not +know of his loss, till he was sent for, and had his property +returned to him.</p> + +<p>The Gipsy youth, trained from infancy to plunder, in the +manner described, were formed into companies or bands, +with a captain at their head. These captains were generally +the grown-up sons of the old chieftains, who, having been +themselves leaders in their youth, endeavoured, in their old +age, to support, outwardly, a pretty fair character, although +under considerable suspicion. The captains were generally +well dressed, and could not be taken for Gipsies. The +youths varied in age from ten to thirty years. They travelled +to fairs singly, or at least never above two together, +while their captains almost always rode on horse-back, but +never in company with any of their men.<a name="FNanchor117" id="FNanchor117"></a><a href="#Footnote117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> The band consisted +of a great number of individuals, and in a fair several +of these companies would be present; each company acting +independent of the others, for behoof of its own members +and chief. Each chief, on such occasions, had his own headquarters, +to which his men repaired with their booty, as fast +as they obtained it. Some of the chiefs, handsomely dressed, +pretended to be busily employed in buying and selling horses, +but were always ready to attend to the operations of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +tribe, employed in plundering in the market. The purses +were brought to the horse-dealer by the members of his band, +who, to prevent being discovered, pretended to be buying +horses from him, while communicating with him relative to +their peculiar vocation. When a detection was likely to +take place, the chief mounted a good horse, and rode off to +a distant part of the country, previously made known to his +men, with the whole of the booty in his custody. To this +place the band, when all was quiet, repaired, and received +their share of the plunder. They could communicate information +to one another by signs, to say nothing of their language, +which frequently enabled them to get the start of +their pursuers. Like the fox, the dog, and the <i>corbie</i>, they +frequently concealed their stolen articles in the earth. Parties +of them would frequently commence sham fights in markets, +to facilitate the picking of the pockets of the people, +while crowded together to witness the scuffles.</p> + +<p>Many of the male Gipsies used a piece of strong leather, +like a sailmaker’s palm, having a short piece of sharp steel, +like the point of a surgeon’s lancet, where the sailmaker has +his thimble. The long sleeves of their coats concealed the +instrument, and when they wished to cut a purse out of an +arm-pocket, they stretched out the arm, and ran it flatly and +gently along the cloth of the coat, opposite the pocket of the +individual they wished to plunder. The female Gipsies +wore, upon their forefingers, rings of a peculiar construction, +yet nothing unusual in their appearance, excepting their +very large size. On closing the hand, the pressure upon a +spring sent forth, through an aperture or slit in the ring, a +piece of sharp steel, something like the manner in which a +bee thrusts out and withdraws its sting. With these ingenious +instruments the female Gipsies cut the outside of the +pockets of their victims, exactly as a glazier runs his diamond +over a sheet of glass. The opening once made by the +back of the forefinger, the hand, following, was easily introduced +into the pocket. In the midst of a crowded fair, the +dexterous Gipsies, with their nimble fingers, armed with +these invisible instruments, cut the pocket-books and purses +of the honest farmers, as if they had been robbed by magic. +So skillful were the wife and one of the sisters of Charles +Wilson, in the art of thieving, that although the loss of the +pocket-book was, in some instances, immediately discovered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +nothing was ever found upon their persons by which their guilt +could be established. No instrument appeared in their possession +with which the clothes of the plundered individuals could +have been cut, as no one dreamt that the rings on their fingers +contained tools so admirably adapted for such purposes.</p> + +<p>The Gipsy chiefs in Scotland appear, at one time, to have +received a share of the plundered articles in the same manner +as those of the same rank received from their inferiors +in Hungary. Grellmann says: “Whenever a complaint is +made that any of their people have been guilty of theft, the +Waywode (chief) not only orders a general search to be +made in every tent or hut, and returns the stolen goods to +the owner, if they can be found; but he punishes the thief, +in presence of the complainant, with his whip. He does not, +however, punish the aggressor from any regard to justice, +but rather to quiet the plaintiff, and at the same time to +make his people more wary in their thefts, as well as more +dexterous in concealing their prey. These very materially +concern him, since, by every discovery that is made, his income +suffers, as the whole profit of his office arises from his +share of the articles that are stolen. Every time any one +brings in a booty, he is obliged to give information to the +Arch-gipsy of his successful enterprise, then render a just account +of what and how much he has stolen, in order that the +proper division may be made. This is the situation in which +a Gipsy looks on himself as bound to give a fair and true +detail, though, in every other instance, he does not hesitate +to perjure himself.”</p> + +<p>A shrewd and active magistrate, in the west of Fife, knew +our Scottish Gipsy depredators so well, that he caused them +all to be apprehended as they entered the fairs held in the +town in which he resided; and when the market, which lasted +for several days, was over, the Gipsies were released from +prison, with empty pockets and hungry bellies—most effectually +baffled in their designs.</p> + +<p>Great numbers of these Gipsy plunderers, at one time, +crossed the Forth at the Queensferry, for the purpose of +stealing and robbing at the fairs in the north of Scotland. +They all travelled singly or in pairs. Very few persons +knew whence they came, or with whom they were connected. +They were, in general, well dressed, and could not have been +taken for Gipsies. Every one put up at a public-house, at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +North Queensferry, kept by a Mr. McRitchie, already mentioned, +an inn well known in the neighbourhood for its good +fare, and much frequented by all classes of society. In this +house, on the morning after a fair in Dunfermline, when <i>their +business</i> was all over, and themselves not alarmed by detection, +or other scaring incidents, no fewer than fourteen of +these plunderers have frequently been seen sitting at breakfast, +with Captain Gordon, their commander, at their head. +The landlord’s son informed me that they ate and drank of +the best in the house, and paid most handsomely for everything +they called for. I believe they were among the best +customers the landlord had. Gipsies, however, are by no +means habitual drinkers, or tiplers; but when they do sit +down, it is, in the phraseology of the sea, a complete <i>blow-out</i>. +About this public-house, these Gipsies were perfectly +inoffensive, and remarkably civil to all connected with it. +They troubled or stole from none of the people about the inn, +nor from those who lodged in the house, while they were +within doors, or in the immediate neighbourhood. Anything +could have been trusted with them on these occasions. At +these meetings, the landlord’s son frequently heard them +talking in the Gipsy language. Gordon, at times, paid the +reckoning for the whole, and transacted any other business +with the landlord; but, when the Gipsy company was intermixed +with females, which was commonly the case, each +individual paid his own share of the bill incurred. It +was sometimes the practice with the young bands to leave +their reckoning to be paid by their chiefs, who were not present, +but who, perhaps next day, came riding up, and paid +the expenses incurred by their men. I am informed that +two chiefs, of the names of Wilson and Brown, often paid the +expenses of their bands in this way. When any of these +principal Gipsies happened to remain in the public-house all +night, they behaved very genteelly. They paid the chamber-maid, +boots, and waiter with more liberality than was the +custom with mercantile travellers generally. Captain Gordon, +just mentioned, assumed very considerable consequence +at this place. Frequently he hired boats and visited the +islands in the Forth, and adjacent coasts, like a gentleman +of pleasure. On one occasion he paid no less than a guinea, +with brandy and eatables <i>ad libitum</i>, to be rowed over to +Inch-colm, a distance of four miles.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>The female Gipsies from the south, on visiting their friends +at Lochgellie, in the depth of winter, often hired horses at +the North Queensferry, and rode, with no small pomp and +pride, to the village. Sometimes two females would ride +upon one horse. A very decent old man, of the name of +Thomas Chalmers, a small farmer, informed me that he himself +had rode to Lochgellie, with a female Gipsy behind him, +accompanied by other two, mounted on another of his horses, +riding with much spirit and glee by his side. Chalmers +said that these women not only paid more than the common +hire, but treated the owners of the horses with as much meat +and drink as they could take. The male Gipsies also hired +horses at this Ferry, with which they rode to markets in the +north.</p> + +<p>The young Gipsies, male and female, of whom I have +spoken, appear to have been the flower of the different bands, +collected and employed in a general plundering at the fairs +in the north. So well did they pay their way at the village +and passage alluded to, that the boatmen gave them the +kindly name of “our frien’s.” These wanderers were all +known at the village by the name of “Gillie Wheesels,” or +“Killie Wheesh,” which, in the west of Fife, signified “the +lads that take the purses.” Old Thomas Chalmers informed +me that he had frequently seen these sharks of boatmen +shake these Gipsy thieves heartily by the hand, and, with a +significant smile on their harsh, weather-beaten countenances, +wish them a good market, as they landed them on the north +side of the Forth, on their way to picking pockets at fairs.</p> + +<p>As an incident in the lives of these Gipsies, I will give +the following, which was witnessed by Chalmers: A Gillie +of a Gipsy horse-couper stole a black colt, in the east of +Fife, and carried it direct to a fair in Perth, where he exchanged +it for a white horse, belonging to a Highlander +wearing a green kilt. The Highlander, however, had not +long put the colt into the stable, before word was brought to +him that it was gone. Suspecting the Gipsy of the theft, +the sturdy Gael proceeded in search of him, and receiving +positive information of the fact, he pursued him, like a +staunch hound on the warm foot of reynard, till he overtook +him in a house on the north side of Kinross. The Gipsy +was taking some refreshment in the same room with Chalmers, +when the Highlander, in a storm of broken English,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +burst into their presence. The astute and polished Gipsy +instantly sprang to his feet, and, throwing his arms around +the foaming Celt, embraced and hugged him in the eastern +manner, overpowering him with expressions of joy at seeing +him again. This quite exasperated the mountaineer: almost +suffocated with rage, he shook the Gipsy from his person, +with the utmost disdain, and demanded the colt he had +stolen from him. Notwithstanding the deceitful embraces +and forced entreaties of the Gipsy, he was, with the assistance +of a messenger, at the back of the Highlander, safely +lodged in the jail of Cupar.</p> + +<p>Considering the great aptitude which the Gipsies have +always shown for working in metals, it is not surprising that +they should have resorted to coining, among their many expedients +for circumventing and plundering the “strangers” +among whom they sojourn. The following instance will +illustrate the singular audacity which they can display in +this branch of their profession: As an honest countryman, +of much simplicity of character, of the name of W—— O——, +was journeying along the public road, a travelling Tinkler, +whom he did not know, chanced to come up to him. After +walking and conversing for some time, the courteous Gipsy, +on arriving at a public-house, invited him to step in, and +have a “tasting.” They accordingly entered the house, and +had no sooner finished one half <i>mutchken</i>, than the liberal +wanderer called for another; but when the reckoning came +to be thought of, the countryman was surprised when his +friend the Tinkler declared that he had not a coin in his +possession. Unfortunately, the honest man happened also to +be without a farthing in his pocket, and how they were to +get out of the house, without paying the landlord, whom +neither of them knew, puzzled him not a little. While +meditating over their dilemma, the Gipsy, with his eyes +rolling about in every direction, as is their wont, espied a +pewter basin under a bed in the room. This was all he required. +Bolting the door of the apartment, he opened his +budget, and, taking out a pair of large shears, cut a piece +from the side of the basin, and, putting it into his crucible +on the fire, in no time, with his coining instruments, threw +off several half-crowns, resembling good, sterling money. If +the simple countryman was troubled at not being able to +pay his reckoning, he was now terrified at being locked up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +with a man busily engaged in coining base money from an +article stolen in the very apartment in which he was confined. +He expected, every moment, some one to burst the +door open, and apprehend them, while the Tinkler had all +his coining apparatus about him. His companion, however, +was not in the least disturbed, but deliberately finished his +coin in a superior manner, and cutting the remainder of the +basin into pieces, packed it into his wallet. Unlocking the +door, he rang the bell, and tendered one of his half-crowns +to his host, to pay his score, which was accepted without a +suspicion. The Tinkler then offered his fellow-traveller part +of his remaining coin; but the unsophisticated man, far +from touching one of them, was only too glad to rid himself +of so dangerous an acquaintance. The Gipsy, on his part, +marched off, with his spirits elevated with liquor, and his +pockets replenished with money, smiling at the simplicity +and terror of the countryman.</p> + +<p>However numerous the crimes which the Gipsies have +committed, or the murders they have perpetrated in their +own tribe, yet, in justice to them, I must say that only two +instances have come to my knowledge of their having put to +death natives of Scotland who were not of their own fraternity. +One of these instances was that of a man of the name +of Adam Thomson, whom they murdered because he had encroached, +it was said, upon one of their supposed privileges—that +of gathering rags through the country. Amongst +other acts of cruelty, they placed the poor man on a fire, in +his own house. Two Gipsies were tried for the murder, but +whether they were both executed, I do not know. The following +particulars connected with this deed will show +how exactly the Gipsies know the different routes and halting-places +of each band, as they travel through the country. +Indeed, I have been informed that the track which each +horde is to take, the different stages, and the number of +days they are to remain at each place, are all marked out +and fixed upon in the spring, before they leave their winter +residence. One of the Gipsies concerned in the murder of +Thomson lay in prison, in one of the towns in the south of +Scotland, for nearly twelve months, without having had any +communication with his tribe. There was not sufficient evidence +against him to justify his being brought to trial; nor +would he give any information regarding the transaction.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +At last he changed his mind, and told the authorities they +would find the murderer at a certain spot in the Highlands, +on a certain day and hour of that day; but if he could not +be found there, they were to proceed to another place, at +twenty miles’ distance, where they would be sure to find +him.</p> + +<p>The murderer was found at the place, and on the day, +mentioned by the Gipsy. But, on entering the house, the +constables could not discover him, although they knew he +had been within its walls a few minutes before they approached +it. A fire having been kindled in the house, a +noise was heard in the chimney, which attracted the notice +of the constables; and, on examination, they found the object +of their search; the heat and smoke having caused him +to become restless in his place of concealment. He was secured, +and some of the country-people were called upon to +assist in carrying him to Edinburgh. The prisoner was bound +into a cart with ropes, to prevent him making his escape; +the party in charge of him being aware of the desperate +character of the man. Nothing particular occurred on the +road, until after they had passed the town of Linlithgow, +when, to their astonishment, they found a woman in the pangs +of labour, in the open field. She called upon them either to +bring her a midwife, or take her to one; a claim that could +not be resisted. She was accordingly put into the cart, beside +the prisoner, and driven with all speed to a place where +a midwife could be procured. On arriving opposite a dell, +full of trees and bushes, about the west-end of Kirkliston, +the guards were confounded at seeing their prisoner, all at +once, spring out of the cart, and, darting into the cover, +vanish in an instant. Pursuit was immediately given, and, +in the excitement, the unfortunate woman was left to her +fate. In searching for the Gipsy, they met a gentleman +shooting in the neighbourhood, who had observed a man hide +himself among the bushes. On going to the spot, they found +the criminal, lying like a fox in his hole. The sportsman, +presenting his gun, threatened to blow out his brains, if he +did not come out, and deliver himself up to the constables. +On returning with him to the cart, his captors, to their astonishment, +found that the woman in labour had also vanished. +It is needless to add that she was a Gipsy, who had +feigned being in travail, and, while in the cart, had cut the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +ropes with which the prisoner was bound, to enable him to +make his escape.</p> + +<p>The female Gipsies have had recourse to many expedients +in their impositions on the public. The following is an instance, +of a singular nature, that took place a good many +years ago. When it is considered that the Gipsies, in their +native country,<a name="FNanchor118" id="FNanchor118"></a><a href="#Footnote118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> would not be encumbered with much wearing-apparel, +but would go about in a state little short of +nudity, the extreme indecency of such an action will appear +somewhat lessened. The inhabitants of Winchburgh and +neighbourhood were one day greatly astonished at beholding +a female, with a child in her arms, walking along the +road, as naked as when she was born. She stated to the +country-people that she had just been plundered, and stripped +of every article of her wearing-apparel, by a band of +Tinklers, to whom she pointed, lying in a field hard by. She +submitted her piteous condition to the humanity of the inhabitants, +and craved any sort of garment to cover her nakedness. +The state in which she was found left not the slightest +doubt on the minds of the spectators as to the truth of her +representations. Almost every female in the neighbourhood +ran with some description of clothing to the unfortunate +woman; so that, in a short time, she was not only comfortably +clad, but had many articles of dress to spare. Shortly +after, she left the town, and proceeded on her journey. But +some one, observing her motions more closely than the rest, +was astonished at seeing her go straight to the very Tinklers +who, she said, had stripped her. Her appearance among +her band convulsed them all with laughter, at the dexterous +trick she had played upon the simple inhabitants.</p> + +<p>The following anecdote, related to me of one of the well-attired +female Gipsies, belonging to the Stirling horde, will +illustrate the gratitude which the Scottish Gipsies have, on +all occasions, shown to those who have rendered them acts +of kindness and attention: A person, belonging to Stirling, +had rendered himself obnoxious to the Gipsies, by giving +information relative to one of the gang, of the name of Hamilton, +whom he had observed picking a man’s pocket of +forty pounds in a fair at Doune. Hamilton was apprehended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +immediately after committing the theft, but none of the +money was found upon him. The informer, however, was +marked out for destruction by the band, for his officious conduct; +and they only waited a convenient opportunity to +put their resolution into execution. Some time afterwards, +the proscribed individual had occasion to go to a market at +no great distance from Stirling, and while on his way to it, +he observed, on the road before him, a female, in the attire +of a lady, riding on horseback. On coming to a pond at the +road-side, the horse suddenly made for the water, and threw +down its head to drink. Not being prepared for the movement, +the rider was thrown from her seat, with considerable +violence, to the ground. The proscribed individual, observing +the accident, ran forward to her assistance; but, being +only slightly stunned, she was, with his help, safely placed +in her seat again. She now thanked him for his kind and +timely assistance, and informed him of the conspiracy that +had been formed against him. She said it was particularly +fortunate for him that such an accident had befallen her +under the circumstances; for, in consequence of the information +he had given about the pocket-picking at Doune, he +was to have been way-laid and murdered; that very night +having been fixed upon for carrying the resolution into effect. +But, as he had shown her this kindness, she would +endeavour to procure, from her people, a pardon for him, +for the past. She then directed him to follow slowly, while +she would proceed on, at a quick pace, and overtake some +of her people, to whom she would relate her accident, and +the circumstances attending it. She then informed him that +if she waved her <i>hand</i>, upon his coming in sight of herself +and her people, he was to retrace his steps homeward, there +being then no mercy for him; but if she waved her <i>handkerchief</i>, +he might advance without fear. To his heart-felt +delight, on coming near the party, the signal of peace +was given, when he immediately hastened forward to the +spot. The band, who had been in deliberation upon his +fate, informed him that the lady’s intercession had prevailed +with them to spare his life; and that now he might consider +himself safe, provided he would take an oath, there +and then, never again to give evidence against any of +their people, or speak to any one about their practices, +should he discover them. The person in question deemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +it prudent, under all the circumstances of the case, to take +the oath; after which, nothing to his hurt, in either purse +or person, ever followed.<a name="FNanchor119" id="FNanchor119"></a><a href="#Footnote119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> The lady, thus equipped, and +possessed of so much influence, was the chief female of +the Gipsy band, to whom all the booty obtained at the fair +was brought, at the house where she put up at for the day. +It would seem that she was determined to save her friend +at all events; for, had her band not complied with her +wishes, the waving of her hand—the signal for him to make +his escape—would have defeated their intentions for that +time.</p> + +<p>When occurrences of so grave and imposing a nature as +the above are taken into consideration, the fear and awe +with which the Gipsies have inspired the community are not +to be wondered at.</p> + +<p>The Gipsies at Lochgellie had a dance peculiar to themselves, +during the performance of which they sung a song, +in the Gipsy language, which they called a “croon.” A +Gipsy informed me that it was exactly like the one old +Charles Stewart, and other Gipsies, used to perform, and +which I will describe. At the wedding near Corstorphine, +which Charles Stewart attended, as already mentioned, there +were five or six female Gipsies in his train. On such occasions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +he did not allow males to accompany him. At some +distance from the people at the wedding, but within hearing +of the music, the females formed themselves into a ring, with +Charles in the centre. Here, in the midst of the circle, he +danced and capered in the most antic and ludicrous manner, +sweeping his cudgel around his body in all directions, and +moving with much grace and agility. Sometimes he danced +round the outside of the circle. The females danced and +courtesied to him, as he faced about and bowed to them. +When they happened to go wrong, he put them to rights by +a movement of his cudgel; for it was by the cudgel that all +the turns and figures of the dance were regulated. A twirl +dismissed the females; a cut recalled them; a sweep made +them squat on the ground; a twist again called them up, in +an instant, to the dance. In short, Stewart distinctly spoke +to his female dancers by means of his cudgel, commanding +them to do whatever he pleased, without opening his mouth +to one of them.</p> + +<p>George Drummond, a Gipsy chief of an inferior gang in +Fife, danced with his seraglio of females, amounting sometimes +to half a dozen, in the same manner as Stewart, without +the slightest variation, excepting that his gestures were, +on some occasions, extremely lascivious. He threw himself +into almost every attitude in which the human body can be +placed, while his cudgel was flying about his person with +great violence. All the movements of the dance were regulated +by the measures of an indecent song, at the chorus of +which the circular movements of Drummond’s cudgel ceased; +when one of the females faced about to him, and joined him +with her voice, the gestures of both being exceedingly obscene. +Drummond’s appearance, while dancing, has been +described to me, by a gentleman who has often seen him performing, +as exactly like what is called a “jumping-jack”—that +is, a human figure, cut out of wood or paste-board, with +which children often amuse themselves, by regulating its +ludicrous movements by means of strings attached to various +parts of it.</p> + +<p>Dr. Clark, in his account of his travels through Russia, +gives a description of a Gipsy dance in Moscow, which is, +in all respects, very similar to that performed by Stewart +and Drummond. These travels came into my hands some time +after I had taken notes of the Scottish Gipsy dance. Napkins<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +appear to have been used by the Russian Gipsies, where +sticks were employed by our Scottish tribes. No mention, +however, is made, by Dr. Clark, whether the females, in the +dance at Moscow, were guided by signs with the napkins, in +the manner in which Stewart and Drummond, by their cudgels, +directed their women in their dances. The eyes of the +females were constantly fixed upon Stewart’s cudgel. Dr. +Clark is of opinion that the national dance in Russia, called +the <i>barina</i>, is derived from the Gipsies; and thinks it probable +that our common hornpipe is taken from these wanderers.<a name="FNanchor120" id="FNanchor120"></a><a href="#Footnote120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> + +<p>George Drummond was, in rank, quite inferior to the +Lochgellie band, who called him a “beggar Tinkler,” and +seemed to despise him. He always travelled with a number +of females in his company. These he married after the +custom of the Gipsies, and divorced some of them over the +body of a horse, sacrificed for the occasion; a description +of both of which ceremonies will be given in <a href="#Page_257">another chapter</a>. +He chastised his women with his cudgel, without +mercy, causing the blood to flow at every blow, and frequently +knocked them senseless to the ground; while he +would call out to them, “What the deevil are ye fighting +at—can ye no’ ‘gree? I’m sure there’s no’ sae mony o’ +ye!” although, perhaps, four would be engaged in the scuffle. +Such was this man’s impudence and audacity, that he sometimes +carried off the flesh out of the kail-pots of the farmers; +and so terrified were some of the inhabitants of Fife, at +some of the Gipsy women who followed him, that, the moment +they entered their doors, salt was thrown into the fire, +to set at defiance the witchcraft which they believed they +possessed. One female, called Dancing Tibby, was, in particular, +an object of apprehension and suspicion. In Drummond’s +journeys through the country, when he came at night +to a farmer’s premises, where he intended to lodge, and +found his place occupied by others of his gang, he, without +hesitation, turned them out of their quarters, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +took possession of their warm beds himself; letting them +shift for themselves as they best might. This man lived +till he was ninety years of age, and was, from his youth, impressed +with a belief that he would die in the house in +which he was born; although he had travelled a great part +of the continent, and, while in the army, had been in various +engagements. He fell sick when at some distance from the +place of his nativity, but he hired a conveyance, and drove +with haste to die on his favourite spot. To this house he +was allowed admittance, where he closed his earthly career, +in about forty-eight hours after his arrival. Like others of +his tribe, Drummond, at times, gave tokens of protection to +some of his particular friends, outside of the circle of his +own fraternity.</p> + +<p>James Robertson, a Gipsy closely related to the Lochgellie +band, of whom I have already made mention, frequently +danced, with his wife and numerous sisters, in a particular +fashion, changing and regulating the figures of the +dance by means of a bonnet; being, I believe, the same +dance which I have attempted to describe as performed by +others of the tribe in Scotland. When his wife and sisters +got intoxicated, which was often the case, it was a wild and +extravagant scene to behold those light-footed damsels, with +loose and flowing hair, dancing, with great spirit, on the +grass, in the open field, while James was, with all his “might +and main,” like the devil playing to the witches, in “Tam +o’ Shanter,” keeping the bacchanalians in fierce and animated +music. When like to flag in his exertions to please +them with his fiddle, they have been heard calling loudly to +him, like Maggy Lawder to Rob the Ranter, “Play up, +Jamie Robertson; if ever we do weel, it will be a wonder;” +being totally regardless of all sense of decorum and decency.</p> + +<p>The Gipsies in Fife followed the same occupations, in all +respects, as those in other parts of Scotland, and were also +dexterous at all athletic exercises. They were exceedingly +fond of cock-fighting, and, when the season came round for +that amusement, many a good cock was missing from the +farm-yards. The Lochgellie band considered begging a disgrace +to their tribe. At times they were handsomely dressed, +wearing silver buckles in their shoes, gold rings on their +fingers, and gold and silver brooches in the bosoms of their +ruffled shirts. They killed, at Martinmass, fat cattle for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +their winter’s provisions, and lived on the best victuals the +country could produce. It is, I believe, the common practice, +among inferior Scotch traders, for those who receive money +to treat the payer, or return a trifle of the payment, called +a luck-penny: but, in opposition to this practice, the Lochgellie +Gipsies always treated those to whom they paid +money for what they purchased of them. They occasionally +attended the church, and sometimes got their children baptized; +but when the clergyman refused them that privilege, +they baptized them themselves. At their baptisms, they had +great feastings and drinkings. Their favourite beverage, +on such occasions, was oatmeal and whiskey, mixed. When +intoxicated, they were sometimes very fond of arguing and +expostulating with clergymen on points of morality. With +regard to the internal government of the Lochgellie Gipsies, +I can only find that they held consultations among themselves, +relative to their affairs, and that the females had +votes as well as the males, but that old Charles Graham had +the casting vote; while, in his absence, his wife, Ann Brown, +managed their concerns.</p> + +<p>There is a strict division of property among the Gipsies; +community of goods having no place among them. The +heads of each family, although travelling in one band, manufacture +and vend their own articles of merchandise, for the +support of their own families. The following particulars +are illustrative of this fact among the Gipsies:—A farmer +in Fife, who would never allow them to kindle fires in his +out-houses, had a band of them, of about twenty-five persons, +quartered one night on his farm. Next morning, the chief +female borrowed from the family a large copper caldron, +used for the purposes of the dairy, with which she had requested +permission to cook the breakfast of the horde upon +the kitchen fire. This having been granted, each family +produced a small linen bag, (not the beggar’s wallet,) made +of coarse materials, containing oatmeal; of which at least +four were brought into the apartment. The female who +prepared the repast went regularly over the bags, taking +out the meal in proportion to the members of the families to +which they respectively belonged, and repeated her visits in +this manner till the porridge was ready to be served up.</p> + +<p>I shall conclude my account of the Gipsies in Fife by +mentioning the curious fact that, within these sixty years, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +gentleman of considerable landed property, between the +Forth and the Tay, abandoned his relatives, and travelled +over the kingdom in the society of the Gipsies. He married +one of the tribe, of the name of Ogilvie, who had two +daughters to him. Sometimes he quartered, it is said, upon +his own estate, disguised, of course, among the gang, to the +great annoyance of his relatives, who were horrified at the +idea of his becoming a Tinkler, and alarmed at the claims +which he occasionally made upon the estate. His daughters +travel the country, at the present day, as common Gipsies.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote96" id="Footnote96"></a><a href="#FNanchor96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> In Oliver and Boyd’s Scottish Tourist, (1832), page 181, occurs the following +passage: “A singular set of vagrants existed long in Falkland, +called <i>Scrapies</i>, who had no other visible means of existence than a horse +or a cow. Their ostensible employment was the carriage of commodities +to the adjoining villages, and in the intervals of work they turned out their +cattle to graze on the Lomond Hill. Their excursions at night were long +and mysterious, for the pretended object of procuring coals, but they +roamed with their little carts through the country-side, securing whatever +they could lift, and plundering fields in autumn. Whenever any enquiry +was addressed to a Falkland <i>Scrapie</i> as to the support of his horse, the +ready answer was, ‘Ou, he gangs up the (Lomond) Hill, ye ken.’ This is +now prevented; the Lomond is enclosed, and the <i>Scrapies</i> now manage +their affairs on the road-sides.”</p> + +<p>The people mentioned in this extract are doubtless those to whom our +author alludes. The reader will notice some resemblance between them +and the tribe in the Pyrenees, as described at <a href="#Page_87">page 87</a>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote97" id="Footnote97"></a><a href="#FNanchor97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Yetholm lies in a valley which, surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains, +seems completely sequestered from the rest of the world—alike inaccessible +from without, and not to be left from within. The valley has, +however, more than one outlet.—<i>Chambers’ Gazetteer of Scotland.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote98" id="Footnote98"></a><a href="#FNanchor98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> In Hungary, their houses, which are always small, and poor in appearance, +are commonly situated in the outskirts of the village, and, if possible, +in the neighbourhood of some thicket or rough land.—<i>Bright.</i>—<span class="smcap">ED.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote99" id="Footnote99"></a><a href="#FNanchor99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> This woman is most probably dead, and the same may be said of some +of the other characters mentioned in this and other chapters.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote100" id="Footnote100"></a><a href="#FNanchor100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> Young was chased for nearly thirty miles, by Highlanders, on foot, and +General Gordon of Cairnfield, and others, on horseback; and, as he was +frequently in view, the affair much resembled a fox-hunt. The hounds +were most of them game-keepers—an active race of men; and so exhausted +were they, before the Gipsy was caught, that they were seen lying by the +springs, lapping water with their tongues, like dogs.—<i>Blackwood’s Magazine.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote101" id="Footnote101"></a><a href="#FNanchor101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> Our author says that the Life of Peter Young was published. The +following particulars, quoted in an account of the Gipsies, in the sixteenth +volume of Chambers’ Miscellany, are probably taken from that source:</p> + +<p>“Peter was Captain of a band well known in the north of Scotland, +where his exploits are told to this day. Possessed of great strength of +body, and very uncommon abilities, he was a fine specimen of his race, +though he retained all their lawless propensities. He was proud, passionate, +revengeful, a great poacher, and an absolute despot, although a tolerably +just one, over his gang, maintaining his authority with an oak stick, +the principal sufferers from which were his numerous wives.”—“He +esteemed himself to be a very honourable man, and the keepers of the +different public-houses in the country seem to have thought that, to a certain +extent, he was so. He never asked for trust as long as he had a half-penny +in his pocket. At the different inns which he used to frequent, he +was seldom or never denied anything. If he pledged his word that he +would pay his bill the next time he came that way, he punctually performed +his promise.”</p> + +<p>“Peter’s work was that of a very miscellaneous nature. It comprehended +the profession of a blacksmith, in all its varieties, a tin-smith, and brazier. +His original business was to mend pots, pans, kettles, &c., of every description, +and this he did with great neatness and ingenuity. Having an uncommon +turn for mechanics, he at last cleaned and repaired clocks and +watches. He could also engrave on wood or metal; so also could his +brother John; but where they learned any of these arts I never heard. +Peter was very handy about all sorts of carpenter work, and occasionally +amused himself, when the fancy seized him, in executing some pieces of +curious cabinet work that required neatness of hand. He was particularly +famous in making fishing-rods, and in the art of fishing he was surpassed +by few.”</p> + +<p>Immediately before <i>one</i> of the days fixed for his execution, he seized the +jailer, and, upon the threat of instant death, compelled him to lay on his +back, as one dead, till he had set at liberty every one in the prison, himself +being the last to leave the building. After travelling twenty-four miles, +he went to sleep in the snow, and was apprehended by a company of sportsmen, +whose dogs had made a dead set at him. On being taken to the gallows, +one of the crowd cried: “Peter, deny you are the man!”—which he +did, declaring that his name was John Anderson, and wondered what the +people wanted with him. And there being none present who could identify +him, although he was well known in Aberdeen, he managed to get off +clear.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote102" id="Footnote102"></a><a href="#FNanchor102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Besides getting themselves out of scrapes in such an adroit manner, the +Scotch Gipsies have been known to serve a friend, when innocently placed +in a position of danger. It happened once that Billy Marshall, the Gipsy +chief in Gallowayshire, attacked and robbed the laird of Bargally, and in +the tussle lost his cap. A respectable farmer, passing by, some time afterwards, +picked up the cap, and put it on his head. The laird, with his mind +confused by the robbery and the darkness combined, accused the farmer of +the crime; and it would have gone hard with him at the trial, had not +Billy come to his rescue. He seized the cap, in the open court, and, putting +it on his head, addressed the laird: “Look at me, sir, and tell me, by the +oath you have sworn, am not I the man that robbed you?”—“By heaven! +you are the very man.”—“You see what sort of memory this gentleman +has,” exclaimed the Gipsy; “he swears to the bonnet, whatever features +are under it. If you, yourself, my lord, will put it on your head, he will +be willing to swear that your lordship was the person who robbed him.” +The farmer was unanimously acquitted.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding Billy’s courage in “taking care of the <i>living</i>,” an anecdote +is related of his having been frightened almost out of his wits, under +very ludicrous circumstances. He and his gang had long held possession +of a cavern in Gallowayshire, where they usually deposited their plunder, +and sometimes resided, secure from the officers of the law. Two Highland +pipers, strangers to the country, happened to enter it, to rest themselves +during the night. They perceived, at once, the character of its absent inhabitants; +and they were not long within it, before they were alarmed by +the voices of a numerous band advancing to its entrance. The pipers, +expecting nothing but death from the ruthless Gipsies, had the presence of +mind to strike up a pibroch, with tremendous fury; at the terrific reception +of which—the yelling of the bag-pipes issuing from the bowels of the +earth—Billy and his gang precipitately fled, as before a blast from the infernal +regions, and never afterwards dared to visit their favourite haunt. The +pipers, as might naturally be expected, carried off, in the morning, the +spoils of the redoubted Gipsies.—<i>Sir Walter Scott.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote103" id="Footnote103"></a><a href="#FNanchor103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> It is interesting to notice that the three criminals who gave occasion to +the Porteous mob, in 1736, were named Stewart, Wilson and Robertson. +They were doubtless Gipsies of the above mentioned clans. Their crimes +and modes of escape were quite in keeping with the character of the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote104" id="Footnote104"></a><a href="#FNanchor104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> Grellmann, in giving an account of the attire of the poorer kind of Hungarian +Gipsies, says: We are not to suppose however that they are indifferent +about dress; on the contrary, they love fine clothes to an extravagant +degree. Whenever an opportunity offers of acquiring a good coat, +either by gift, purchase, or theft, the Gipsy immediately bestirs himself to +become master of it. Possessed of the prize, he puts it on directly, without +considering in the least whether it suits the rest of his apparel. If his +dirty shirt had holes in it as big as a barn door, or his breeches so out of +condition that any one might, at the first glance, perceive their antiquity; +were he unprovided with shoes and stockings, or a covering for his head; +none of these defects would prevent his strutting about in a laced coat, +feeling himself of still greater consequence in case it happened to be a red +one. They are particularly fond of clothes which have been worn by people +of distinction, and will hardly ever deign to put on a boor’s coat. They +will rather go half naked, or wrap themselves up in a sack, than condescend +to wear a foreign garb. Green is a favourite colour with the Gipsies, but +scarlet is held in great esteem among them. It is the same with the Hungarian +female Gipsies. In Spain, they hang all sorts of trumpery in their +ears, and baubles around their necks.</p> + +<p>Mr. Borrow says of the Spanish Gipsies, that there is nothing in the +dress of either sex differing from that of the other inhabitants. The same +may be said of the Scottish tribes, and even of those in England.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote105" id="Footnote105"></a><a href="#FNanchor105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> <i>Gaberlunzie-man</i>—The beggar-man with the ragged apparel.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote106" id="Footnote106"></a><a href="#FNanchor106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> The unabashed hardihood of the Gipsies, in the face of suspicion, or +even of open conviction, is not less characteristic than the facility with +which they commit crimes, or their address in concealing them. A Gipsy +of note, (known by the title of the “Earl of Hell”) was, about twenty years +ago, tried for a theft of a considerable sum of money at a Dalkeith market. +The proof seemed to the judge fully sufficient, but the jury rendered a verdict +of “not proven.” On dismissing the prisoner from the bar, the judge +informed him, in his own characteristic language, “That he had rubbit +shouthers wi’ the gallows that morning;” and warned him not again to +appear there with a similar body of proof against him as it seemed scarcely +possible he should meet with another jury who would construe it as favourably. +His counsel tendered him a similar advice. The Gipsy, however, +replied, to the great entertainment of all around, “That he was proven +an innocent man, and that naebody had ony right to use siccan language +to him.”—<i>Blackwood’s Magazine.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote107" id="Footnote107"></a><a href="#FNanchor107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> The “game” of such a Gipsy may be fitly compared to that of a +sparrow-hawk. This bird has been known, while held in the hand, after +being wounded, to seize, when presented to it, a sparrow with each claw, +and a third with its beak.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote108" id="Footnote108"></a><a href="#FNanchor108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> In the “Monthly Visitor” for February, 1856, will be found an account +of the conversion of one of this Gipsy clan, of the name of Jeanie Wilson. +The tract is very appropriately headed, “A lily among thorns.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote109" id="Footnote109"></a><a href="#FNanchor109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> An old woman, whom I found occupying the house of Charles Wilson, +at Raploch, in 1845, informed me that she had seen his wife in <i>five</i> different +dresses, in one market-day. She was, at the time, a servant in a <i>blacksmith’s</i> +family in Stirling, who were <i>great friends</i> of Charles Wilson; and +every time Mrs. Wilson came into the smith’s house, from her plundering +in the market, this servant girl, then nine years old, <i>cleaned her shoes</i> for a +fresh expedition in the crowd. When suspected, or even detected, in their +practices, these female Gipsies, by such change of dress and character, +easily escaped apprehension by the authorities.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote110" id="Footnote110"></a><a href="#FNanchor110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> There are a number of small landed proprietors in the hilly parts of +Kinross-shire; hence the appellation of Brae-laird.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote111" id="Footnote111"></a><a href="#FNanchor111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> It is interesting to notice such rencounters between these pretty, genteel-looking +Gipsies and the ordinary natives. The denouement, in this instance, +might have been a marriage, and the plantation of a colony of Gipsies +among the Braes of Kinross-shire. The same might have happened in the +case of the other lady Wilson, with the adjutant at Stirling, or with one +of his acquaintances.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote112" id="Footnote112"></a><a href="#FNanchor112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> Vol. ii., page 17.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote113" id="Footnote113"></a><a href="#FNanchor113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Golbery’s Travels, translated by Francis Blagden. Vol. i, page 158.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote114" id="Footnote114"></a><a href="#FNanchor114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> What is said here is, of course, applicable to a class, only, of the Gipsies. +Our author need not have gone so very far away from home, for instances +of theft and robbery being, under certain circumstances, deemed honourable. +Both were, at one time, followed in Scotland, when all practised</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“The good old rule, the simple plan,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they should take who have the power,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they should keep who can.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote115" id="Footnote115"></a><a href="#FNanchor115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> Asiatic Researches, vol. vii., pages 189 and 193.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote116" id="Footnote116"></a><a href="#FNanchor116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> Dr. James Grieve’s translation of a Russian account of Kamtschatka, +page 323.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote117" id="Footnote117"></a><a href="#FNanchor117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> An old Gipsy told me that he had seen one of the principal chiefs, +dressed like a gentleman, travelling in a post-chaise, for the purpose of +attending fairs.</p> + +<p>[Vidocq, of the French secret police, thus writes of the Hungarian Gipsies, +visiting the west of Europe: Raising my eyes towards a crowd in front +of a menagerie, I perceived one of the <i>false jockeys</i> taking the purse of a fat +glazier, whom we saw the next moment seeking for it in his pocket; the +<i>Bohemian</i> then entered a jeweller’s shop, where were already two of the <i>pretended +Zealand peasants</i>, and my companion assured me that he would not +come out until he had pilfered some of the jewels that were shown to him. +In every part of the fair where there was a crowd, I met some of the +lodgers of the Duchess, (the inn kept by a Gipsy woman in which he had +spent the previous night.)—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote118" id="Footnote118"></a><a href="#FNanchor118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> It is pretty certain that the Gipsies came from a warm country, for +they have no words for frost or snow, as will be seen in my enquiry into +the history of their language.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote119" id="Footnote119"></a><a href="#FNanchor119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> Such interference with the Gipsies causes them much greater offence +than if the informer was a principal in the transaction. To such people, +their advice has always been: “Follow your nose, and let sleeping dogs +lie.” The following anecdote will illustrate the way in which they have +revenged themselves, under circumstances different from the above:</p> + +<p>Old Will, of Phaup, at the head of Ettrick, was wont to shelter them for +many years. They asked nothing but house-room, and grass for their horses; +and, though they sometimes remained for several days, he could have +left every chest and press about the house open, with the certainty that +nothing would be missing; for, he said, “he aye ken’d fu’ weel that the +toad wad keep his ain hole clean.” But it happened that he found one of +the gang, through the trick of a neighbouring farmer, feeding six horses on +the best piece of grass on his farm, which he was keeping for winter fodder. +A desperate combat followed, and the Gipsy was thrashed to his +heart’s content, and hunted out of the neighbourhood. A warfare of five +years’ duration ensued between Will and the Gipsies. They nearly ruined +him, and, at the end of that period, he was glad to make up matters with +his old friends, and shelter them as formerly. He said he could have held +his own with them, had it not been for their warlockry; for nothing could +he keep from them—they once found his purse, though he had made his +wife bury it in the garden.—<i>Blackwood’s Magazine.</i> It is the afterclap that +keeps the people off the Gipsies, and secures for them a sort of toleration +wherever they go.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote120" id="Footnote120"></a><a href="#FNanchor120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> If I am not mistaken, Col. Todd is of opinion that the Gipsies originally +came from Cabool, in Afghanistan. I will here give a description of +an Afghan dance, very like the Gipsy dance in Scotland. “The western +Afghans are fond of a particular dance called <i>Attum</i>, or <i>Ghoomboor</i>, in +which from fourteen to twenty people move, in strange attitudes, with shouting, +clapping of hands, and snapping of fingers, in a circle, round a single +person, who plays on an instrument in the centre.”—<i>Fraser’s Library.</i></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>TWEED-DALE AND CLYDESDALE GIPSIES.</h3> + +<p>The county of Peebles, or Tweed-dale, appears to have +been more frequented by the Gipsies than, perhaps, any +other part of Scotland. So far back as the time of Henry +Lord Darnley, when the Gipsies were countenanced by the +government, we find, according to Buchanan, that this county +was a favourite resort of banditti; so much so, that when +Darnley took up his residence in Peebles, for the purpose of +shunning the company of his wife, Queen Mary, he “found +the place so cold, so infested with thieves, and so destitute +of provisions, that he was driven from it, to avoid being +fleeced and starved by rogues and beggars.” In the poems +of Dr. Pennecuik, as well as in his history of Peebles-shire, +published in the year 1715, the Gipsy bands are frequently +taken notice of. But, notwithstanding the attachment which +the tribe had for the romantic glens of Tweed-dale, no evidence +exists of their ever having had a permanent habitation +within the shire. They appear to have resorted to that pastoral +district during only the months of spring, summer and +autumn. Their partiality for this part of Scotland may be +attributed to three reasons.</p> + +<p>The first reason is, Tweed-dale was part of the district in +which, if not the first, at least the second, Gipsy family in +Scotland claimed, at one time, a right to travel, as its own +peculiar privilege. The chief of this family was called Baillie, +who claimed kindred, in the bastard line, to one of the most +ancient families in the kingdom, of the name of Baillie, once +Balliol.<a name="FNanchor121" id="FNanchor121"></a><a href="#Footnote121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> In consequence of this alleged connexion, this +Gipsy family also claimed, as its right, to travel in the upper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +ward of Lanarkshire, adjoining Tweed-dale, in which +district the Scottish family alluded to possessed estates; +and one of the principal places of the Gipsy rendezvous was +an old ruin, among the hills, in the upper part of the parish +of Lamington, or rather Wanel in those days.</p> + +<p>The second reason is, that the surface of Tweed-dale is +much adapted to the wandering disposition of the Gipsies. +It is mountainous, but everywhere intersected by foot-paths +and bridle-roads, affording an easy passage to the Gipsies, +on foot or horseback. On its many hills are plenty of game; +and its infinite number of beautiful streams, including about +thirty-five miles of the highest part of the Tweed, abound +with trout of the finest quality. The Gipsies, being fond of +game, and much addicted to poaching and fishing, flocked to +Tweed-dale and the adjoining upland districts of a similar +character, comprehending some of the most remote and least +frequented parts in the south of Scotland. All these districts +being covered with vast flocks of sheep, many of which +were frequently dying of various diseases, the Gipsies never +wanted a plentiful supply of that sort of food from the families +of the store-masters.<a name="FNanchor122" id="FNanchor122"></a><a href="#Footnote122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a></p> + +<p>And the third reason is, that, in the pastoral districts in +the upper parts of the shires of Peebles, Selkirk, Dumfries, +and Lanark, including all that mountainous tract of land in +which the rivers Tweed, Annan and Clyde have their +sources, the Gipsies were, in a great measure, secure from +the officers of the law, and enjoyed their favourite amusements +without molestation or hindrance.</p> + +<p>Before, and long after, the year 1745, the male branches +of the Baillies traversed Scotland, mounted on the best horses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +to be found in the country; themselves dressed in long +coats, made of the finest scarlet and green cloth, ruffled at +hands and breast, booted and spurred; with cocked hats on +their heads, pistols in their belts, and broad-swords by their +sides: and at the heels of their horses followed greyhounds, +and other dogs of the chase, for their amusement. Some of +them assumed the manners and characters of gentlemen, +which they supported with wonderful art and propriety. +The females attended fairs in the attire of ladies, riding on +ponies, with side-saddles, in the best style. On these occasions, +the children were left in charge of their servants, perhaps +in an old out-house or hut, in some wild, sequestered +glen, in Tweed-dale or Clydesdale.</p> + +<p>The greater part of the tenantry were kind to the Gipsies, +and many encouraged them to frequent their premises. +Tweed-dale being the favourite resort of the principal horde, +they generally abstained from injuring the property of the +greater part of the inhabitants. Indeed, I have been informed, +by eye-witnesses, that several of the farmers in +Tweed-dale and Clydesdale, at so late a period as about the +year 1770, accepted of entertainments from the principal +Gipsies, dining with them in the open fields, or in some old, +unoccupied out-house, or kiln. Their repast, on such occasions, +was composed of the best viands the country could +produce. On one occasion, a band dined on the green-sward, +near Douglass-mill, when the Gipsies drank their wine, after +dinner, as if they had been the best in the land. Some of +the landed proprietors, however, introduced clauses in their +leases prohibiting their tenants from harbouring the Gipsies; +and the Laird of Dolphington is mentioned as one. +The tribe, on hearing of the restriction, expressed great indignation +at the Laird’s conduct in adopting so effectual a +method of banishing them from the district. But so strong +were the attachments which some of the Gipsies displayed +towards the inhabitants, that the chief of the Ruthvens +actually wept like a child, whenever the misfortunes of the +ancient family of Murray, of Philliphaugh, were mentioned +to him.</p> + +<p>In giving an account of the Gipsies who frequented +Tweed-dale, and the country adjacent, I have thought it proper +to mention particularly the family of Baillie; for this +family produced kings and queens, or, in their language,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +<i>baurie rajahs</i> and <i>baurie raunies</i>, to the Scottish Gipsies. At +one period they seem to have exercised a sort of sovereign +authority in the tribe, over almost the whole of Scotland; +and, according to the ordinary practice of writing history of +a great deal more importance, they should, as the chief family +of a tribe, be particularly noticed.</p> + +<p>The quarrels of the Gipsies frequently broke out in an +instant, and almost without a visible cause. A farmer’s +wife, with whom I was acquainted, was one day sitting in +the midst of a band of them, at work in an old out-house, enquiring +the news of the country of them, when, in an instant, +a shower of horns and hammers, open knives, files, +and fiery peats, were flying through the house, at one another’s +heads. The good-wife took to her heels immediately, +to get out of the fray. Some of their conflicts were terrible +in the extreme. Dr. Pennecuik, in his history of Peebles-shire, +already <a href="#Page_185">referred to</a>, gives an account of a sanguinary +struggle that took place on his estate of Romanno, in Tweed-dale. +The following are the particulars in his own words:</p> + +<p>“Upon the 1st of October, 1677, there happened at Romanno, +on the very spot where now the dove-cot is built, a +remarkable polymachy betwixt two clans of Gipsies, the +Fawes and the Shawes, who had come from Haddington fair, +and were going to Harestanes, to meet two other clans of +these rogues, the Baillies and Browns, with a resolution to +fight them. They fell out, at Romanno, among themselves, +about dividing the spoil they had got at Haddington, and +fought it manfully. Of the Fawes, there were four brethren +and a brother’s son; of the Shawes, the father with three +sons; and several women on both sides. Old Sandie Fawe, +a bold and proper fellow,<a name="FNanchor123" id="FNanchor123"></a><a href="#Footnote123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> with his wife, then with child, +were both killed dead upon the place; and his brother +George very dangerously wounded. In February, 1678, old +Robin Shawe, the Gipsy, and his three sons, were hanged +at the Grass-market, for the above-mentioned murder, committed +at Romanno; and John Fawe was hanged, the Wednesday +following, for another murder. Sir Archibald Primrose +was justice general at the time, and Sir George +McKenzie king’s advocate.” Contrasting the obstinate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +ferocity of the Gipsy with the harmless and innocent nature +of the dove, Dr. Pennecuik erected on the spot a dove-cot; +and, to commemorate the battle, placed upon the lintel of +the door the following inscription:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i14">“A. D. 1683.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The field of Gipsie blood, which here you see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shelter for the harmless dove shall be.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This Gipsy battle is also noticed by Lord Fountainhall, in +the following extract from his MS., now in the Advocate’s +Library:—“Sixth February, 1678.—Four Egyptians, of the +name of Shaw, were this day hanged—the father and three +sons—for the slaughter committed by them on the Faws, +(another tribe of these vagabonds, worse than the mendicants +validi, mentioned in the code,) in a drunken squabble, +made by them in a rendezvous they had at Romanno, with a +design to unite their forces against the clans of Browns and +Bailezies (Baillies), that were come over from Ireland,<a name="FNanchor124" id="FNanchor124"></a><a href="#Footnote124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> to +chase them back again, that they might not share in their +labours; but, in their ramble, they discovered and committed +the foresaid murder; and sundry of them, of both sides, +were apprehended.”—“The four being thrown into a hole +dug for them in the Greyfriars churchyard, with their +clothes on, the next morning the body of the youngest of +the three sons, (who was scarce sixteen,) was missed. Some +thought that, being last thrown over the ladder, and first +cut down, and in full vigour, and not much earth placed upon +him, and lying uppermost, and so not so ready to smother, +the fermentation of the blood, and heat of the bodies under +him, might cause him to rebound, and throw off the earth, +and recover ere the morning, and steal away. Which, if +true, he deserved his life, though the magistrates deserved a +reprimand. But others, more probably, thought his body +was stolen away by some chirurgeon, or his servant, to make +an anatomical dissection on.”</p> + +<p>About a century after this conflict, we find the nature of +the Gipsies still unchanged. The following details of one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +of their general engagements will serve as a specimen of +the obstinate and desperate manner in which, to a late +period, they fought among themselves. The battle took +place at the bridge of Hawick, in the spring of the year +1772, or 1773. The particulars are derived from the late +Mr. Robert Laidlaw, Tenant of Fanash, a gentleman of +respectability, who was an eye-witness to the scene of action. +It was understood that this battle originated in some encroachments +of the one tribe upon the district assigned to +the other; a principal source of quarrels among these wanderers. +And it was agreed to, by the contending parties, +that they were to fight out their dispute the first time they +should meet, which, as just said, happened at Hawick.</p> + +<p>On the one side, in this battle, was the celebrated Alexander +Kennedy, a handsome and athletic man, and head of +his tribe. Next to him, in consideration, was little Wull +Ruthven, Kennedy’s father-in-law. This man was known, all +over the country, by the extraordinary title of the Earl of +Hell;<a name="FNanchor125" id="FNanchor125"></a><a href="#Footnote125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> and, although he was above five feet ten inches in +height, he got the appellation of Little Wull, to distinguish +him from Muckle William Ruthven, who was a man of uncommon +stature and personal strength.<a name="FNanchor126" id="FNanchor126"></a><a href="#Footnote126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> The earl’s son was +also in the fray. These were the chief men in Kennedy’s +band. Jean Ruthven, Kennedy’s wife, was also present; +with a great number of inferior members of the clan, males +as well as females, of all ages, down to mere children. The +opposite band consisted of old Rob Tait, the chieftain of his +horde, Jacob Tait, young Rob Tait, and three of old Rob +Tait’s sons-in-law. These individuals, with Jean Gordon, +old Tait’s wife, and a numerous train, of youths of both +sexes and various ages, composed the adherents of old Robert +Tait. These adverse tribes were all closely connected +with one another by the ties of blood. The Kennedys and +Ruthvens were from the ancient burgh of Lochmaben.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>The whole of the Gipsies in the field, females as well as +males, were armed with bludgeons, excepting some of the +Taits, who carried cutlasses, and pieces of iron hoops, +notched and serrated on either side, like a saw, and fixed to +the end of sticks. The boldest of the tribe were in front +of their respective bands, with their children and the other +members of their clan in the rear, forming a long train behind +them. In this order both parties boldly advanced, with +their weapons uplifted above their heads. Both sides fought +with extraordinary fury and obstinacy. Sometimes the one +band gave way, and sometimes the other; but both, again +and again, returned to the combat with fresh ardour. Not +a word was spoken during the struggle; nothing was heard +but the rattling of the cudgels and the strokes of the cutlasses. +After a long and doubtful contest, Jean Ruthven, +big with child at the time, at last received, among many +other blows, a dreadful wound with a cutlass. She was cut +to the bone, above and below the breast, particularly on one +side. It was said the slashes were so large and deep that +one of her breasts was nearly severed from her body, and +that the motions of her lungs, while she breathed, were observed +through the aperture between her ribs. But, notwithstanding +her dreadful condition, she would neither quit the +field nor yield, but continued to assist her husband as long +as she was able. Her father, the Earl of Hell, was also +shockingly wounded; the flesh being literally cut from the +bone of one of his legs, and, in the words of my informant, +“hanging down over his ankles, like beef steaks.” The earl +left the field to get his wounds dressed; but observing his +daughter, Kennedy’s wife, so dangerously wounded, he lost +heart, and, with others of his party, fled, leaving Kennedy +alone, to defend himself against the whole of the clan of +Tait.</p> + +<p>Having now all the Taits, young and old, male and female, +to contend with, Kennedy, like an experienced warrior, +took advantage of the local situation of the place. Posting +himself on the narrow bridge of Hawick, he defended +himself in the defile, with his bludgeon, against the whole +of his infuriated enemies. His handsome person, his undaunted +bravery, his extraordinary dexterity in handling +his weapon, and his desperate situation, (for it was evident +to all that the Taits thirsted for his blood, and were determined<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +to despatch him on the spot,) excited a general and +lively interest in his favour, among the inhabitants of the +town, who were present, and had witnessed the conflict with +amazement and horror. In one dash to the front, and with +one powerful sweep of his cudgel, he disarmed two of the +Taits, and cutting a third to the skull, felled him to the +ground. He sometimes daringly advanced upon his assailants, +and drove the whole band before him, pell-mell. When +he broke one cudgel on his enemies, by his powerful arm, +the town’s people were ready to hand him another. Still, +the vindictive Taits rallied, and renewed the charge with +unabated vigour; and every one present expected that Kennedy +would fall a sacrifice to their desperate fury. A party +of messengers and constables at last arrived to his relief, +when the Taits were all apprehended, and imprisoned; but, +as none of the Gipsies were actually slain in the fray, they +were soon set at liberty.<a name="FNanchor127" id="FNanchor127"></a><a href="#Footnote127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></p> + +<p>In this battle, it was said that every Gipsy, except Alexander +Kennedy, the brave chief, was severely wounded; +and that the ground on which they fought was wet with +blood. Jean Gordon, however, stole, unobserved, from her +band, and, taking a circuitous road, came behind Kennedy, +and struck him on the head with her cudgel. What astonished +the inhabitants of Hawick the most of all, was the +fierce and stubborn disposition of the Gipsy females. It +was remarked that, when they were knocked down senseless +to the ground, they rose again, with redoubled vigour and +energy, to the combat. This unconquerable obstinacy and +courage of their females is held in high estimation by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +tribe. I once heard a Gipsy sing a song, which celebrated +one of their battles; and, in it, the brave and determined +manner in which the girls bore the blows of the cudgel over +their heads was particularly applauded.</p> + +<p>The battle at Hawick was not decisive to either party. +The hostile bands, a short time afterwards, came in contact, +in Ettrick Forest, at a place, on the water of Teema, called +Deephope. They did not, however, engage here; but the +females on both sides, at some distance from one another, +with a stream between them, scolded and cursed, and, clapping +their hands, urged the males again to fight. The men, +however, more cautious, only observed a sullen and gloomy +silence at this meeting. Probably both parties, from experience, +were unwilling to renew the fight, being aware of +the consequences which would follow, should they again +close in battle. The two clans then separated, each taking +different roads, but both keeping possession of the disputed +district. In the course of a few days, they again met in +Eskdale moor, when a second desperate conflict ensued. +The Taits were here completely routed, and driven from +the district, in which they had attempted to travel by force.</p> + +<p>The country-people were horrified at the sight of the +wounded Tinklers, after these sanguinary engagements. +Several of them, lame and exhausted, in consequence of the +severity of their numerous wounds, were, by the assistance +of their tribe, carried through the country on the backs of +asses; so much were they cut up in their persons. Some of +them, it was said, were slain outright, and never more heard +of. Jean Ruthven, however, who was so dreadfully slashed, +recovered from her wounds, to the surprise of all who had +seen her mangled body, which was sewed in different parts +by her clan. These battles were talked of for thirty miles +around the country. I have heard old people speak of them, +with fear and wonder at the fierce, unyielding disposition +of the willful and vindictive Tinklers.<a name="FNanchor128" id="FNanchor128"></a><a href="#Footnote128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>We have already seen that the female Gipsies are nearly +as expert at handling the cudgel, and fully as fierce and unyielding +in their quarrels and conflicts, as the males of their +race. The following particulars relative to a Gipsy scuffle, +derived from an eye-witness, will illustrate how a Gipsy woman, +of the name of Rebecca Keith, displayed no little dexterity +in the effective use which she made of her bludgeon.</p> + +<p>Two gangs of Gipsies, of different tribes, had taken up +their quarters, on a Saturday, the one at the town of Dumblane, +the other at a farm-steading on the estate of Cromlix, +in the neighbourhood. On the Sunday following, the Dumblane +horde paid a visit to the others, at their country +quarters. The place set apart for their accommodation was +an old kiln, of which they had possession, where they were +feasted with abundance of savoury viands, and regaled with +mountain dew, in copious libations, of quality fit for a prince. +The country squad were of the Keith fraternity, and their +queen, or head personage, at the time, was Rebecca Keith, +past the middle age, but of gigantic stature, and great muscular +power. In the course of their carousal, a quarrel +ensued between the two gangs, and a fierce battle followed. +The Keiths were the weaker party, but Becca, as she was +called by the country people, performed prodigies of valour, +against fearful odds, with only the aid of her strong, hard-worn +shoe, which she wielded with the dexterity and effect +of an experienced cudgelist. She appeared, however, unable +much longer to contend against her too numerous opponents. +Being a great favourite with all, especially with the inmates +of the farm which was the scene of encounter, two young +boys—the informant and the herd-callant—who witnessed +the engagement, and whose sympathy was altogether on the +side of the valourous Becca, exchanged a hurried and whispering +remark to each other that, “if she had the <i>soople</i> of +a flail, they thought she would do gude wark.” No sooner +said than done. The herd-boy went off at once to the barn, +cut the thongs asunder, and returned, in a twinkling, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +the soople below his jacket, concealing it from view, with the +cunning of a thief. Edging up to Becca, and uncovering the +end of the weapon, it was seized upon by her with avidity. +She flourished it in the air, and plied it with such effect, +about the ears of her adversaries, that they were speedily +driven off the field, with “sarks full of sore bones.” In this +furious manner would the friendly meetings of the Gipsies +frequently terminate.<a name="FNanchor129" id="FNanchor129"></a><a href="#Footnote129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p> + +<p>So formidable were the numbers of the nomadic Gipsies, +at one time, and so alarming their desperate and sanguinary +battles, in the upper parts of Tweed-dale and Clydesdale, +that the fencible men in their neighbourhood, (the <i>country-side</i> +was the expression,) had sometimes to turn out to quell +and disperse them. A clergyman was, on one occasion, under +the necessity of dismissing his congregation, in the +middle of divine service, that they might quell one of these +furious Gipsy tumults, in the immediate vicinity of the +church.<a name="FNanchor130" id="FNanchor130"></a><a href="#Footnote130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>About the year 1770, the mother of the Baillies received +some personal injury, or rather insult, at a fair at Biggar, +from a gardener of the name of John Cree. The insult was +instantly resented by the Gipsies; but Cree was luckily +protected by his friends. In contempt and defiance of the +whole multitude in the market, four of the Baillies—Matthew, +James, William, and John—all brothers, appeared on +horse-back, dressed in scarlet, and armed with broad-swords, +and, parading through the crowd, threatened to be +avenged of the gardener, and those who had assisted him. +Burning with revenge, they threw off their coats, rolled up +the sleeves of their shirts to the shoulder, like butchers when +at work, and, with their naked and brawny arms, and glittering +swords in their clenched hands, furiously rode up and +down the fair, threatening death to all who should oppose +them. Their bare arms, naked weapons, and resolute looks, +showed that they were prepared to slaughter their enemies +without mercy. No one dared to interfere with them, till +the minister of the parish appeased their rage, and persuaded +them to deliver up their swords. It was found absolutely +necessary, however, to keep a watch upon the gardener’s +house, for six months after the occurrence, to protect him +and his family from the vengeance of the vindictive Gipsies.</p> + +<p>To bring into view and illustrate the character and practices +of our Scottish Gipsies, I will transcribe the following details, +in the original words, from a MS. which I received +from the late Mr. Blackwood, as a contribution towards a +history of the Gipsies. Mr. Blackwood did not say who the +writer of the paper was, but some one mentioned to me that +he was a clergyman. I am satisfied that the statements it +contains are true, and that the William Baillie therein mentioned +was, in his day and generation, well known, over the +greater part of Scotland, as chief of his tribe within the +kingdom. He was the grandfather of the four Gipsies who, +as just mentioned, set at defiance the whole multitude at +Biggar fair. It will be seen, by this MS., that while the +principal Gipsies, with their subordinates, were plundering +the public, in all directions, they sometimes performed acts +of gratitude and great kindness to their favourites of the +community among whom they travelled. In it will also be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +exhibited the cool and business-like manner in which they +delivered back stolen purses, when circumstances rendered +such restoration necessary.</p> + +<p>“There was formerly a gang of Gipsies, or pick-pockets, +who used to frequent the fairs in Dumfries-shire, headed by +a William Baillie, or Will Baillie, as the country-people +were accustomed to call him, of whom the old men used to +tell many stories.</p> + +<p>“Before any considerable fair, if the gang were at a distance +from the place where it was to be held, whoever of +them were appointed to go, went singly, or, at most, never +above two travelled together. A day or so after, Mr. Baillie +himself followed, mounted like a nobleman; and, as journeys, +in those days, were almost all performed on horseback, he +sometimes rode, for many miles, with gentlemen of the first +respectability in the country. And, as he could discourse +readily and fluently on almost any topic, he was often taken +to be some country gentleman of property, as his dress and +manners seemed to indicate.</p> + +<p>“Once, in a very crowded fair at Dumfries, an honest farmer, +from the parish of Hatton, in Annandale, had his pocket +picked of a considerable sum, in gold, with which he was +going to buy cattle. On discovering his loss, he immediately +went and got a purse like the one he had lost, into which he +put a good number of small stones, and, going into a crowded +part of the fair, he kept a watchful eye on his pocket, and, in +a little while, he caught a fellow in the very act of picking +it. The farmer, who was a stout, athletic man, did not wish +to make any noise, as he knew a more ready way of recovering +his money; but whispered to the fellow, while he still +kept fast hold of him, to come out of the throng a little, as +he wanted to speak to him. There he told him that he had +lost his money, and that, if he would get it to him again, he +would let him go; if not, he would have him put in jail immediately. +The pick-pocket desired him to come along with +him, and he would see what could be done, the farmer still +keeping close to him, lest he should escape. They entered +an obscure house, in an unfrequented close, where they found +Mr. Baillie sitting. The farmer told his tale, concluding +with a promise that, as the loss of the money would hurt +him very much, he would, if he could get it back again, +make no more ado about it. On which, Mr. Baillie went to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +a concealment in the wall, and brought out the very purse +the farmer had lost, with the contents untouched, which he +returned to the farmer, who received it with much gratitude.</p> + +<p>“The farmer, after doing his business in the fair, got a +little intoxicated in the evening; on which he thought he +would call on Mr. Baillie, and give him a treat, for his kindness +in restoring his purse; but on entering the house, the +woman who kept it, a poor widow, fell on him and abused +him sadly, asking him what he had done to cause Mr. +Stewart, by which name she knew Mr. Baillie, to leave her +house; and saying she had lost the best friend that ever she +had, for always when he stayed a day or two in her house, +(which he used to do twice a year,) he gave her as much as +paid her half-year’s rent; but after he, (the farmer,) called +that day, Mr. Stewart, she said, left her house, telling her he +could not stay with her any longer; but before he went, she +said, he had given her what was to pay her half-year’s rent, +a resource, she lamented, she would lose in future. About +two years afterwards, the farmer again had the curiosity to +call on her, and ask her if her lodger had ever returned. +She said he never had, but that, ever since, a stranger had +called regularly, and given her money to pay her rent.</p> + +<p>“In the parish of Kirkmichael, about eight miles from +Dumfries, lived a widow who occupied a small farm. As +she had a number of young children, and no man to assist +her, she fell behind in paying her rent, and at last got a +summons of removal. She had a kiln that stood at a considerable +distance from the other houses, which was much +frequented by Baillie’s people, when they came that way; +and she gave them, at all times, peaceable possession, as she +had no person to contend with them, or put them away, and +she herself did not wish to differ with them. They, on the +other hand, never molested anything she had. One evening, +a number of them arrived rather late, and went into the +kiln, as usual; after which, one came into the house, to ask +a few peats, to make a fire. She gave the peats, saying she +believed they would soon have to shift their quarters, as she +herself was warned to flit, and she did not know if the next +tenant would allow them such quiet possession, and she did +not know what would become of herself and her helpless +family. Nothing more was said, but, after having put her +children to bed, as she was sitting by the fire, in a disconsolate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +manner, she heard a gentle tap at the door. On opening +it, a genteel, well-dressed man entered, who told her he +just wished to speak with her for a few minutes, and, sitting +down, said he had heard she was warned to remove, and +asked how much she was behind. She told him exactly. +On which, rising hastily, he slipt a purse into her hand, and +went out before she could say a single word.</p> + +<p>“The widow, however, kept the farm, paid off all old +debts, and brought up her family decently; but still, it +grieved her that she did not know who was her benefactor. +She never told any person till about ten years afterwards, +when she told a friend who came to see her, when she +was rather poorly in health. After hearing the story, he +asked her what sort of a man he was who gave her the +money. She said their interview was so short, and it was +so long past, that she could recollect little of him, but only +remembered well that he had the scar of a cut across his +nose. On which, her friend immediately exclaimed, ‘Then +Will Baillie was the man.’</p> + +<p>“Before the year 1740, the roads were bad through all +the country. Carts were not then in use, and all the merchants’ +goods were conveyed in packs, on horseback. +Among others, the farmers on the water of Ae, in Dumfries-shire, +were almost all pack-carriers. As there was little +improvement of land then, they had little to do at home, +and so they made their rents mostly by carrying. Among +others, there was an uncle of my father, whose name was +Robert McVitie, who used to be a great carrier. This man, +once, in returning from Edinburgh, stopt at Broughton, and +in coming out of the stable, he met a man, who asked him +if he knew him. Robert, after looking at him for a little, +said: ‘I think you are Mr. Baillie.’ He said, I am, and +asked if Robert could lend him two guineas, and it should +be faithfully repaid. As there were few people who wished +to differ with Baillie, Robert told him he was welcome to +two guineas, or more if he wanted it. He said that would +just do; on which Robert gave them to him, and he put them +into his pocket. Baillie then asked, if ever he was molested +by any person, when he was travelling late with his packs. +He said he never was, although he was sometimes a little +afraid. Baillie then gave him a kind of brass token, about +the size of a half-crown, with some marks upon it, which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +desired him to carry in his purse, and it might be of use +to him some time, as he was to show it, if any person offered +to rob him. Baillie then mounted his horse and rode off.</p> + +<p>“Some considerable time after this, as Robert was one +evening travelling with his packs, between Elvanfoot and +Moffat, two men came up to him, whom he thought very +suspicious-looking fellows. As he was a stout man himself, +and carried a good cudgel, he kept on the alert for a considerable +way, lest they should take him by surprise. At +last, one of them asked him if he was not afraid to travel +alone, so late at night. He said he was under a necessity +to be out late, sometimes, on his lawful business. But recollecting +his token, he said a gentleman had once given him +a piece of brass, to show, if ever any person troubled him. +They desired him to show it, as it was moonlight. He gave +it to them. On seeing it, they looked at one another, and +then, whispering a few words, told him it was well for him +he had the token, which they returned; and they left him +directly.</p> + +<p>“After a lapse of nearly two years, when he had almost +forgotten his two guineas, as he was one morning loading +his packs, at the door of a public-house, near Gretna-green, +he felt some person touch him behind, and, on looking +round, saw it was Mr. Baillie, who slipped something into +his hand, wrapped in paper, and left him, without speaking +a single word. On opening the paper, he found three +guineas, which was his own money, and a guinea for interest.</p> + +<p>“There was another gang of Gipsies that stayed mostly +in Annandale, headed by a Jock Johnstone, as he was called +in the country. These were counted a kind of lower caste +than Baillie’s people, who would have thought themselves +degraded if they had associated with any of the Johnstone +gang. Johnstone confined his travels mostly to Dumfries-shire; +while Baillie went over all Scotland, and even made +long excursions into England. Johnstone kept a great +many women about him,<a name="FNanchor131" id="FNanchor131"></a><a href="#Footnote131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> several of whom had children to +him; and, in kilns and in barns, Johnstone always slept in +the middle of the whole gang. Baillie sometimes told his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +select friends that he had a wife, but never any of them +could find out where she stayed; and as he used to disappear +now and then, for a considerable time together, it was +supposed he was with her. He never slept, in barn or kiln, +with any of his people. Johnstone travelled all day in the +midst of a crowd of women and children, mounted on asses. +Baillie travelled always by himself, mounted on the best +horse he could get for money.</p> + +<p>“Some time in the year 1739, Johnstone, with a number of +his women, came to the house of one Margaret Farish, an +old woman who sold ale at Lonegate, six miles from Dumfries, +on the Edinburgh road. After drinking for a long +time, some of Jock’s wives and the old woman quarrelled. +On which he took up the pewter pint-stoup, with which she +measured her ale, and, giving her two or three severe blows +on the head, killed her on the spot. Next day he was apprehended +near Lockerby, and brought into Dumfries’ jail. +He had a favourite tame jack-daw that he took with him in +all his travels, and he desired it might be brought to stay +with him in the jail, which was done. When the lords were +coming into the circuit, as they passed the jail, the trumpeters +gave a blast, on which the jack-daw gave a flutter +against the iron bars of the window, and dropped down dead. +When Jock saw that, he immediately exclaimed: ‘Lord +have mercy on me, for I am gone.’ He was accordingly +tried and condemned. When the day of execution came, he +would not walk to the scaffold, and so they were forced to +carry him. The executioner, being an old man, could not +turn him over. Several of the constables refused to touch +him. At last, one of the burgh officers turned him off; but +the old people about Dumfries used to say that the officer +never prospered any more after that day.”<a name="FNanchor132" id="FNanchor132"></a><a href="#Footnote132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>The extraordinary man Baillie, who is here so often mentioned, +was well known in Tweed-dale and Clydesdale; and +my great-grandfather, who knew him well, used to say that +he was the handsomest, the best dressed, the best looking, +and the best bred man he ever saw. As I have already +mentioned, he generally rode one of the best horses the +kingdom could produce; himself attired in the finest scarlet, +with his greyhounds following him, as if he had been a +man of the first rank. With the usual Gipsy policy, he represented +himself as a bastard son of one of the Baillies of +Lamington, his mother being a Gipsy. On this account, considerable +attention was paid to him by the country-people; +indeed, he was taken notice of by the first in the land. But, +from his singular habits, his real character at last became +well known. He acted the character of the gentleman, the +robber, the sorner, and the tinker, whenever it answered +his purpose. He was considered, in his time, the best +swordsman in all Scotland. With this weapon in his hand, +and his back at a wall, he set almost everything, saving fire-arms, +at defiance. His sword is still preserved by his +descendants, as a relic of their powerful ancestor. The +stories that are told of this splendid Gipsy are numerous and +interesting. I will relate only two well-authenticated anecdotes +of this <i>baurie rajah</i>, this king of the Scottish Gipsies; +who was, in all probability, a descendant of Towla Bailyow, +who, with other Gipsies, rebelled against, and plundered, +John Faw, “Lord and Earl of Little Egypt,” in the reign of +James V. The following transaction of his has some resemblance +to a custom among the Arabians.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p> + +<p>William, with his numerous horde, happened to fall in +with a travelling packman, on a wild spot between Hawkshaw +and Menzion, near the source of the Tweed. The packman +was immediately commanded to halt, and lay his packs +upon the ground. Baillie then unsheathed his broadsword, +with which he was always armed, and, with the point of the +weapon, drew, on the ground, a circle around the trembling +packman and his wares. Within this circle no one of the +tribe was allowed by him to enter but himself.<a name="FNanchor133" id="FNanchor133"></a><a href="#Footnote133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> The poor +man was now ordered to unbuckle his packs, and exhibit his +merchandise to the Gipsies. Baillie, without the least ceremony, +helped himself to some of the most valuable things in +the pack, and gave a great many to the members of his band. +The unfortunate merchant, well aware of the character of +his customers, concluded himself a ruined man; and, in place +of making any resistance, handed away his property to the +Gipsies. But when they were satisfied, he was most agreeably +surprised by Baillie taking out his purse, and paying +him, on the spot, a great deal more than the value of every +article he had taken for himself and given to his band. The +delighted packman failed not to extol, wherever he went, +the gentlemanly conduct and extraordinary liberality of +“Captain Baillie”—a title by which he was known all over +the country.</p> + +<p>The perilous situations in which Baillie was often placed +did not repress the merry jocularity and sarcastic wit which +he, in common with many of his tribe, possessed. He sometimes +almost bearded and insulted the judge while sitting on the +bench. On one of these occasions, when he was in court, +the judge, provoked at seeing him so often at the bar, observed +to him that he would assuredly get his ears cut out +of his head, if he did not mend his manners, and abandon +his way of life. “That I defy you to do, my lord,” replied +the Tinkler. The judge, perceiving that his ears had already +been “nailed to the tron, and cut off,” and being displeased +at the effrontery and levity of his conduct, told him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +that he was certainly a great villain. “I am not such a +villain as your lordship,” retorted Baillie. “What do you +say?” rejoined the judge, in great surprise at the bold manner +of the criminal. “I say,” continued the Gipsy, “that I +am not such a villain as your lordship —— takes me to be.” +“William,” quoth the judge, “put your words closer together, +otherwise you shall have cause to repent of your insolence +and audacity.”<a name="FNanchor134" id="FNanchor134"></a><a href="#Footnote134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p> + +<p>Tradition states that William Baillie’s conduct involved +him in numerous scrapes. He was brought before the Justiciary +Court, and had “his ears nailed to the tron, or other +tree, and cut off, and banished the country,” for his many +crimes of “sorning, pickery, and little thieving.” It also +appears, from popular tradition, that he is the same William +Baillie who is repeatedly noticed by Hume and McLaurin, +in their remarks on the criminal law of Scotland.</p> + +<p>In June, 1699, William Baillie, for being an Egyptian, and +for forging and using a forged pass, was sentenced to be +“hanged; but the privy council commuted his sentence to +banishment, but under the express condition that, if ever he +returned to this country, the former sentence should be executed +against him.” William entered into a bond with the +privy council, under the penalty of 500 merks, to leave the +kingdom, and to “suffer the pains of death, in case of contravention +thereof.”</p> + +<p>This Gipsy chief paid little regard to the terrible conditions +of his bond, in case of failure; for, on the 10th and 11th August, +1714, “Baillie,” says Hume, “and two of his associates, +were convicted and condemned to die; but as far as concerned +Baillie, (for the others were executed,) his doom was +afterwards mitigated into transportation, under pain of death +in case of return.” “The jury,” says McLaurin, “brought +in a special verdict as to the sorning,<a name="FNanchor135" id="FNanchor135"></a><a href="#Footnote135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> but said nothing at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +all as to any other points; all they found proved was, that +William, in March, 1713, had taken possession of a barn, +without consent of the owner, and that, during his abode in +it, there was corn taken out of the barn, and he went away +without paying anything for his quarters, or for any corn +during his abode, which was for several days; and that he +was habit and repute an Egyptian, and did wear a pistol<a name="FNanchor136" id="FNanchor136"></a><a href="#Footnote136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> +and shable,” (a kind of sabre.)</p> + +<p>“As early as the month of August, 1715, the same man, +as I understand it,” says Baron Hume, “was again indicted, +not only for being found in Britain, but for continuing his +former practices and course of life. Notwithstanding this +aggravation, the interlocutor is again framed on the indulgent +plan; and only infers the pain of death from the fame +and character of being an Egyptian, joined with various acts +of violence and sorning, to the number of three that are +stated in the libel. Though convicted nearly to the extent +of the interlocutor, he again escaped with transportation.”</p> + +<p>Baillie’s policy in representing himself as a bastard son of +an ancient and honourable family had, as I have already observed, +been of great service to him; and in no way would +it be more so than in his various trials. It is almost certain, +as in cases of more recent times, that great interest would +be used to save a bastard branch of an honourable house +from an ignominious death upon the scaffold, when his crimes +amounted only to “sorning, pickery, and little thieving, and +habit and repute an Egyptian.”<a name="FNanchor137" id="FNanchor137"></a><a href="#Footnote137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>The descendants of William Baillie state that he was +married to a woman of the name of Rachel Johnstone; and +that he was killed, in a scuffle, by a Gipsy of the name of +Pinkerton, in a quarrel among themselves. Baillie being +quite superior in personal strength to Pinkerton, his wife +took hold of him, for fear of his destroying his opponent, +and, while he was in her arms, Pinkerton ran him through +with his sword. Upon his death, his son, then a youth of +thirteen years of age, took a solemn oath, on the spot, that +he would never rest until the blood of his father should be +avenged. And, true to his oath, his mother and himself followed +the track of the murderer over Scotland, England, +and Ireland, like staunch bloodhounds, and rested not, till +Pinkerton was apprehended, tried, and executed.</p> + +<p>The following particulars, relative to the slaughter of William +Baillie, were published in Blackwood’s Magazine, but +apparently without any knowledge, on the part of the writer, +of that individual’s history, further than that he was a +Gipsy.</p> + +<p>“In a precognition, taken in March, 1725, by Sir James +Stewart, of Coltness, and Captain Lockhart, of Kirkton, two +of his majesty’s justices of the peace for Lanarkshire, anent +the murder of William Baillie, brazier,<a name="FNanchor138" id="FNanchor138"></a><a href="#Footnote138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> commonly called +Gipsy, the following evidence is adduced:—John Meikle, +wright, declares, that, upon the twelfth of November last, he, +being in the house of Thomas Riddle, in Newarthill, with +some others, the deceased, William Baillie, James Kairns, +and David Pinkerton, were in another room, drinking, where, +after some high words, and a confused noise and squabble, +the said three persons, above-named, went all out; and the +declarant, knowing them to be three of those idle sorners +that pass in the country under the name of Gipsies, in hopes +they were gone off, rose, and went to the door, to take the +air; where, to his surprise, he saw William Baillie standing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +and Kairns and Pinkerton on horseback, with drawn swords +in their hands, who both rushed upon the said William Baillie, +and struck him with their swords; whereupon, the said +William Baillie fell down, crying out he was gone; upon +which, Kairns and Pinkerton rode off: That the declarant +helped to carry the said William Baillie into the house, +where, upon search, he was found to have a great cut or +wound on his head, and a wound in his body, just below the +slot of his breast: And declares, he, the said William Baillie, +died some time after.</p> + +<p>“Thomas Riddle, tenant and change-keeper in Newarthill, +&c., declares, that the deceased, William Baillie, James +Kairns, and David Pinkerton, all idle sorners, that are +known in the country by the name of Gipsies, came to the +declarant’s, about sun-setting, where, after some stay, <i>and +talking a jargon the declarant did not well understand</i>, they +fell a squabbling, when the declarant was in another room, +with some other company; upon the noise of which, the declarant +ran in to them, where he found the said James Kairns +lying above the said William Baillie, whose nose the said +James Kairns had bitten with his teeth till it bled; upon +which, the declarant and his wife threatened to raise the +town upon them, and get a constable to carry them to +prison; but Kairns and Pinkerton called for their horses, +William Baillie saying he would not go with them: Declares +that, after the said Kairns and Pinkerton had got their +horses, and mounted, they ordered the declarant to bring a +chopin of ale to the door to them, where William Baillie was +standing, talking to them: That, when the declarant had filled +about the ale, and left them, thinking they were going off, +the declarant’s wife went to the door, where Kairns struck +at her with a drawn sword, to fright her in; upon which +she ran in; and thereupon the declarant went to the door, +where he found the said William Baillie, lying with the +wounds upon him, mentioned in John Meikle’s declaration.”</p> + +<p>By Hume’s work on the criminal law, it appears that the +trial of David Pinkerton, with others of his tribe, took place +on the 22nd August, 1726, for “sorning and robbery;” but +no mention is made of the murder of Baillie; yet it was +Baillie’s relatives that pursued Pinkerton to the gallows. +Probably sufficient evidence could not then be adduced to +substantiate the fact, being about twenty-one months after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +the murder was committed; and, besides, Baillie was himself +dead in law, having either returned from banishment, or +remained at large in the country, and so forfeited his life, +when he was killed by Pinkerton, in 1724. The following +is part of the interlocutor pronounced upon the indictment +of the prisoners: “Find the said David Pinkerton, alias Maxwell, +John Marshall, and Helen Baillie, alias Douglass, or +any of them, their being habit and repute Egyptians, sorners +or masterful beggars, in conjunction with said pannels, or +any of them, their being, at the times and places libelled, +guilty, art and part, of the fact of violence, theft, robbery, or +attempts of robbery libelled, or any of the said facts relevant +to infer the pain of death and confiscation of moveables.”</p> + +<p>William Baillie was succeeded, in the chieftainship, by +his son Matthew, who married the celebrated Mary Yowston +or Yorkston, and became the leader of a powerful horde of +Gipsies in the south of Scotland. He frequently visited the +farms of my grandfather, about the year 1770. It appears +that his courtship had been after the Tartar manner; for he +used to say that the toughest battle he ever fought was +that of taking, by force, his bride, then a very young girl, +from her mother, at the hamlet of Drummelzier.<a name="FNanchor139" id="FNanchor139"></a><a href="#Footnote139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> This +Matthew Baillie had, by Mary Yorkston, a son, who was +also named Matthew, and who married Margaret Campbell, +and had by her a family of remarkably handsome and pretty +daughters. Of this principal Gipsy family, I can trace, +distinctly, six generations in descent, and have myself seen +the great-great-great-grand-children of the celebrated William +Baillie. Some of his descendants still travel the country, +in the manner of their ancestors, and at this moment +speak the Gipsy language with fluency. Some of them, +however, are little better than common beggars. There +were, at one period, a captain and a quarter-master in the +army, belonging to the Baillie clan; and another was a +country surgeon.</p> + +<p>Mary Yorkston, above mentioned, went under the appellations +of “my lady,” and “the duchess,” and bore the title of +queen, among her tribe. She presided at the celebration of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +their barbarous marriages, and assisted at their equally +singular ceremonies of divorce. What the custom of this +queen of the Gipsies was, when in full dress, in her youth, +on gala days, cannot now be easily known; but the following +is a description of her masculine figure, and <i>public</i> travelling +apparel, when advanced in years. It was taken from the +mouth of an aged and very respectable gentleman, the late +Mr. David Stoddart, at Bankhead, near Queensferry, who +had often seen her in his youth: She was fully six feet in +stature, stout made in her person, with very strongly-marked +and harsh features; and had, altogether, a very imposing +aspect and manner. She wore a large black beaver-hat, +tied down over her ears with a handkerchief, knotted below +her chin, in the Gipsy fashion. Her upper garment was a +dark-blue short cloak, somewhat after the Spanish fashion, +made of substantial woollen cloth, approaching to superfine +in quality. The greater part of her other apparel was made +of dark-blue camlet cloth, with petticoats so short that they +scarcely reached to the calves of her well-set legs. [Indeed, +all the females among the Baillies wore petticoats of the +same length.] Her stockings were of dark-blue worsted, +flowered and ornamented at the ankles with scarlet thread; +and in her shoes she displayed large, massy, silver buckles. +The whole of her habiliments were very substantial, with +not a rag or rent to be seen about her person. [She was +sometimes dressed in a green gown, trimmed with red +ribbons.] Her outer petticoat was folded up round her +haunches, for a lap, with a large pocket dangling at each +side; and below her cloak she carried, between her shoulders, +a small flat pack, or pad, which contained her most +valuable articles. About her person she generally kept a +large clasp-knife, with a long, broad blade, resembling a dagger +or carving-knife; and carried in her hand a long pole +or pike-staff, that reached about a foot above her head.</p> + +<p>It was a common practice, about the middle of last century, +for old female Gipsies of authority to strip, without +hesitation, defenceless individuals of their wearing-apparel +when they met them in sequestered places. Mary Yorkston +chanced, on one occasion, to meet a shepherd’s wife, +among the wild hills in the parish of Stobo, and stripped her +of the whole of her clothes. The shepherd was horrified at +beholding his wife approaching his house in a state of perfect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +nakedness. A Jean Gordon was once detected, by a shepherd, +stripping a female of her wearing-apparel. He at once +assisted the helpless woman; but Jean drew from below her +garments a dagger, and threw it at him. Evading the blow, +the shepherd closed in upon her, and struck her over the +head with his staff, knocking her to the ground. Another +Gipsy of the old fashion, of the name of Esther Grant, was +also celebrated for the practice of stripping people of their +clothing. The Arabian principle, expressed in these words, +on meeting a stranger in the desert, “Undress thyself—my +wife, (thy aunt,) is in want of a garment,” is truly applicable +to the disposition of the old female Gipsies.</p> + +<p>Nothing was more common, in the counties of Peebles +and Lanark, when the country-people lost their purses at +fairs, than to have recourse to the chief Gipsy females, to +get their property returned to them. Mary Yorkston, having +a sovereign influence and power among her tribe, was +often applied to, in such cases of distress, of which the following +is a good specimen:—On one of these occasions, in a +market in the South of Scotland, a farmer lost his purse, +containing a considerable sum of money, which greatly perplexed +and distressed him. He immediately went to Mary +Yorkston, to try if she would exert her wonderful influence +to recover his property. Being a favourite of Mary’s, she, +without the least hesitation, took him along with her to the +place in the fair where her husband kept his temporary +depôt, or rather his office, in which he exercised his extraordinary +calling during the continuance of the market. The +presence of Mary was a sufficient assurance that all was +right; and, upon the matter being explained, Matthew +Baillie instantly produced, and spread out before the astonished +farmer, from twenty to thirty purses, and desired +him to pick out his own from amongst them. The countryman +soon recognized his own, and grasped at it without +ceremony. “Hold on,” said Baillie, “let us count its contents +first.” The Gipsy chief, with the greatest coolness +and deliberation, as if he had been an honest banker or +money-changer, counted over the money in the purse, when +not a farthing was found wanting. “There is your purse, +sir,” continued Baillie; “you see what it is, when honest +people meet!”</p> + +<p>The following incident, that occurred one night after a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +fair, in a barn belonging to one of my relatives, will strikingly +illustrate the character of the Gipsies in the matter of +stealing purses:—A band of superior Gipsies were quartered +in the barn, after several of them had attended the +fair, in their usual manner. The principal female, whom I +shall not name, had also been at the market; but the old +chief had thought proper to remain at home, in the barn. +My relative, as was sometimes his custom, chanced to take +a turn about his premises that night, when it was pretty +late. He heard the voice of a female weeping in the barn, +and, being curious to know the cause of the disturbance +among the Tinklers, stepped softly up, close to the back of +the door, to listen to what they were doing, as the woman +was crying bitterly. He was greatly astonished at hearing, +and never could forget, the following expressions: “Oh, +cruel man, to beat me in this way. I have had my hands in +as good as twenty pockets, but the honest people had it not +to themselves.” The chieftain was, in fact, chastising his +wife, in the presence of his family, for her want of diligence +or success, in not obtaining enough of booty at the fair. +And yet this individual bore, among the country-people, the +character of an honest man.</p> + +<p>Another story is told of Mary Yorkston and the Goodman +of Coulter-park. It differs in its nature from the +above anecdote, yet is very characteristic of the Gipsies. +Mary and her band were lurking one night at a place in +Clydesdale, called Raggingill. As a man on horseback approached +the spot where they were concealed, some of the +tribe immediately laid hold of the horse, and, without ceremony, +commenced to plunder the rider. But Mary, stepping +forth to superintend the operation, was astonished to +find that the horseman was her particular friend, the Goodman +of Coulter-park. She instantly exclaimed, with all her +might: “It’s Mr. Lindsay, the Gudeman o’ Couter-park—let +him gang—let him gang—God bless him, honest man!” +It is needless to add that Mr. Lindsay had always given +Mary and her horde the use of an out-house when they required +it.</p> + +<p>Mary Yorkston despised to ask what is properly understood +to be alms. She sold horn spoons and other +articles; and, when she made a bargain, she would take, +almost by force, what she called her “boontith,” which is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +a present of victuals, exclusive of the cash paid; a practice +which I will explain further on in the chapter.</p> + +<p>Matthew Baillie had, by Mary Yorkston, among other +children, a son, named James Baillie, who, along with his +brothers, as we have seen, threatened with destruction the +people assembled in Biggar fair, in consequence of an affront +offered to his mother by a gardener of that town. He was +condemned, in 1771, to be hung, for the murder of his wife, +by beating her with a horse-whip, and tumbling her over a +steep; but he “obtained a pardon from the king, on condition +that he transported himself beyond seas within a limited +time, otherwise the pardon was to have no effect.” Baillie, +paying little regard to the serious conditions of this pardon, +did not “transport himself beyond seas,” but continued +his former practices, as appears by the following extract +from the Weekly Magazine of the 8th October, 1772:—“James +Baillie, who was last summer condemned for the +murder of a woman, and afterwards obtained his majesty’s +pardon, on condition of transporting himself to America, for +life, was lately apprehended at Falkirk, on suspicion of robbery. +On the 1st October he was brought to town, and +committed to the Tolbooth, by a warrant of Lord Auchinleck. +This warrant was granted upon the petition of the +procurator fiscal of Stirling, in which he set forth that, as +Baillie was a very daring fellow, and suspected of being +concerned with a gang equally so with himself, there was +great reason to apprehend a rescue might be attempted, by +breaking the prison; and therefore praying that he might +be removed to Edinburgh, where a scheme of that nature +could not so easily be effected.” On the 18th December, +1773, and 27th February, 1774, the “Lords, in terms of the +said former sentence, decree and adjudge the said James +Baillie to be hanged on the 30th March then next.” He +thus appears to have remained in prison from October, 1772, +till March, 1774. “Soon after this sentence, he got another +pardon,” and was again discharged from prison, in order to +his transporting himself; but he remained at home, and again +relapsed into his former way of life. He was, some time +afterwards, committed to Newcastle gaol, but made his +escape. A short time after that, he was committed to +Carlisle gaol, on suspicion of having stolen some plate. On +the 4th December, 1776, three sheriff-officers set out from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +Edinburgh, to bring him hither; but before they reached +Carlisle, he had again broken prison and escaped.<a name="FNanchor140" id="FNanchor140"></a><a href="#Footnote140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> + +<p>During one of the periods of Baillie’s imprisonment, he +escaped from jail, attired as a female; having been assisted +by some of his tribe, residing in the Grass-market of Edinburgh. +Tradition states that the then Mistress Baillie, of +Lamington, and her family, used all their interest in obtaining +these pardons for James Baillie; who, like his fathers +before him, pretended to be a bastard relative of the family +of Lamington, and thereby escaped the punishment of death. +McLaurin justly remarks that “few cases have occurred in +which there has been such an expenditure of mercy.”<a name="FNanchor141" id="FNanchor141"></a><a href="#Footnote141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a></p> + +<p>I have already mentioned how handsomely the superior +order of Gipsies dressed at the period of which we are +speaking. The male head of the Ruthvens—a man six feet +some inches in height—who, according to the newspapers +of the day, lived to the advanced age of 115 years, when in +full dress, in his youth, wore a white wig, a ruffled shirt, a +blue Scottish bonnet, scarlet breeches and waistcoat, a long +blue superfine coat, white stockings, with silver buckles in +his shoes. Others wore silver brooches in their breasts, +and gold rings on their fingers. The male Gipsies in Scotland +were often dressed in green coats, black breeches, and +leathern aprons. The females were very partial to green +clothes. At the same time, the following anecdote will +show how artful they were at all times, by means of dress +and other equipments, to transform themselves, like actors +on the stage, into various characters, whenever it suited +their purposes.<a name="FNanchor142" id="FNanchor142"></a><a href="#Footnote142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a></p> + +<p>My father, when a young lad, noticed a large band of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +Gipsies taking up their quarters one night in an old out-house +on a farm occupied by his father. The band had +never been observed on the farm before, and seemed all to +be strangers, with, altogether, a very ragged and miserable +appearance. Next morning, a little after breakfast, as the +band began to pack up their baggage, and load their asses, +preparatory to proceeding on their journey, the youth, out +of curiosity, went forward to see the horde decamp. Among +other articles of luggage, he observed a large and heavy +sack put upon one of the asses; and, as the Gipsies were +fastening it upon the back of the animal, the mouth of it +burst open, and the greater part of its contents fell upon +the ground. He was not a little surprised when he beheld +a great many excellent cocked hats, suits of fine green +clothes, great-coats, &c.; with several handsome saddles and +bridles, tumble out of the bag. At this unexpected accident, +the Gipsies were much disconcerted. By some strange expressions +and odd manœuvres, they endeavoured to drive +the boy from their presence, and otherwise engage his attention, +to prevent him observing the singular furniture +contained in the unlucky sack. By thus carrying along +with them these superior articles, so unlike their ordinary +wretched habiliments, the ingenious Gipsies had it always +in their power to disguise themselves, whenever circumstances +called for it. The following anecdote will, in some +measure, illustrate the “gallant guise” in which these wanderers, +at one time, rode through Scotland:</p> + +<p>About the year 1768, early in the morning of the day of +a fair, held annually at Peebles, in the month of May, two +gentlemen were observed riding along the only road that +led to my grandfather’s farm. One of the servant girls was +immediately told to put the parlour in order, to receive the +strangers, as, from their respectable appearance, at a distance, +it was supposed they were friends, coming to breakfast, +before going to the market; a custom common enough +in the country. This preparation, however, proved unnecessary, +as the strangers rode rapidly past the dwelling-house, +and alighted at the door of an old smearing-house, nearly +roofless, situated near some alder trees, about three hundred +yards further up a small mountain stream. In passing, they +were observed to be neatly dressed in long green coats, +cocked hats, riding-boots and spurs, armed with broad-swords,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +and mounted on handsome grey ponies, saddled and +bridled; everything, in short, in style, and of the best +quality. The people about the farm were extremely curious +to know who these handsomely-attired gentlemen could be, +who, without taking the least notice of any one, dismounted +at the wretched hovel of a sheep-smearing house, where +nothing but a band of Tinklers were quartered. Their +curiosity, however, was soon satisfied, and not a little mirth +was excited, on it being ascertained that the gallant horsemen +were none other than James and William Baillie, sons +of old Matthew Baillie, who, with part of his tribe, were, at +the moment, in the old house, making horn spoons. But +greater was their surprise, when several of the female +Gipsies set out, immediately afterwards, for the fair, attired +in very superior dresses, with the air of ladies in the middle +ranks of society.<a name="FNanchor143" id="FNanchor143"></a><a href="#Footnote143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a></p> + +<p>Besides the large hordes that traversed the south of Scotland, +parties of twos and threes also passed through the +country, apparently not at all connected, nor in communication, +at the time, with the large bands. When a single +Gipsy and his wife, or other female, were observed to take +up their quarters by themselves, it was supposed they had +either fallen out with their clan, or had the officers of the +law in pursuit of them. Sometimes the chiefs would enquire +of the country people, if such and such a one of their tribe +had passed by, this or that day, lately. Under any circumstances, +the presence of a female does not excite so much +suspicion as a single male. In following their profession, as +tinkers, the Gipsies seldom, or never, travel without a female +in their company, and, I believe, they sometimes hire them +to accompany them, to hawk their wares through the country. +The tinker keeps himself snug in an out-house, at his +work, while the female vends his articles of sale, and forages +for him, in the adjoining country.</p> + +<p>One of these straggling Gipsies, of the name of William +Keith, was apprehended in an old smearing-house, on a farm +occupied by my grandfather, in Tweed-dale. William had +been concerned, with his brother Robert, in the murder of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +one of their clan, of the name of Charles Anderson, at a small +public-house among the Lammermoor hills, called Lourie’s +Den. Robert Keith and Anderson had fallen out, and had +followed each other for some time, for the purpose of fighting +out their quarrel. They at last met at Lourie’s Den, when +a terrible combat ensued. The two antagonists were brothers-in-law; +Anderson being married to Keith’s sister. +Anderson proved an over-match for Keith; and William +Keith, to save his brother, laid hold of Anderson; but Mage +Greig, Robert’s wife, handed her husband a knife, and called +on him to despatch him, while unable to defend himself. +Robert repeatedly struck with the knife, but it rebounded +from the ribs of the unhappy man, without much effect. Impatient +at the delay, Mage called out to him, “strike laigh, +strike laigh in;” and, following her directions, he stabbed +Anderson to the heart. The only remark made by any of +the gang was this exclamation from one of them: “Gude +faith, Rob, ye have done for him noo!” But William Keith +was astonished when he found that Anderson was stabbed +in his arms, as his interference was only to save the life of +his brother from the overwhelming strength of Anderson. +Robert Keith instantly fled, but was immediately pursued by +people armed with pitchforks and muskets. He was apprehended +in a braken-bush, in which he had concealed himself, +and was executed at Jedburgh, on the 24th November, +1772.</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott, and the Ettrick Shepherd, slightly notice +this murder at Lourie’s Den, in their communications to +Blackwood’s Magazine. One of the individuals who assisted +at the apprehension of Keith was the father of Sir Walter +Scott. The following notice of this bloody scene appeared +in one of the periodical publications at the time it occurred: +“By a letter from Lauder, we are informed of the following +murder: On Wednesday se’night, three men, with a boy, +supposed to be tinkers, put up at a little public-house near +Soutra. From the after conduct of two of the men, it would +appear that a difference had subsisted between them, before +they came into the house, for they had drunk but very little +when the quarrel was renewed with great vehemence, and, in +the dispute, one of the fellows drew a knife, and stabbed the +other in the body no less than seven different times, of which +wounds he soon after expired. The gang then immediately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +made off; but upon the country-people being alarmed, the +murderer himself and one of the women were apprehended.”<a name="FNanchor144" id="FNanchor144"></a><a href="#Footnote144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a></p> + +<p>Long after this battle took place, James Bartram and +Robert Brydon, messengers-at-arms in Peebles, were dispatched +to apprehend William Keith, in the ruinous house +already mentioned. As they entered the building, early in +the morning, with cocked pistols in their hands, Keith, a +powerful man, rose up, half naked, from his <i>shake-down</i>, and, +holding out a pistol, dared them to advance. Bartram, the +chief officer, with the utmost coolness and bravery, advanced +close up to the muzzle of the Gipsy’s pistol, and, clapping his +own to the head of the desperate Tinkler, threatened him +with instant death if he did not surrender. A Gipsy, who +had informed against Keith, was with the officers, as their +guide; but the moment he saw Keith’s pistol, he artfully +threw himself, upon his back, to the ground. He immediately +rose to his feet, but, in great terror, sprang, like a +greyhound, over a <i>fauld dyke</i>, to escape the shot which +Keith threatened. The intrepid conduct of the officers completely +daunted the Gipsy. He yielded, and allowed himself +to be hand-cuffed, thinking that the messengers were +strongly supported by the servants on the farm; for, on perceiving +only the two officers, he became desperate, but he +was now fast in irons. In great bitterness he exclaimed, +“Had I not, on Saturday night, observed five stout men on +Mr. Simson’s turf-hill, ye wadna a’ hae ta’en me.” The five +individuals were all remarkably strong men. It was on +Monday morning the Gipsy was apprehended, and it would +appear he had been reconnoitering on Saturday, before risking +to take up his quarters, which he did without asking +permission from any one. He imagined that the five turf-casters +were ready to assist the officers in the execution of +their duty, and that it would have been in vain for him to +make any resistance. The frantic Gipsy now leaped and +tossed about in the most violent manner imaginable. He +struck with so much vigour, with his hands bound in irons, +and kicked so powerfully with his feet, that it was with the +greatest difficulty the officers could get him carried to the +jail at Peebles. His wife came into the kitchen of the farm-house, +weeping and wailing excessively; and on some of the +servant-girls endeavouring to calm her grief, she, among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +other bitter expressions, exclaimed, “Had a decent, honest +man, like the master, informed, I would not have cared; but +for a blackguard like ourselves to inform, is unsufferable.” +Keith was tried, condemned, and banished to the plantations, +for the part he acted at the slaughter at Lourie’s Den.</p> + +<p>Here we have seen the melancholy fate of two, if not +three, of the then <i>Gipsy constabulary force</i> in Peebles-shire; +one murdered, another hanged, and the third banished. +However strange it may appear at the present day, it is +nevertheless true, that the magistrates of this county, about +this period, (1772,) actually appointed and employed a number +of the principal Gipsies as peace officers, constables, or +country-keepers, as they were called, of whom I will speak +again in another place.</p> + +<p>The nomadic Gipsies in general, like the Baillies in particular, +have gradually declined in appearance, till, at the +present day, the greater part of them have become little +better than beggars, when compared to what they were in +former times. Among those who frequented the south of +Scotland were to be found various grades of rank, as in all +other communities of men. There were then wretched and +ruffian-looking gangs, in whose company the superior Gipsies +would not have been seen.</p> + +<p>The reader will have observed the complete protection +which William Baillie’s token afforded Robert McVitie, +when two men were about to rob him, while travelling with +his packs, between Elvanfoot and Moffat. This system of +tokens made part of the general internal polity of the Gipsies. +These curious people stated to me that Scotland was +at one time divided into districts, and that each district was +assigned to a particular tribe. The chieftains of these tribes +issued tokens to the members of their respective hordes, +“when they scattered themselves over the face of the country.” +The token of a local chieftain protected its bearer +only while within his own district. If found without this +token, or detected travelling in a district for which the +token was not issued, the individual was liable to be plundered, +beaten, and driven back into his own proper territory, +by those Gipsies on whose rights and privileges he had infringed. +These tokens were, at certain periods, called in +and renewed, to prevent any one from forging them. They +were generally made of tin, with certain characters impressed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +upon them; and the token of each tribe had its own +particular mark, and was well known to all the Gipsies in +Scotland. But while these passes of the provincial chieftains +were issued only for particular districts, a token of the +Baillie family protected its bearer throughout the kingdom +of Scotland; a fact which clearly proves the superiority of +that ancient clan. Several Gipsies have assured me that +“a token from a Baillie was good over all Scotland, and that +kings and queens had come of that family.” And an old +Gipsy also declared to me that the tribes would get into +utter confusion, were the country not divided into districts, +under the regulations of tokens. It sometimes happened, as +in the case of Robert McVitie and others, that the Gipsies +gave passes or tokens to some of their particular favourites +who were not of their own race.</p> + +<p>This system of Gipsy polity establishes a curious fact, +namely, the double division and occupation of the kingdom +of Scotland; by ourselves as a civilized people, and by a +barbarous community existing in our midst, each subject to +its own customs, laws and government; and that, while the +Gipsies were preying upon the vitals of the civilized society +which harboured them, and were amenable to its laws, they +were, at the same time, governed by the customs of their +own fraternity.</p> + +<p>The surnames most common among the old Tweed-dale +bands of Gipsies were Baillie, Ruthven, Kennedy, Wilson, +Keith, Anderson, Robertson, Stewart, Tait, Geddes, Grey, +Wilkie and Halliday. The three principal clans were the +Baillies, Ruthvens and Kennedys; but, as I have already +mentioned, the tribe of Baillie were superior to all others, +in point of authority as well as in external appearance.<a name="FNanchor145" id="FNanchor145"></a><a href="#Footnote145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a></p> + +<p>Besides the christian and surnames common to them in +Scotland, the Gipsies have names in their own language;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span><a name="FNanchor146" id="FNanchor146"></a><a href="#Footnote146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> +and, while travelling through the country, assume new names +every morning, before commencing the day’s journey, and +retain them till money is received, in one way or other, by +each individual of the company; but if no money is received +before twelve o’clock, they all, at noon-tide, resume their +permanent Scottish names. They consider it unlucky to set +out on a journey, in the morning, under their own proper +names; and if they are, by any chance, called back, by any +of their neighbours, they will not again stir from home for +that day. The Gipsies also frequently change their British +names when from home: in one part of the country they +have one name, and in another part they appear under a +different one, and so on.</p> + +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>I will now describe the appearance of the Gipsies in +Tweed-dale during the generation immediately following the +one in which we have considered them; and would make +this remark, that this account applies to them of late years, +with this exception, that the numbers in which the nomadic +class are to be met with are greatly reduced, their condition +greatly fallen, and the circumstances attending their +reception, countenance and toleration, much modified, and in +some instances totally changed.</p> + +<p>Within the memories of my father and grandfather, which +take in about the last hundred years, none of the Gipsies +who traversed Tweed-dale carried tents with them for their +accommodation. The whole of them occupied the kilns and +out-houses in the country; and so thoroughly did they know +the country, and where these were to be found, and the disposition +of the owners of them, that they were never at a +loss for shelter in their wanderings.</p> + +<p>Some idea may be formed of the number of Gipsies who +would sometimes be collected together, from the following +extract from the Clydesdale Magazine, for May, 1818: +“Mr. Steel, of Kilbucho Mill, bore a good name among +‘tanderal gangerals.’ His kiln was commodious, and some +hardwood trees, which surrounded his house, bid defiance +to the plough, and formed a fine pasture-sward for the cuddies, +on a green of considerable extent. On a summer Saturday +night, Mary came to the door, asking quarters, pretty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +late. She had only a single ass, and a little boy swung in +the panniers. She got possession of the kiln, as usual, and +the ass was sent to graze on the green; but Mary was only +the avant-garde. Next morning, when the family rose, they +counted no less than forty cuddies on the grass, and a man +for each of them in the kiln, besides women and children.” +Considering the large families the Gipsies generally have, +and allowing at this meeting two asses for carrying the infants +and luggage of each family, there could not have been +less than one hundred Gipsies on the spot.</p> + +<p>My parents recollect the Gipsies, about the year 1775, +traversing the county of Tweed-dale, and parts of the surrounding +shires, in bands varying in numbers from ten to +upwards of thirty in each horde. Sometimes ten or twelve +horses and asses were attached to one large horde, for the +purpose of carrying the children, baggage, &c. In the summer +of 1784, forty Gipsies, in one band, requested permission +of my father to occupy one of his out-houses. It was +good-humouredly observed to them that, when such numbers +of them came in one body, they should send their quarter-master +in advance, to mark out their camp. The Gipsies +only smiled at the remark. One half of them got the house +requested; the other half occupied an old, ruinous mill, a +mile distant. There were above seven of these large bands +which frequented the farms of my relatives in Tweed-dale +down to about the year 1790. A few years after this period, +when a boy, I assisted to count from twenty-four to thirty +Gipsies who took up their quarters in an old smearing-house +on one of these farms. The children, and the young folks +generally, were running about the old house like bees flying +about a hive. Their horses, asses, dogs, cats, poultry, and +tamed birds were numerous.</p> + +<p>These bands did not repeat their visits above twice a +year, but in many instances the principal families remained +for three or four weeks at a time. From their manner and +conduct generally, they seemed to think that they had a +right to receive, from the family on whose grounds they +halted, food gratis for twenty-four hours; for, at the end of +that period, they almost always provided victuals for themselves, +however long they might remain on the farm. The +servants of my grandfather, when these large bands arrived, +frequently put on the kitchen fire the large family <i>kail-pot</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +of the capacity of thirty-two Scotch pints, or about sixteen +gallons, to cook victuals for these wanderers.</p> + +<p>The first announcement of the approach of a Gipsy band +was the chief female, with, perhaps, a child on her back, and +another walking at her feet. The chieftain himself, with his +asses and baggage, which he seldom quits, is, perhaps, a mile +and a half in the rear, baiting his beasts of burden, near the +side of the road, waiting the return and report of his quarter-mistress. +This chief female requests permission for her +<i>gude-man</i> and <i>weary bairns</i> to take up their quarters for the +night, in an old out-house. Knowing perfectly the disposition +of the individual from whom she asks lodgings, she is +seldom refused. A farmer’s wife, whom I knew, on granting +this indulgence to a female in advance of her band, added, +by way of caution, “but ye must not steal anything from +me, then.” “We’ll no’ play ony tricks on you, mistress; +but others will pay for that,” was the Gipsy’s reply.</p> + +<p>Instead, however, of the chief couple and a child or two, +the out-house, before nightfall, or next morning, will perhaps +contain from twenty to thirty individuals of all ages and +sexes. The different members of the horde are observed to +arrive at head-quarters as single individuals, in twos, and in +threes; some of the females with baskets on their arms, +some of the males with fishing-rods in their hands, trout +creels on their backs, and large dogs at their heels. The +same rule is observed when the camp breaks up. The old +chief and two or three of his family generally take the van. +The other members of the band linger about the old house +in which they have been quartered, for several days after +the chiefs are gone; they, however, move off, in small parties +of twos or as single individuals, on different days, till the +whole horde gradually disappear. Above three grown-up +Gipsies are seldom seen travelling together. In this manner +have the Gipsies traversed the kingdom, concealing their +numbers from public observation, and only appearing in large +bands on the grounds of those individuals of the community +who were not disposed to molest them. On such occasions, +when the chief Gipsies continued encamped, they would be +visited by small parties of their friends, arriving and departing +almost daily.</p> + +<p>Excepting that of sometimes allowing their asses to go, +under night, into the barn-yard, as if it were by accident, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +draw the stacks of corn, it is but fair and just to state, that +I am not aware of a single Gipsy ever having injured the +property of any of my relatives in Tweed-dale, although +their opportunities were many and tempting. My ancestor’s +extensive business required him, almost daily, to travel, on +horseback, over the greater part of the south of Scotland; +and he was often under the necessity of exposing himself, +by riding at night, yet he never received the slightest molestation, +to his knowledge, from the Gipsies. They were as +inoffensive and harmless as lambs to him, and to every one +connected with his family. Whenever they beheld him, +every head was uncovered, while they would exclaim, +“There is Mr. Simson; God bless him, honest man!” And +woe would have been to that man who would have dared to +treat him badly, had these determined wanderers been +present.</p> + +<p>The Gipsies may be compared to the raven of the rock, as +a complete emblem of their disposition. Allow the <i>corbie</i> +shelter, and to build her nest in your cliffs and wastes, and +she will not touch your property; but harass her, and destroy +her brood, and she will immediately avenge herself upon +your young lambs, with terrible fury.<a name="FNanchor147" id="FNanchor147"></a><a href="#Footnote147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a> Washings of clothes, +of great value, were often left out in the fields, under night, +and were as safe as if they had been within the dwelling-house, +under lock and key, when the Gipsies happened to be +quartered on the premises. If any of their children had +dared to lay its hands upon the most trifling article, its parents +would have given it a severe beating. On one occasion, +when a Gipsy was beating one of his children, for +some trifling offence it had committed, my relative observed +to him that the boy had done no harm. “If he has not +been in fault just now, sir, it will not be long till he be in +one; so the beating he has got will not be thrown away on +him,” was the Tinkler’s reply.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>When the Gipsies took up their residence on the cold +earthen floor of an old out-house, the males and females of +the different families had always beds by themselves, made +of straw and blankets, and called shake-downs. The younger +branches also slept by themselves, in separate beds, the +males apart from the females. When the band consisted of +more families than one, each family occupied a separate part +of the floor of the house, distinct from their neighbours; +kindled a separate fire, at which they cooked their victuals; +and made horn spoons and other articles for themselves, for +sale in the way of their calling. They formed, as it were, +a camp on the ground-floor of the ruinous house, in which +would sometimes be observed five mothers of families, some +of whom would be such before they were seventeen years of +age. The principal Gipsies who, about this period, travelled +Tweed-dale, were never known to have had more than one +wife at a time, or to have put away their wives for trifling +causes.</p> + +<p>On such occasions, the chief and the grown-up males of +the band seldom or never set foot within the door of the +farm-house, but generally kept themselves quite aloof and +retired; exposing themselves to observation as little as possible. +They employed themselves in repairing broken +china, utensils made of copper, brass and pewter, pots, pans +and kettles, and white-iron articles generally; and in making +horn spoons, smoothing-irons, and sole-clouts for ploughs. +But working in horn is considered by them as their favourite +and most ancient occupation. It would certainly be one of +the first employments of man, at a very early stage of human +society—that of converting the horns of animals for the use +of the human race: and such has been the regard which +the Gipsies have had for it, that every clan knows the +spoons which are made by another. The females also +assisted in polishing, and otherwise finishing, the spoons. +However early the farm-servants rose to their ordinary employments, +they always found the Tinklers at work.</p> + +<p>A considerable portion of the time of the males was occupied +in athletic amusements. They were constantly exercising +themselves in leaping, cudgel-playing, throwing the +hammer, casting the putting-stone, playing at golf, quoits, +and other games; and while they were much given, on other +occasions, to keep themselves from view, the extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +ambition which they all possessed, of beating every one they +met with, at these exercises, brought them sometimes in contact +with the men about the farm, master as well as servants. +They were fond of getting the latter to engage with them, +for the purpose of laughing at their inferiority in these +healthy and manly amusements; but when any of the country-people +chanced to beat them at these exercises, as was +sometimes the case, they could not conceal their indignation +at the affront. Their haughty scowl plainly told that they +were ready to wipe out the insult in a different and more +serious manner. Indeed, they were always much disposed +to treat farm-servants with contempt, as quite their inferiors +in the scale of society; and always boasted of their own +high birth, and the antiquity of their family. They were +extremely fond of the athletic amusement of “o’erending +the tree,” which was performed in this way: The end of a +spar or beam, above six feet long, and of a considerable +thickness and weight, is placed upon the upper part of the +right foot, and held about the middle, in a perpendicular +position, by the right hand. Standing upon the left foot, +and raising the right a little from the ground, and drawing +it as far back as possible, and then bringing the foot forward +quickly to the front, the spar is thrown forward into +the air, from off the foot, with great force. And he who +“overends the tree” the greatest number of times in the +air, before it reaches the ground, is considered the most expert, +and the strongest man. A great many of these Gipsies +had a saucy military gesture in their walk, and generally +carried in their hands short, thick cudgels, about three +feet in length. While they travelled, they generally unbuttoned +the knees of their breeches, and rolled down the heads +of their stockings, so as to leave the joints of their knees +bare, and unincumbered by their clothes.</p> + +<p>During the periods they occupied the out-houses of the +farms, the owners of which were kind to them, the Gipsies +were very orderly in their deportment, and temperate in +the use of spirituous liquors, being seldom seen intoxicated; +and were very courteous and polite to all the members of +the family. Their behaviour was altogether very orderly, +peaceable, quiet, and inoffensive. In gratitude for their +free-quarters, they frequently made, from old metal, smoothing-irons +for the mistress, and sole-clouts for the ploughs of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +the master, and spoons for the family, from the horns of +rams, or other horns that happened to be about the house; +for all of which they would take nothing. They, however, +did not attend the church, while encamped on the premises; +at the same time, they took especial care to give no molestation, +or cause of offence, to any about the farm, on Sunday; +being, indeed, seldom seen on that day out-side of the door +of the house in which they were quartered, saving an individual +to look after their horses or asses, while grazing in +the neighbouring fields. Their religious sentiments were +confined entirely within their own breasts; and it was impossible +to know what were their real opinions on the score +of religion. However, within the last ten years, I enquired, +very particularly, of an intelligent Gipsy, what religion his +forefathers professed, and his answer was, that “the Gipsies +had no religious sentiments at all; that they worshipped no +sort of thing whatever.”</p> + +<p>Many practised music; and the violin and bag-pipes +were the instruments they commonly used. This musical +talent of the Gipsies delighted the country-people; it operated +like a charm upon their feelings, and contributed much +to procure the wanderers a night’s quarters. Many of the +families of the farmers looked forward to the expected visits +of the merry Gipsies with pleasure, and regretted their departure. +Some of the old women sold salves and drugs, +while some of the males had pretensions to a little surgery. +One of them, of the name of Campbell, well known by the +title of Dr. Duds, traversed the south of Scotland, accompanied +by a number of women. He prescribed, and sold medicines +to the inhabitants; and several odd stories are told +of the very unusual, but successful, cures performed by +him.</p> + +<p>As in arranging for, and taking up, their quarters, the +principal female Gipsy almost always negotiates the transactions +which the horde have with the farmer’s family, during +their abode on his premises. Indeed, the females are the most +active, if not the principal, members of the tribe, in vending +their articles of merchandise. The time at which, on such +occasions, they present these for sale, is the day after their +arrival on the farm, and immediately after the breakfast of +the farmer’s family is over. When there are more families +than one in the band, but all of one horde, the chief female<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +of the whole gets the first chance of selling her wares; but +every head female of the respective families bargains for +her own merchandise, for the behoof of her own family. +When the farmer’s family is in want of any of their articles, +an extraordinary higgling and chaffering takes place in +making the bargain. Besides money, the Gipsy woman insists +upon having what she calls her “boontith”—that is, a +present in victuals, as she is fond of bartering her articles +for provisions. If the mistress of the house agrees, and goes +to her larder or milk-house for the purpose of giving her +this boontith, the Gipsy is sure to follow close at her heels. +Admitted into the larder, the voracious Tinkler will have +part of everything she sees—flesh, meal, butter, cheese, &c., +&c. Her fiery and penetrating eye darts, with rapidity, from +one object to another. She makes use of every argument +she can think of to induce the farmer’s wife to comply +with her unreasonable demands. “I’m wi’ bairn, mistress,” +she will say; “I’m greenin’; God bless ye, gie me a wee bit +flesh to taste my mouth, if it should no’ be the book o’ a +robin-red-breast.”<a name="FNanchor148" id="FNanchor148"></a><a href="#Footnote148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> If the farmer’s wife still disregards her +importunities, the Gipsy will, in the end, snatch up a piece +of flesh, and put it into her lap, in a twinkling; for out of +the larder she will not go, without something or other. The +farmer’s wife, ever on the alert, now takes hold of the <i>sorner</i>, +to wrest the flesh from her clutches, when a serious personal +struggle ensues. She will frequently be under the necessity +of calling for the assistance of her servants, to thrust the +intruder out of the apartment; but the cautious Gipsy takes +care not to let matters go too far: she yields the contest, +and, laughing heartily at the good-wife losing her temper, +immediately assumes her ordinary polite manner. And notwithstanding +all that has taken place, both parties generally +part on good terms.</p> + +<p>On one of these bargain-making occasions, as the wife of the +farmer of Glencotha, in Tweed-dale, went to give a boontith +to Mary Yorkston, the harpy thrust, unobserved, about four<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +pounds weight of tallow into her lap. On the return of the +good-wife, the tallow was missed. She charged Mary with +the theft, but Mary, with much gravity of countenance, exclaimed: +“God bless ye, mistress, I wad steal from mony a +one before I wad steal from you.” The good-wife, however, +took hold of Mary, to search her person. A struggle +ensued, when the tallow fell out of Mary’s lap, on the kitchen-floor. +At this exposure, in the very act of stealing, the +Gipsy burst into a fit of laughter, exclaiming: “The Lord +hae a care o’ me, mistress; ye hae surely little to spare, +whan ye winna let a body take a bit tauch for a candle, to +light her to bed.” At another time, this Gipsy gravely +told the good-wife of Rachan-mill, that she must give her a +pound of butter for her boontith, that time, as it would be +the last she would ever give her. Astonished at the extraordinary +saying, the good-wife demanded, with impatience, +what she meant. “You will,” rejoined the Gipsy, “be in +eternity (by a certain day, which she named,) and I will +never see you again; and this will be the last boontith you +will ever give me.” The good-wife of Rachan-mill, however, +survived the terrible prediction for several years.<a name="FNanchor149" id="FNanchor149"></a><a href="#Footnote149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a></p> + +<p>The female Gipsies also derived considerable profits from +their trade of fortune-telling. The art of telling fortunes +was not, however, general among the Gipsies; it was only +certain old females who pretended to be inspired with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +gift of prophecy. The method which they adopted to get +at the information which often enabled them to tell, if not +fortunes, at least the history, and condition of mind, of individuals, +with great accuracy, was somewhat this:</p> + +<p>The inferior Gipsies generally attended our large country +“penny-weddings”, in former times, both as musicians and +for the purpose of receiving the fragments of the entertainments. +At the wedding in the parish of Corstorphine, to +which I have alluded, under the chapter of <a href="#Page_140">Fife and Stirlingshire +Gipsies</a>, Charles Stewart entered into familiar conversation +with individuals present; joking with them about +their sweet-hearts, and love-matters generally; telling them +he had noticed such a one at such a place; and observing +to another that he had seen him at such a fair, and so on. +He always enquired about their masters, and places of abode, +with other particulars relative to their various connections +and circumstances in life. Here, the Gipsy character displays +itself; here, we see Stewart, while he seems a mere +merry-andrew, to the heedless, merry-making people at these +weddings, actually reading, with deep sagacity, their characters +and dispositions; and ascertaining the places of +residence, and connexions, of many of the individuals of the +country through which he travelled. In this manner, by +continually roaming up and down the kingdom, now as individuals +in disguise, at other times in bands—not passing +a house in their route—observing everything taking place +in partial assemblies, at large weddings, and general gatherings +of the people at fairs—scanning, with the eye of a +hawk, both males and females, for the purpose of robbing +them—did the Gipsies, with their great knowledge of human +character, become thoroughly acquainted with particular +incidents concerning many individuals of the population. +Hence proceed, in a great measure, the warlockry and +fortune-telling abilities of the shrewd and sagacious Gipsies.</p> + +<p>Or, suppose an old Gipsy female, who traverses the kingdom, +has a relative a lady’s maid in a family of rank, and +another a musician in a band, playing to the first classes of +society, in public or private assemblies, the travelling <i>spae-wife</i> +would not be without materials for carrying on her +trade of fortune-telling. The observant handmaid, and the +acute, penetrating fiddler would, of course, communicate to +their wandering relative every incident and circumstance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +that came under their notice, which would, at an after and +suitable period, enable the cunning fortune-teller to astonish +some of the parties who had been at these meetings, when in +another part of the country, remote in time, and distant in +place, from the spot where the occurrences happened.</p> + +<p>In order that they might not lessen the importance and +value of their art, these Gipsies pretended they could tell +no one’s fortune for anything less than silver, or articles +of wearing-apparel, or other things of value. Besides telling +fortunes by palmistry,<a name="FNanchor150" id="FNanchor150"></a><a href="#Footnote150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> they foretold destinies by divination +of the cup, their method of doing which appears to be nearly +the same as that practised among the ancient Assyrians, +Chaldeans, and Egyptians, perhaps, about the time of Joseph. +The Gipsy method was, and I may say is, this: The divining +cup, which is made of tin, or pewter, and about three +inches in diameter, was filled with water, and sometimes +with spirits. Into the cup a certain quantity of a melted +substance, resembling tin, was dropped from a crucible, +which immediately formed itself, in the liquid, into curious +figures, resembling frost-work, seen on windows in winter. +The compound was then emptied into a trencher, and from +the arrangements or constructions of the figures, the destiny +of the enquiring individual was predicted.<a name="FNanchor151" id="FNanchor151"></a><a href="#Footnote151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> While performing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +the ceremony, the Gipsies muttered, in their own +language, certain incantations, totally unintelligible to the +spectator. The following fact, however, will, more particularly, +show the manner in which these Gipsy sorceresses imposed +on the credulous.</p> + +<p>A relative of mine had several servant-girls who would, +one day, have their fortunes told. The old Gipsy took them, +one at a time, into an apartment of the house, and locked the +door after her. My relative, feeling a curiosity in the matter, +observed their operations, and overheard their conversation, +through a chink in the partition of the room. A +bottle of whiskey, and a wine glass, were produced by the +girl, and the sorceress filled the glass, nearly full, with the +spirits. Into the liquor she dropped part of the white of a +raw egg, and taking out of her pocket something like chalk, +scraped part of it into the mixture. Certain figures now +appeared in the glass, and, muttering some jargon, unintelligible +to the girl, she held it up between her eyes and the +window. “There is your sweetheart now—look at him—do +you not see him?” exclaimed the Gipsy to the trembling +girl; and, after telling her a number of events which were +to befall her, in her journey through life, she held out the +glass, and told her to “cast that in her mouth”—“Me drink +that? The Lord forbid that I should drink a drap o’t.” +“E’ens ye like, my woman; I can tak’ it mysel,” quoth the +Gipsy, and, suiting the action to the word, “cast” the whiskey, +eggs and chalk<a name="FNanchor152" id="FNanchor152"></a><a href="#Footnote152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> down her throat, in an instant. Knowing +well that the idea of swallowing the glass in which +their future husbands were seen, and their own fortunes +told, in so mysterious a manner, would make the girls shudder, +the cunning Gipsy gave each of them, in succession, the +order to drink, and, the moment they refused, threw the contents +of the “divining cup” into her own mouth. In this +manner did the Gipsy procure, at one time, no less than +four glasses of ardent spirits, and sixpence from each of the +credulous girls.</p> + +<p>The country-girls, however, never could stand out the +operations of telling fortunes by the method of turning a +corn-riddle, with scissors attached, in a solitary out-house.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +Whenever the Gipsy commenced her work, and, with her +mysterious mutterings, called out: “Turn riddle—turn—shears +and all,” the terrified girls fled to the house, impressed +with the belief that the devil himself would appear to +them, on the spot.</p> + +<p>The Gipsies in Tweed-dale were never in want of the best +of provisions, having always an abundance of fish, flesh, and +fowl. At the stages at which they halted, in their progress +through the country, it was observed that the principal families, +at one time, ate as good victuals, and drank as good +liquors, as any of the inhabitants of the country. A lady of +respectability informed me of her having seen, in her youth, a +band dine on the green-sward, near Douglass-mill, in Lanarkshire, +when, as I have already mentioned, the Gipsies handed +about their wine, after dinner, as if they had been as good +a family as any in the land. Those in Fifeshire, as we have +already seen, were in the habit of purchasing and killing fat +cattle, for their winter’s provisions. In a communication to +Blackwood’s Magazine, to which I will again allude, the +illustrious author of “Waverley” mentions that his grandfather +was, in some respects, forced to accept a dinner from +a party of Gipsies, carousing on a moor, on the Scottish Border. +The feast consisted of “all the varieties of game, +poultry, pigs, and so forth.” And, according to the same +communication, it would appear that they were in the practice +of stewing game and all kinds of poultry into soup, +which is considered very rich and savoury, and is now +termed “Pottage a la Meg Merrilies de Derncleugh;” a +name derived from the singular character in the celebrated +novel of Guy Mannering.</p> + +<p>But the ancient method of cooking practised among the +Scottish Gipsies, and which, in all probability, they brought +with them, when they arrived in Europe, upwards of four +hundred years ago, is, if I am not mistaken, new to the world, +never having as yet, that I am aware of, been described.<a name="FNanchor153" id="FNanchor153"></a><a href="#Footnote153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> +It is very curious, and extremely primitive, and appears to +be of the highest antiquity. It is admirably adapted to the +wants of a rude and barbarous people, travelling over a wild +and thinly-inhabited country, in which cooking utensils could +not be procured, or conveniently carried with them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +My facts are from the Gipsies themselves, and are corroborated +by people, not of the tribe, who have witnessed some +of their cooking operations.</p> + +<p>The Gipsies, on such occasions, make use of neither pot, +pan, spit, nor oven, in cooking fowls. They twist a +strong rope of straw, which they wind very tightly around +the fowl, just as it is killed, with the whole of its feathers +on, and its entrails untouched. It is then covered with +hot peat ashes, and a slow fire is kept up around and about +the ashes, till the fowl is sufficiently done. When taken out +from beneath the fire, it is stripped of its hull, or shell, of +half-burned straw-rope and feathers, and presents a very +fine appearance. Those who have tasted poultry, cooked by +the Gipsies, in this manner, say that it is very palatable +and good. In this invisible way, these ingenious people +could cook stolen poultry, at the very moment, and in the +very place, that a search was going on for the pilfered +article.</p> + +<p>The art of cooking butcher-meat among the Gipsies is +similar to that of making ready fowls, except that linen +and clay are substituted for feathers and straw. The piece +of flesh to be cooked is first carefully wrapped up in a covering +of cloth or linen rags, and covered over with well +wrought clay, and either frequently turned before a strong +fire, or covered over with hot ashes, till it is roasted, or +rather stewed. The covering or crust, of the shape of the +article enclosed, and hard with the fire, is broken, and the +meat separated from its inner covering of burned rags, +which, with the juice of the meat, are reduced to a thick +sauce or gravy. Sometimes a little vinegar is poured upon +the meat. The tribe are high in their praise of flesh cooked +in this manner, declaring that it has a particularly fine +flavour. These singular people, I am informed, also boiled +the flesh of sheep in the skins of the animals, like the +Scottish soldiers in their wars with the English nation, +when their camp-kettles were nothing but the hides of the +oxen, suspended from poles, driven into the ground.</p> + +<p>The only mode of cooking butcher-meat, bearing any +resemblance to that of the Gipsies, is practised by some of +the tribes of South America, who wrap flesh in <i>leaves</i>, and, +covering it over with clay, cook it like the Gipsies. Some +of the Indians of North America roast deer of a small size<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +in their skins, among hot ashes. An individual of great +respectability, who had tasted venison cooked in this fashion, +said that it was extremely juicy, and finely flavoured. In +the Sandwich Islands, pigs are baked on hot stones in pits, +or in the leaves of the bread-fruit tree, on hot stones, covered +over with earth, during the operation of cooking. It is probable +that the Gipsy art of cooking would be amongst the +first modes of making ready animal food, in the first stage +of human society, in Asia—the cradle of the human race.<a name="FNanchor154" id="FNanchor154"></a><a href="#Footnote154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> +Substitute linen rags for the leaves of trees, and what method +of cooking can be more primitive than that of our +Scottish Gipsies?</p> + +<p>The Gipsy method of smelting iron, for sole-clout for +ploughs, and smoothing-irons, is also simple, rude, and primitive.<a name="FNanchor155" id="FNanchor155"></a><a href="#Footnote155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> +The tribe erect, on the open field, a small circle, +built of stone, turf, and clay, for a furnace, of about three feet +in height, and eighteen inches in diameter, and plastered, +closely round on the outside, up to the top, with mortar made +of clay. The circle is deepened by part of the earth being +scooped out from the inside. It is then filled with coal or +charred peat; and the iron to be smelted is placed in small +pieces upon the top. Below the fuel an aperture is left +open, on one side, for admitting a large iron ladle, lined +inside with clay. The materials in the furnace are powerfully +heated, by the blasts of a large hand-bellows, (generally +wrought by females,) admitted at a small hole, a little +from the ground. When the metal comes to a state of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +fusion, it finds its way down to the ladle, and, after being +skimmed of its cinders, is poured into the different sand +moulds ready to receive it.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote121" id="Footnote121"></a><a href="#FNanchor121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> This claim appears doubtful, for there were Gipsies of the name of +Baillie (Bailyow) as far back as 1540, as already mentioned. However, +the particulars of the laird’s intrigue with the beautiful Gipsy girl, are imprinted +on the minds of the Gipsies of that name at the present day.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote122" id="Footnote122"></a><a href="#FNanchor122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> The Gipsies were not spared of <i>braxy</i>, of which they were fond. I have +known natives of Tweed-dale and Ettrick Forest, who preferred <i>braxy</i> to +the best meat <i>killed by the hand of man</i>. It has a particular <i>sharp</i> relish, +which made them so fond of it.</p> + +<p>[Braxy is the flesh of sheep which have died of a certain disease. When +the Gipsies are taunted with eating what some call carrion, they very +wittily reply: “The flesh of a beast which God kills must be better than +that of one killed by the hand of man.” Such flesh, “killed by the hand of +God,” is often killed in this manner: They will administer to swine a drug +affecting the brain only, which will cause speedy death; when they will +call and obtain the carcass, without suspicion, and feast on the flesh, which +has been in no way injured.—<i>Borrow.</i> They will also stuff wool down a +sheep’s throat, and direct the farmer’s attention to it when near its last gasp, +and obtain the carcass after being skinned.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote123" id="Footnote123"></a><a href="#FNanchor123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> It is interesting to notice that the Doctor calls this Gipsy a “bold and +proper fellow.” He was, in all probability, a fine specimen of physical +manhood.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote124" id="Footnote124"></a><a href="#FNanchor124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> The Scottish Gipsies, as I have already said, have a tradition that their +ancestors came into Scotland by way of Ireland.</p> + +<p>[The allusion to that circumstance by the Gipsies, on this occasion, was +evidently to throw dust into the eyes of the Scottish authorities, by whom +the whole tribe in Scotland were proscribed.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote125" id="Footnote125"></a><a href="#FNanchor125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> This seems a favourite title among the Tinklers. One, of the name of +Young, bears it at the present time. But the Gipsies are not singular in +these terrible titles. In the late Burmese war, we find his Burmese majesty +creating one of his generals “King of Hell, Prince of Darkness.”—See +<i>Constable’s Miscellany</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote126" id="Footnote126"></a><a href="#FNanchor126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> A friend, in writing me, says: “I still think I see him, (Muckle Wull,) +bruising the charred peat over the flame of his furnace, with hands equal +to two pair of hands of the modern day; while his withered and hairy +shackle-bones were more like the postern joints of a sorrel cart-horse than +anything else.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote127" id="Footnote127"></a><a href="#FNanchor127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> This Gipsy battle is alluded to by Sir Walter Scott, in a postscript to a +letter to Captain Adam Ferguson, 16th April, 1819.</p> + +<p>“By the by, old Kennedy the tinker swam for his life at Jedburgh, +and was only, by the sophisticated and timed evidence of a seceding doctor, +who differed from all his brethren, saved from a well-deserved gibbet. He +goes to botanize for fourteen years. Pray tell this to the Duke (of Buccleuch,) +for he was an old soldier of the Duke, and the Duke’s old soldier. Six of +his brethren were, I am told, in the court, and kith and kin without end. +I am sorry so many of the clan are left. The cause of the quarrel with +the murdered man, was an old feud between two Gipsy clans, the Kennedys +and Irvings, which, about forty years since, gave rise to a desperate quarrel +and battle at Hawick-green, in which the grandfather of both Kennedy and +the man whom he murdered were engaged.”—<i>Lockhart’s Life of Sir Walter +Scott.</i> Alexander Kennedy was tried for murdering Irving, at Yarrowford.</p> + +<p>[This Gipsy fray at Hawick is known among the English Gipsies as +“the Battle of the Bridge.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote128" id="Footnote128"></a><a href="#FNanchor128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> Grellmann, on the Hungarian Gipsies, says: “They are loquacious +and quarrelsome in the highest degree. In the public markets, and before +ale-houses, where they are surrounded by spectators, they bawl, spit at +each other, catch up sticks and cudgels, vapour and brandish them over +their heads, throw dust and dirt; now run from each other, then back +again, with furious gestures and threats. The women scream, drag their +husbands by force from the scene of action; these break from them again, +and return to it. The children, too, howl piteously.” But I am at a loss +to understand the object of such an affray, as given by this author, on +any other theory than that of collecting crowds, in the places mentioned, +to enable them the more easily to pick pockets. For Grellmann adds: +“After a short time, without any persons interfering, when they have cried +and make a noise till they are tired, and without either party having received +any personal injury, the affair terminates, and they separate with +as much ostentation as if they had performed the most heroic feat.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote129" id="Footnote129"></a><a href="#FNanchor129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> It is astonishing how trifling a circumstance will sometimes set such +Gipsies by the ears. In England, they will frequently “cast up” the history +of their respective families on such occasions. “What was your father, I +would like to know? He hadn’t even an ass to carry his traps, and was a +rogue at that, you —— Gipsy. <i>My</i> father was an honest man.” “<i>Honest</i> +man?”—“Yes, honest man, and that’s more than you can say of your kin.” +The other, having more of “the blood,” will taunt his acquaintance with +some such expression as “Gorgio like,” (like the white.)—“And what are +you, you black trash? Will blood put money in your pocket? Blood, +indeed! I’m a better Gipsy than you are, in spite of the black devil that +every one sees in your face!” Then the fray commences.</p> + +<p>When Gipsies take up their quarters on the premises of country people, +a very effectual way of sometimes getting rid of them is to stir up discord +among them. For when it comes to “hammers and tongs,” “tongs and +hammers,” they will scatter, uttering howls of vengeance, on some more +appropriate occasion, against their most intimate friends, who have just +incurred their wrath, yet who will be seen “cheek by jowl” with them, perhaps, +the next day, or even before the sun has gone down upon them; so +easily are they sometimes irritated, and so easily reconciled.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote130" id="Footnote130"></a><a href="#FNanchor130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> A writer in Blackwood’s Magazine mentions that the Gipsies, late in +the seventeenth century, broke into the house of Pennicuik, when the greater +part of the family were at church. Sir John Clerk, the proprietor, barricaded +himself in his own apartment, where he sustained a sort of siege—firing +from the windows upon the robbers, who fired upon him in return. +One of them, while straying through the house in quest of booty, happened +to ascend the stairs of a very narrow turret, but, slipping his foot, caught +hold of the rope of the alarm bell, the ringing of which startled the congregation +assembled in the parish church. They instantly came to the rescue +of the Laird, and succeeded, it is said, in apprehending some of the Gipsies, +who were executed. There is a written account of this daring assault kept +in the records of the family.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote131" id="Footnote131"></a><a href="#FNanchor131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> A great many of the inferior Gipsy chiefs travelled with a number of +women in their company; such as George Drummond, Doctor Duds, John +Lundie, and others.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote132" id="Footnote132"></a><a href="#FNanchor132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> Dr. Alexander Carlyle, in a note to his autobiography, mentions having +seen this Jock Johnstone hanged. The date given by him (1738), differs, +however, from that mentioned above. According to him, Johnstone +was but twenty years of age, but bold, and a great ringleader, and was condemned +for robbery, and being accessory to a murder. The usual place of +execution was a moor, adjoining the town; but, as it was strongly reported +that the “thieves” were collecting from all quarters, to rescue the criminal +from the gallows, the magistrates erected the scaffold in front of the prison, +with a platform connecting, and surrounded it with about a hundred of the +stoutest burgesses, armed with Lochaber axes. Jock made his appearance, +surrounded by six officers. He was curly-haired, and fierce-looking, about +five feet eight inches in height, and very strong of his size. At first he appeared +astonished, but, looking around awhile, proceeded with a bold step. +Psalms and prayers being over, and the rope fastened about his neck, he +was ordered to mount a short ladder, attached to the gallows, in order to +be thrown off; when he immediately seized the rope, and pulled so violently +at it as to be in danger of bringing down the gallows—causing much +emotion among the crowd, and fear among the magistrates. Jock, becoming +furious, like a wild beast, struggled and roared, and defied the six officers +to bind him; and, recovering the use of his arms, became more formidable. +The magistrates then with difficulty prevailed on by far the strongest +man in Dumfries, for the honour of the town, to come on the scaffold. +Putting aside the six officers, this man seized the criminal, with as little +difficulty as a nurse handles her child, and in a few minutes bound him +hand and foot; and quietly laying him down on his face, near the edge +of the scaffold, retired. Jock, the moment he felt his grasp, found himself +subdued, and, becoming calm, resigned himself to his fate.—<i>Carlyle’s Autobiography.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote133" id="Footnote133"></a><a href="#FNanchor133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> Bruce, in his travels, when speaking of the protection afforded by the +Arabs to shipwrecked Christians, on the coasts of the Red Sea, says:—“The +Arabian, with his lance, draws a circle large enough to hold you and +yours. He then strikes his lance in the sand, and bids you abide within the +circle. You are thus as safe, on the desert coast of Arabia, as in a citadel; +there is no example or exception to the contrary that has ever been known.”—<i>Bruce’s +Travels in Abyssinia.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote134" id="Footnote134"></a><a href="#FNanchor134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> It might be supposed that the pride of a Gipsy would have the good +effect of rendering him cautious not to be guilty of such crimes as subject +him to public shame. But here his levity of character is rendered conspicuous; +for he never looks to the right or to the left in his transactions; +and though his conceit and pride are somewhat humbled, during the time +of punishment, and while the consequent pain lasts; these being over, he +no longer remembers his disgrace, but entertains quite as good an opinion +of himself as before.—<i>Grellmann on the Hungarian Gipsies.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote135" id="Footnote135"></a><a href="#FNanchor135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> <i>Sorn</i>, (Scottish and Irish:) an arbitrary exaction, by which a chieftain +lived at pleasure, in free quarters, among his tenants: also one who obtrudes +himself upon another, for bed and board, is said to sorn.—<i>Bailey.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote136" id="Footnote136"></a><a href="#FNanchor136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> A great many of the Scottish Gipsies, in former times, carried arms. +One of the Baillies once left his budget in a house, by mistake. A person, +whom I knew, had the curiosity to examine it; and he found it to contain a +pair of excellent pistols, loaded and ready for action.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote137" id="Footnote137"></a><a href="#FNanchor137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> What our author says of “the usual Gipsy policy of making the people +believe that they are descended from families of rank and influence in the +country,” (<a href="#Page_154">page 154</a>,) and that “the greater part of them will tell you that +they are sprung from a bastard son of this or that noble family, or other +person of rank and influence, of their own surname,” (<a href="#Page_117">117</a>,) is doubtless +true as a rule; but there were as likely cases of what the Gipsies assert, +and that Gipsy women, “in some instances, bore children to some of the +‘unspotted gentlemen’ mentioned by act of parliament as having so greatly +protected and entertained the tribe,” (<a href="#Page_114">114</a>,) and that Baillie was one of +them, (<a href="#Page_121">121</a> and <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.) If Baillie had been following the occupation, and +bearing the reputation, of an ordinary native of Scotland, there would have +been some chance “that great interest would be used to save a bastard +branch of an honourable house from an ignominious death upon the scaffold,” +for almost any offence he had committed, but not for one who was +guilty of “sorning, pickery, and little thieving, and habit and repute an +Egyptian.” There was doubtless a connexion, in <i>Gipsy</i> blood, between Baillie +and his influential friends who saved him and his relatives so often from +the gallows.—<i>See Baillies of Lamington and McLaurin’s Criminal Trials, +in the Index.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote138" id="Footnote138"></a><a href="#FNanchor138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> On some of the tombstones of the Gipsies, the word “brazier” is +added to their names. [Brazier is a favourite name with the Gipsies, and +sounds better than tinker. Southey, in his Life of Bunyan, says: “It is +stated, in a history of Bedfordshire, that he was bred to the business of a +brazier, and worked, as a journeyman, at Bedford.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote139" id="Footnote139"></a><a href="#FNanchor139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> The English Gipsies say that the old mode of getting a wife among the +tribe was to <i>steal</i> her. The intended bride was nothing loth, still it was +necessary to steal her, while the tribe were on the watch to detect and +prevent it.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote140" id="Footnote140"></a><a href="#FNanchor140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> Scot’s Magazine, vol xxxviii., page 675.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote141" id="Footnote141"></a><a href="#FNanchor141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> McLaurin’s Trials, page 555. [See <a href="#Footnote137">note</a> at page 205.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote142" id="Footnote142"></a><a href="#FNanchor142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> It appears, from Vidocq’s memoirs, that the Gipsies on the continent +changed their apparel, so as they could not again be recognized: “At break +of day everybody was on foot, and the general toilet was made. But for +their (the Gipsies’) prominent features, their raven-black tresses, and oily +and tanned skins, I should scarcely have recognized my companions of the +preceding evening. The men, clad in rich jockey Holland vests, with +leathern sashes like those worn by the men of Poirsy, and the women, +covered with ornaments of gold and silver, assumed the costume of Zealand +peasants; even the children, whom I had seen covered with rags, were +neatly clothed, and had an entirely different appearance. All soon left the +house, and took different directions, that they might not reach the market +place together, where the country-people were assembled in crowds.”—Vidocq +had lodged all night in a ruinous house, with a band of Gipsies.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote143" id="Footnote143"></a><a href="#FNanchor143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> The females of this tribe also rode to the fairs at Moffat and Biggar, on +horses, with side-saddles and bridles, the ladies themselves being very +gaily dressed. The males wore scarlet cloaks, reaching to their knees, and +resembling exactly the Spanish fashion of the present day.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote144" id="Footnote144"></a><a href="#FNanchor144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> Weekly Magazine, 10th September, 1772, page 354.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote145" id="Footnote145"></a><a href="#FNanchor145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> According to Hoyland, the most common names among the English +tented Gipsies are Smith, Cooper, Draper, Taylor, Boswell, Lee, Lovel, +Loversedge, Allen, Mansfield, Glover, Williams, Carew, Martin, Stanley, +Berkley, Plunket, and Corrie. Mr. Borrow says: “The clans Young and +Smith, or Curraple, still haunt two of the eastern counties. The name Curraple +is a favourite among the English Gipsies. It means a smith—a name +very appropriate to a Gipsy. The root is <i>Curaw</i>, to strike, hammer, &c.” +Among the English and Scottish Gipsies in America, I have found a great +variety of surnames.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote146" id="Footnote146"></a><a href="#FNanchor146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> In the “Gipsies in Spain,” Mr. Borrow says: “Every family in England +has two names; one by which they are known to the Gentiles, and +another which they use among themselves.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote147" id="Footnote147"></a><a href="#FNanchor147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> It is known that the rock-raven, or <i>corbie</i>, seldom preys upon the flocks +around her nest; but the moment she is deprived of her young, she will, +to the utmost of her power, wreak her vengeance on the young lambs in +her immediate neighborhood. I have known the corbie, when bereaved of +her brood, tear, with her beak, the very foggage from the earth, and toss +it about; and before twenty-four hours elapsed, several lambs would fall +a sacrifice to her fury. I have also observed that grouse, where the +ground suits their breeding, are generally very plentiful close around the +eyrie of the relentless falcon.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote148" id="Footnote148"></a><a href="#FNanchor148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> After recovery from child-birth, the Gipsy woman recommences her +course of begging or stealing, with her child in her arms; and then she is +more rapacious than at other times, taking whatever she can lay her hands +upon. For she calculates upon escaping without a beating, by holding up +her child to receive the blows aimed at her; which she knows will have +the effect of making the aggrieved person desist, till she finds an opportunity +of getting out of the way.—<i>Grellmann on the Hungarian Gipsies.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote149" id="Footnote149"></a><a href="#FNanchor149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> The following facts will show what a Scottish Tinkler, at the present +day, will sometimes do in the way of “sorning,” or masterful begging.</p> + +<p>One of the race paid a visit to the house of a country ale-wife, and, in a +crowded shop, vaulted the counter, and applied his bottle to her whiskey-tap. +Immediately a cry, with up-lifted hands, was raised for the police, but +the prudent ale-wife treated the circumstance with indifference, and exclaimed: +“Hout, tout, tout! <i>let</i> the deil tak’ a wee drappie.”</p> + +<p>On another occasion, a Gipsy woman entered a country public-house, +leaving her partner at a short distance from the door. Espying a drawn +bottle of porter, standing on a table, in a room in which were two females +sitting, she, without the least ceremony, filled a glass, and drank it off; +but before she could decant another, the other Gipsy, feeling sure of the +luck of his mate, from her being admitted into the premises, immediately +proceeded to share it with her. But he had hardly drank off the remainder +of the porter, ere a son of the mistress of the house made his appearance, +and demanded what was wanted. “Want—<i>want?</i>” replied the Gipsy, with +a leering eye towards the empty bottle; “we want nothing—we’ve got all +that we want!” On being ordered to “walk out of that,” they left, with a +smile of satisfaction playing on their weather-beaten countenances.</p> + +<p>Such displays of Gipsy impudence sometimes call forth only a hearty +laugh from the people affected by them.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote150" id="Footnote150"></a><a href="#FNanchor150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> The Kamtachadales, says Dr. Grieve, in his translation of a Russian +account of Kamtachatka, pretend to chiromancy, and tell a man’s good or +bad fortune by the lines of his hand; but the rules which they follow are +kept a great secret. <i>Page 206.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote151" id="Footnote151"></a><a href="#FNanchor151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> Julius Serenus, says Stackhouse, tells us, that the method among the +Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Egyptians was to fill the cup with water, then +throw into it thin plates of gold and silver, together with some precious +stones, whereon were engraven certain characters, and, after that, the person +who came to consult the oracle used certain forms of incantation, and, +so calling upon the devil, were wont to receive their answer several ways: +sometimes by particular sounds; sometimes by the characters which were +in the cup rising upon the surface of the water, and by their arrangement +forming the answer; and many times by the visible appearance of the persons +themselves, about whom the oracle was consulted. Cornelius Agrippa +(De Occult. Philos. LI, c. 57,) tells as, likewise, that the manner of some was +to pour melted wax into the cup wherein was water; which wax would +range itself in order, and so form answers, according to the questions proposed.—<i>Saurin’s +Dissertation, 38, and Heidegger’s His. patriar. exercit. 20.</i></p> + +<p>Fortune-telling is punishable by the 9th Geo. II, chap. 5th. In June, +1805, a woman, of the name of Maxwell, commonly called the Galloway +sorceress, was tried for this offence, by a jury, before the Stewart of Kirkcudbright, +and was sentenced to imprisonment and the pillory.—<i>Burnet on +Criminal Law, page 178.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote152" id="Footnote152"></a><a href="#FNanchor152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> It is not unlikely that the “something like chalk,” here mentioned, was +nothing but a nutmeg, with which, and the eggs and whiskey, the Gipsy +would make, what is called, “egg-nogg.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote153" id="Footnote153"></a><a href="#FNanchor153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> I published the greater part of the Gipsy method of cooking, in the +Fife Herald, of the 18th April, 1833.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote154" id="Footnote154"></a><a href="#FNanchor154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> Ponqueville considers the Gipsies contemporary of the first societies. +<i>Paris</i>, 1830.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote155" id="Footnote155"></a><a href="#FNanchor155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> According to Grellmann, working in iron is the most usual occupation +of the Gipsies. In Hungary it is so common, as to have given rise +to the proverb, “So many Gipsies, so many smiths.” The same may be +said of those in Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia, and all Turkey in +Europe; at least, Gipsies following that occupation are very numerous in +those countries.</p> + +<p>This occupation seems to have been a favourite one with them, from the +most distant period. Uladislaus, King of Hungary, in the year 1496, ordered: +“That every officer and subject, of whatever rank or condition, do +allow Thomas Polgar, leader of twenty-five tents of wandering Gipsies, free +residence everywhere, and on no account to molest either him or his +people, because they prepared musket balls and other military stores, for +the Bishop Sigismund, at Fünf-kirchen.” In the year 1565, when Mustapa, +Turkish Regent of Bosnia, besieged Crupa, the Turks having expended +their powder and cannon balls, the Gipsies were employed to make +the latter, part of iron, the rest of stone, cased with lead.</p> + +<p>Observe the Gipsies at whatever employment you may, there always +appear sparks of genius. We cannot, indeed, help wondering, when we +consider the skill they display in preparing and bringing their work to +perfection, from the scarcity of proper tools and materials.—<i>Grellmann on +the Hungarian Gipsies.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>BORDER GIPSIES.</h3> + +<p>It would be an unpardonable omission were I to overlook +the descendants of John Faw, “Lord and Earl of Little +Egypt,” in this history of the Gipsies in Scotland. But to +enter into details relative to many of the members of this +ancient clan, would be merely a repetition of actions, similar +in character to those already related of some of the other +bands in Scotland.</p> + +<p>It would appear that the district in which the Faw tribe +commonly travelled, comprehended East Lothian, Berwickshire +and Roxburghshire; and that Northumberland was also +part of their walk. I can find no traces of Gipsies, of that +surname, having, in families, traversed the midland or western +parts of the south of Scotland, for nearly the last seventy +years; and almost all the few ancient public documents +relative to this clan seem to imply that they occupied the +counties above mentioned.</p> + +<p>I am inclined to believe that the Faws and the Baillies, +the two principal Gipsy clans in Scotland, had frequently +lived in a state of hostility with one another. These two +tribes quarrelled in the reign of James V, when they +brought their dispute before the king in council; and from +the renewal of the order in council, in the reign of Queen +Mary, it appears their animosities had then existed. In the +year 1677, the Faws and the Shaws, as already noticed, +advanced into Tweed-dale, to fight the Baillies and the +Browns, as mentioned by Dr. Pennecuik, in his history of +Tweed-dale. At the present day, the Baillies consider +themselves quite superior in rank to the Faas; and, on the +other hand, the Faas and their friends speak with great +bitterness and contempt of the Baillies, calling them “a +parcel of thieves and vagabonds.”<a name="FNanchor156" id="FNanchor156"></a><a href="#Footnote156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>In Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine, of the 4th August, 1774, +the following notice is taken of this tribe, which shows the +fear which persons of respectability entertained for them: +“The descendants of this Lord of Little Egypt continued to +travel about in Scotland till the beginning of this century, +mostly about the southern Border; and I am most credibly +informed that one, Henry Faa, was received, and ate at the +tables of people in public office, and that men of considerable +fortune paid him a gratuity, called blackmail, in order to +have their goods protected from thieves.”</p> + +<p>One of the Faas rose to great eminence in the mercantile +world, and was connected by marriage with Scotch families +of the rank of baronets. This family was the highly respectable +one of Fall, now extinct, general merchants in Dunbar, +who were originally members of the Gipsy family at +Yetholm. So far back as about the year 1670, one of the +baillies of Dunbar was of the surname of Faa, spelled exactly +as the Gipsy name, as appears by the Rev. J. Blackadder’s +Memoirs. On the 18th of May, 1734, Captain James Fall, +of Dunbar, was elected member of parliament for the Dunbar +district of burghs. On the 28th of May, 1741, Captain Fall +was again elected member for the same burghs; but, there +being a double return, Sir Hew Dalrymple ousted him. The +family of Fall gave Dunbar provosts and baillies, and ruled +the political interests of that burgh for many years. When +hearty over their cups, they often mentioned their origin; +and, to perpetuate the memory of their descent from the +family of Faa, at Yetholm, the late Mrs. Fall, of Dunbar, +whose husband was provost of the town, had the whole +family, with their asses, &c., &c., as they took their departure +from Yetholm, represented, by herself, in needle-work, or +tapestry.<a name="FNanchor157" id="FNanchor157"></a><a href="#Footnote157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> The particulars, or details, of this family group<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +were derived from her husband, who had the facts from his +grandfather, one of the individuals represented in the piece. +A respectable aged gentleman, yet living in Dunbar, has +often seen this family piece of the Falls, and had its details +pointed out and explained to him by Mrs. Fall herself.<a name="FNanchor158" id="FNanchor158"></a><a href="#Footnote158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a></p> + +<p>The mercantile house of the Falls, at Dunbar, was so extensive +as to have many connexions in the ports of the Baltic +and Mediterranean, and supported so high a character that +several of the best families in Scotland sent their sons to it, +to be initiated in the mysteries of commerce. Amongst +others who were bred merchants by the Falls, were Sir +Francis Kinloch, and two sons of Sir John Anstruther. It +appears that the Falls were most honourable men in all their +transactions; and that the cause of the ruin of their eminent +firm was the failure of some considerable mercantile houses +who were deeply indebted to them.</p> + +<p>One of the Misses Fall was married to Sir John Anstruther, +of Elie, baronet. It appears that this alliance with +the family of Fall was not relished by the friends of Sir +John, of his own class in society. The consequence was +that Lady Anstruther was not so much respected, and did +not receive those attentions from her neighbours, to which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +her rank, as Sir John’s wife, gave her a title. The tradition +of her Gipsy descent was fresh in the memories of those in +the vicinity of her residence; and she frequently got no +other name, or title, when spoken of, than “Jenny Faa.” +She was, however, a woman of great spirit and activity. +Her likeness was taken, and, I believe, is still preserved by +the family of Anstruther.<a name="FNanchor159" id="FNanchor159"></a><a href="#Footnote159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p> + +<p>At a contested election, for a member of parliament, for +the burghs in the east of Fife, in which Sir John was a candidate, +his opponents thought to annoy him, and his active +lady, by reference to the Gipsy origin of the latter. Whenever +Lady Anstruther entered the burghs, during the canvass, +the streets resounded with the old song of the “Gipsy +Laddie.” A female stepped up to her ladyship, and expressed +her sorrow at the rabble singing the song in her presence. +“Oh, never mind them,” replied Lady Anstruther; “they are +only repeating what they hear from their parents.”<a name="FNanchor160" id="FNanchor160"></a><a href="#Footnote160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> The +following is the song alluded to:</p> + +<h4 class="left" style="margin-left: 10%;">JOHNNY FAA, THE GIPSY LADDIE.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Gipsies came to my Lord Cassilis’ yett,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And oh! but they sang bonnie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They sang sae sweet, and sae complete,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That down came our fair ladie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She came tripping down the stair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And all her maids before her;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As soon as they saw her weel-far’d face<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They coost their glamourie owre her.<br /></span> +</div><p class="pagenum" style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></p><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She gave to them the good wheat bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And they gave her the ginger;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But she gave them a far better thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The gold ring off her finger.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Will ye go wi’ me, my hinny and my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will ye go wi’ me, my dearie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I will swear, by the staff of my spear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That thy lord shall nae mair come near thee.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Gar take from me my silk manteel,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bring to me a plaidie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I will travel the world owre,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Along with the Gipsy laddie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“I could sail the seas with my Jockie Faa,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I could sail the seas with my dearie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I could sail the seas with my Jockie Faa,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And with pleasure could drown with my dearie.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They wandered high, they wandered low,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They wandered late and early,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until they came to an old tenant’s barn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And by this time she was weary.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Last night I lay in a weel-made bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And my noble lord beside me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now I must lie in an old tenant’s barn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the black crew glowring owre me.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“O hold your tongue, my hinny and my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O hold your tongue, my dearie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For I will swear by the moon and the stars<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That thy lord shall nae mair come near thee.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They wandered high, they wandered low,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They wandered late and early,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until they came to that wan water,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And by this time she was weary.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Aften I have rode that wan water,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And my Lord Cassilis beside me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now I must set in my white feet, and wade,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And carry the Gipsy laddie.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By-and-by came home this noble lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And asking for his ladie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The one did cry, the other did reply,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">“She is gone with the Gipsy laddie.”<br /></span> +</div><p class="pagenum" style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></p><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Go, saddle me the black,” he says,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">“The brown rides never so speedie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I will neither eat nor drink<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till I bring home my ladie.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He wandered high, he wandered low,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He wandered late and early,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until he came to that wan water,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And there he spied his ladie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“O wilt thou go home, my hinny and my heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O wilt thou go home, my dearie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I will close thee in a close room<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where no man shall come near thee.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“I will not go home, my hinny and heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I will not come, my dearie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I have brewn good beer, I will drink of the same,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And my lord shall nae mair come near me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“But I will swear by the moon and the stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the sun that shines sae clearly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I am as free of the Gipsy gang<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As the hour my mother did bear me.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They were fifteen valiant men,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Black, but very bonny,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they all lost their lives for one,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The Earl of Cassilis’ ladie.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Tradition states that John Faa, the leader of a band of +Gipsies, seizing the opportunity of the Earl of Cassilis’ absence, +on a deputation to the Assembly of divines at Westminster, +in 1643, to ratify the solemn league and covenant, +carried off the lady. The Earl was considered a sullen and +ill-tempered man, and perhaps not a very agreeable companion +to his lady.<a name="FNanchor161" id="FNanchor161"></a><a href="#Footnote161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a></p> + +<p>Before proceeding to give an account of the modern Gipsies +on the Scottish Border, I shall transcribe an interesting +note which Sir Walter Scott gave to the public, in explaining +the origin of that singular character Meg Merrilies, in +the novel Guy Mannering. The illustrious author kindly +offered me the “scraps” which he had already given to +Blackwood’s Magazine, to incorporate them, if I chose, in +my history of the Gipsies; but I prefer giving them in his +own words.</p> + +<p>“My father,” says Sir Walter, “remembered Jean Gordon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +of Yetholm, who had a great sway among her tribe. +She was quite a Meg Merrilies, and possessed the savage +virtue of fidelity in the same perfection. Having been hospitably +received at the farm-house of Lochside, near Yetholm, +she had carefully abstained from committing any depredations +on the farmer’s property. But her sons, (nine in +number,) had not, it seems, the same delicacy, and stole a +brood-sow from their kind entertainer. Jean was so much +mortified at this ungrateful conduct, and so much ashamed +of it, that she absented herself from Lochside for several +years. At length, in consequence of some temporary pecuniary +necessity, the good-man of Lochside was obliged to go +to Newcastle, to get some money to pay his rent. Returning +through the mountains of Cheviot, he was benighted, +and lost his way. A light, glimmering through the window +of a large waste-barn, which had survived the farm-house to +which it had once belonged, guided him to a place of shelter; +and when he knocked at the door, it was opened by +Jean Gordon. Her very remarkable figure, for she was +nearly six feet high, and her equally remarkable features +and dress, rendered it impossible to mistake her for a moment; +and to meet with such a character, in so solitary a +place, and probably at no great distance from her clan, was +a terrible surprise to the poor man, whose rent, (to lose +which would have been ruin to him,) was about his person. +Jean set up a loud shout of joyful recognition. ‘Eh, sirs! +the winsome gude-man of Lochside! Light down, light +down; for ye manna gang farther the night, and a friend’s +house sae near!’ The farmer was obliged to dismount, and +accept of the Gipsy’s offer of supper and a bed. There was +plenty of meat in the barn, however it might be come by, +and preparations were going on for a plentiful supper, which +the farmer, to the great encrease of his anxiety, observed +was calculated for ten or twelve guests of the same description, +no doubt, with his landlady. Jean left him in no doubt +on the subject. She brought up the story of the stolen sow, +and noticed how much pain and vexation it had given her. +Like other philosophers, she remarked that the world grows +worse daily, and, like other parents, that the bairns got out +of her guiding, and neglected the old Gipsy regulations +which commanded them to respect, in their depredations, the +property of their benefactors. The end of all this was an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +enquiry what money the farmer had about him, and an urgent +request that he would make her his purse-keeper, as +the bairns, as she called her sons, would be soon home. The +poor farmer made a virtue of necessity, told his story, and +surrendered his gold to Jean’s custody. She made him put +a few shillings in his pocket; observing it would excite suspicion +should he be found travelling altogether penniless. +This arrangement being made, the farmer lay down on a +sort of <i>shake-down</i>, as the Scotch call it, upon some straw; +but, as is easily to be believed, slept not. About midnight +the gang returned with various articles of plunder, and +talked over their exploits, in language which made the farmer +tremble. They were not long in discovering their +guest, and demanded of Jean whom she had got there. +‘E’en the winsome gude-man of Lochside, poor boy,’ replied +Jean; ‘he’s been at Newcastle, seeking siller to pay his rent, +honest man, but deil-be-licket he’s been able to gather in; +and sae he’s gaun e’en hame wi’ a toom purse and a sair +heart.’ ‘That may be, Jean,’ replied one of the banditti, +‘but we maun ripe his pouches a bit, and see if it be true or +no.’ Jean set up her throat in exclamation against this +breach of hospitality, but without producing any change of +their determination. The farmer soon heard their stifled +whispers and light steps by his bed-side, and understood +they were rummaging his clothes. When they found the +money which the prudence of Jean Gordon had made him +retain, they held a consultation if they should take it or not; +but the smallness of the booty, and the vehemence of Jean’s +remonstrances, determined them on the negative. They +caroused, and went to rest. So soon as day dawned, Jean +roused her guest, produced his horse, which she had accommodated +behind the <i>hallan</i>, and guided him for some miles, +till he was on the high-road to Lochside. She then restored +his whole property, nor could his earnest entreaties prevail +on her to accept so much as a single guinea.</p> + +<p>“I have heard the old people at Jedburgh say that all +Jean’s sons were condemned to die there on the same day. +It is said the jury were equally divided, but that a friend of +justice, who had slept during the whole discussion, waked +suddenly, and gave his vote for condemnation, in the emphatic +words: ‘Hang them a’.’ Jean was present, and +only said, ‘The Lord help the innocent in a day like this.’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +Her own death was accompanied with circumstances of +brutal outrage, of which poor Jean was, in many respects, +wholly undeserving. Jean had, among other demerits, or +merits, as you may choose to rank it, that of being a staunch +Jacobite. She chanced to be at Carlisle, upon a fair or +market day, soon after the year 1746, where she gave vent +to her political partiality, to the great offence of the rabble +in that city. Being zealous in their loyalty when there +was no danger, in proportion to the tameness with which +they had surrendered to the Highlanders, in 1745, they inflicted +upon poor Jean Gordon no slighter penalty than that +of ducking her to death in the Eden. It was an operation +of some time, for Jean was a stout woman, and, struggling +with her murderers, often got her head above water; and, +while she had voice left, continued to exclaim, at such intervals, +‘Charlie yet! Charlie yet!’</p> + +<p>“When a child, and among the scenes which she frequented, +I have often heard these stories, and cried piteously +for poor Jean Gordon.</p> + +<p>“Before quitting the Border Gipsies, I may mention that +my grandfather, riding over Charter-house moor, then a very +extensive common, fell suddenly among a large band of +them, who were carousing in a hollow of the moor, surrounded +by bushes. They instantly seized on his horse’s +bridle, with many shouts of welcome, exclaiming, (for he +was well known to most of them,) that they had often dined +at his expense, and he must now stay, and share their good-cheer. +My ancestor was a little alarmed, for, like the good +man of Lochside, he had more money about his person than +he cared to venture with into such society. However, being +a bold, lively man, he entered into the humour of the +thing, and sate down to the feast, which consisted of all the +different varieties of game, poultry, pigs, and so forth, that +could be collected by a wide and indiscriminate system of +plunder. The feast was a very merry one, but my relative +got a hint, from some of the elder Gipsies, to retire just +when ‘The mirth and fun grew fast and furious;’ and, +mounting his horse, accordingly, he took French leave +of his entertainers, but without experiencing the least +breach of hospitality. I believe Jean Gordon was at this +festival.</p> + +<p>“The principal settlements of the Gipsies, in my time,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +have been the two villages of Easter and Wester Gordon, +and what is called Kirk-Yetholm,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Making good the proverb odd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Near the church and far from God.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In giving an account of the modern Gipsies on the Scottish +Border, I shall transcribe, at full length, the faithful +and interesting report of Baillie Smith, of Kelso, which was +published in Hoyland’s “Historical Survey of the Gipsies.”</p> + +<p>“A considerable time,” says Mr. Smith, “having elapsed +since I had an opportunity or occasion to attend to the +situation of the colony of Gipsies in our neighbourhood, I +was obliged to delay my answer to your enquiries, until I +could obtain more information respecting their present +numbers.</p> + +<p>“The great bar to the benevolent intentions of improving +their situation, will be the impossibility to convince them +that there either is, or can be, a mode of life preferable, or +even equal, to their own.</p> + +<p>“A strong spirit of independence, or what they would +distinguish by the name of liberty, runs through the whole +tribe. It is, no doubt, a very licentious liberty, but entirely +to their taste. Some kind of honour peculiar to themselves +seems to prevail in their community. They reckon it a disgrace +to steal near their homes, or even at a distance, if detected. +I must always except that petty theft of feeding +their <i>shelties</i> and asses, on the farmer’s grass and corn, which +they will do, whether at home or abroad.</p> + +<p>“When avowedly trusted, even in money matters, they +never deceived me, nor forfeited their promise. I am sorry +to say, however, that when checked in their licentious appropriations, +&c., they are very much addicted both to threaten +and to execute revenge.</p> + +<p>“Having so far premised with respect to their general +conduct and character, I shall proceed to answer, as far as I +am able, the four queries subjoined to the circular which +you sent me; and then subjoin, in notes, some instances of +their conduct in particular cases, which may perhaps elucidate +their general disposition and character.</p> + +<p>“<i>Query 1st.</i> What number of Gipsies in the county?</p> + +<p>“<i>Answer.</i> I know of none except the colony of Yetholm, +and one family who lately removed from that place to Kelso.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +Yetholm consists of two towns, or large villages, called +Town-Yetholm and Kirk-Yetholm. The first is in the estate +of Mr. Wauchope, of Niddry; the latter in that of the +Marquis of Tweed-dale. The number of the Gipsy colony +at present in Kirk-Yetholm amounts to, at least, 109 men, +women and children; and perhaps two or three may have +escaped notice. They marry early in life; in general have +many children; and their number seems to be encreasing.</p> + +<p>“<i>Query 2d.</i> In what do the men and women mostly employ +themselves?</p> + +<p>“<i>Answer.</i> I have known the colony between forty and +fifty years. At my first remembrance of them, they were +called the <i>Tinklers</i> (Tinkers) of Yetholm, from the males +being chiefly then employed in mending pots and other culinary +utensils, especially in their peregrinations through the +hilly and less frequented parts of the country. Sometimes +they were called <i>Horners</i>, from their occupation in making +and selling horn-spoons, called <i>cutties</i>. Now, their common +appellation is that of <i>Muggers</i>, or, what pleases them better, +<i>Potters</i>. They purchase, at a cheap rate, the cast or faulty +articles from the different manufacturers of earthenware, which +they carry for sale all over the country; consisting of groups +of six, ten, and sometimes twelve or fourteen persons, male +and female, young and old, provided with a horse and cart, +to transport the pottery, besides shelties and asses, to carry +the youngest of the children, and such baggage as they find +necessary. A few of the colony also employ themselves, +occasionally, in making besoms, foot-basses, &c., from heath, +broom, and bent, and sell them at Kelso and the neighbouring +towns. After all, their employment can be considered +little better than an apology for idleness and vagrancy. I +do not see that the women are otherwise employed than +attending the young children, and assisting to sell the pottery +when carried through the country.</p> + +<p>“They are, in general, great adepts in hunting, shooting +and fishing; in which last they use the net and spear, +as well as the rod; and often supply themselves with +a hearty meal by their dexterity. They have no notion of +being limited in their field sports, either in time, place, or +mode of destruction. In the country, they sleep in barns +and byres, or other out-houses; and when they cannot find +that accommodation, they take the canvas covering from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +pottery cart and squat below it, like a covey of partridges +in the snow.</p> + +<p>“<i>Query 3d.</i> Have they any settled abode in winter, and +where?</p> + +<p>“<i>Answer.</i> Their residence, with the exception of a single +family, who, some years ago, came to Kelso, is at Kirk-Yetholm, +and chiefly confined to one row of houses, or +street, of that town, which goes by the name of the <i>Tinkler +Row</i>. Most of them have leases of their possessions, +granted for a term of nineteen times nineteen years, for payment +of a small sum yearly, something of the nature of a +quit-rent. There is no tradition in the neighbourhood concerning +the time when the Gipsies first took up their residence +at that place, nor whence they came. Most of their +leases, I believe, were granted by the family of the Bennets, +of Grubit, the last of whom was Sir David Bennet, who died +about sixty years ago. The late Mr. Nisbet, of Dirlton, +then succeeded to the estate, comprehending the baronies +of Kirk-Yetholm and Grubit. He died about the year +1783; and long after, the property was acquired by the late +Lord Tweed-dale’s trustees. During the latter part of the +life of the late Mr. Nisbet, he was less frequently at his +estate in Roxburghshire than formerly. He was a great +favourite of the Gipsies, and was in use to call them his +body-guards, and often gave them money, &c.</p> + +<p>“On the other hand, both the late and present Mr. Wauchope +were of opinion that the example of these people had +a bad effect upon the morals and industry of the neighbourhood; +and seeing no prospect of their removal, and as little +of their reformation, considered it as a duty to the public +to prevent the evil encreasing; and never would consent to +any of the colony taking up their residence in <i>Town</i> Yetholm.</p> + +<p>“They mostly remain at home during winter, but as soon +as the weather becomes tolerably mild, in spring, most of +them, men, women and children, set out on their peregrinations +over the country; and live in a state of vagrancy, until +driven into their habitations by the approach of winter.</p> + +<p>“Seeming to pride themselves as a separate tribe, they +very seldom intermarry out of the colony; and, in rare instances, +when that happens, the Gipsy, whether male or +female, by influence and example, always induces the stranger +husband, or wife, to adopt the manners of the colony; so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +that no improvement is ever obtained in that way. The +progeny of such alliances have almost universally the tawny +complexion, and fine black eyes, of the Gipsy parent, whether +father or mother. So strongly remarkable is the Gipsy cast +of countenance, that even a description of them to a stranger, +who has had no opportunity of formerly seeing them, will +enable him to know them whenever he meets them. Some +individuals, but very rarely, separate from the colony altogether; +and when they do so, early in life, and go to a distance, +such as London, or even Edinburgh, their acquaintances +in the country get favourable accounts of them. A +few betake themselves to regular and constant employments +at home, but soon tire, and return to their old way of life.</p> + +<p>“When any of them, especially a leader, or man of influence, +dies, they have full meetings, not only of the colony, +but of the Gipsies from a distance; and those meetings, or +<i>late-wakes</i>, are by no means conducted with sobriety or +decency.</p> + +<p>“<i>Query 4th.</i> Are any of their children taught to read, and +what portion of them? With any anecdotes respecting +their customs and conduct.</p> + +<p>“<i>Answer.</i> Education being obtained at a cheaper rate, +the Gipsies, in general, give their male children as good a +one as is bestowed on those of the labouring people, and +farm servants, in the neighbourhood; such as reading, writing, +and the first principles of arithmetic. They all apply +to the clergyman of the parish for baptism to their children; +and a strong, superstitious notion universally prevails with +them, that it is unlucky to have an unchristened child in the +house. Only a very few ever attend divine service, and +those as seldom as they can, just to prevent being refused as +sponsors at their children’s baptism.</p> + +<p>“They are, in general, active and lively, particularly when +engaged in field sports, or in such temporary pursuits as are +agreeable to their habits and dispositions; but are destitute +of the perseverance necessary for a settled occupation, or +even for finishing what a moderate degree of continued +labour would enable them to accomplish in a few weeks.</p> + +<p>“I remember that, about 45 years ago, being then apprenticed +to a writer, who was in use to receive the rents and +the small duties of Kirk-Yetholm, he sent me there with a +list of names, and a statement of what was due, recommending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +me apply to the landlord of the public-house, in the +village, for any information or assistance which I might +need.</p> + +<p>“After waiting a long time, and receiving payment from +most of the feuers, or rentalers, I observed to him, that none +of the persons of the names of Faa, Young, Blythe, Fluckie, +&c., who stood at the bottom of the list, for small sums, had +come to meet me, according to the notice given by the baron-officer, +and proposed sending to inform them that they were +detaining me, and to request their immediate attendance.</p> + +<p>“The landlord, with a grave face, enquired whether my +master had desired me to ask money from those men. I +said, not particularly; but they stood on the list. ‘So I +see,’ said the landlord; ‘but had your master been here himself, +he did not dare to ask money from them, either as rent +or feu duty. He knows that it is as good as if it were in +his pocket. They will pay when their own time comes, but +do not like to pay at a set time, with the rest of the barony, +and still less to be craved.’</p> + +<p>“I accordingly returned without their money, and reported +progress. I found that the landlord was right: my master +said, with a smile, that it was unnecessary to send to them, +after the previous notice from the baron-officer; it was +enough if I had received the money, if offered. Their rent +and feu duty was brought to the office in a few weeks. +I need scarcely add that those persons all belonged to the +tribe.</p> + +<p>“Another instance of their licentious, independent spirit +occurs to me. The family of Niddry always gave a decent +annual remuneration to a baron-baillie, for the purpose of +keeping good order within the barony of Town-Yetholm. +The person whom I remember first in possession of that +office was an old man, called Doctor Walker, from his being +also the village surgeon; and from him I had the following +anecdote:</p> + +<p>“Between Yetholm and the Border farms, in Northumberland, +there were formerly, as in most Border situations, +some uncultivated lands, called the Plea-lands, or Debatable-lands, +the pasturage of which was generally eaten up +by the sorners and vagabonds, on both sides of the marches. +Many years ago, Lord Tankerville and some others of the +English Borderers made their request to Sir David Bennet,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +and the late Mr. Wauchope, of Niddry, that they would accompany +them at a riding of the Plea-lands, who readily +complied with their request. They were induced to this, as +they understood that the Gipsies had taken offence, on the +supposition that they might be circumscribed in the pasturage +for their shelties and asses, which they had held a long +time, partly by stealth, and partly by violence.</p> + +<p>“Both threats and entreaties were employed to keep them +away; and, at last, Sir David obtained a promise from some +of the heads of the gang, that none of them should show +their faces on the occasion. They, however, got upon the +hills, at a little distance, whence they could see everything +that passed. At first they were very quiet. But when +they saw the English court-book spread out, on a cushion, +before the clerk, and apparently him taking in a line of +direction, interfering with what they considered to be their +privileged ground, it was with great difficulty that the most +moderate of them could restrain the rest from running down +and taking vengeance, even in sight of their own lord of the +manor.</p> + +<p>“They only abstained for a short time; and no sooner +had Sir David and the other gentlemen taken leave of each +other, in the most polite and friendly manner, as Border +chiefs were wont to do, since Border feuds ceased, and had +departed to a sufficient distance, than the clan, armed with +bludgeons, pitchforks, and such other hostile weapons as +they could find, rushed down in a body, and before the chiefs +on either side had reached their home, there was neither +English tenant, horse, cow nor sheep left upon the premises.</p> + +<p>“Meeting at Kelso, with Mr. Walter Scott, whose discriminating +habits and just observations I had occasion to +know, from his youth, and, at the same time, seeing one of +my Yetholm friends in the horse-market, I said to Mr. Scott, +‘Try to get before that man with the long drab coat, look +at him on your return, and tell me whether you ever saw +him, and what you think of him.’ He was as good as to indulge +me; and, rejoining me, he said, without hesitation: +‘I never saw the man that I know of; but he is one of the +Gipsies of Yetholm, that you told me of, several years ago.’ +I need scarcely say that he was perfectly correct.</p> + +<p>“When first I knew anything about the colony, old Will +Faa was king, or leader; and had held the sovereignty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +for many years. The descendants of Faa now take the +name of Fall, from the Messrs. Fall, of Dunbar, who, they +pride themselves in saying, are of the same stock and lineage. +When old Will Faa was upwards of eighty years of +age, he called on me, at Kelso, on his way to Edinburgh, +telling me that he was going to see the laird, the late Mr. +Nisbet, of Dirlton, as he understood that he was very unwell; +and he himself being now old, and not so stout as he had +been, he wished to see him once more before he died. He +set out by the nearest road, which was by no means his common +practice. Next market-day, some of the farmers informed +me that they had been in Edinburgh, and seen Will +Faa, upon the bridge, (the south bridge was not then built;) +that he was tossing about his old brown hat, and huzzaing, +with great vociferation, that he had seen the laird before he +died. Indeed, Will himself had no time to lose; for, having +set his face homewards, by the way of the sea-coast, to vary +his route, as is the general custom of the gang, he only got +the length of Coldingham, when he was taken ill and died.</p> + +<p>“His death being notified to his friends at Yetholm, they +and their acquaintances at Berwick, Spittal, Horncliff, &c., +met to pay the last honours to their old leader. His obsequies +were continued three successive days and nights, and +afterwards repeated at Yetholm, whither he was brought. I +cannot say that the funeral rites were celebrated with decency +and sobriety, for that was by no means the case. This +happened in the year 1783, or 1784, and the late Mr. Nisbet +did not long survive.”<a name="FNanchor162" id="FNanchor162"></a><a href="#Footnote162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a></p> + +<p>In addition to the above graphic report of Baillie Smith, +I will now give a few details from a MS., given to me by +Mr. Blackwood, towards the elucidation of the history of +the Gipsies. This MS. bears the initials of A. W., and appears +to have been written by a gentleman who had ample +opportunities of observing the manners of the Border Gipsies.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>“I am a native of Yetholm parish, and a residenter in it, +with a little exception, for upwards of fifty years. I well +remember Kirk-Yetholm, when the Faas and Youngs +alone had a footing in it.<a name="FNanchor163" id="FNanchor163"></a><a href="#Footnote163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> The Taits came next, and latterly, +at various periods, the Douglasses, Blyths, Montgomerys, +&c. Old William Faa, (with whom I was well acquainted, +and saw him married to his third wife,<a name="FNanchor164" id="FNanchor164"></a><a href="#Footnote164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a>) constantly +claimed kindred with the Falls of Dunbar; and persisted, +to the last, that he himself was the male descendant, +in a direct line, from the Earl of Little Egypt. For many +years before his death, Mr. Nisbet of Dirlton, (the then laird +of Kirk-Yetholm,) gave him the charge of his house, at +Marlfield, and all its furniture, although he resided six miles +distant from it. The key of the principal door was regularly +delivered to him, at the laird’s departure. I remember +a sale of wood at Cherry-trees, belonging to the late Sheriff +Murray. William Faa was a purchaser at the roup, and +the sheriff proclaimed aloud to the clerk, that he would be +Mr. Faa’s cautioner. All the Tinklers in the village, and +even strangers resorting thither, considered William Faa +as the head and leader of the whole. His corpse was escorted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +betwixt Coldstream and Yetholm by above three +hundred asses.</p> + +<p>“He was succeeded by his eldest son William, one of the +cleverest fellows upon the Border. For agility of person, +and dexterity in every athletic exercise, he had rarely met +with a competitor. He had a younger brother impressed, +when almost a boy. He deserted from his ship, in India; +enlisted as a soldier, and, by dint of merit, acquired a commission +in a regular regiment of foot, and died a lieutenant, +within these thirty years, at London. He was an officer under +Governor Wall, at Goree, when he committed the crime +for which he suffered, twenty years after, in England.</p> + +<p>“It was the present William Faa that the ‘Earl of +Hell’ contended with; not for sovereignty, but to revenge +some ancient animosity.<a name="FNanchor165" id="FNanchor165"></a><a href="#Footnote165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> His lordship lives at New Coldstream, +and was the only person in Berwickshire that durst encounter, +in single combat, the renowned Bully-More. Young +fought three successive battles with Faa, and one desperate +engagement with More, midway between Dunse and +Coldstream; and was defeated in all of them. He is a +younger son of William Young, of Yetholm, the cotemporary +chieftain of old William Faa. It was still a younger +brother that migrated to Kelso, where he supported a good +character till he died. Charles Young, the eldest brother, is +still alive, and chief of the name. The following anecdote of +him will serve to establish his activity.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Walker, of Thirkstane, the only residing heritor in +Yetholm parish, missed a valuable mare, upon a Sunday +morning. After many fruitless enquiries, at the adjacent +kirks and neighbourhood, he dispatched a servant for +Charles, in the evening. He privately communicated to him +his loss, and added, that he was fully persuaded he could +be the means of recovering the mare. Charles boldly answered, +‘If she was betwixt the Tyne and the Forth, she +should be restored.’ On the Thursday after, at sunrise, the +mare was found standing at the stable door, much jaded, and +very warm.</p> + +<p>“When the Kirk-Yetholm families differed among themselves,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +(and terrible conflicts at times they had,) this same +Mr. Walker was often chosen sole arbitrator, to decide their +differences. He has often been locked up in their houses +for twenty-four hours together, but carefully concealed their +secrets.<a name="FNanchor166" id="FNanchor166"></a><a href="#Footnote166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a></p> + +<p>“The Yetholm Tinklers keep up an intercourse with their +friends at Horncliff, Spittal, Rothbury, Hexam, and Harbottle. +They go frequently to Newcastle, and even to Staffordshire, +for earthenware, and the whole family embark in +every expedition.</p> + +<p>“I was at school with most of the present generation of +Tinklers. I mean the males; for, to speak truth, I never +heard of a female Gipsy being educated at all.</p> + +<p>“None of this colony have been either impeached or tried +for a crime for fifty years past. Two Tinklers have been +executed at Jedburgh, in my remembrance, named Keith and +Clark, for murder and horse-stealing. They were strangers, +from a distance.”</p> + +<p>When I visited Yetholm, I fell in with a gentleman who +resided at that time in Town-Yetholm. I chanced to mention +to him that I was sure all the Gipsies had a method of +their own in handling the cudgel, but he would not believe +it. At my request, he took me into some of their houses, +and, observing an old, rusty sword lying upon the joists of +an apartment in which we were sitting, I took it down, and, +under pretence of handling it, in their fashion, gave some of +the guards of the Hungarian sword-exercise. An old Gipsy, +of the name of Blyth, shook his head, and observed: “Ay,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +that is an art easily carried about with you; it may be of +service to you some day.” My friend was then convinced +of his mistake.</p> + +<p>William Faa, when I was in his house, showed me the +mark of a stroke of a sword on his right wrist, by which he +had nearly lost his hand. With others of his clan, he had +been engaged in a smuggling speculation, on the coast of +Northumberland, when they were overtaken by a party of +dragoons, one of whom singled out and attempted to take +Faa prisoner. William was armed with a stick only, but, +with his stick in his dexterous hand, he, for a long time, set +the dragoon, with all his arms, at defiance. The horseman, +now galloping round and round him, attempting to capture +him, became exasperated at the resistance of a man on foot, +armed with a cudgel only, and struck with such vigour that +the cudgel became shattered, and cut in pieces, till nothing +but a few inches of it remained. Still holding up the stump, +to meet the stroke of his antagonist’s sword, William was +cut to the bone, and compelled to yield himself a prisoner. +A person, present at the scuffle, informed me that the only +remark the brave Tinkler made to the dragoon was, “Ye’ve +spoiled a good fiddler.”</p> + +<p>William Faa, the lineal descendant of John Faw, “Lord +and Earl of Little Egypt,” when I saw him, appeared about +sixty years of age, and was tall and genteel-looking, with +grey hair, and dark eyes. He is the individual who fought +the three battles with Young, between Dunse and Coldstream. +The following notice of his death I have extracted +from the “Scotsman” newspaper, of the 20th October, 1847:</p> + +<h4 class="left" style="margin-left: 10%;">“A LAMENT FOR WILL FAA,<br /> +<span class="fsize80">“The Deceased King of Little Egypt.</span></h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“The daisy has faded, the yellow leaf drops;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cold sky looks grey o’er the shrivelled tree-tops;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many around us, since Summer’s glad birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have dropt, like the old leaves, into the cold earth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one worth remembering hath gone to the home<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the king and the kaiser must both at last come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The King of the Gipsies—the last of a name<a name="FNanchor167" id="FNanchor167"></a><a href="#Footnote167" class="fnanchor" style="font-size: 100%;">[167]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which in Scotland’s old story is rung on by fame.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The cold clod ne’er pressed down a manlier breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than that of the old man now gone to his rest.<br /></span> +</div><p class="pagenum" style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></p><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“It is meet we remember him; never again<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will such foot as old Will’s kick a ball o’er the plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or such hand as his, warm with the warmth of the soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bid us welcome to Yetholm, to bicker and bowl.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, the voice that could make the air tremble and ring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the great-hearted gladness becoming a king,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is silent, is silent; oh, wail for the day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Death took the Border King, brave Willie Faa.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“No dark Jeddart prison e’er closed upon him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The last lord of Egypt ne’er wore gyve on limb.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though his grey locks were crownless, the light of his eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was kingly—his bearing majestic and high.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though his hand held no sceptre, the stranger can tell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the full bowl of welcome became it as well;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fisher or rambler, by river or brae,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne’er from old Willie’s hallan went empty away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“In the old house of Yetholm we’ve sat at the board,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The guest, highly honoured, of Egypt’s old lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mark’d his eye glisten as oft as he told<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of his feats on the Border, his prowess of old.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is meet, when that dark eye in death hath grown dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That we sing a last strain in remembrance of him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fame of the Gipsy hath faded away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the breath from the brave heart of gallant Will Faa.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote156" id="Footnote156"></a><a href="#FNanchor156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> This long standing feud between the Baillies and the Faas is notorious. +In paying a visit to a family of English Gipsies in the United States, the +head of the family said to me: “You must really excuse us to-day. It’s +the Faas and Baillies over again; it will be all I can do to keep them from +coming to blows.” The noise inside of the house was frightful. There had +been a “difficulty” between two families in consequence of some gossip about +one of the parties before marriage, which the families were sifting to the +bottom.</p> + +<p>The Faas and their partisans, on reading this work, will not overwell +relish the prominence given to the Baillie clan.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote157" id="Footnote157"></a><a href="#FNanchor157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> “He will be pleased to learn that there is, in the house of Provost Whyte, +of Kirkaldy, a piece of needle-work, or tapestry, on which is depicted, by +the hands of Mrs. Fall, the principal events in the life of the founder of her +family, from the day the Gipsy child came to Dunbar in its mother’s creel, +until the same Gipsy child had become, by its own honourable exertions, the +head of the first mercantile establishment then existing in Scotland.” [This +seems to be an extract from a letter. The authority has been omitted in +the MS.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote158" id="Footnote158"></a><a href="#FNanchor158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> “There are,” says a correspondent, “several gentlemen in this town and +neighbourhood who have heard declare, that the Falls themselves had often +acknowledged to them their descent from the Gipsy Faas. I am told by +an old Berwickshire gentlemen, who had the account from his mother, that +the Falls, on their departure from Yetholm, stopped some little time at a +country village-hamlet called Hume, in Berwickshire, where they had some +female relations; and after a few days spent there, they set out for Dunbar, +taking their female friends along with them.</p> + +<p>“Latterly, the late Robert and Charles Fall, who were cousins, kept separate +establishments. Robert possessed the dwelling house now occupied +by Lord Lauderdale; and Charles possessed one at the shore, (now the +custom-house.) built on the spot where some old houses formerly stood, and +was called ‘Lousy Law.’ It was in these old cot-houses that the Falls +first took up their residence on coming to Dunbar. It appears the mother +of the first of the Falls who came to Dunbar was a woman of much spirit +and great activity. Old William Faa, the chief of the Gipsies at Yetholm, +when in Lothian, never failed to visit the Dunbar family, as his relations. +The Dunbar Falls were connected, by marriage, with the Anstruthers, +Footies, of Balgonie, Coutts, now bankers, and with Collector Whyte, of the +customs, at Kirkaldy, and Collector Melville, of the customs, at Dunbar.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote159" id="Footnote159"></a><a href="#FNanchor159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> Speaking of a gentlemen in his autobiography, Dr. Alexander Carlyle, +in 1744. says: “He had the celebrated Jenny Fall, (afterwards Lady Anstruther,) +a coquette and a beauty, for months together in the house with +him; and as his person and manners drew the marked attention of the +ladies, he derived considerable improvement from the constant intercourse +with this young lady and her companions, for she was lively and clever, +no less than beautiful.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote160" id="Footnote160"></a><a href="#FNanchor160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> I beg the reader to take particular notice of this circumstance. A +Scotch rabble is the lowest and meanest of all rabbles, at such work as +this. In their eyes, it was unpardonable that Lady Anstruther, or “Jenny +Faa,” should have been of Gipsy origin; but it would have horrified them, +had they known the meaning of her ladyship “being of Gipsy origin,” and +that she doubtless “chattered Gipsy,” like others of her tribe.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote161" id="Footnote161"></a><a href="#FNanchor161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_108">page 108</a>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote162" id="Footnote162"></a><a href="#FNanchor162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> When Mr. Hoyland commenced making enquiries into the condition of +the Gipsies, he addressed circulars to the sheriffs, for information. No less +than thirteen Scotch sheriffs reported, “No Gipsies within the county.” +A report of this kind was nearly as good as would be that of a cockney, as +to there being no <i>foxes</i> in the country; because, while riding through it, on +the stage, he did not <i>see</i> any! Baillie Smith’s report, although graphic, is +superficial. He states that the Gipsies “marry early in life, and in general +have many children;” yet “that their number <i>seems</i> to be encreasing.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote163" id="Footnote163"></a><a href="#FNanchor163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> The tribe of Young have preserved the following tradition respecting +their first settlement in Yetholm: At a siege of the city of Namur, (date +unknown,) the laird of Kirk-Yetholm, of the ancient family of Bennets, of +Grubit and Marlfield, in attempting to mount a breach, at the head of his +company, was struck to the ground, and all his followers killed, or put to +flight, except a Gipsy, the ancestor of the Youngs, who resolutely defended +his master till he recovered his feet, and then, springing past him upon the +rampart, seized a flag which he put into his leader’s hand. The besieged +were struck with panic—the assailants rushed again to the breach—Namur +was taken, and Captain Bennet had the glory of the capture. On returning +to Scotland, the laird, out of gratitude to his faithful follower, settled +him and his family, (who had formerly been travelling tinkers and +heckle-makers,) in Kirk-Yetholm; and conferred upon them, and the Faas, +a fen of their cottages, for the space of nineteen times nineteen years; +which they still hold from the Marquis of Tweed-dale, the present proprietor +of the estate.—<i>Blackwood’s Magazine.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote164" id="Footnote164"></a><a href="#FNanchor164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> On solemn occasions, Will Faa assumed, in his way, all the stately +deportment of sovereignty. He had twenty-four children, and at each of +their christenings he appeared, dressed in his original wedding-robes. These +christenings were celebrated with no small parade. Twelve young handmaidens +were always present, as part of the family retinue, and for the purpose +of waiting on the numerous guests, who assembled to witness the ceremony, +or partake of the subsequent festivities. Besides Will’s Gipsy +associates, several of the neighbouring farmers and lairds, with whom he +was on terms of friendly intercourse, (among others, the Murrays, of Cherry-trees,) +used to attend these christenings.—<i>Blackwood’s Magazine.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote165" id="Footnote165"></a><a href="#FNanchor165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> This is in contradiction to the assertion, in Blackwood’s Magazine, that, +on the death of his father, a sort of civil war broke out among the Yetholm +Gipsies; and that the usurper of the regal office was dispossessed, after a +battle, by the subjects who adhered to the legitimate heir.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote166" id="Footnote166"></a><a href="#FNanchor166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> There would appear to be something remarkable in the position which +this Mr. Walker held with the Gipsies. I know, from the best of authority, +that most of the people living in and about Yetholm are Gipsies, settled or +unsettled, civilized or uncivilized, educated or uneducated; and of one in +particular, who went under the title of “Lord Mayor of Yetholm.” He +is now dead. The above mentioned Mr. Walker was probably a relation +of Dr. Walker, mentioned by Baillie Smith, as the baron-baillie of Yetholm. +I notice in Blackwood’s Magazine, that one William Walker, a Gipsy, in +company with various Yetholm Gipsies, was indicted at Jedburgh, in +1714, for fire-raising, but was acquitted. The Walkers alluded to in the +text are very probably of the same family, settled, and raised in the world. +As I have just said, most of the people in and about Yetholm are Gipsies. +Gipsydom has even eaten its way in among the population round about +Yetholm. The Rev. Mr. Baird, in conducting the Scottish Church Mission +among the <i>travelling</i> Gipsies, hailing from Yetholm, doubtless encountered +many of them incog. But all this will be better understood by the reader +after he peruses the <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote167" id="Footnote167"></a><a href="#FNanchor167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> Will Faa had a brother, a house-carpenter, in New York, who survived +him a few years. He was considered a fine old man by those who knew +him. He left a family in an humble, but respectable, way of doing. The +Scottish Gipsy throne was occupied by another family of Gipsies, in consequence +of this family being “forth of Scotland.” There are a great many +Faas, under one name or other, scattered over the world.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE CEREMONIES.</h3> + +<p>The Gipsies in Scotland are all married at a very early +age. I do not recollect ever having seen or heard of them, +male or female, being unmarried, after they were twenty +years old. There are few instances of bastard children +among them; indeed, they declare that their children are all +born in wedlock.<a name="FNanchor168" id="FNanchor168"></a><a href="#Footnote168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> I know, however, of one instance to the +contrary; and of the Gipsy being dreadfully punished for +seducing a young girl of his own tribe.</p> + +<p>The brother of the female, who was pregnant, took upon +himself the task of chastising the offender. With a knife in his +hand, and at the dead hour of night, he went to the house +of the seducer. The first thing he did was deliberately to +sharpen his knife upon the stone posts of the door of the +man’s house; and then, in a gentle manner, tap at the door, +to bring out his victim. The unsuspecting man came to the +door, in his shirt, to see what was wanted; but the salutation +he received was the knife thrust into his body, and the +stabs repeated several times. The avenger of his sister’s +wrongs fled for a short while; the wounded Tinkler recovered, +and, to repair the injury he had done, made the girl +his wife. The occurrence took place in Mid-Lothian, about +twenty years ago. The name of the woman was Baillie, and +her husband, Tait.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>I have not been able to discover any peculiarity in the +manner of Gipsy courtships, except that a man, above sixty +years of age, affirmed to me that it was the universal custom, +among the tribe, not to give away in marriage the younger +daughter before the elder. In order to have this information +confirmed, I enquired of a female, herself one of eleven +sisters,<a name="FNanchor169" id="FNanchor169"></a><a href="#Footnote169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> if this custom really existed among her people. She +was, at first, averse, evidently from fear, to answer my +question directly, and even wished to conceal her descent. +But, at last, seeing nothing to apprehend from speaking +more freely, she said such was once the custom; and that it +had been the cause of many unhappy marriages. She said +she had often heard the old people speaking about the law +of not allowing the younger sister to be married before the +elder. She, however, would not admit of the existence of +the custom at the present day, but appeared quite well acquainted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +with it, and could have informed me fully of it, +had she been disposed to speak on the subject.</p> + +<p>The exact parallel to this custom is to be found in the +Gentoo code of laws, translated by Halhed; wherein it is +made criminal for “a man to marry while his elder brother +remains unmarried; or when a man marries his daughter to +such a person; or where a man gives the younger sister in +marriage while the elder sister remains unmarried.”<a name="FNanchor170" id="FNanchor170"></a><a href="#Footnote170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a> The +learned translator of the code considers this custom of the +Gentoos of the remotest antiquity, and compares it with that +passage in the Book of Genesis, where Laban excuses himself +to Jacob for having substituted Leah for Rachel, in +these words, “It must not be so done in our country, to give +the younger before the first-born.”</p> + +<p>The nuptial ceremony of the Gipsies is undoubtedly of the +highest antiquity, and would, probably, be one of the first +marriage ceremonies observed by mankind, in the very first +stages of human society. When we consider the extraordinary +length of time the Gipsies have preserved their speech, +as a secret among themselves, in the midst of civilized society, +all over Europe, while their persons were proscribed and +hunted down in every country, like beasts of the chase, we +are not at all surprised at their retaining some of their ancient +customs; for these, as distinguished from their language, +are of easy preservation, under any circumstances in +which they may have been placed. That may much more +be said of this ceremony, as there would be an occasion for +its almost daily observance. It was wrapped up with their +very existence—the choice of their wives, and the love of their +offspring—the most important and interesting transactions +of their lives; and would, on that account, be one of the longest +observed, the least easily forgotten, of their ancient usages.</p> + +<p>The nuptial rites of the Scottish Gipsies are, perhaps, unequalled +in the history of marriages. At least, I have neither +seen nor heard of any marriage ceremony that has the +slightest resemblance to it, except the extraordinary benediction +which our countryman, Mungo Park, received from +the bride at the Moorish wedding in Ali’s camp, at Benown; +and that of a certain custom practised by the Mandingoes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +at Kamalia, in Africa, also mentioned by Park.<a name="FNanchor171" id="FNanchor171"></a><a href="#Footnote171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> This custom +with the Mandingoes and the Gipsies is nearly the same +as that observed by the ancient Hebrews, in the days of +Moses, mentioned in the Book of Deuteronomy. When we +have the manners and customs of every savage tribe hitherto +discovered, including even the Hottentots and Abyssinians, +described, in grave publications, by adventurous travellers, +I can see no reason why there should not be preserved, +and exhibited for the inspection of the public, the manners +and customs of a barbarous race that have lived so long at +our own doors—one more interesting, in some respects, than +any yet discovered; and more particularly as marriage is a +very important, indeed the most important, institution among +the inhabitants of any country, whether civilized or in a +state of barbarism. How much would not our antiquarians +now value authenticated specimens of the language, manners, +and customs of the ancient Pictish nation that once +inhabited Scotland!</p> + +<p>In describing the marriage ceremony of the Scottish Gipsies, +it is scarcely possible to clothe the curious facts in +language fit to be perused by every reader. But I must +adopt the sentiment of Sir Walter Scott, as given in the +<a href="#Page_55">Introduction</a>, and “not be squeamish about delicacies, where +knowledge is to be sifted out and acquired.”<a name="FNanchor172" id="FNanchor172"></a><a href="#Footnote172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a></p> + +<p>A marriage cup, or bowl, made out of solid wood, and of +a capacity to contain about two Scotch pints, or about one +gallon, is made use of at the ceremony. After the wedding-party +is assembled, and everything prepared for the occasion,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +the priest takes the bowl and gives it to the bride, +who passes urine into it; it is then handed, for a similar +purpose, to the bridegroom. After this, the priest takes a +quantity of earth from the ground, and throws it into the +bowl, adding sometimes a quantity of brandy to the mixture. +He then stirs the whole together, with a spoon made +of a ram’s horn, and sometimes with a large ram’s horn itself, +which he wears suspended from his neck by a string. +He then presents the bowl, with its contents, first to the +bride, and then to the bridegroom; calling at the same +time upon each to separate the mixture in the bowl, if they +can. The young couple are then ordered to join hands +over the bowl containing the earth, urine, and spirits; when +the priest, in an audible voice, and in the Gipsy language, +pronounces the parties to be husband and wife; and as none +can separate the mixture in the bowl, so they, in their persons, +cannot be separated till death dissolves their union.</p> + +<p>As soon as that part of the ceremony is performed, the +couple undress, and repair to their nuptial couch. After +remaining there for a considerable time, some of the most +confidential relatives of the married couple are admitted +to the apartment, as witnesses to the virginity of the bride; +certain tokens being produced to the examining friends, +at this stage of the ceremony. If all the parties concerned +are satisfied, the bride receives a handsome present from the +friends, as a mark of their respect for her remaining chaste +till the hour of her marriage. This present is, in some instances, +a box of a particular construction.<a name="FNanchor173" id="FNanchor173"></a><a href="#Footnote173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>These matters being settled on the spot, the wedded pair +rise from the marriage-bed, again dress themselves in their +finest apparel, and again join the wedding-party. The joy +and happiness on all sides is now excessive. There is +nothing to be heard or seen but fiddling and piping, dancing, +feasting and drinking, which are kept up, with the utmost +spirit and hilarity imaginable, for many hours together.<a name="FNanchor174" id="FNanchor174"></a><a href="#Footnote174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>The nuptial mixture is carefully bottled up, and the bottle +marked with the Roman character, M. In this state, it is +buried in the earth, or kept in their houses or tents, and is +carefully preserved, as evidence of the marriage of the parties. +When it is buried in the fields, the husband and wife +to whom it belongs frequently repair to the spot, and look +at it, for the purpose of keeping them in remembrance of +their nuptial vows. Small quantities of the compound are +also given to individuals of the tribe, to be used for certain +rare purposes, such, perhaps, as pieces of the bride’s cake +are used for dreaming-bread, among the natives of Scotland, +at the present day.</p> + +<p>What is meant by employing earth, water, spirits, and, of +course, air, in this ceremony, cannot be conjectured; unless +these ingredients may have some reference to the four elements +of nature—fire, air, earth, and water. That of using +a ram’s horn, in performing the nuptial rites, has also its +meaning, could information be obtained concerning that +part of the ceremony.</p> + +<p>This marriage ceremony is observed by the Gipsies in +Scotland at the present day. A man, of the name of James +Robertson, and a girl, of the name of Margaret Graham, +were married, at Lochgellie, exactly in the manner described. +Besides the testimony of the Gipsies themselves, it is a +popular tradition, wherever these people have resided in +Scotland, that they were all married by mixing of earth and +urine together in a wooden bowl. I know of a girl, of about +sixteen years of age, having been married in the Gipsy +fashion, in a kiln, at Appindull, in Perthshire. A Gipsy informed +me that he was at a wedding of a couple on a moor +near Lochgellie, and that they were married in the ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +Gipsy manner described. Shortly after this, a pair were +married near Stirling, after the custom of their ancestors. +In this instance, a screen, made of an old blanket, was put +up in the open field, to prevent the parties seeing each +other, while furnishing the bowl with what was necessary +to lawfully constitute their marriage.<a name="FNanchor175" id="FNanchor175"></a><a href="#Footnote175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> The last-named +Gipsy further stated to me, that when two young folks of +the tribe agree to be married, the father of the bridegroom +sleeps with the bride’s mother, for three or four nights immediately +previous to the celebration of the marriage.</p> + +<p>Having endeavoured to describe the ancient nuptial ceremony +of the Scottish Gipsies, I have considered it proper to +give some account of an individual who acted as priest on +such occasions. The name of a famous celebrator of Gipsy +marriages, in Fifeshire, was Peter Robertson, well known, +towards the latter end of his days, by the name of Blind +Pate. Peter was a tall, lean, dark man, and wore a large +cocked hat, of the olden fashion, with a long staff in his +hand. By all accounts, he must have been a hundred years +of age when he died. He was frequently seen at the head +of from twenty to forty Gipsies, and often travelled in the +midst of a crowd of women. Whenever a marriage was +determined on, among the Lochgellie horde, or their immediate +connexions, Peter was immediately sent for, however +far distant he happened to be at the time from the parties +requiring his assistance, to join them in wedlock: for he +was the oldest member of the tribe at the time, and head of +the Tinklers in the district, and, as the oldest member, it +was his prerogative to officiate, as priest, on such occasions. +A friend, who obligingly sent me some anecdotes of this +Gipsy priest, communicated to me the following facts regarding +him:</p> + +<p>“At the wedding of a favourite Brae-laird, in the shire of +Kinross, Peter Robertson appeared at the head of a numerous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +band of Tinklers, attended by twenty-four asses. He +was always chief and spokesman for the band. At the wedding +of a William Low, a multerer, at Kinross, Peter, for +the last time, was seen, with upwards of twenty-three asses +in his retinue. He had certain immunities and privileges +allowed him by his tribe. For one thing, he had the sole +profits arising from the sale of keel, used in marking sheep, +in the neighbouring upland districts; and one of the asses +belonging to the band was always laden with this article +alone. Peter was also notorious as a physician, and administered +to his favourites medicines of his own preparation, +and numbers of extraordinary cures were ascribed to his +superior skill. He was possessed of a number of wise sayings, +a great many of which are still current in the country. +Peter Robertson was, altogether, a very shrewd and sensible +man, and no acts of theft were ever laid to his charge, that +I know of. He had, however, in his band, several females +who told fortunes. The ceremony of marriage which he +performed was the same you mentioned to me. The whole +contents of the bowl were stirred about with a large ram’s +horn, which was suspended from a string round his neck, as +a badge, I suppose, of his priestly office.<a name="FNanchor176" id="FNanchor176"></a><a href="#Footnote176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> He attended all +the fairs and weddings for many miles round. The +Braes of Kinross were his favourite haunt; so much so +that, in making his settlement, and portioning his children, +he allowed them all districts, in the country round<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +about, to travel in; but he reserved the Braes of Kinross as +his own pendicle, and hence our favourite toast in the shire +of Kinross, ‘The lasses of Blind Pate’s Pendicle.’ Besides +the Braes of Kinross, this Gipsy, in his sweeping verbal testament, +reserved the town of Dunfermline, also, to himself, +‘because,’ said he, ‘Dunfermline was in cash, what Lochleven +was in water—it never ran dry.’” A great deal of +booty was obtained by the Tinklers, at the large and long-continued +fairs which were frequently held in this populous +manufacturing town, in the olden times.</p> + +<p>This Gipsy priest was uncommonly fond of a bottle of +good ale. Like many other celebrators of marriages, he +derived considerable emoluments from his office. A Gipsy +informed me that Robertson, on these occasions, always received +presents, such as a pair of candlesticks, or basins and +platters, made of pewter, and such like articles. The disobedient +and refractory members of his clan were chastised +by him at all times, on the spot, by the blows of his cudgel, +without regard to age or sex, or manner of striking. When +any serious scuffle arose among his people, in which he was +like to meet with resistance, he would, with vehemence, call +to his particular friends, “Set my back to the wa’;” and, +being thus defended in the rear, he, with his cudgel, made +his assailants in front smart for their rebellion. Although +he could not see, his daughter would give him the word of +command. She would call to him, “Strike down”—“Strike +laigh” (low)—“Strike amawn” (athwart,)—“Strike haunch-ways,”—“Strike +shoulder-ways,” &c. In these, we see +nearly all the cuts or strokes of the Hungarian sword-exercise. +As I have frequently mentioned, all the Gipsies were +regularly trained to a peculiar method of their own in handling +the cudgel, in their battles. I am inclined to think that +part of the Hungarian sword-exercise, at present practised +in our cavalry, is founded upon the Gipsy manner of attack +and defence, including even the direct thrust to the front, +which the Gipsies perform with the cudgel.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all that has been said of the licentious +manners of the Scottish Gipsies, I am convinced that the +slightest infidelity, on the part of their wives, would be punished +with the utmost severity. I am assured that nothing +can put a Gipsy into so complete a rage as to impute incontinence +to his wife. In India, the Gipsy men “are extremely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +jealous of their wives, who are kept in strict subservance, +and are in danger of corporeal punishment, or absolute dismissal, +if they happen to displease them.”<a name="FNanchor177" id="FNanchor177"></a><a href="#Footnote177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> The Gipsies are +complete Tartars in matters of this kind.<a name="FNanchor178" id="FNanchor178"></a><a href="#Footnote178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a></p> + +<p>But in the best-regulated society—in the most virtuous of +families—the sundering of the marriage-tie is often unavoidable, +even under the most heinous of circumstances. And it +is not to be expected that the Gipsies should be exempted +from the lot common to humanity, under whatever circumstances +it may be placed. The separation of husband and +wife is, with them, a very serious and melancholy affair—an +event greatly to be lamented, while the ceremony is attended +with much grief and mourning, blood having to be shed, and +life taken, on the occasion.</p> + +<p>It would be a conclusion naturally to be drawn from the +circumstance of the Gipsies having so singular a marriage +ceremony, that they should have its concomitant in as singular +a ceremony of divorce. The first recourse to which a +savage would naturally resort, in giving vent to his indignation, +and obtaining satisfaction for the infidelity of the female, +(assuming that savages are always susceptible of such +a feeling,) would be to despatch her on the spot. But the +principle of expiation, in the person of a dumb creature, for +offences committed against the Deity, has, from the very +creation of the world, been so universal among mankind, +that it would not be wondered at if it should have been applied +for the atonement of offences committed against each +other, and nowhere so much so as in the East—the land of +figure and allegory. The practice obtains with the Gipsies +in the matter of divorce, for they lay upon the head of that +noble animal, the horse, the sins of their offending sister, +and generally let her go free. But, it may be asked, how +has this sacrifice of the horse never been mentioned in Scotland +before? The same question applies equally well to +their language, and marriage ceremony, yet we know that +both of these exist at the present day. The fact is, the Gipsies +have hitherto been so completely despised, and held in +such thorough contempt, that few ever thought of, or would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +venture to make enquiries of them relative to, their ancient +customs and manners; and that, when any of their ceremonies +were actually observed by the people at large, they +were looked upon as the mere frolics, the unmeaning and +extravagant practices, of a race of beggarly thieves and vagabonds, +unworthy of the slightest attention or credit.<a name="FNanchor179" id="FNanchor179"></a><a href="#Footnote179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> In +whatever country the Gipsies have appeared, they have always +been remarkable for an extraordinary attachment to +the horse. The use which they make of this animal, in sacrifice, +will sufficiently account, in one way at least, for this +peculiar feature in their character. Many of the horses +which have been stolen by them, since their arrival in Europe, +I am convinced, have been used in parting with their +wives, an important religious ceremony—or at least a custom—which +they would long remember and practise.<a name="FNanchor180" id="FNanchor180"></a><a href="#Footnote180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a></p> + +<p>It is the general opinion, founded chiefly upon the affinity +of language, that this singular people migrated from Hindostan. +None of the authors on the Gipsies, however, that +I am aware of, have, in their researches, been able to discover, +among the tribe, any customs of a religious nature, +by which their religious notions and ceremonies, at the time +they entered Europe, could be ascertained. Indeed, the +learned and industrious Grellmann expressly states that the +Gipsies did not bring any particular religion with them, +from their native country, by which they could be distinguished +from other people. The Gipsy sacrifice of the horse, +at parting with their wives, however, appears to be a +remnant of the great Hindoo religious sacrifice of the <i>Aswamedha</i>, +or <i>Assummeed Jugg</i>, observed by all the four +principal castes in India, enumerated in the Gentoo code of +laws, translated from the Persian copy, by Nathaniel Brassey +Halhed, and is proof, besides the similarity of language,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +that the Gipsies are from Hindostan. Before the Gentoo +code of laws came into my hands, I was inclined to believe +that this ceremony of sacrificing horses might be a Tartar +custom, as the ancient Pagan tribes of Tartary also sacrificed +horses, on certain occasions; and my conjectures were countenanced +by the Gipsy and Tartar ceremonies being somewhat +similar in their details. Indeed, in Sweden and +Denmark, and in some parts of Germany, the Gipsies, as I +have already stated, obtained the name of Tartars. “They +were not allowed the privilege of remaining unmolested in +Denmark, as the code of Danish laws specifies: The Tartar +Gipsies, who wander about everywhere, doing great damage +to the people, by their lies, thefts, and witchcraft, shall be +taken into custody by every magistrate.” And it also appears, +according to Grellmann, that the Gipsies sometimes +called themselves Tartars. If it was observed, on the continent, +that they sacrificed horses, a custom very common at +one time among the Tartars, their supposed Tartar origin +would appear to have had some foundation. The Tartar +princes seem to have ratified and confirmed their military +leagues by sacrificing horses and drinking of a running +stream; and we find our Scottish Gipsies dissolving their +matrimonial alliances by the solemn sacrifice of the same +animal, while some Gipsies state that horses were also, at +one time, sacrificed at their marriage ceremonies. At these +sacrifices of the Scottish Gipsies, no Deity—no invisible +agency—appears, as far as I am informed, to have been invoked +by the sacrificers.</p> + +<p>I have alluded to this custom of the Tartars, more particularly, +to show that the Gipsies are not the only people +who have sacrificed horses. The ancient Hindoos, as already +stated, sacrificed horses. The Greeks did the same to Neptune; +the ancient Scandinavians to their god, Assa-Thor, +the representative of the sun; and the Persians, likewise, to +the sun.<a name="FNanchor181" id="FNanchor181"></a><a href="#Footnote181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> But I am inclined to believe that the Gipsy sacrifice +of the horse is the remains of the great <i>Assummeed Jugg</i> +of the Hindoos, observed by tribes of greater antiquity than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +the modern nations of India, as appears by the Gentoo code +of laws already <a href="#Page_165">referred to</a>.</p> + +<p>The sacrificing of horses is a curious as well as a leading +and important fact in the history of the Gipsies, and, as far +as I know, is new to the world. I shall, in establishing its +existence among the Scottish Gipsies, produce my authorities +with my details.</p> + +<p>In the first place, it was, and I believe it still is, a general +tradition, over almost all Scotland, that, when the Tinklers +parted from their wives, the act of separation took place +over the carcass of a dead horse. In respect to McDonald’s +case, alluded to under the head of Linlithgowshire Gipsies, +my informant, Mr. Alexander Ramsay, late an officer of the +Excise, a very respectable man, who died in 1819, at the age +of 74 years, stated to me that he saw McDonald and his +wife separated over the body of a dead horse, on a moor, at +Shieldhill, near Falkirk, either in the year 1758 or 1760, he +was uncertain which. The horse was laying stretched out +on the heath. The parties took hold of each other by the +hand, and, commencing at the head of the dead animal, +walked—the husband on one side, and the wife on the other—till +they came to the tail, when, without speaking a word +to each other, they parted, in opposite directions, as if proceeding +on a journey. Mr. Ramsay said he never could +forget the violent swing which McDonald gave his wife at +parting. The time of the day was a little after day-break. +My informant, at the time, was going, with others, to Shieldhill +for coals, and happened to be passing over a piece of +rising ground, when they came close upon the Gipsies, in a +hollow, quite unexpectedly to both parties.</p> + +<p>Another aged man of credibility, of the name of James +Wilson, at North Queensferry, also informed me that it was +within his own knowledge, that a Gipsy, of the name of John +Lundie, divorced four wives over dead horses, in the manner +described. Wilson further mentioned that, when Gipsies +were once regularly separated over a dead horse, they could +never again be united in wedlock; and that, unless they +were divorced in this manner, all the children which the +female might have, subsequently to any other mode of separation, +the husband was obliged to support. In fact, the +transaction was not legal, according to the Gipsy usages, +without the horse. The facts of Lundie, and another Gipsy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +of the name of Drummond, having divorced many wives +over dead horses, have been confirmed to me by several +aged individuals who knew them personally. One intelligent +gentleman, Mr. Richard Baird, informed me that, in his +youth, he actually saw John Lundie separated from one of +his wives over a dead horse, in the parish of Carriden, near +Bo’ness. My father, who died in 1837, at the age of nearly +83 years, also stated that it was quite current, in Tweed-dale, +that Mary Yorkston, wife of Matthew Baillie, the Gipsy +chief, parted married couples of her tribe over dead horses.</p> + +<p>About ten years after receiving the above information, +Malcolm’s Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London +came into my hands; wherein I found the following +quotations, from a work published in 1674, describing the +different classes of impostors at that period in England: +“Patricos,” says this old author, “are strolling priests; +every hedge is their parish, and every wandering rogue +their parishioner. The service, he saith, is the marrying of +couples, without the Gospels or Book of Common Prayer; +the solemnity whereof is this: The parties to be married +find out a dead horse, or other beast; standing, one on the +one side, and the other on the other, the Patrico bids them +live together till death part them; so, shaking hands, the +wedding is ended.” Now the parties here described seem +to have been no other than Gipsies. But it also appears +that the ceremony alluded to is that of dissolving a marriage, +and not that of celebrating it. It is proper, however, +to mention, as I have already done, that horses, at one time, +were sacrificed at their marriages, as well as at their divorces.</p> + +<p>Feeling now quite satisfied that Gipsies were, at one +time, actually separated over the bodies of dead horses, and +horses only, (for I could find no other animal named but +horses,) I proceeded to have the fact confirmed by the direct +testimony of the people themselves. And whether these +horses were sacrificed expressly for such purposes, or whether +the rites were performed over horses accidentally found +dead, I could not discover till the year 1828. It occurred +to me that the using of dead horses, in separating man and +wife, was a remnant of some ancient ceremony, which induced +me to persevere in my enquiries, for the purpose of ascertaining, +if not the origin, at least the particulars, of so extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +a custom. In the year mentioned, and in the +year following, I examined a Gipsy on the subject; a man +of about sixty years of age, who, a few years before, had +given me a specimen of his language. He said that he himself +had witnessed the sacrifices and ceremonies attending +the separation of husband and wife. From this man I received +the following curious particulars relative to the sacrifice +of horses and ceremony of divorce; which I think may +be depended on, as I was very careful in observing that his +statements, taken down at four different times, agreed with +each other.</p> + +<p>When the parties can no longer live together as husband +and wife, and a separation for ever is finally determined on, +a horse, without blemish, and in no manner of way lame, is +led forth to the spot for performing the ceremony of divorce. +The hour at which the rites must be performed is, if possible, +twelve o’clock at noon, “when the sun is at his height.”<a name="FNanchor182" id="FNanchor182"></a><a href="#Footnote182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> +The Gipsies present cast lots for the individual who is to +sacrifice the animal, and whom they call the priest, for the +time. The priest, with a long pole or staff in his hand,<a name="FNanchor183" id="FNanchor183"></a><a href="#Footnote183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> +walks round and round the animal several times; repeating +the names of all the persons in whose possession it has been, +and extolling and expatiating on the rare qualities of so useful +an animal. It is now let loose, and driven from their +presence, to do whatever it pleases. The horse, perfect and +free, is put in the room of the woman who is to be divorced;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +and by its different movements is the degree of her guilt +ascertained. Some of the Gipsies now set off in pursuit of +it, and endeavour to catch it. If it is wild and intractable, +kicks, leaps dykes and ditches, scampers about, and will not +allow itself to be easily taken hold of, the crimes and guilt +of the woman are looked upon as numerous and heinous. If +the horse is tame and docile, when it is pursued, and suffers +itself to be taken without much trouble, and without exhibiting +many capers, the guilt of the woman is not considered +so deep and aggravated; and it is then sacrificed in her +stead. But if it is extremely wild and vicious, and cannot +be taken without infinite trouble, her crimes are considered +exceedingly wicked and atrocious; and my informant said +instances occurred in which both horse and woman were +sacrificed at the same time; the death of the horse, alone, +being then considered insufficient to atone for her excessive +guilt. The individuals who catch the horse bring it before +the priest. They repeat to him all the faults and tricks it +had committed; laying the whole of the crimes of which +the woman is supposed to have been guilty to its charge; +and upbraiding and scolding the dumb creature, in an angry +manner, for its conduct. They bring, as it were, an accusation +against it, and plead for its condemnation. When this +part of the trial is finished, the priest takes a large knife +and thrusts it into the heart of the horse; and its blood is +allowed to flow upon the ground till life is extinct. The +dead animal is now stretched out upon the ground. The +husband then takes his stand on one side of it, and the wife +on the other; and, holding each other by the hand, repeat +certain appropriate sentences in the Gipsy language. They +then quit hold of each other, and walk three times round the +body of the horse, contrariwise, passing and crossing each +other, at certain points, as they proceed in opposite directions. +At certain parts of the animal, (the <i>corners</i> of the horse, was +the Gipsy’s expression,) such as the hind and fore feet, the +shoulders and haunches, the head and tail, the parties halt, +and face each other; and again repeat sentences, in their +own speech, at each time they halt. The two last stops they +make, in their circuit round the sacrifice, are at the head and +tail. At the head, they again face each other, and speak; +and lastly, at the tail, they again confront each other, utter +some more Gipsy expressions, shake hands, and finally part,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +the one going north, the other south, never again to be +united in this life.<a name="FNanchor184" id="FNanchor184"></a><a href="#Footnote184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> Immediately after the separation takes +place, the woman receives a token, which is made of cast-iron, +about an inch and a half square, with a mark upon it +resembling the Roman character, T. After the marriage has +been dissolved, and the woman dismissed from the sacrifice, +the heart of the horse is taken out and roasted with fire, +then sprinkled with vinegar, or brandy, and eaten by the +husband and his friends then present; the female not being +allowed to join in this part of the ceremony. The body of +the horse, skin and everything about it, except the heart, is +buried on the spot; and years after the ceremony has taken +place, the husband and his friends visit the grave of the +animal, to see whether it has been disturbed. At these +visits, they walk round about the grave, with much grief and +mourning.</p> + +<p>The husband may take another wife whenever he pleases, +but the female is never permitted to marry again.<a name="FNanchor185" id="FNanchor185"></a><a href="#Footnote185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> The +token, or rather bill of divorce, which she receives, must +never be from about her person. If she loses it, or attempts +to pass herself off as a woman never before married, she +becomes liable to the punishment of death. In the event of +her breaking this law, a council of the chiefs is held upon +her conduct, and her fate is decided by a majority of the +members; and, if she is to suffer death, her sentence must +be confirmed by the king, or principal leader. The culprit +is then tied to a stake, with an iron chain, and there cudgelled +to death. The executioners do not extinguish life at one +beating, but leave the unhappy woman for a little while, and +return to her, and at last complete their work by despatching +her on the spot.</p> + +<p>I have been informed of an instance of a Gipsy falling out +with his wife, and, in the heat of his passion, shooting his +own horse dead on the spot with his pistol, and forthwith<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +performing the ceremony of divorce over the animal, without +allowing himself a moment’s time for reflection on the +subject. Some of the country-people observed the transaction, +and were horrified at so extraordinary a proceeding. +It was considered by them as merely a mad frolic of an enraged +Tinkler. It took place many years ago, in a wild, sequestered +spot between Galloway and Ayrshire.</p> + +<p>This sacrifice of the horse is also observed by the Gipsies +of the Russian Empire. In the year 1830, a Russian gentleman +of observation and intelligence, proprietor of estates on +the banks of the Don, stated to me that the Gipsies in the +neighbourhood of Moscow, and on the Don, several hundred +versts from the sea of Asoph, sacrificed horses, and ate part +of their flesh, in the performance of some very ancient ceremony +of idolatry. They sacrifice them under night, in the +woods, as the practice is prohibited by the Russian Government. +The police are often detecting the Gipsies in these +sacrifices, and the ceremony is kept as secret as possible. +My informant could not go into the particulars of the Gipsy +sacrifice in Russia; but there is little doubt that it is the +same which the tribe performed in Scotland. In Russia, the +Gipsies, like those in this country, have a language peculiar +to themselves, which they retain as a secret among their own +fraternity.</p> + +<p>As regards the sacrificing of horses by the Gipsies of +Scotland, at the present day, all that I can say is that I do +not know of its taking place; nor has it been denied to me. +The only conclusion to which I can come, in regard to the +question, is that it is in the highest degree probable that, +like their language and ceremony of marriage, it is still +practised when it can be done. In carrying out this ceremony, +there is an obstacle to be overcome which does not +lay in the way of that of marriage, and it is this: Where are +many of the Tinklers to find a horse, over which they can +obtain a divorce? The difficulty with them is as great as +it is with the people of England, who must, at a frightful +expense, go to no less than the House of Lords to obtain an +act to separate legally from their unfaithful partners.<a name="FNanchor186" id="FNanchor186"></a><a href="#Footnote186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> The +Gipsies, besides being generally unable or unwilling to bear +the expense of what will procure them a release in their own +way, find it a difficult matter, in these days, to steal, carry off,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +and dispose of such a bulky article as a horse, in the sacrifice +of which they will find a new wife. I am not aware +how they get quit of this solemn and serious difficulty, beyond +this, that a Gipsy, a native of Yetholm, informed me +that some of his brethren in that colony knock down their +<i>asses</i>, for the purpose of parting with their wives, at the present +day.<a name="FNanchor187" id="FNanchor187"></a><a href="#Footnote187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a></p> + +<p>As the code of the ancient laws of Hindostan is not in +the hands of every one, I shall here transcribe from the +work the account of the Gentoo Institution of the <i>Aswamedha</i> +or the <i>Assummeed Jugg</i>,<a name="FNanchor188" id="FNanchor188"></a><a href="#Footnote188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> that the reader may compare +it with the Gipsy sacrifice of horses; for which, owing +to its length, I must crave his indulgence. It is under the +chapter of evidence, and is as follows:</p> + +<p>“An <i>Assummeed Jugg</i> is when a person, having commenced +a Jugg, writes various articles upon a scroll of +paper on a horse’s neck, and dismisses the horse, sending, +along with the horse, a stout and valiant person, equipped +with the best necessaries and accoutrements, to accompany +the horse day and night, whithersoever he shall choose to +go; and if any creature, either man, genius or dragon, +should seize the horse, that man opposes such attempt, and, +having gained the victory, upon a battle, again gives the +horse his freedom. If any one in this world, or in heaven, +or beneath the earth, would seize this horse, and the horse +of himself comes to the house of the celebrator of the <i>Jugg</i>, +upon killing that horse, he must throw the flesh of him upon +the fire of the <i>Juk</i>, and utter the prayers of his Deity; such a +<i>Jugg</i> is called a <i>Jugg Assummeed</i>, and the merit of it, as +a religious work, is infinite.” <i>Page 127.</i></p> + +<p>In another part of the same chapter of the Hindoo code +of laws, are the following particulars relative to horses, +which show the great respect in which these animals were +held among the ancient natives of Hindostan. “In an affair +concerning a horse: if any person gives false evidence, his +guilt is as great as the guilt of murdering one hundred persons.” +<i>Page 128.</i> In the Asiatic Researches, the sacrifice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +of the horse is frequently noticed; and in Sir William +Jones’ Institutes of Menu, chapter viii., page 202, it is said: +“A false witness, in the case of a horse, kills, or incurs the +guilt of killing, one hundred kinsmen.” “The <i>Aswamedha</i>, +or sacrifice of the horse: Considerable difficulties usually +attend that ceremony; for the consecrated horse was to be +set at liberty for a certain time, and followed at a distance +by the owner, or his champion, who was usually one of his +near kinsmen; and if any person should attempt to stop it +in its rambles, a battle must inevitably ensue; besides, as +the performer of an hundred <i>Aswamedhas</i> became equal to +the god of the firmaments.” (<i>Asiatic Researches, vol.</i> iii., +<i>page 216</i>.) “The inauguration of <i>Indra</i>, (the Indian God of +the firmaments,) it appears, was performed by sacrificing an +hundred horses. It is imagined that this celebration becomes +a cause of obtaining great power and universal monarchy; +and many of the kings in ancient India performed +this sacrifice at their inauguration, similar to that of Indra’s.” +“These monarchs were consecrated by these great +sacrifices, with a view to become universal conquerors.” +(<i>Asiatic Researches.</i>) It appears, by the Hindoo mythology, +that <i>Indra</i> was at one time a mere mortal, but by sacrificing +an hundred horses, he became sovereign of the firmament; +and that should any Indian monarch succeed in immolating an +hundred horses, he would displace <i>Indra</i>.</p> + +<p>The above are literal and simple facts, which took place +in performing the sacrifice; but the following is the explanation +of the mystic signification contained in the ceremony.</p> + +<p>“The <i>Assummeed Jugg</i> does not merely consist in the +performance of that ceremony which is open to the inspection +of the world, namely, in bringing a horse, and sacrificing +him; but <i>Assummeed</i> is to be taken in a mystic signification, +as implying that the sacrificer must look upon himself +to be typified in that horse, such as he shall be described; +because the religious duty of the <i>Assummeed Jugg</i> comprehends +all those other religious duties, to the performance of +which all the wise and holy direct all their actions; and by +which all the sincere professors of every different faith aim +at perfection. The mystic signification thereof is as follows: +The head of that unblemished horse is the symbol +of the morning; his eyes are the sun; his breath the wind; +his wide-opening mouth is the <i>Bishwāner</i>, or that innate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +warmth which invigorates all the world; his body typifies +one entire year; his back, paradise; his belly, the plains; +his hoof, this earth; his sides, the four quarters of the heavens; +the bones thereof, the intermediate spaces between +the four quarters; the rest of his limbs represent all distinct +matter; the places where those limbs meet, or his joints, imply +the months, and halves of the months, which are called <i>Pĕchĕ</i> +(or fortnights); his feet signify night and day; and night and +day are of four kinds; first, the night and day of Brihma; +second, the night and day of angels; third, the night and day +of the world of the spirits of deceased ancestors; fourth, the +night and day of mortals. These four kinds are typified in +his four feet. The rest of his bones are the constellations +of the fixed stars, which are the twenty-eight stages of the +moon’s course, called the lunar year; his flesh is the clouds; +his food the sand; his tendons the rivers; his spleen and +liver the mountains; the hair of his body the vegetables, +and his long hair the trees. The fore part of his body typifies +the first half of the day, and the hinder part the latter +half; his yawning is the flash of the lightning, and his +turning himself is the thunder of the cloud; his urine represents +the rain; and his mental reflection is his only +speech.</p> + +<p>“The golden vessels, which are prepared before the horse +is let loose, are the light of the day; and the place where +these vessels are kept is a type of the ocean of the East; +the silver vessels, which are prepared after the horse is let +loose, are the light of the night; and the place where those +vessels are kept is a type of the ocean of the West. These +two sorts of vessels are always before and after the horse. +The Arabian horse, which, on account of his swiftness, is +called <i>Hy</i>, is the performer of the journeys of angels; the +<i>Tājee</i>, which is of the race of Persian horses, is the performer +of the journeys of the <i>Kundherps</i> (or the good spirits); +the <i>Wāzbā</i>, which is of the race of the deformed <i>Tājee</i> +horses, is the performer of the journeys of <i>Jins</i> (or demons); +and the <i>Ashoo</i>, which is of the race of Turkish horses, is +the performer of the journeys of mankind. This one horse +which performs these several services, on account of his +four different sorts of riders, obtains the four different appellations. +The place where this horse remains is the great +ocean, which signifies the great spirit of <i>Perm-atmā</i>, or the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> +universal soul, which proceeds also from that <i>Perm-atmā</i>, +and is comprehended in the same <i>Perm-atmā</i>.</p> + +<p>“The intent of this sacrifice is, that a man should consider +himself to be in the place of that horse, and look upon +all these articles as typified in himself; and conceiving the +<i>Atmā</i> (or divine soul) to be an ocean, should let all thought +of self be absorbed in that <i>Atmā</i>.” <i>Page 19.</i></p> + +<p>Mr. Halhed, the translator, justly observes: “This is the +very acme and enthusiasm of allegory, and wonderfully displays +the picturesque powers of fancy in an Asiatic genius; +yet, unnatural as the account there stands, it is seriously +credited by the Hindoos of all denominations.” On the +other hand, he thinks there is a great resemblance between +this very ancient Hindoo ceremony and the sacrifice of the +scape-goat, in the Bible, described in the 21st and 22d +verses of the 16th chapter of Leviticus, viz.: “And Aaron +shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and +confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, +and all their transgressions, in all their sins, putting them +upon the head of the goat; and shall send him away, by the +hand of a fit man, into the wilderness: and the goat shall +bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhabited; +and he shall let go the goat into the wilderness.” <i>Page 17.</i> +In the same manner, all the iniquities of the sacrificer, in +the Gentoo ceremony, are laid upon the horse, which is let +loose, and attended by a stout and valiant person. The +same is done in the Gipsy sacrifice, as typifying the woman +to be divorced.</p> + +<p>The resemblance between the Gipsy and the Hindoo sacrifice +is close and striking in their general bearings. The +Hindoo sacrificer is typified in the horse, and his sins are +ascertained and described by the motions or movements of +the animal; for if the horse is very docile and tame, and of +its own accord comes to the Hindoo celebrator of the sacrifice, +his merits are then infinite, and extremely acceptable to +the Deity worshipped. In the Gipsy sacrifice, if the horse +is in like manner quiet, and easily caught, the woman, whom +it represents, is then comparatively innocent. In India, part +of the <i>flesh</i> of the horse was eaten: among the Gipsies, the +<i>heart</i> is eaten. The Hindoos sacrificed their <i>enemies</i>, by +substituting for them a <i>buffalo</i>, &c.: the Gipsies sacrifice +their <i>unfaithful wives</i>, by the substitute of a <i>horse</i>. In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +Hindoo sacrifice, particular parts of the horse allegorically +represent certain parts of the earth: at certain parts of the +horse, (the <i>corners</i>, as the Gipsies call them,) the Gipsies, in +their circuit round the animal, halt, and utter particular +sentences in their own language, as if these parts were of +more importance, and had more influence, than the other +parts. And it is probable that, in these sentences, some invisible +agency was addressed and invoked by the Gipsies.</p> + +<p>As the <i>Aswamedha</i>, or sacrifice of the horse, was the most +important of all the religious ceremonies of every caste of +Hindoos, in ancient India, so it would be the last to be forgotten +by the wandering Gipsies. And as both sacrificed at +twelve o’clock, noon, I am inclined to believe that both offered +their sacrifice to the sun, the animating soul of universal +nature. As already stated, the Gipsies, while travelling, +assume new names every morning before setting out; but +when noon-tide arrives, they resume their permanent English +ones. This custom is practised daily, and has undoubtedly +also some reference to the sun. By the account of the Gipsy +already mentioned, the horse must, if possible, be killed at +noon. According to Southey, in his curse of Kehamah, the +sacrifice of the horse in India was performed at the same +time. Colonel Tod, in his history of India, says: “The +sacrifice of the horse is the most imposing, and the earliest, +heathenish rite on record, and was dedicated to the sun, anciently, +in India.” According to the same author, the horse +in India must be milk-white, with particular marks upon it. +The Gipsy’s horse to be sacrificed must be sound, and without +blemish; but no particular colour is mentioned. According +to Halhed, the horse sacrificed in India was also +without blemish.</p> + +<p>I have, perhaps, been too minute and tedious in describing +these rites and ceremonies of the Gentoos; but the singular +fact that our Scottish Tinklers yet—at least till very lately—retained +the important fragments of the ancient mythology +of the Pagan tribes of Hindostan, is offered as an apology to +the curious reader for the trouble of perusing the details. I +shall only add, that there appears to be nearly as great a +resemblance between the sacrifices of the Gipsies and the +ancient Hindoos, as there is affinity between modern Hindostanee +and the language of the Gipsies in Scotland, at the +present day, as will be seen in the <a href="#Page_281">following chapter</a>.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote168" id="Footnote168"></a><a href="#FNanchor168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> There is one word in the Gipsy language to which is attached more +importance than to any other thing whatever—<i>Lácha</i>—the corporeal chastity +of woman; the loss of which she is, from childhood, taught to dread. +To ensure its preservation, the mother will have occasion to the <i>Diclé</i>—a +kind of drapery which she ties around the daughter; and which is never +removed, but continually inspected, till the day of marriage; but not for +fear of the “stranger” or the “white blood.” A girl is generally betrothed +at fourteen, and never married till two years afterward. Betrothal is invariable. +But the parties are never permitted, previous to marriage, to +have any intimate associations together.—<i>Borrow on the Spanish Gipsies.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<h4><a name="Footnote169" id="Footnote169"></a><a href="#FNanchor169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a>A GIPSY MULTIPLICATION TABLE.</h4> + +<table class="nowrap fsize80" summary="Table footnote 169"> + +<tr> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bl bt br bb">Births<br />of<br />Children.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bt br bb">Marriages.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bt br bb">Births<br />of Grand-<br />children.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bot bt br bb">1</td> +<td colspan="12"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1822, Oct. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1842</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1843, Jul.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">2</td> +<td colspan="11"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1824, Jan. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1844</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1844, Oct.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">3</td> +<td colspan="10"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1825, Apl. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1845</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1846, Jan.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">4</td> +<td colspan="9"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1826, Jul. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1846</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1847, Ap.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">5</td> +<td colspan="8"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1827, Oct. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1847</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1848, Jul</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">6</td> +<td colspan="7"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1829, Jan. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1849</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1849, Oct.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">7</td> +<td colspan="6"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1830, Apl. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1850</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1851, Jan.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">8</td> +<td colspan="5"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1831, Jul. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1851</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1852, Ap.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">9</td> +<td colspan="4"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1832, Oct. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1852</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1853, Jul.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">10</td> +<td colspan="3"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1834, Jan. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1854</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1854, Oct.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">11</td> +<td colspan="2"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br">1835, Apl. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">1855</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">1856, Jan.</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 bt br bb">12</td> +<td colspan="1"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bl br bb">1836, Jul. 1.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br bb">1856</td> +<td class="br bb"> </td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">..</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 bb">Total.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="right padr1 bl br bb">12</td> +<td class="br bb"> </td> +<td class="br bb"> </td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">11</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">10</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">9</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">8</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">7</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">6</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">5</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">4</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">3</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">2</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">1</td> +<td class="right padr1 padl1 br bb">0</td> +<td class="center padr1 padl1 br bb">78</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>The above table will give a general idea of the natural encrease of the +Gipsies. The reader can make what allowances he pleases, for ages at time +of marriage, intervals between births, twins, deaths, or numbers of children +born. By this table, the Gipsy, by marrying at twenty years of age, +would, when 54 years old, have a “following” of no less than 78 souls. +“There is one of the divine laws,” said I to a Gipsy, “which the Gipsies +obey more than any other people.” “What is that?” replied he, with +great gravity. “The command to ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish +(but not subdue) the earth.’” Even five generations can be obtained from +the male, and six from the female Gipsy, in a century, counting from first-born +to first-born. The reader will notice how large are the Gipsy families +incidentally mentioned by our author.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote170" id="Footnote170"></a><a href="#FNanchor170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> Major Archer says that this law is still in force.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote171" id="Footnote171"></a><a href="#FNanchor171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> “I was soon tired,” says Park, “and had retired into my tent. When +I was sitting, almost asleep, an old woman entered with a wooden bowl in +her hand, and signified that she had brought me a present from the bride. +Before I could recover from the surprise which this message created, the +woman discharged the contents of the bowl full in my face. Finding that +it was the same sort of holy water with which, among the Hottentots, a +priest is said to sprinkle a new-married couple, I began to suspect that the +lady was actuated by mischief or malice; but she gave me seriously to understand +that it was a nuptial benediction from the bride’s own person; +and which, on such occasions, is always received by the young unmarried +Moors, as a mark of distinguished favour. This being the case, I wiped my +face, and sent my acknowledgment to the lady.”—<i>Park’s Travels, pages 205 +and 206.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote172" id="Footnote172"></a><a href="#FNanchor172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> Whatever prudes and snobs may think of this chapter, I believe that the +sensible and intelligent reader will agree with me in saying, that the marriage +and divorce ceremonies of the Gipsies are historical gems of the most +antique and purest water.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote173" id="Footnote173"></a><a href="#FNanchor173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> On their return from church, the bride is seated at one extremity of a +room, with the unmarried girls by her; the bridegroom on the right, and +the father and mother, or those who perform their office, on the left. The +male part of the company stand in the corners, singing, and playing on the +guitar. About one o’clock, the oldest matron, accompanied by others advanced +in years, conducts the bride into the bed-room, which, according to +the custom of Spain, is usually a small chamber, without a window, opening +into the general apartment. <i>Tune vetula, manu sud sponsæ naturalibus admota +membranam, vulvæ ori oppositam unguibus scindit et cruorem à plagâ +fusum linteolo excipit.</i> The Gitanos without make a loud noise with their +whistles, and the girls, striking the door, sing the following couplets, or +some other like them:</p> + +<div class="poem" style="font-size: 90%;"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Abra viñd la puerta Snr. Joaquin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Que le voy à viñd à poner un pañuelito<br /></span> +<span class="i0">En las manos que tienen que llorar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Toditas las callis.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The bride then returns from the chamber, accompanied by the matrons, +and the new-married couple are placed upon a table, where the bride +dances, <i>et coram astantibus linteolum, internerati pudoris indicium explicat</i>; +whilst the company, throwing down their presents of sweetmeats, &c., +dance and cry, “Viva la honra.”—<i>Bright, on the Spanish Gipsy marriage.</i></p> + +<p>Before the marriage festival begins, four matrons—relations of the contracting +parties—are appointed to scrutinize the bride; in which a handkerchief, +of the finest French cambric, takes a leading part. Should she +prove frail, she will likely be made away with, in a way that will leave no +trace behind. In carrying out some marriage festivals, a procession will +take place, led by some vile-looking fellow, bearing, on the end of a long +pole, the <i>diclé</i> and unspotted handkerchief; followed by the betrothed and +their nearest friends, and a rabble of Gipsies, shouting and firing, and barking +of dogs. On arriving at the church, the pole, with its triumphant +colours, is stuck into the ground, with a loud huzza; while the train defile, +on either side, into the church. On returning home, the same takes place. +Then follows the most ludicrous and wasteful kind of revelling, which often +leaves the bridegroom a beggar for life.—<i>Borrow, on the Spanish Gipsy marriage.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote174" id="Footnote174"></a><a href="#FNanchor174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> The part of the marriage ceremony of the Gipsies which relates to the +chastity of the bride has a great resemblance to a part of the nuptial rites +of the Russians, and the Christians of St. John, in Mesopotamia and Chaldea. +Dr. Hurd says: “When a new-married couple in Russia retire to the nuptial +bed, an old domestic servant stands sentinel at the chamber-door. +Some travellers tell us that this old servant, as soon as it is proper, attends +nearer the bedside, to be informed of what happens. Upon the husband’s +declaration of his success and satisfaction, the kettle-drums and trumpets +proclaim the joyful news.” Among the Christians of St. John, as soon as +the marriage is consummated, “both parties wait upon the bishop, and the +husband deposes before him that he found his wife a virgin; and then the +bishop marries them, puts several rings on their fingers, and baptizes them +again . . . . A marriage with one who is discovered to have lost her +honour beforehand but very seldom, if ever, holds good.”</p> + +<p>When speaking of the marriages of the Mandingoes, at Kamalia, about +500 miles in the interior of Africa, Park says: “The new-married couple +are always disturbed toward morning by the women, who assemble to inspect +the nuptial sheet, (according to the manners of the ancient Hebrews, as +recorded in Scripture,) and dance around it. This ceremony is thought +indispensably necessary, nor is the marriage considered valid without it.” +<i>Park’s Travels, page 399.</i></p> + +<p>By the laws of Menu, the Hindoo could reject his bride, if he found her +not a virgin.—<i>Sir William Jones.</i></p> + +<p>[The reader will observe that the marriage ceremony of the Gipsies, +though barbarous, is very figurative and emphatic, and certainly moral +enough. To show that the Gipsies, as a people, have not been addicted +to the most barbarous customs, in regard to marriage, I note the following +very singular form of the Scottish Highlanders, which, according to Skene, +continued in use <i>until a very late period</i>. “This custom was termed <i>hand-fasting</i>, +and consisted in a species of contract between two chiefs, by which +it was agreed that the heir of one should live with the daughter of the +other, as her husband, for twelve months and a day. If, in that time, the +lady became a mother, or proved to be with child, the marriage became +good in law, even although no priest had performed the marriage in due +form; but should there not have occurred any appearance of issue, the contract +was considered at an end, and each party was at liberty to marry, or +<i>hand-fast, with any other</i>.” Which fact shows that Highland chiefs, at one +time, would have annulled any, or all, of the laws of God, whenever it +would have served their purposes.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote175" id="Footnote175"></a><a href="#FNanchor175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> On reading the above ceremony to an intelligent native of Fife, he said +he had himself heard a Gipsy, of the name of Thomas Ogilvie, say that +the Tinklers were married in the way mentioned. On one occasion, when +a couple of respectable individuals were married, in the usual Scottish +Presbyterian manner, at Elie, in Fife, Ogilvie, Gipsy-like, laughed at such +a wedding ceremony, as being, in his estimation, no way binding on the +parties. He at the same time observed that, if they would come to him, +he would marry them in the Tinkler manner, which would make it a difficult +matter to separate them again.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote176" id="Footnote176"></a><a href="#FNanchor176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> Two ram’s horns and two spoons, crossed, are sculptured on the tombstone +of William Marshall, a Gipsy chief, who, according to a writer in +Blackwood’s Magazine, died at the age of 120 years, and whose remains are +deposited in the church-yard of Kirkcudbright.</p> + +<p>A horn is the hieroglyphic of authority, power, and dignity, and is a +metaphor often made use of in the Scriptures. The Jews held ram’s horns +in great veneration, on account, it is thought, of that animal having been +caught in a bush by the horns, and used as a substitute, when Isaac was +about to be sacrificed by his father; or, perhaps, on account of this animal +being first used in sacrifice. So much were ram’s horns esteemed by the +Israelites, that their Priests and Levites used them as trumpets, particularly +at the taking of Jericho. The modern Jews, when they confess their sins, +in our month of September, announce the ceremony by blowing a ram’s +horn, the sound of which, they say, drives away the Devil. In ancient +Egypt, and other parts of Africa, Jupiter Ammon was worshipped under the +figure of a ram, and to this deity one of these animals was sacrificed annually. +A ram seems to have been an emblem of power in the East, from the +remotest ages. It would, therefore, appear that the practice of the Gipsy +priest “wearing a ram’s horn, suspended from a string, around his neck,” +must be derived from the highest antiquity.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote177" id="Footnote177"></a><a href="#FNanchor177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> Edinburgh Encyclopædia, vol, x.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote178" id="Footnote178"></a><a href="#FNanchor178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> Mr. Borrow bears very positive testimony to the <i>personal</i> virtue of +Gipsy females. I have heard natives of Hungary speak lightly of them in +that respect; but I conclude that they alluded to exceptions to the general +rule among the race.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote179" id="Footnote179"></a><a href="#FNanchor179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> What our author says, relative to the sacrifice of the horse, by the Gipsies, +not being known to the people of Scotland at large, is equally applicable +to the entire subject of the tribe. And we see here how admirably the +passions—in this case, the prejudice and incredulity—of mankind are calculated +to blind them to facts, perhaps to facts the most obvious and incontestible. +What is stated of the Gipsies in this work, generally, should be +no matter of wonder; the real wonder, if wonder there should be, is that it +should not have been known to the world before.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote180" id="Footnote180"></a><a href="#FNanchor180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> Grellmann says, of the Hungarian Gipsies, “The greatest luxury to +them is when they can procure a roast of cattle that have died of any distemper, +whether it be sheep, pig, cow, or other beast, <i>a horse only excepted</i>.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote181" id="Footnote181"></a><a href="#FNanchor181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> It appears that the Jews, when they lapsed into the grossest idolatry, +dedicated horses to the sun. “And he (Josiah) took away the horses that +the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of +the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech, the chamberlain, which was in +the suburbs, and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.” II Kings, xxiii. 11.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote182" id="Footnote182"></a><a href="#FNanchor182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> This Gipsy mentioned one particular instance of having seen a couple +separated in this way, on a wild moor, near Huntly, about the year 1805. +He particularly stated that a horse found dead would not do for a separation, +but that one must be killed for the express purpose; and that “the +sun must be at his height” before the horse could be properly sacrificed. +From the fact of Ramsay stumbling upon the Gipsies “a little after day-break,” +it would seem that circumstances had compelled them to change +the time, or adjourn the completion, of the sacrifice; or that the extreme +wildness of the victim had prevented its being caught, and so led to the +“violent swing which McDonald gave his wife at parting.” And it might +be that Ramsay had come upon them when McDonald and his wife were +performing the last part of the ceremony, or had caused them to finish it +abruptly; as the old Gipsy stated that not only are none but Gipsies +allowed to be present on such occasions, but that the greatest secrecy is +observed, to prevent discovery by those who are not of the tribe.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote183" id="Footnote183"></a><a href="#FNanchor183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> It appears all the Gipsies, male as well as female, who perform ceremonies +for their tribe, carry long staffs. In the Institutes of Menu, page +28, it is written: “The staff of a priest must be of such length as to reach +his hair; that of a soldier to reach his forehead; and that of a merchant +to reach the nose.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote184" id="Footnote184"></a><a href="#FNanchor184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> That I might distinctly understand the Gipsy, when he described the +manner of crossing and wheeling round the corners of the horse, a common +sitting-chair was placed on its side between us, which represented the +animal lying on the ground.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote185" id="Footnote185"></a><a href="#FNanchor185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> Bright, on the Spanish Gipsies, says: “Widows never marry again, +are distinguished by mourning-veils, and black shoes made like those +of a man; no slight mortification, in a country where the females are so remarkable +for the beauty of their feet.” It is most likely that <i>divorced female +Gipsies</i> are confounded here with <i>widows</i>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote186" id="Footnote186"></a><a href="#FNanchor186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> This difficulty has been removed by recent legislation.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote187" id="Footnote187"></a><a href="#FNanchor187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> “An ass is sometimes sacrificed by religious mendicants, as an atonement +for some fault by which they had forfeited their rank as devotees.”—<i>Account +of the Hindoos.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote188" id="Footnote188"></a><a href="#FNanchor188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> Jugg, in Hindostanee, is a word which signifies a religious ceremony; +hence the well-known temple Juggernaut.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>LANGUAGE.</h3> + +<p>The Scottish Gipsies appear to be extremely tenacious of +retaining their language, as their principal secret, among +themselves, and seem, from what I have read on the subject, +to be much less communicative, on this and other matters +relative to their history, than those of England and other +countries. On speaking to them of their speech, they exhibit +an extraordinary degree of fear, caution, reluctance, +distrust, and suspicion; and, rather than give any information +on the subject, will submit to any self-denial. It has +been so well retained among themselves, that I believe it is +scarcely credited, even by individuals of the greatest intelligence, +that it exists at all, at the present day, but as slang, +used by common thieves, house-breakers and beggars, and +by those denominated flash and family men.<a name="FNanchor189" id="FNanchor189"></a><a href="#Footnote189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>Among the causes contributing to this state of things +among the Scottish Gipsies, and what are called Tinklers +or Tinkers, for they are the same people, may be mentioned +the following: The traditional accounts of the numerous +imprisonments, banishments, and executions, which +many of the race underwent, for merely being “by habit +and repute Gipsies,” under the severe laws passed against +them, are still fresh in the memories of the present generation. +They still entertain the idea that they are a persecuted +race, and liable, if known to be Gipsies, to all the +penalties of the statutes framed for the extirpation of the +whole people. But, apart from this view of the question, +it may be asked, how is it that the Gipsies in Scotland are +more reserved, (they are generally altogether silent,) in respect +to themselves, than their brethren in other countries +seem to be? It may be answered, that our Scottish tribes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +are, in general, much more civilized, their bands more broken +up, and the individuals more mixed with, and scattered +through, the general population of the country, than the +Gipsies of other nations; and it therefore appears to me +that the more their blood gets mixed with that of the ordinary +natives, and the more they approach to civilization, the +more determinedly will they conceal every particular relative +to their tribe, to prevent their neighbours ascertaining +their origin and nationality. The slightest taunting allusion +to the forefathers of half-civilized Scottish Tinklers +kindles up in their breasts a storm of wrath and fury: for +they are extremely sensitive to the feeling which is entertained +toward their tribe by the other inhabitants of the +country.<a name="FNanchor190" id="FNanchor190"></a><a href="#Footnote190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> “I have,” said one of them to me, “wrought all +my life in a shop with fellow-tradesmen, and not one of +them ever discovered that I knew a single Gipsy word.” A +Gipsy woman also informed me that herself and sister had +nearly lost their lives, on account of their language. The +following are the particulars: The two sisters chanced to +be in a public-house near Alloa, when a number of colliers, +belonging to the coal-works at Sauchie, were present. The +one sister, in a low tone of voice, and in the Gipsy language, +desired the other, among other things, to make ready some +broth for their repast. The colliers took hold of the two +Gipsy words, <i>shaucha</i> and <i>blawkie</i>, which signify broth and +pot; thinking the Tinkler women were calling them <i>Sauchie +Blackies</i>, in derision and contempt of their dark, subterraneous +calling. The consequence was, that the savage colliers +attacked the innocent Tinklers, calling out that they would +“grind them to powder,” for calling them <i>Sauchie Blackies</i>. +But the determined Gipsies would rather perish than explain +the meaning of the words in English, to appease the enraged +colliers; “for,” said they, “it would have exposed +our tribe, and made ourselves odious to the world.” The +two defenceless females might have been murdered by their +brutal assailants, had not the master of the house fortunately +come to their assistance. The poor Gipsies felt the effects<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +of the beating they had received, for many months thereafter; +and my informant had not recovered from her bruises at the +time she mentioned the circumstances to me.<a name="FNanchor191" id="FNanchor191"></a><a href="#Footnote191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a></p> + +<p>They are also anxious to retain their language, as a secret +among themselves, for the use which it is to them in conducting +business in markets or other places of public resort. +But they are very chary of the manner in which they employ +it on such occasions. Besides this, they display all the +pride and vanity in possessing the language which is common +with linguists generally. The determined and uniform +principle laid down by them, to avoid all communications +with “strangers” on the subject, and their resolution +to keep it a secret within their own tribe, will be strikingly +illustrated by the following facts.</p> + +<p>For seven years, a woman, of the name of Baillie, about +fifty years of age, and the mother of a family, called regularly +at my house, twice a year, while on her peregrinations +through the country, selling spoons and other articles made +from horn. Every time I saw her, I endeavoured to prevail +upon her to give me some of her secret speech, as I was certain +she was acquainted with the Gipsy tongue. But, not +to alarm her by calling it by that name, I always said to +her, in a jocular manner, that it was the <i>mason</i> word I wished +her to teach me. She, however, as regularly and firmly +declared that she knew of no such language among the +Tinklers. I always treated her kindly, and desired her to +continue her visits. I gave her, each time she called, a +glass of spirits, a piece of flesh, and such articles; and +generally purchased some trifle from her, for which I intentionally +paid her more than its value. She so far yielded +to my importunities, that, for the last three years she called, +she went the length of saying that she would tell me “something” +the next time she came back. But when she returned, +she guardedly evaded all my questions, by constantly repeating +nearly the same answer, such as, “I will speak to you +the next time I come back, sir.” After having been put off +for <i>seven</i> years in this manner, I was determined to put her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +to the usual test, should she never enter my door again, and, +as she was walking out of the gate of my garden, I called to +her, in the Gipsy language, “<i>Jaw vree, managie!</i>“—(go away, +woman.) She immediately turned round, and, laughing, replied, +“I will <i>jaw</i> with you when I come back, <i>gaugie</i>“—(I +will go or speak with you, when I come back, man.) She +returned, as usual, in December following. I again requested +her to give me some of her words, assuring her that +she would be in no danger from me on that account. I further +told her it was of no use to conceal her speech from me, +having, the last time she was in my house, shown her that I +was acquainted with it. After considerable hesitation and +reluctance, she consented; but then, she said, she would not +allow any one in the house to hear her speak to me but my +wife. I took her at once into my parlour, and, on being +desired, she, without the least hesitation or embarrassment, +took the seat next the fire. Observing the door of the room +a little open, she desired it to be shut, in case of her being +overheard, again mentioning that she had no objections to +my wife being present, and gravely observing that “husbands +and wives were one, and should know all one another’s +secrets.” She stated that the public would look upon her +with horror and contempt, were it known she could speak +the Gipsy language. She was extremely civil and intelligent, +yet placed me upon a familiar equality with herself, +when she found I knew of the existence of her speech, and +could repeat some of the words of it. Her nature, to appearance, +seemed changed. Her bold and fiery disposition was +softened and subdued. She was very frank and polite; retained +her self-possession, and spoke with great propriety.<a name="FNanchor192" id="FNanchor192"></a><a href="#Footnote192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> +The words which I got on this occasion will be found in +another part of the chapter.</p> + +<p>In corroboration of this principle of concealment observed +by the Scottish Gipsies, relative to their language, I may +give a fact which will show how artful they are in avoiding +any allusion to it. One evening, as a band of <i>potters</i>, with +a cart of earthenware, were travelling on the high-road, in +a wild glen in the south of Scotland, a brother of mine overheard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +them, male and female, conversing in a language, a +word of which he did not understand. As the road was +very bad, and the night dark, one of the females of the band +was a few yards in advance of the cart, acting as a guide to +the horde. Every now and then, among other unintelligible +expressions, she called out “<i>Shan drom</i>.” My brother’s +curiosity was excited by hearing the potters conversing in +this manner, and, next morning, he went to where they lodged, +in an out-house on the farm, and enquired of the female +what she was saying on the road, the night before, and what +she meant by “<i>Shan drom</i>.” The woman appeared confused +at the unexpected question; but in a short time recovered +her self-possession, and artfully replied that they +were talking <i>Latin</i> (<i>!</i>) and that “<i>Shan drom</i>,” in Latin, +signified “bad road.” But the truth is, “<i>Shan drom</i>” is +the Gipsy expression for bad road, as will by and by be seen.</p> + +<p>Besides the difficulties mentioned in the way of getting +any of their language from them, there is a general one that +arises from the suspicious, unsettled, restless, fickle and volatile +nature by which they are characterized. It is a rare +thing to get them to speak consecutively for more than a +few minutes on any subject, thus precluding the possibility, +in most instances, of taking advantage of any favourable +humour in which they may be found, in the matter of their +general history—leaving alone the formal and serious procedure +necessary to be followed in regard to their language. +If this favourable turn in their disposition is allowed +to pass, it is rarely anything of that nature can be got from +them at that meeting; and it is extremely likely that, at +any after interviews, they will entirely evade the matter so +much desired.</p> + +<p>With these remarks, I will now proceed to state the +method I adopted to get at the Gipsy language.</p> + +<p>Short vocabularies of the language of the <i>Tschengenes</i> of +Turkey, the <i>Cyganis</i> of Hungary, the <i>Zigeuners</i> of Germany, +the <i>Gitanos</i> of Spain, and the <i>Gipsies</i> of England, have, at +different periods, since 1783, issued from the press, in this +country and in Germany; but I am not aware of any specimens +of our Scottish <i>Tinkler</i> or Gipsy language having as +yet been submitted to the public. Some of the former I +committed to memory, and used, intermixed with English +words, in questions I would put to the Scottish Gipsies. In this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +way, one word would lead to another. I would address them +in a confident and familiar manner, as if I were one of themselves, +and knew exactly who they were, and all about them. +I would, for instance, ask them: Have you a <i>grye</i> (horse)? +How many <i>chauvies</i> (children) have you? Where is your +<i>gaugie</i> (husband)? Do you sell <i>roys</i> (spoons)? Being +taken completely by surprise, they would give me at once a +true answer. For, being the first, as far as I know, to apply +the language of the Gipsies of the continent to our own +tribes, they could naturally have no hesitation in replying to +my questions; although they would wonder what kind of a +Gipsy I could possibly be—dressed, as I was, in black, with +black neck-cloth, and no display of linen, save a ruffled +breast, thick-soled shoes and gaiters. The consequence +was, I became a character of interest to many of the Gipsies +to be found in a circuit of many miles; and great wonder +was excited in their untutored minds, leading to a desire to +see, and know something of, the <i>Riah Nawken</i>, or the gentleman +Gipsy. On such occasions, I would treat them as I +would land a fish—give them hook and line enough. But +the circumstance was to them something incomprehensible, +for, although Gipsies are very ready-witted, and possess +great natural resources, in thieving, and playing tricks of +every kind, and great tact in getting out of difficulties of +that nature—which, with them, are matters of instinct, training, +and practice—their whole mind being bent, and exclusively +employed, in that direction, it was almost impossible +for them to form any intelligible opinion as to my true character, +provided I was any way discreet in disguising my real +position among them. As little chance was there of any of +themselves informing the others of what assistance they had +inadvertently been to me, in getting at their language. +Some of them might have an idea that one of their race had, +in their own way of thinking, peached, turned traitor to +their blood, and let the cat out of the bag. At times, if they +happened to see me approach them, so as to have an opportunity +to scrutinize me—which they are much given to, with +people generally—they would not be so easily disconcerted +at any question put to them in their language; but the result +would be either direct replies, or the most ludicrous +scenes of surprise and terror imaginable, which, to be enjoyed, +were only to be seen, but could not be described,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +although the sequel will in some measure illustrate them. +At other times, if I addressed a Gipsy in his own language, +and spoke to him in a kind and familiar manner, as if I had +been soothing a wild and unmanageable horse, before mounting +him, he would either very awkwardly pretend not to +understand what I meant, or, with a downcast and guilty +look, and subdued voice, immediately answer my Gipsy +words in English. But if I put the words to him in an abrupt, +hasty, or threatening manner, he would either take to +his heels, or turn upon me, like a tiger, and pour out upon +me a torrent of abusive language. The following instances +will show the manner in which my use of their language was +sometimes appreciated by the female Gipsies.</p> + +<p>When I spoke in a sharp manner to some of the old women, +on the high-road, by way of testing them, they would +quicken their paces, look over their shoulders, and call out, +in much bitterness of spirit, “You are no gentleman, sir, +otherwise you would not insult us in that way.” On one +occasion, I observed a woman with her son, who appeared +about twelve years of age, lingering near a house at which +they had no business, and I desired her, rather sharply, to +leave the place, telling her that I was afraid her chauvie +was a <i>chor</i>—(that her son was a thief). I used these two +words merely to see what effect they would have upon her, +as I did not really think she was a Gipsy. She instantly +flew into a dreadful passion, telling me that I had been +among thieves and robbers myself, otherwise I could not +speak to her in such words as these. She threatened to go +to Edinburgh, to inform the police that I was the head and +captain of a band of thieves,<a name="FNanchor193" id="FNanchor193"></a><a href="#Footnote193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> and that she would have me +immediately apprehended as such. Four sailors who were +present with me were astonished at the sudden wrath and +insolence of the woman, as they could not perceive any provocation +she had received from me—being ignorant of the +meaning of the words <i>chauvie</i> and <i>chor</i>, which I applied to +her boy.</p> + +<p>One day I fell in by chance, on a lonely part of the old +public road, on the hills within half a mile of the village of +North Queensferry, with a woman of about twenty-seven +years of age, and the mother, as she said, of seven children.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +She had light hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion. The +youngest of her children appeared to be about nine months +old, and the eldest about ten years. The mother was dressed +in a brown cloak, and the group had altogether a very +squalid appearance. In the most lamentable tone of voice, +she informed me that her husband had set off with another +woman, and left her and her seven children to starve; and +that he had been lately employed at a paper-mill in Mid-Lothian. +She sometimes appeared almost to choke with +grief, but, nevertheless, I observed no tears in her eyes. She +often repeated, in a sort of hypocritical and canting manner, +“The Lord has been very kind to me, and will still protect +me and my helpless babes. Last night we all slept in +the open fields, and gathered peas and beans from the stubble +for our suppers.” She certainly seemed to be in very indigent +circumstances; but that her husband had abandoned +her, I did not credit. However, I gave her a few half-pence, +for which she thanked me very civilly. From her extravagant +behaviour, and a peculiar wildness in her looks, it occurred +to me that she belonged to the lowest caste of Gipsies, +although her appearance did not indicate it; that her grief +was, for the most part, feigned, and that the story of her +husband having abandoned her was got up merely to excite +pity, for the purpose of procuring a little money for the subsistence +of her band. I now put a number of questions to +her, relative to many individuals whom I knew were Gipsies +of a superior class, taking care not to call them by that name, +in case of alarming her. I spoke to her as if I had been +quite intimate with all the persons I was enquiring about. +She gave me satisfactory answers to almost every question, +and seemed well acquainted with every individual I named. +She now appeared quite calm and collected, and answered +me very gravely. But she said that some of the men I mentioned +were rogues, and that their wives played many clever +tricks. On mentioning the tricks of the wives, I noticed a +smile come over her countenance. I observed to her that +they were not faultless, but that they were often blamed for +crimes of which they were not guilty. Upon perceiving that +I took their part, which I did on purpose, to hear what she +would say, she gradually changed her mind, and came over +to my opinion. She said that they were exceedingly good-hearted +people, and that some of them had frequently paid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +a night’s lodging for herself and family. I now ventured to +put a question to her, half in Gipsy and half in English. +After a short pause and hesitation, she signified that she understood +what I said. I then asked one or two questions +in Gipsy words only. A Gipsy, with crockery-ware in a +basket, happened to pass us at the very moment I was speaking +to her; and to show her the knowledge I had of her +speech and people, I said, “There is a <i>nawken</i>“—(there is a +Gipsy.) She, in a very civil and polite manner, immediately +replied, “Sir, I hope you will not take it ill, when I use the +freedom of saying that you must have been among the people +you are enquiring about, otherwise you could not speak to +me in that way.” To show her that I did not despise her +for understanding my Gipsy words, I gave her a few pence +more, and spoke kindly to her. She then became quite +cheerful and frank, as if we had been old acquaintances. +Instead of trying to impose upon me, by tales of grief and +woe, and feigned piety, she appeared happy and contented, +her whole conduct indicating that it was useless to play off +her tricks upon me, as she was now sensible that I knew exactly +what she was, and yet did not treat her contemptuously. +She said her husband’s name was Wilson, and her +own Jackson, (the names of two Gipsy tribes;) that she could +tell fortunes, and was acquainted with the <i>Irish</i> words I +spoke, being afraid to call them by their right name. She +further stated that every one of the people I was enquiring +about spoke in the same language.</p> + +<p>About half an hour after I parted with her, on the road, +I met her in the village of North Queensferry, while I was +walking with a friend. I then put a question to her in +Gipsy words, in the presence of this third party, who knew +not what she was, to see how she would conduct herself in +public. She seemed surprised at my question, as if she did +not understand a word of it—to prevent it being discovered +to others of the community that she was a Gipsy. But she +publicly praised me highly, for having given her something +to help her poor children; and, with her trumped-up story +at her tongue’s end, proceeded on her travels.</p> + +<p>These poor people were much alarmed when I let them +see that I knew they were Gipsies. They thought I was +despising them, and treating them with contempt; or they +were afraid of being apprehended under the old sanguinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +laws, condemning the whole unfortunate race to death; for +the Gipsies, as I have already said, still believe that these +bloody statutes are in full force against them at the present +day.</p> + +<p>I was advised by Sir Walter Scott, as mentioned in the +<a href="#Page_55">Introduction</a>, to “get the same words from different individuals; +and, to verify the collection, to set down the names of +the persons by whom they were communicated;” which I +have done. For this reason, the words now furnished will +appear as the confessions of so many individuals, rather than +a vocabulary drawn up in the manner in which such is usually +done; and which will be more satisfactory to the general +reader, as well as the philologist, than if I had presented +the words by themselves, without any positive or circumstantial +evidence of their genuineness. To the general +reader, as distinguished from the philologist, the anecdotes +connected with the collection may prove interesting, if the +words themselves have no attraction for him; while they +will satisfy the latter, as far as they go, as to the existence +of a language which has almost always been denied, yet +which is known, at the present day, to a greater number of +the population of the country than could at first have been +imagined; this part of it having been drawn from a variety +of individuals, at different and widely-separated times and +places. On this account, I hope that the minuteness of the +details of the present enquiry may not appear tedious, but, +on the contrary, interesting, to my readers generally; inasmuch +as the present collection is the first, as far as I know, +of the Scottish Gipsy language that has ever been made; +although the people themselves have lived amongst us for +three hundred and fifty years, and talked it every hour of +the day, but hardly ever in the hearing of the other inhabitants, +excepting, occasionally, a word of it now and then, to +disguise their discourse from those around them; which, on +being questioned, they have always passed off for <i>cant</i>, to +prevent the law taking hold of them, and punishing them +for being Gipsies. These details will also show that our +Scottish Tinklers, or Gipsies, are sprung from the common +stock from which are descended those that are to be found +in the other parts of Europe, as well as those that are scattered +over the world generally; what secrecy they observe +in all matters relative to their affairs; what an extraordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +degree of reluctance and fear they evince in answering +questions tending to develop their history; and, consequently, +how difficult it is to learn anything satisfactory +about them.<a name="FNanchor194" id="FNanchor194"></a><a href="#Footnote194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a></p> + +<p>I fell in one day, on the public road, with an old woman +and her two daughters, of the name of Ross, selling horn +spoons, made by Andrew Stewart, a Tinkler at Bo’ness. I +repeated to the woman, in the shape of questions, some of +the Gipsy words presented in these pages. She at first +affected, though very awkwardly, not to understand what I +said, but in a few minutes, with some embarrassment in her +manner, acknowledged that she knew the speech, and gave +me the English of the following words:</p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Gaugie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Managie</i>, woman.</li> +<li><i>Chauvies</i>, children.</li> +<li><i>Grye</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Grye-femler</i>, horse-dealer.</li> +<li><i>Roys</i>, spoons.</li> +</ul> + +<p>I observed to this woman, that I saw no harm in speaking +this language openly and publicly. “None in the least, sir,” +was her reply.</p> + +<p>Two girls, of the name of Jamieson, came one day begging +to my door. They appeared to be sisters, of about +eight and seventeen years of age, and were pretty decently +clothed. Both had light-blue eyes, light-yellow, or rather +flaxen, hair, and fair complexions. To ascertain whether +they were Tinklers or not, I put some Gipsy words to the +eldest girl. She immediately hung down her head, as if she +had been detected in a crime, and, pretending not to understand +what was said, left the house; but, after proceeding +about twelve paces, she took courage, turned round, and, +with a smile upon an agreeable countenance, called back, +“There are eleven of us, sir.” I had enquired of her how +many children there were of her family. I called both the +girls back to my house, and ordered them some victuals, for +which they were extremely grateful, and seemed much +pleased that they were kindly treated. After I had discovered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +they were Gipsies, I wormed out of them the following +words:</p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Gaugie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Managie</i>, woman.</li> +<li><i>Chauvies</i>, children.</li> +<li><i>Grye</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Jucal</i>, dog.</li> +</ul> + +<p>When I enquired of the eldest girl the English of <i>Jucal</i>, +she did not, at first, catch the sound of the word; but her +little sister looked up in her face, and said to her, “Don’t +you hear? That is dog. It is dog he means.” The other +then added, with a downcast look, and a melancholy tone +of voice, “You gentlemen understand all languages now-a-days.”</p> + +<p>At another time, four or five children were loitering about, +and diverting themselves, before the door of a house, near +Inverkeithing. The youngest appeared about five, and the +eldest about thirteen years of age. One of the boys, of the +name of McDonald, stepped forward, and asked some money +from me in charity. From his importunate manner of begging, +I suspected the children were Gipsies, although their +appearance did not indicate them to be of that race. After +some questions put to them about their parents and their +occupations, they gave me the English of the following +words:</p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Gaugie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Chauvies</i>, children.</li> +<li><i>Riah</i>, gentleman.</li> +<li><i>Grye</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Jucal</i>, dog.</li> +<li><i>Aizel</i>, ass.</li> +<li><i>Lowa</i>, silver.</li> +<li><i>Chor</i>, thief.</li> +<li><i>Staurdie</i>, prison.</li> +<li><i>Bing</i>, the devil.</li> +</ul> + +<p>A gentleman, an acquaintance of mine, was in my presence +while the children were answering my words; and as the +subject of their language was new to him, I made some remarks +to him in their hearing, relative to their tribe, which +greatly displeased them. One of the boys called out to me, +with much bitterness of expression, “You are a Gipsy yourself, +sir, or you never could have got these words.”</p> + +<p>Some years since, a female, of the name of Ruthven, was +in the habit of calling at a farm occupied by one of my +brothers. My mother, being interested about the Gipsies, +began, on one occasion, to question this female Tinkler, relative +to her tribe, and, among other things, asked if she was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +a Gipsy. “Yes,” replied Ruthven, “I am a Gipsy, and a +desperate, murdering race we are. I will let you hear me +speak our language, but what the better will you be of +that?” She accordingly uttered a few sentences, and then +said, “Now, are you any the wiser of what you have heard? +But that infant,” pointing to her child of about five years of +age, “understands every word I speak.” “I know,” continued +the Tinkler, “that the public are trying to find out +the secrets of the Gipsies, but it is in vain.” This woman +further stated that her tribe would be exceedingly displeased, +were it known that any of their fraternity taught +their language to “strangers.”<a name="FNanchor195" id="FNanchor195"></a><a href="#Footnote195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a> She also mentioned that the +Gipsies believe that the laws which were enacted for their +extirpation were yet in full force against them. I may mention, +however, that she could put confidence in the family in +whose house she made these confessions.</p> + +<p>On another occasion, a female, with three or four children, +the eldest of whom was not above ten years of age, came +up to me while speaking to an innkeeper, on a public pier +on the banks of the Forth. She stated to us that her property +had been burned to the ground, and her family reduced +to beggary, and solicited charity of us both. After receiving +a few half-pence from the innkeeper, she continued her +importunities with an unusual impertinence, and hung upon +me for a contribution. Her barefaced conduct displeased +me. I thought I would put her to the test, and try if she +was not a Gipsy. Deepening the tone of my voice, I called +out to her, in an angry manner, “<i>Sallah, jaw drom</i>“—(“Curse +you, take the road.”) The woman instantly wheeled +about, uttered not another word, but set off, with precipitation; +and so alarmed were her children, that they took hold +of her clothes, to hasten and pull her out of my presence; +calling to her, at the same time, “Mother, mother, come +away.” Mine host, the innkeeper, was amazed at the effectual +manner in which I silenced and dismissed the importunate +and troublesome beggars. He was anxious that I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +should teach him the unknown words that had so terrified +the poor Gipsies; with the design, it appeared to me, of +frightening others, should they molest him with their begging. +Had I not proved this family by the language, it was +impossible for any one to perceive that the group were +Gipsies.</p> + +<p>In prosecuting my enquiries into the existence of the +Gipsy language, I paid a visit to Lochgellie, once the residence +of four or five families of Gipsies, as already mentioned, +and procured an interview with young Andrew +Steedman, a member of the tribe. At first, he appeared +much alarmed, and seemed to think I had a design to do +him harm. His fears, however, were in a short while +calmed; and, after much reluctance, he gave me the following +words and expressions, with the corresponding English +significations. Like a true Gipsy, the first expression which +he uttered, as if it came the readiest to him, was, “<i>Choar a +chauvie</i>“—(“rob that person”) which he pronounced with a +smile on his countenance.</p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Gaugie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Gourie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Managie</i>, woman.</li> +<li><i>Chauvie</i>, a person of either sex.</li> +<li><i>Chauvies</i>, children.</li> +<li><i>Been gaugie</i>, gentleman.</li> +<li><i>Been gourie</i>, gentleman.</li> +<li><i>Rajah</i>, a chief, governor.</li> +<li><i>Baurie rajah</i>, the king.</li> +<li><i>Greham</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Grye</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Seefer</i>, ass.</li> +<li><i>Jucal</i>, dog.</li> +<li><i>Mufler</i>, cat.</li> +<li><i>Sloof</i>, sheep.</li> +<li><i>Bashanie</i>, cock.</li> +<li><i>Caunie</i>, hen.</li> +<li><i>Borlan</i>, sun.</li> +<li><i>Mang</i>, moon.</li> +<li><i>Goff</i>, fire.</li> +<li><i>Garlan</i>, ship.</li> +<li><i>Heefie</i>, spoon.</li> +<li><i>Keechan</i>, knife.</li> +<li><i>Chowrie</i>, knife.</li> +<li><i>Seaf</i>, hat.</li> +<li><i>Mass</i>, flesh.</li> +<li><i>Mass</i>, hand.</li> +<li><i>Bar</i>, money.</li> +<li><i>Lowie</i>, coin or money.</li> +<li><i>Roug</i>, silver.</li> +<li><i>Neel</i>, shilling.</li> +<li><i>Deek</i>, to listen.</li> +<li><i>Chee</i>, tongue.</li> +<li><i>Chee chee</i>, hold your tongue.</li> +<li><i>Chor</i>, thief.</li> +<li><i>Choar</i>, to steal.</li> +<li><i>Quad</i>, prison.</li> +<li><i>Moolie</i>, death.</li> +<li><i>Moolie</i>, I’ll kill you.</li> +<li><i>Bing</i>, the devil.</li> +<li><i>Bing feck</i>, devil take you.</li> +<li><i>Bing feck eelreelee</i>, devil take your soul.</li> +<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span><i>Choar a chauvie</i>, rob that person.</li> +<li><i>Choar a gaugie</i>, steal from that man.</li> +<li><i>Cheeteromanie</i>, a dram of whiskey.</li> +<li><i>Glowie a lowa</i>, pay him the money.</li> +</ul> + +<p>The first expression which the Gipsies use in saluting one +another, when they first meet, anywhere, is “<i>Auteenie, auteenie</i>.” +Steedman, however, did not give me the English +of this salutation. He stated to me that, at the present day, +the Gipsies in Scotland, when by themselves, transact their +business in their own language, and hold all their ordinary +conversations in the same speech. In the course of a few +minutes, Steedman’s fears returned upon him. He appeared +to regret what he had done. He now said he had forgotten +the language, and referred me to his father, old Andrew +Steedman, who, he said, would give me every information I +might require. I imprudently sent him out, to bring the old +man to me; for, when both returned, all further communication, +with regard to their speech, was at an end. Both +were now dead silent on the subject, denied all knowledge +of the Gipsy language, and were evidently under great +alarm. The old man would not face me at all; and when I +went to him, he appeared to be shaking and trembling, while +he stood at the head of his horses, in his own stable. Young +Steedman entreated me to tell no one that he had given me +any words, as the Tinklers, he said, would be exceedingly +displeased with him for doing so. This man, however, by +being kindly treated, and seeing no intention of doing him +any harm, became, at an after period, communicative on +various subjects relative to the Gipsies.</p> + +<p>The following are the words which I obtained during an +hour’s interrogation of the woman that baffled me for seven +years, and of whom I have said something already:</p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Gaugie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Chauvie</i>, child.</li> +<li><i>Mort</i>, wife.</li> +<li><i>Shan mort</i>, bad wife.</li> +<li><i>Blawkie</i>, pot.</li> +<li><i>Roys</i>, spoons.</li> +<li><i>Snypers</i>, shears.</li> +<li><i>Fluff</i>, tobacco-pipe.</li> +<li><i>Baurie mort</i>, good wife.</li> +<li><i>Nais mort</i>, grandmother.</li> +<li><i>Nais gaugie</i>, grandfather.</li> +<li><i>Been riah</i>, gentleman.</li> +<li><i>Been raunie</i>, gentlewoman.</li> +<li><i>Dill</i>, servant-maid.</li> +<li><i>Loudnie</i>, whore.</li> +<li><i>Chor</i>, thief.</li> +<li><i>Gawvers</i>, pickpockets.</li> +<li><i>Nawkens</i>, Tinklers.</li> +<li><i>Rachlin</i>, hanged man.</li> +<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span><i>Klistie</i>, soldier.</li> +<li><i>Paunie-col</i>, sailor.</li> +<li><i>Femmel</i>, hand.</li> +<li><i>Yak</i>, eye.</li> +<li><i>Sherro</i>, head.</li> +<li><i>Mooie</i>, mouth.</li> +<li><i>Chatters</i>, teeth.</li> +<li><i>Rat</i>, blood.</li> +<li><i>Rat</i>, night.</li> +<li><i>Moolie</i>, death, to die, kill.</li> +<li><i>Shucha</i>, coat.</li> +<li><i>Teeyakas</i>, shoes.</li> +<li><i>Gawd</i>, shirt.</li> +<li><i>Olivers</i>, stockings.</li> +<li><i>Wiper</i>, napkin.</li> +<li><i>Coories</i>, blankets.</li> +<li><i>Grye</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Aizel</i>, ass.</li> +<li><i>Jucal</i>, dog.</li> +<li><i>Routler</i>, cow.</li> +<li><i>Bakra</i>, sheep.</li> +<li><i>Kair</i>, house.</li> +<li><i>Blinker</i>, window.</li> +<li><i>Kep</i>, bed.</li> +<li><i>Fluffan</i>, tobacco.</li> +<li><i>Lowie</i>, money.</li> +<li><i>Roug</i>, silver.</li> +<li><i>Leel</i>, bank notes.</li> +<li><i>Casties</i>, trees.</li> +<li><i>Quad</i>, prison.</li> +<li><i>Harro</i>, sword.</li> +<li><i>Chourie</i>, bayonet-knife.</li> +<li><i>Mass</i>, meat, flesh.</li> +<li><i>Guffie</i>, swine’s flesh.</li> +<li><i>Flatrins</i>, fish.</li> +<li><i>Habben</i>, bread.</li> +<li><i>Blaw</i>, meal.</li> +<li><i>Neddies</i>, potatoes.</li> +<li><i>Thood</i>, milk.</li> +<li><i>Smout</i>, butter.</li> +<li><i>Chizcazin</i>, cheese.</li> +<li><i>Bobies</i>, peas.</li> +<li><i>Pooklie</i>, pot-barley.</li> +<li><i>Shaucha</i>, broth.</li> +<li><i>Geeve</i>, corn, wheat, grain.</li> +<li><i>Faizim</i>, hay.</li> +<li><i>Stramel</i>, straw.</li> +<li><i>Paunie</i>, water.</li> +<li><i>Yak</i>, coal.</li> +<li><i>Mouds</i>, peats.</li> +<li><i>Shan drom</i>, bad road.</li> +<li><i>Beenlightment</i>, daylight.</li> +<li><i>Jaw vree</i>, go away.</li> +<li><i>Aucheer mangan</i>, hold your tongue.</li> +<li><i>Bing lee ma</i>, devil miss me.</li> +<li><i>Ruffie feck ma</i>, devil take me.</li> +<li><i>Ruffie lee ma</i>, devil miss me.</li> +</ul> + +<p>I observed to this woman that her language would, in +course of time, be lost. She replied, with great seriousness, +“It will never be forgotten, sir; it is in our hearts, and +as long as a single Tinkler exists, it will be remembered.” +I further enquired of her, how many of her tribe were in +Scotland. Her answer was, “There are several thousand; +and there are many respectable shop-keepers and house-holders +in Scotland that are Gipsies.” I requested of this +woman the Gipsy word for God.<a name="FNanchor196" id="FNanchor196"></a><a href="#Footnote196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> She said they had no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +corresponding word for God in their speech; adding, that +she thought “it as well, as it prevented them having their +Maker’s name often unnecessarily and sinfully in their +mouths.” She acknowledged the justice, and highly approved +of the punishment of death for murder; but she +condemned, most bitterly, the law that took away the lives +of human beings for stealing. She dwelt on the advantages +which her secret speech gave her tribe in transacting business +in markets. She said that she was descended from the +first Gipsy family in Scotland. I was satisfied that she was +sprung from the second, if not the first, family. I could +make out, with tolerable certainty, the links of her descent +for four generations of Gipsies. I have already described +the splendid style in which her ancestors travelled in Tweed-dale. +Her mother, above eighty years of age, also called +at my house. Both were fortune-tellers. It was evident, +from this woman’s manner, that she knew much she would +not communicate. Like the Gipsy chief, in presence of Dr. +Bright, at Csurgo, in Hungary, she, in a short time, became +impatient; and, apparently, when a certain hour arrived, she +insisted upon being allowed to depart. She would not submit +to be questioned any longer.</p> + +<p>Owing to the nature of my enquiries, and more particularly +the fears of the tribe, I could seldom venture to question +the Gipsies regarding their speech, or their ancient +customs, with any hope of receiving satisfactory answers, +when a third party was present. The following, however, +is an instance to the contrary; and the facts witnessed by +the gentleman who was with me at the time, are, besides +the testimony of the Gipsies themselves, convincing proofs +that these people, at the present day, in Scotland, can converse +among themselves, on any ordinary subject, in their +own language, without making use of a single word of the +English tongue.<a name="FNanchor197" id="FNanchor197"></a><a href="#Footnote197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a></p> + +<p>In May, 1829, while near the manse of Inverkeithing, my +friend and I accidentally fell in, on the high road, with four +children, the youngest of whom appeared to be about four,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +and the eldest about thirteen, years of age. They were accompanied +by a woman, about twenty years old, who had the +appearance of being married, but not the mother of any of +the children with her. Not one of the whole party could +have been taken for a Gipsy, but all had the exact appearance +of being the family of some indigent tradesman or labourer. +Excepting the woman, whose hair was dark, all of the company +had hair of a light colour, some of them inclining to +yellow, with fair complexions. In not one of their countenances +could be seen those features by which many pretend +the Gipsies can, at all times, be distinguished from the rest +of the community. The manner, however, in which the +woman, at first, addressed me, created in my mind a suspicion +that she was one of the tribe. In order to ascertain the +fact, I put a question to her in Gipsy, in such a manner that +it might appear to her that I was quite certain she was one +of the fraternity. She immediately smiled at my question, +held down her head, cast her eyes to the ground, then appeared +as if she had been detected in something wrong, and +pretended not to understand what I said. One of the children, +however, being thrown entirely off his guard, immediately +said to her, “You know quite well what he says.” +The woman, recovering from her surprise and confusion, and +being assured she had nothing to fear from me, now answered +my question. She also replied to every other interrogation +I put to her, without showing the least fear or hesitation. +After I had repeated a few words more, and a sentence in +the Gipsy tongue, one of the boys exclaimed, “He has good +cant!” and then addressed me entirely in the Gipsy language. +(All the Gipsies, as I have already mentioned, call their language +<i>cant</i>, for the purpose of concealing their tribe.) The +whole party seemed extremely happy that I was acquainted +with their speech. The woman put several questions to me, +in return, some of which were wholly in her own peculiar +tongue. She asked my name, place of residence, and whether +I was a <i>nawken</i>—that is a Gipsy. She further enquired +whether my friend was also a <i>nawken</i>; adding, with a smile, +that she was sure I was a <i>tramper</i>. The children sometimes +conversed among themselves wholly in their own language; +and, when I could not understand the woman, as +she requested, in her own speech, to know my name, &c., +one of them instantly interpreted the sentence into English<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +for me. One of the oldest boys, however, thinking I was +only pretending to be ignorant of their speech, observed, in +English, to his companions, “I am sure he is a tramper, and +can speak as good cant as any of us.” To keep up the character, +my friend told them that I had been a tramper in my +youth, but that I had now nearly lost the language. On +hearing this, the woman, with great earnestness, exclaimed, +“God bless the gentleman!” In order to confirm their belief +that I was one of their tribe, I bade the woman good-day +in her own tongue, and parted with them. She informed +me, on leaving, that she resided at Banff, but that her husband +was then at Perth.</p> + +<p>During the short interview which I had with these Gipsies, +I collected the following words:</p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Gaugie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Riah</i>, gentleman.</li> +<li><i>Raunie</i>, lady.</li> +<li><i>Vast</i>, hand.</li> +<li><i>Sonnakie</i>, gold.</li> +<li><i>Sonnakie vanister</i>, gold ring.</li> +<li><i>Roug</i>, silver.</li> +<li><i>Lowie</i>, money.</li> +<li><i>Grye</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Aizel</i>, ass.</li> +<li><i>Jucal</i>, dog.</li> +<li><i>Matchka</i>, cat.</li> +<li><i>Baurie</i>, great.</li> +<li><i>Vile</i>, village.</li> +<li><i>Baurie vile</i>, large village.</li> +<li><i>Nawken</i>, Gipsy.</li> +<li><i>Davies</i>, day.</li> +<li><i>Beenship davies</i>, <i>Nawken</i>, good-day, Gipsy.</li> +<li><i>Pen yer naam?</i> what is your name?</li> +<li><i>Shucha</i>, coat.</li> +<li><i>Calshes</i>, breeches.</li> +<li><i>Gogle</i>, hat.</li> +<li><i>Coories</i>, blankets.</li> +<li><i>Roys</i>, spoons.</li> +<li><i>Skews</i>, platters.</li> +<li><i>Habben kairer</i>, baker of bread.</li> +</ul> + +<p>The method I adopted with them, as I have already +hinted, was to ask them the English of the words I gave +them in Gipsy, so that the answers I got were confirmations +of the same words collected from other individuals, and +which I drew from memory for the occasion. Had I attempted +to write down any of their sentences, it would have +instantly shut the door to all further conversation on the +subject, and, in all probability, the Gipsies would have taken +to their heels, muttering imprecations against me for having +insulted them. Of this I was satisfied, that had I really been +acquainted with their speech, these Gipsy children could +have kept up a regular and connected conversation with me, +with the greatest fluency, and without their sentences being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +intermixed with any English or Scotch words whatever, a +fact which has been repeatedly stated to me by the Gipsies.</p> + +<p>In confirmation of these facts, I shall transcribe a letter +addressed to me by the gentleman who was present on the +occasion.<a name="FNanchor198" id="FNanchor198"></a><a href="#Footnote198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a></p> + +<p class="letterright"><span class="smcap">Inverkeithing</span>, <i>25th May, 1829.</i></p> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>: +</p> + +<p>“Agreeably to your desire, I have looked over that part +of your manuscript of the Scottish Gipsies which details the +particulars of a short and accidental interview which we +had with a woman and four children, whom we met near +Inverkeithing Manse, on the 22d inst., and who turned out +to be Gipsies. I have no hesitation in averring that your +statements, to my knowledge, are substantially correct—being +present during the whole conversation which took +place with the individuals mentioned. It was the first time +I ever heard the Gipsy language spoken, and it appeared +quite evident that those Gipsies could converse, in a regular +and connected manner, on any subject, without making use +of a single English word; and which particularly appeared +from the questions which they put to you, as well as from +the conversation which they had among themselves, in their +own peculiar speech: and that, otherwise, the woman and +children had not, in the colour of their hair, complexion, and +general appearance, any resemblance to those people whom +I always considered to be Gipsies. I am, &c.,</p> + +<p class="letterright"> +“JAMES H. COBBAN,<br /> +<i>Deputy Compt. of Customs, Inverkeithing.</i><br /> +</p> + +<p class="letterleft"> +“<span class="smcap">Mr. Walter Simson</span>,<br /> +<i>Supt. of Quarantine, Inverkeithing</i>.”<a name="FNanchor199" id="FNanchor199"></a><a href="#Footnote199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a><br /> +</p> + +<p>I have already mentioned having succeeded in obtaining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +a few words of Gipsy, from two sisters, of the name of Jamieson, +who came begging to my door. I had reason to suppose +they would acquaint their relatives of having been +questioned in their own speech, and would greatly exaggerate +my knowledge of it; for I always observed that the individuals +with whom I conversed were at first impressed with a +belief that I knew much more of it than I really did.</p> + +<p>During the following summer, a brother and a cousin of +these girls called at my house, selling baskets. The one +was about twenty-one, the other fifteen, years of age. I +happened to be from home, but one of my family, suspecting +them to be Gipsies, invited them into the house, and mentioned +to them, (although very incorrectly,) that I understood +every word of their speech. “So I saw,” replied the eldest +lad, “for when he passed us on the road, some time ago, I +called, in our language, to my neighbour, to come out of the +way, and he understood what I said, for he immediately +turned round, and looked at us.” I, however, knew nothing +of the circumstance; I did not even recollect having seen +them pass me. It is likely, however, I had been examining +their appearance, and it is as likely they had been trying if +I understood their speech. At all events, they appeared to +have known me, while I was entirely ignorant of who they +were, and to have had their curiosity excited, on account, as +I imagined, of their relatives having told them I was acquainted +with their language. This occurrence produced a +wonderful effect upon the two lads, for they appeared pleased +to think I could speak their language. At this moment, one +of my daughters, about seven years of age, repeated, in their +hearing, the Gipsy word for pot, having picked it up from +hearing me mention it. The young Tinklers now thought +they were in the midst of a Gipsy family, and seemed quite +happy. “But are you really a <i>nawken</i>?” I asked the eldest +of them. “Yes, sir,” he replied; “and to show you +I am no impostor, I will give you the names of everything +in your house;” which, in the presence of my family, he +did, to the extent I asked of him. “My speech,” he continued, +“is not the cant of packmen, nor the slang of common +thieves.”</p> + +<p>But Gipsy-hunting is like deer-stalking. In prosecuting +it, it is necessary to know the animal, its habits, and the +locality in which it is to be found. I saw the unfavourable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +turn approaching: the Gipsies’ time was up; their patience +was exhausted. I dropped the subject, and ordered them +some refreshment. On their taking leave of me, I said to +them, “Do you intend coming round this part of the country +again?” (I need not have asked them such a question as +that.) “That we do, sir; and we will not fail to come and +see you again.” They thus left me, with the strong impression +on their minds, that I was a <i>nawken</i>, like themselves, +but a <i>riah</i>—a gentleman Gipsy. I waited patiently for +their return, which would happen in due season, on their +half-yearly <i>tramp</i>. Everything looked so favourably, circumstances +had contributed so fortunately, to the end which +I had so much at heart, that I looked upon the information +to be drawn from these poor Tinkler lads, with as much +solicitude and avarice as one would who had discovered a +treasure hid in his field.</p> + +<p>This species of Gipsy-hunting, I believe, I had exclusively +to myself. I had none of the difficulties to contend with, +which would be implied in the field of it having been gone +over by others before me. That kind of Gipsy-hunting +which implied imprisonment, banishment, and hanging, was +a thing of which the Gipsies had had sad experience; if not +in their own persons, at least in that which the traditions +of their tribe had so carefully handed down to them. Besides +this, the experience of the daily life of the members +of their tribe afforded an excellent school of training, for +acquiring a host of expedients for escaping every danger +and difficulty to which their habits exposed them. But so +thoroughly had they preserved their secrets, and especially +the grand one—their language—that they came to their +wits’ end how to understand, and how to act in, the new +sphere of danger into which they were now thrown, or even +to comprehend its nature. Such was the advantage which +education and enlightenment had given their civilized neighbour +over them. How could <i>they</i> imagine that the commencement +of my knowledge of their language had been +drawn from <i>books</i>? What did some of them know of <i>books</i>, +beyond, perhaps, a youth sent to school, where, owing to his +restless and unsettled good-for-nothingness, he would advance +little beyond his alphabet?<a name="FNanchor200" id="FNanchor200"></a><a href="#Footnote200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> For we know that some Gipsies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +are so intensely vain as to send a child to school, merely +to brag before their civilized neighbours that their children +have been educated. How could <i>they</i> comprehend that +<i>their</i> language had found, or could find, its way into <i>books</i>? +The thing to them was impossible; the idea of it could +not, by any exertion of their own, even enter into their +imagination. The danger to arise from such a quarter was +altogether beyond their capacity of comprehension. Knowing, +however, that there was danger of some singular nature +surrounding them, yet being unable to comprehend it, +they flickered about it, like moths about a candle; till at +last they did come to comprehend, if not its origin, or extent, +at least its tendency, and the consequences to which it +would lead.</p> + +<p>According to promise, the eldest of the Gipsy boys called +at my house, in about six months, accompanied by his sister. +He was selling white-iron ware, for he was a tin-smith by +occupation. Without entering into any preliminary conversation, +for the purpose of smoothing the way for more direct +questions, I took him into my parlour, and at once enquired +if he <i>could</i> speak the Tinkler language? He applied to my +question the construction that I doubted if he could, and the +consequences which that would imply, and answered firmly, +“Yes, sir; I have been bred in that line all my life.” “Will +you allow me,” said I, “to write down your words?” “O yes, +sir; you are welcome to as many as you please.” “Have you +names for everything, and can you converse on any subject, +in that language?” “Yes, sir; we can converse, and have a +name for everything, in our own speech.” I now commenced +to “make hay while the sun shone,” as the phrase runs; for +I knew that I could have only about an hour with the Gipsy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +at the most. The following, then, are the words and sentences +which I took down, on this occasion:</p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Slaps</i>, tea.</li> +<li><i>Moozies</i>, porridge.</li> +<li><i>Mass</i>, flesh.</li> +<li><i>Shaucha</i>, broth.</li> +<li><i>Mumlie</i>, candle.</li> +<li><i>Stramel</i>, straw.</li> +<li><i>Parnie</i>, wheat.</li> +<li><i>Duff</i>, smoke.</li> +<li><i>Yak</i>, fire.</li> +<li><i>Wuther</i>, door.</li> +<li><i>Glue</i>, window.</li> +<li><i>Kair</i>, house.</li> +<li><i>Shucha</i>, coat.</li> +<li><i>Shuch-hamie</i>, waistcoat.</li> +<li><i>Castie</i>, stick.</li> +<li><i>Coories</i>, blankets.</li> +<li><i>Eegees</i>, bed-clothes.</li> +<li><i>Wautheriz</i>, bed.</li> +<li><i>Suchira</i>, sixpence.</li> +<li><i>Sye-boord</i>, sixpence.</li> +<li><i>Chinda</i>, shilling.</li> +<li><i>Chinda ochindies</i>, twelve shillings.</li> +<li><i>Trin chindies</i>, three shillings.</li> +<li><i>Baurie</i>, grand, great, good.</li> +<li><i>Shan</i>, bad.</li> +<li><i>Davies-pagrin</i>, daybreak.</li> +<li><i>Baurie davies</i>, good day.</li> +<li><i>Shan davies</i>, bad day.</li> +<li><i>Paunie davies</i>, wet day.</li> +<li><i>Sheelra davies</i>, frosty or cold day.</li> +<li><i>Sneepa davies</i>, snowy or white day.</li> +<li><i>Baurie forest</i>, the chief city.</li> +<li><i>Baurie paunie</i>, the sea, ocean, grand water.</li> +<li><i>Bing</i>, the devil.</li> +<li><i>Ruffie</i>, the devil.</li> +<li><i>Feck</i>, take.</li> +<li><i>Chauvies wautheriz</i>, the children’s bed-clothes.</li> +<li><i>Sherro</i>, head.</li> +<li><i>Carlie</i>, neck.</li> +<li><i>Lears</i>, ears.</li> +<li><i>Chatters</i>, teeth.</li> +<li><i>Yak</i>, eye.</li> +<li><i>Nak</i>, nose.</li> +<li><i>Mooie</i>, mouth.</li> +<li><i>Vast</i>, hand.</li> +<li><i>Jaur</i>, leg.</li> +<li><i>Nek</i>, knee.</li> +<li><i>Peerie</i>, foot.</li> +<li><i>Bar</i>, stone.</li> +<li><i>Drom</i>, the earth.</li> +<li><i>Cang-geerie</i>, church.</li> +<li><i>Sonnakie</i>, gold.</li> +<li><i>Sonnakie vanister</i>, gold ring.</li> +<li><i>Callo</i>, black.</li> +<li><i>Callo gaugie</i>, black man.</li> +<li><i>Leehgh callo</i>, blue.</li> +<li><i>Sneepa</i>, white, snow.</li> +<li><i>Sheelra</i>, cold, frost.</li> +<li><i>Lon</i>, salt.</li> +<li><i>Lon paunie</i>, the sea, salt water.</li> +<li><i>Rat</i>, night.</li> +<li><i>Rat</i>, blood.</li> +<li><i>Habben kairer</i>, baker of bread.</li> +<li><i>Aizel</i>, ass.</li> +<li><i>Gournie</i>, cow.</li> +<li><i>Jucal</i>, dog.</li> +<li><i>Paupeenie</i>, goose.</li> +<li><i>Caunie</i>, hen.</li> +<li><i>Boord</i>, penny.</li> +<li><i>Curdie</i>, half-penny.</li> +<li><i>Lee</i>, miss.</li> +<li><i>Ruffie feck ma</i>, devil take me.</li> +<li><i>Ruffie lee ma</i>, devil miss me.</li> +<li><i>Feck a bar and mar the gaugie</i>, lift a stone and fell the man.</li> +<li><i>Chee, chee</i>, silence, hold your tongue.</li> +<li><i>Auvie</i>, come here.</li> +<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span><i>Jaw vree</i>, go away.</li> +<li><i>Jaw wree wautheriz</i>, go away to your bed.</li> +<li><i>Baish doun</i>, sit down.</li> +<li><i>Baish doun bettiment</i>, sit down on the chair.</li> +<li><i>Howie been baishen?</i> how are you?</li> +<li><i>Riah</i>, gentleman.</li> +<li><i>Raunie</i>, gentlewoman.</li> +<li><i>Baurie riah</i>, king.</li> +<li><i>Baurie raunie</i>, queen.</li> +<li><i>Praw</i>, son.</li> +<li><i>Prawl</i>, daughter.</li> +<li><i>Yaggers</i>, colliers.</li> +<li><i>Nawken</i>, Tinkler, Gipsy.</li> +<li><i>Cam</i>, the moon.</li> +<li><i>Quad</i>, prison.</li> +<li><i>Staurdie</i>, prison.</li> +<li><i>Yaik</i>, one.</li> +<li><i>Duie</i>, two.</li> +<li><i>Trin</i>, three.</li> +<li><i>Tor</i>, four.</li> +<li><i>Fo</i>, five.</li> +<li><i>Shaigh</i>, six.</li> +<li><i>Naivairn</i>, seven.</li> +<li><i>Naigh</i>, eight.</li> +<li><i>Line</i>, nine.</li> +<li><i>Nay</i>, ten.</li> +</ul> + +<p>This young man sang part of two Gipsy songs to me, in +English; and then, at my request, he turned one of them +into the Gipsy language, intermingled a little, however, +with English words; occasioned, perhaps, by the difficulty +in translating it. The subject of one of the songs was that +of celebrating a robbery, committed upon a Lord Shandos; +and the subject of the other was a description of a Gipsy +battle. The courage with which the females stood the rattle +of the cudgels upon their heads was much lauded in the song. +Like the Gipsy woman with whom I had no less than seven +years’ trouble ere getting any of her speech, this Gipsy lad +became, in about an hour’s time, very restless, and impatient +to be gone. The true state of things, in this instance, +dawned upon his mind. He now became much alarmed, and +would neither allow me to write down his songs, nor stop +to give me any more of his words and sentences. His +terror was only exceeded by his mortification; and, on parting +with me, he said that, had he, at first, been aware I was +unacquainted with his speech, he would not have given me +a word of it.</p> + +<p>As far as I can judge, from the few and short specimens +which I have myself heard, and had reported to me, the +subjects of the songs of the Scottish Gipsies, (I mean those +composed by themselves,) are chiefly their plunderings, their +robberies, and their sufferings. The numerous and deadly +conflicts which they had among themselves, also, afforded +them themes for the exercise of their muse. My father, in +his youth, often heard them singing songs, wholly in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +own language. They appear to have been very fond of our +ancient Border marauding songs, which celebrate the daring +exploits of the lawless freebooters on the frontiers of Scotland +and England. They were constantly singing these compositions +among themselves. The song composed on Hughie +Græme, the horse-stealer, published in the second volume of +Sir Walter Scott’s Border Minstrelsy, was a great favourite +with the Tinklers. As this song is completely to the taste +of a Gipsy, I will insert it in this place, as affording a +good specimen of that description of song in the singing of +which they take great delight. It will also serve to show +the peculiar cast of mind of the Gipsies.</p> + +<h4 class="left" style="margin-left: 10%;">HUGHIE THE GRÆME.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Gude</span> Lord Scroope’s to the hunting gane,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He has ridden o’er moss and muir;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he has grippit Hughie the Græme,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For stealing o’ the Bishop’s mare.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Now, good Lord Scroope, this may not be!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Here hangs a broadsword by my side;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And if that thou canst conquer me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The matter it may soon be tryed.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“I ne’er was afraid of a traitor-thief;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Although thy name be Hughie the Græme,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I’ll make thee repent thee of thy deeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If God but grant me life and time.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Then do your worst now, good Lord Scroope,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And deal your blows as hard as you can!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It shall be tried, within an hour,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which of us two is the better man.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But as they were dealing their blows so free,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And both so bloody at the time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Over the moss came ten yeomen so tall,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All for to take brave Hughie the Græme.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then they hae grippit Hughie the Græme,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And brought him up through Carlisle town;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lasses and lads stood on the walls,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Crying, “Hughie the Græme, thou’se ne’er gae down.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then hae they chosen a jury of men,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The best that were in Carlisle town;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And twelve of them cried out at once,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">“Hughie the Græme, thou must gae down.”<br /></span> +</div><span class="pagenum" style="font-size: 100%;"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then up bespak him gude Lord Hume,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As he sat by the judge’s knee,—<br /></span> +<span class="i00">“Twenty white owsen, my gude lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If you’ll grant Hughie the Græme to me.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“O no, O no, my gude Lord Hume!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For sooth and sae it manna be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, were there but three Græmes of the name,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">They suld be hanged a’ for me.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">‘Twas up and spake the gude Lady Hume,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As she sat by the judge’s knee,—<br /></span> +<span class="i00">“A peck of white pennies, my gude lord judge,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">If you’ll grant Hughie the Græme to me.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“O no, O no, my gude Lady Hume!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For sooth and so it must na be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were he but the one Græme of the name,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He suld be hanged high for me.”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“If I be guilty,” said Hughie the Græme,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">“Of me my friends shall have small talk;”<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he has louped fifteen feet and three,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though his hands they were tied behind his back.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He looked over his left shoulder,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And for to see what he might see;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was he aware of his auld father,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Came tearing his hair most piteouslie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“O! hald your tongue, my father,” he says,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">“And see that ye dinna weep for me!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For they may ravish me o’ my life,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But they canna banish me fro Heavin hie.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Fare ye weel, fair Maggie, my wife!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The last time we came ower the muir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Twas thou bereft me of my life,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And wi’ the Bishop thou play’d the whore.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Here, Johnie Armstrang, take thou my sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That is made o’ the metal sae fine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when thou comest to the English side,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Remember the death of Hughie the Græme.”<a name="FNanchor201" id="FNanchor201"></a><a href="#Footnote201" class="fnanchor" style="font-size: 100%;">[201]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>I will now give the testimony of the Gipsy chief from +whom I received the “blowing up” alluded to, by Mr. Laidlaw, +in the <a href="#Page_55">Introduction</a> to the work.<a name="FNanchor202" id="FNanchor202"></a><a href="#Footnote202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a></p> + +<p>One of the greatest fairs in Scotland is held, annually, on +the 18th day of July, at St. Boswell’s Green, in Roxburghshire. +I paid a visit to this fair, for the purpose of taking +a view of the Gipsies. An acquaintance, whom I met at +the fair, observed to me, that he was sure if any one could +give me information regarding the Tinklers, it would be old ——, +the horner, at ——. To ensure a kind reception from +the Gipsies, it was agreed upon, between us, that I should +introduce myself by mentioning who my ancestors were, on +whose numerous farms, (sixteen, rented by my grandfather, +in 1781,<a name="FNanchor203" id="FNanchor203"></a><a href="#Footnote203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a>) their forefathers had received many a night’s +quarters, in their out-houses. We soon found out the old +chieftain, sitting in a tent, in the midst of about a dozen of +his tribe, all nearly related to him. The moment I made +myself known to them, the whole of the old persons immediately +expressed their gratitude for the humane treatment +they, and their forefathers, had received at the farms of my +relatives. They were extremely glad to see me; and “God +bless you,” was repeated by several of the old females. “Ay,” +said they, “those days are gone. Christian charity has now +left the land. We know the people are growing more hard +and uncharitable every year.” I found the old man shrewd, +sensible, and intelligent; far beyond what could have been +expected from a person of his caste and station in life. He, +besides, possessed all that merriness and jocularity which I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +have often observed among a number of the males of his +race. After some conversation with this chief, who appeared +about eighty years of age, I enquired if his people, who, in +large bands, about sixty years ago, traversed the south of +Scotland, had not an ancient language, peculiar to themselves. +He hesitated a little, and then readily replied, that +the Tinklers had no language of their own, except a few +cant words. I observed to him that he knew better—that +the Tinklers had, beyond dispute, a language of their own; +and that I had some knowledge of its existence at the present +day. He, however, declared that they had no such language, +and that I was wrongly informed. In the hearing +of all the Gipsies in the tent, I repeated to him four or five +Gipsy words and expressions. At this he appeared amazed; +and on my adding some particulars relative to some of the +ancestors of the tribe then present, enumerating, I think, +three generations of their clan, one of the old females exclaimed, +“Preserve me, he kens a’ about us!” The old +chief immediately took hold of my right hand, below the +table, with a grasp as if he were going to shake it: and, in +a low and subdued tone of voice, so as none might near but +myself, requested me to say not another word in the place +where we were sitting, but to call on him, at the town of ——, +and he would converse with me on that subject. I +considered it imprudent to put any more questions to him +relative to his speech, on this occasion, and agreed to meet +him at the place he appointed.</p> + +<p>Several persons in the tent, (it being one of the public +booths in the market,) who were not Gipsies, were equally +surprised, when they observed an understanding immediately +take place between me and the Tinklers, by means of a few +words, the meaning of which they could not comprehend. A +farmer, from the south of Scotland, who was present in the +tent, and had that morning given the Tinklers a lamb to eat, +met me, some days after, on the banks of the Yarrow. He +shook his head, and observed, with a smile, “Yon was queer-looking +wark wi’ the Tinklers.”</p> + +<p>As I was anxious to penetrate to his secret speech, I resolved +to keep the appointment with the Gipsy, whatever +might be the result of our meeting, and I therefore proceeded +to the town which he mentioned, eleven days after I had +seen him at the fair. On enquiring of the landlord of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +principal inn, at which I put up my horse, where the house +of ——, the Tinkler, was situated in the town, he appeared +surprised, and eyed me all over. He told me the street, but +said he would not accompany me to the house, thinking that +I wished him to go with me. It was evident that the landlord, +whom I never saw before, considered himself in bad +company, in spite of my black clothes, black neck-cloth, and +ruffles aforesaid, and was determined not to be seen on the +street, either with me or the Tinkler. I told him I by no +means wished him to accompany me, but only to tell me in +what part of the town the Tinkler’s house was to be found.</p> + +<p>On entering the house, I found the old chief sitting, without +his coat, with an old night-cap on his head, a leathern +apron around his waist, and all covered with dust or soot, +employed in making spoons from horn. After conversing +with him for a short time, I reminded him of the ancient +language with which he was acquainted. He assumed a +grave countenance, and said the Tinklers had no such language, +adding, at the same time, that I should not trouble +myself about such matters. He stoutly denied all knowledge +of the Tinkler language, and said no such tongue existed in +Scotland, except a few cant words. I persisted in asserting +that they were actually in possession of a secret language, +and again tried him with a few of my words; but to no purpose. +All my efforts produced no effect upon his obstinacy. +At this stage of my interview, I durst not mention the word +Gipsy, as they are exceedingly alarmed at being known as +Gipsies. I now signified that he had forfeited his promise, +given me at the fair, and rose to leave him. At this remark, +I heard a man burst out a-laughing, behind a partition that +ran across the apartment in which we were sitting. The +old man likewise started to his feet, and, with both his sooty +hands, took hold of the breast of my coat, on either side, +and, in this attitude, examined me closely, scanning me all +over from head to foot. After satisfying himself, he said, +“Now, give me a hold of your hand—farewell—I will know +you when I see you again.” I bade him good-day, and left +the house.<a name="FNanchor204" id="FNanchor204"></a><a href="#Footnote204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>I had now no hope of obtaining any information from this +man, regarding his peculiar language. I had scarcely, however, +proceeded a hundred yards down the street, from the +house, when I was overtaken by a young female, who requested +me to return, to speak with her father. I immediately +complied. On reaching the door, with the girl, I +met one of the old man’s sons, who said that he had overheard +what passed between his father and me, in the house. +He assured me that his father <i>was ashamed to give me his +language</i>; but that, if I would promise not to publish their +names, or place of residence, he would himself give me some +of their speech, if his father still persevered in his refusal. +I accordingly agreed not to make public the names, and place +of residence, of the family. I again entered the little factory +of horn spoons. Matters were now, to all appearance, +quite changed. The old man was very cheerful, and seemed +full of mirth. “Come away,” said he; “what is this you +are asking after? I would advise you to go to Mr. Stewart, +at Hawick, and he will tell you everything about our language.” +“Father,” said the son, who had resumed his place +behind the partition before mentioned, “you know that Mr. +Stewart will give our speech to nobody.” The old chief +again hesitated and considered, but, being urged by his son +and myself, he, at last, said, “Come away, then; I will tell +you whatever you think proper to ask me. I gave you my +oath, at the fair, to do so. Get out your paper, pen and ink, +and begin.” He gave me no other oath, at the fair, than his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +word, and taking me by the hand, that he would converse +with me regarding the speech of the Tinklers. But, I believe, +joining hands is considered an oath in some countries +of the Eastern world. I was fully convinced, however, that +he was <i>ashamed to give me his speech</i>, and that it was with +the greatest reluctance he spoke one word on the subject. +The following are the words and sentences which I collected +from him:<a name="FNanchor205" id="FNanchor205"></a><a href="#Footnote205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a></p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Pagrie</i>, to break.</li> +<li><i>Humf</i>, give me.</li> +<li><i>Mar</i>, to strike.</li> +<li><i>Mang</i>, to speak.</li> +<li><i>Kair</i>, house.</li> +<li><i>Drom</i>, street or road.</li> +<li><i>Vile</i>, village.</li> +<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span><i>Gave</i>, village.</li> +<li><i>Jaw drom</i>, take the road, get off quickly.</li> +<li><i>Hatch here</i>, come here.</li> +<li><i>Bing</i>, the devil.</li> +<li><i>Bing lee</i>, devil miss me.</li> +<li><i>Moolie</i>, death.</li> +<li><i>Moolie</i>, I’ll kill you.</li> +<li><i>Mooled</i>, murdered.</li> +<li><i>Moolie a gaugie</i>, kill the man.</li> +<li><i>Powiskie</i>, gun or pistol.</li> +<li><i>Harro</i>, sword.</li> +<li><i>Shammel</i>, sword.</li> +<li><i>Chourie</i>, knife.</li> +<li><i>Rachlin</i>, hanged.</li> +<li><i>Sallah</i><a name="FNanchor206" id="FNanchor206"></a><a href="#Footnote206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a>, to curse.</li> +<li><i>Klistie</i>, soldier.</li> +<li><i>Nash</i>, deserter.</li> +<li><i>Grye-femler</i>, horse-dealer.</li> +<li><i>Staurdie</i>, prison.</li> +<li><i>Nak</i>, nose.</li> +<li><i>Yak</i>, eye.</li> +<li><i>Yaka</i>, eyes.</li> +<li><i>Mooie</i>, mouth.</li> +<li><i>Vast</i>, hand.</li> +<li><i>Sherro</i>, head.</li> +<li><i>Femmel</i>, hand.</li> +<li><i>Lowie</i>, coin or money.</li> +<li><i>Lowa</i>, silver.</li> +<li><i>Curdie</i>, half-penny.</li> +<li><i>Bar</i>, five shillings.</li> +<li><i>Size</i>, six.</li> +<li><i>Grye</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Greham</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Prancie</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Aizel</i>, ass.</li> +<li><i>Jucal</i>, dog.</li> +<li><i>Routler</i>, cow.</li> +<li><i>Bakra</i>, sheep.</li> +<li><i>Matchka</i>, cat.</li> +<li><i>Bashanie</i>, cock.</li> +<li><i>Caunie</i>, hen.</li> +<li><i>Thood</i>, milk.</li> +<li><i>Molzie</i>, wine.</li> +<li><i>Bulliment</i>, loaf of bread.</li> +<li><i>Neddie</i>, potato.</li> +<li><i>Shaucha</i>, broth.</li> +<li><i>Mass</i>, flesh.</li> +<li><i>Habben</i>, bread.</li> +<li><i>Pauplers</i>, pottage.</li> +<li><i>Paunie</i>, water.</li> +<li><i>Paurie</i>, water.</li> +<li><i>Mumlie</i>, candle.</li> +<li><i>Blinkie</i>, candle.</li> +<li><i>Flatrin</i>, fish.</li> +<li><i>Chizcazin</i>, cheese.</li> +<li><i>Romanie</i>, whiskey.</li> +<li><i>Casties</i>, wood.</li> +<li><i>Filsh</i>, tree.</li> +<li><i>Lodlie</i>, quarters.</li> +<li><i>Choar</i>, to steal.</li> +<li><i>Chor</i>, a thief.</li> +<li><i>Bumie</i>, to drink.</li> +<li><i>Jaw vree</i>, go away.</li> +<li><i>Graunzie</i>, barn.</li> +<li><i>Graunagie</i>, barn.</li> +<li><i>Clack</i>, stone.</li> +<li><i>Yak</i>, fire.</li> +<li><i>Peerie</i>, pot.</li> +<li><i>Treepie</i>, pot-lid.</li> +<li><i>Roy</i>, spoon.</li> +<li><i>Skew</i>, platter.</li> +<li><i>Swag</i>, sack.</li> +<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span><i>Ingrims</i>, pincers.</li> +<li><i>Yog-ingrims</i>, fire-irons.</li> +<li><i>Sauster</i>, iron.</li> +<li><i>Mashlam</i>, brass or metal.</li> +<li><i>Fizam</i>, grass.</li> +<li><i>Penam</i>, hay.</li> +<li><i>Geeve</i>, corn.</li> +<li><i>Greenam</i>, corn.</li> +<li><i>Beerie</i>, ship.</li> +<li><i>Outhrie</i>, window.</li> +<li><i>Nab</i>, horn.</li> +<li><i>Shucha</i>, coat.</li> +<li><i>Scaf</i>, hat.</li> +<li><i>Gogle</i>, hat.</li> +<li><i>Cockle</i>, hat.</li> +<li><i>Calshes</i>, breeches.</li> +<li><i>Teeyakas</i>, shoes.</li> +<li><i>Olivers</i>, stockings.</li> +<li><i>Beenship</i>, good.</li> +<li><i>Baurie</i>, good.</li> +<li><i>Shan</i>, bad.</li> +<li><i>Rauge</i>, mad.</li> +<li><i>Riah</i>, <i>Rajah</i>, chief, governor.</li> +<li><i>Been riah</i>, the king.</li> +<li><i>Been mort</i>, the queen.</li> +<li><i>Been gaugie</i>, gentleman.</li> +<li><i>Been riah</i>, gentleman.</li> +<li><i>Been mort</i>, lady.</li> +<li><i>Yagger</i>, collier.</li> +<li><i>Nawken</i>,<a name="FNanchor207" id="FNanchor207"></a><a href="#Footnote207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> Tinkler, Gipsy.</li> +<li><i>Davies</i>, day.</li> +<li><i>Rat</i>, night.</li> +<li><i>Beenship mashlam</i>, good metal.</li> +<li><i>Beenship-rat</i>, good-night.</li> +<li><i>Beenlightment</i>, Sabbath-day.</li> +<li><i>Shan drom</i>, bad road.</li> +<li><i>Shan davies</i>, bad day.</li> +<li><i>Gaugie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Managie</i>, woman.</li> +<li><i>Mort</i>, wife.</li> +<li><i>Chavo</i>, son.</li> +<li><i>Chauvies</i>, children.</li> +<li><i>Praw</i>, son.</li> +<li><i>Prawl</i>, daughter.</li> +<li><i>Nais-gaugie</i>, grandfather.</li> +<li><i>Nais-mort</i>, grandmother.</li> +<li><i>Aukaman</i>, marriage.</li> +<li><i>Carie</i>, penis.</li> +<li><i>Bight</i>, pudenda.</li> +<li><i>Sjair</i>, to ease nature.</li> +<li><i>Jair dah</i>, a woman’s apron.</li> +</ul> + +<p>I was desirous to learn, from this Gipsy, if there were any +traditions among the Scottish Gipsies, as to their origin, +and the country from which they came. He stated that the +language of which he had given me a specimen was an Ethiopian +dialect, used by a tribe of thieves and robbers; and +that the Gipsies were originally from Ethiopia, although +now called Gipsies.<a name="FNanchor208" id="FNanchor208"></a><a href="#Footnote208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> He now spoke of himself and his +tribe by the name of Gipsies, without hesitation or alarm. +“Our Gipsy language,” added he, “is softer than your harsh +Gaelic.” He was at considerable pains to give me the +proper sound of the words. The letter <i>a</i> is pronounced broad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +in their language, like <i>aw</i> in paw, or <i>a</i> in water; and <i>ie</i>, or +<i>ee</i>, in the last syllable of a great many words, are sounded +short and quick; and <i>ch</i> soft, as in church. Their speech +appears to be copious, for, said he, they have a great +many words and expressions for one thing. He further +stated that the Gipsy language has no alphabet, or character, +by which it can be learned, or its grammatical construction +ascertained. He never saw any of it written. I observed +to him that it would, in course of time, be lost. He replied, +that “so long as there existed two Gipsies in Scotland, it +would never be lost.” He informed me that every one of +the Yetholm Tinklers spoke the language; and that almost +all those persons who were selling earthen-ware at St. Boswell’s +fair were Gipsies. I counted myself twenty-four families, +with earthen-ware, and nine female heads of families, +selling articles made of horn. These thirty-three families, +together with a great many single Gipsies scattered +through the fair, would amount to above three hundred Gipsies +on the spot. He further mentioned that none of the +Yetholm Gipsies were at the market. The old man also informed +me that a great number of our horse-dealers are +Gipsies. “Listen attentively,” said he, “to our horse-coupers, +in a market, and you will hear them speaking in the +Gipsy tongue.” I enquired how many there were in Scotland +acquainted with the language. He answered, “There +are several thousand.” I further enquired, if he thought the +Gipsy population would amount to five thousand souls. He +replied he was sure there were fully five thousand of his +tribe in Scotland. It was further stated to me, by this family, +that the Gipsies are at great pains in teaching their +children, from their very infancy, their own language; and +that they embrace every opportunity, when by themselves, +of conversing in it, about their ordinary affairs. They also +pride themselves very much in being in possession of a +speech peculiar to themselves—quite unknown to the public.</p> + +<p>I then sent for some spirits wherewith to treat the old +chief; but I was cautioned, by one of the family, not to +press him to drink much, as, from his advanced age and infirmities, +little did him harm. The moment you speak to +an intelligent Gipsy chief, in a familiar and kindly manner, +putting yourself, as it were, on a level with him, you find +him entirely free from all embarrassment in his manners.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +He speaks to you, at once, in a free, independent, confident, +emphatic tone, without any rudeness in his way of addressing +you. He never loses his self-possession. The old chieftain +sang part of a Gipsy song, in his own language, but he +would not allow me to write it down.<a name="FNanchor209" id="FNanchor209"></a><a href="#Footnote209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a> Indeed, by his manner, +he seemed frequently to hesitate whether he would proceed +any further in giving me information, and appeared to +regret that he had gone so far as he had done. I now +and then stopped him in his song, and asked him the meaning +of some of the expressions. It was, however, intermixed +with a few English words; perhaps every fifth word was +English. The Gipsy words, <i>graunzie</i> (barn), <i>caunies</i> (chickens), +<i>molzie</i> (wine), <i>staurdie</i> (prison), <i>mort</i> and <i>chauvies</i> +(wife and children), were often repeated. In short, the subject +of the song was that of a Gipsy, lying in chains in +prison, lamenting that he could not support his wife and +children by plunder and robbery. The Gipsy was represented +as mourning over his hard fate, deprived of his liberty, +confined in a dungeon, and expressing the happiness and delight +which he had when free, and would have were he lying +in a barn, or out-house, living upon poultry, and drinking +wine with his tribe.<a name="FNanchor210" id="FNanchor210"></a><a href="#Footnote210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a></p> + +<p>This family, like all their race, now became much alarmed +at their communications; and it required considerable trouble +on my part to allay their fears. The old man was in +the greatest anguish of mind, at having committed himself +at all, relative to his speech. I was very sorry for his distress, +and renewed my promise not to publish his name, or +place of residence, assuring him he had nothing to fear. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +is now many years since he died. He was considered a very +decent, honest man, and was a great favourite with those +who were acquainted with him. But his wife, and some +other members of his family, followed the practices of their +ancestors.</p> + +<p>Publish their language! Give to the world that which +they had kept to themselves, with so much solicitude, so +much tenacity, so much fidelity, for three hundred and fifty +years! A parallel to such a phenomenon cannot be found +within the whole range of history.<a name="FNanchor211" id="FNanchor211"></a><a href="#Footnote211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> What will the Tinklers, +the “poor things,” as Sir Walter Scott so feelingly called +them—what will they think of me, after the publication of +the present work?<a name="FNanchor212" id="FNanchor212"></a><a href="#Footnote212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>While walking one day, with a friend, around the harbour +of Grangemouth, I observed a man, who appeared above +seventy years of age, carrying a small wooden box on his +shoulder, a leathern apron tied around his waist, with a +whitish coloured bull-dog following him. He was enquiring +of the crews of the vessels in the port, whether they had +any pots, kettles, or pans to repair. Just as my friend and +I came up to him, on the quay, I said to him, in a familiar +manner, as if I knew exactly what he was, “<i>Baurie jucal</i>,” +words which signify, in the Gipsy language, a “good dog.” +Being completely taken by surprise, the old man turned +quickly round, and, looking down at his dog, said, without +thinking what he was about, “Yes, the dog is not bad.” +But the words had scarcely escaped his lips ere he affected +not to comprehend my question, after he had distinctly answered +it. He looked exceedingly foolish, and afforded my +friend a hearty laugh, at his attempt at recovering himself. +He became agitated and angry, and called out, “What do +you mean? I don’t understand you—yes, the dog is <i>hairy</i>.” +I said not another word, nor took any further notice of him, +but passed on, in case of provoking him to mischief. He +stood stock-still upon the spot, and, keeping his eyes fixed +upon me, as long as I was in sight, appeared to be considering +with himself what I could be, or whether he might not +have seen me before. He looked so surprised and alarmed, +that he could scarcely trust himself in the place, since he +found, to a certainty, that his grand secret was known. I +saw him a short while afterwards, at a little distance, with +his glasses on, sitting on the ground, in the manner of the +East, with his hammers and files, tin and copper, about him, +repairing cooking utensils belonging to a vessel in the basin; +with his trusty <i>jucal</i>, sitting close at his back, like a sentinel, +to defend him. The truth is, I was not very fond of +having anything further to do with this member of the tribe, +in case he had resented my interference with him and his +speech. This old man wore a long great-coat, and externally +looked exactly like a blacksmith. No one of ordinary +observation could have perceived him to be a Gipsy; as +there were no striking peculiarities of expression about his +countenance, which indicated him as being one of that race. +I was surprised at my own discovery.</p> + +<p>A Gipsy informed me that almost all our thimble-riggers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +or “thimble-men,” as they are sometimes called, are a superior +class of Gipsies, and converse in the Gipsy language. +In the summer of 1836, an opportunity presented itself to +me to verify the truth of this information. On a by-road, +between Edinburgh and Newhaven, I fell in with a band of +these thimble-riggers, employed at their nefarious occupation. +The band consisted of six individuals, all personating +different characters of the community. Some had the appearance +of mercantile clerks, and others represented young +farmers, or dealers in cattle, of inferior appearance. The +man in charge of the board and thimbles looked like a +journeyman blacksmith or plumber. They all pretended to +be strangers to each other. Some were betting and playing, +and others looking on, and acting as decoys. None besides +themselves were present, except myself, a young lad, and a +respectable-looking elderly female. I stood and looked at +the band for a little; but as nobody was playing but themselves, +the man with the thimbles, to lead me on, urged me +to bet with him, and try my fortune at his board. I said I +did not intend to play, and was only looking at them. I +took a steady look at the faces of each of the six villains; +but, whenever their eyes caught mine, they looked away, or +down to the ground, verifying the saying that a rogue cannot +look you in the face. The man at the board again +urged me to play, and, with much vapouring and insolence, +took out a handful of notes, and said he had many hundreds +a year; that I was a poor, shabby fellow, and had no money +on me, and, therefore, could not bet with him. I desired +him to let me alone, otherwise I would let them see I was +not to be insulted, and that I knew more about them than +they were aware of. “Who the devil are you, sir, to speak +to us in that manner,” was the answer I received. I again +replied, that, if they continued their insolence, I would +show them who I was. This only provoked them the more, +and encreased their violent behaviour. High words then +arose, and the female alluded to, thinking I was in danger, +kindly entreated me to leave them. I now thought it time +to try what effect my Gipsy words would produce upon +them. In an authoritative tone of voice, I called out to +them, “<i>Chee, chee!</i>” which, in the Scottish Gipsy language, +signifies “Hold your tongue,” “be silent,” or “silence.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span><a name="FNanchor213" id="FNanchor213"></a><a href="#Footnote213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a> +The surprised thimble-men were instantly silent. They +spoke not a word, but looked at one another. Only, one +of them whispered to his companions, “He is not to be +meddled with.” They immediately took up their board, +thimbles and all, and left the place, apparently in considerable +alarm, some taking one direction and some another. +The female in question was also surprised at seeing their +insolent conduct repressed, in a moment, by a single expression. +“But, sir,” said she, “what was that you said to +them, for they seem afraid?” I was myself afraid to say +another word to them, and took care they did not see me +go to my dwelling-house.<a name="FNanchor214" id="FNanchor214"></a><a href="#Footnote214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a></p> + +<p>One of the favourite, and permanent, fields of operation of +these thimblers is on the Queensferry road, from where it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +intersected by the street leading from the back of Leith +Fort, on the east, to the new road leading from Granton +pier, on the west. This part of the Queensferry road is +intersected by about half-a-dozen cross-roads, all leading +from the landing and shipping places at the piers of +Granton, Trinity, and Newhaven. These cross-roads are +cut by three roads running nearly parallel to each other, +viz., the road along the sea-beach, Trinity road, and the +Queensferry road. A great portion of the passengers, by +the many steamboats, pass along all these different roads, +to and from Edinburgh. On all of these roads, between the +water of Leith and the Forth, the thimble-riggers station +themselves, as single individuals, or in numbers, as it may +answer their purpose. In fact, this part of the country +between the sea and Edinburgh, is so much chequered by +roads crossing each other, that it may be compared to the +meshes of a spider’s web, and the thimblers as so many +spiders, watching to pounce upon their prey. The moment +one of these sentinels observes a stranger appear, signals are +made to his confederates, when their organized plan of +operations for entrapping the unwary person is immediately +put in execution. Strangers, unacquainted with the +locality, are greatly bewildered among all the cross-roads +mentioned, and have considerable difficulty in threading +their way to the city. One of the gang will then step forward, +and, pretending to be a stranger himself, will enquire +of the others the road to such and such a place. Frequently +the unsuspecting and bewildered individual will enquire of +the thimbler for some street or place in Edinburgh. The +decoy and the victim now walk in company, and converse +familiarly together on various topics; the thimbler offers +snuff to his friend, and makes himself as agreeable as he +can; while one of the gang, at a distance in front, drops a +watch, chain, or other piece of mock jewelry, or commences +playing at the thimble-board. The decoy is sure to lead +his dupe exactly to the spot where the trap is laid, and +where he will probably be plundered. One or these entrapments +terminated in the death of its subject. A working +man, having risked his half-year’s wages at the thimble-board, +of course lost every farthing of the money; and took +the loss so much to heart as, in a fit of despondency, to +drown himself in the water of Leith.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the beginning of 1842, I fell in with six of these thimble-riggers +and chain-droppers, on Newhaven road, on their +way to Edinburgh. I was anxious to discover the nature +of their conversation, and kept as close to them as I could, +without exciting their suspicions. Like that of most people +brought up in one particular line of life, their conversation +related wholly to their own trade—that of swindling, theft, +and robbery. I overheard them speaking of “bloody swells,” +and of dividing their booty. One of them was desired by +the others to look after a certain steamboat, expected to +arrive, and to get a bill to ascertain its movements exactly. +He said he would “require three men to take care of that +boat”; meaning, as I understood him, that all these men +were necessary for laying his snares, and executing his +designs upon the unsuspecting passengers, as they landed +from the vessel, and were on their way to their destinations. +The manager of the steamboat company could not have +consulted with his subordinates, about their lawful affairs, +with more care and deliberation, or in a more cool, business-like +way, than were these villains in contriving plans for +plundering the public. On their approach to Pilrig street, the +band separated into pairs; some taking the north, and some +the south, side of Leith walk, for Edinburgh, where they +vanished in the crowd. Their language was fearful, every +expression being accompanied by a terrible oath.</p> + +<p>On another occasion, I fell in with another band of these +vagabond thimble-men, on the Dalkeith road, near Craigmiller +Castle. I asked the fellow with the thimbles, “Is +that <i>gaugie a nawken</i>?” pointing to one of the gang who +had just left him. The question, in plain English, was, “Is +that man a Gipsy?” The thimbler flew at once into a great +passion, and bawled out, “Ask himself, sir.” He then fell +upon me, and a gentleman who was with me, in most abusive +language, applying to us the most insulting epithets he could +think of. It was evident to my friend that the thimble-man +perfectly understood my Gipsy question. So enraged was +he, that we were afraid he would follow us, and do us some +harm. My friend did not consider himself safe till he was +in the middle of Edinburgh, for many a look did he cast behind +him, to see whether the Gipsy was not in pursuit of us.<a name="FNanchor215" id="FNanchor215"></a><a href="#Footnote215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>The Gipsies in Scotland consider themselves to be of the +same stock as those in England and Ireland, for they are all +acquainted with the same speech. They afford assistance to +one another, whenever they happen to meet. The following<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +facts will at least show that the Scottish and Irish Gipsies +are one and the same people.</p> + +<p>In the county of Fife, I once fell in with an Irish +family, to appearance in great poverty and distress, resting +themselves on the side of the public road. A shelty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +and an ass were grazing hard by. The ass they used in +carrying a woman, who, they said, was a hundred and one +years of age. She was shrunk and withered to a skeleton, +or rather, I should say, to a bundle of bones; and her chin +almost rested on her knees, and her body was nearly doubled +by age. On interrogating the head of the family, I found +that his name was Hugh White, and that he was an Irishman, +and a son of the old woman who was with him. I put +some Gipsy words to him, to ascertain whether or not he +was one of the tribe. He pretended not to understand what +I said; but his daughter, of about six years of age, replied, +“But I understand what he says.” I then called out +sharply to him, “<i>Jaw vree</i>“—(“Go away,” or “get out of +the way.”) “As soon as I can,” was his answer. On +leaving him, I again called, “<i>Beenship-davies</i>“—(“Good-day.”) +“Good-day, sir; God bless you,” was his immediate +reply.</p> + +<p>I happened, at another time, to be in the court-house of +one of the burghs north of the Forth, when two Irishmen, +of the names of O’Reilly and McEwan, were at the bar for +having been found drunk, and fighting within the town. +They were sentenced by the magistrates to three days’ imprisonment, +and to be “banished the town,” for their riotous +conduct. The men had the Irish accent, and had certainly +been born and brought up in Ireland; but their habiliments +and general appearance did not correspond exactly with the +ordinary dress and manners of common Irish peasants, although +their features were in all respects Hibernian. When +the magistrates questioned them in respect to their conduct, +the prisoners looked very grave, and said, “Sure, and it +plase your honours, our quarrel was nothing but whiskey, +and sure we are the best friends in the world;” and seemed +very penitent. But when the magistrates were not looking +at them, they were smiling to each other, and keeping up a +communication in pantomime. Suspecting them to be Irish +Gipsies, I addressed the wife of McEwan as follows: “For +what is the <i>riah</i> (magistrate) going to put your <i>gaugie</i> +(man) in <i>staurdie</i>, (prison)?” “Only for a little whiskey, +sir,” was her immediate reply. She gave me, on the spot, +the English of the following words; adding, at the same +time, that I had got the <i>Gipsy</i> language, but that hers was +only the <i>English cant</i>. She was afraid to acknowledge that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +she was a Gipsy, as such a confession might, in her opinion, +have proved prejudicial to her husband, in the situation in +which he was placed.</p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Gaugie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Managie</i>, woman.</li> +<li><i>Chauvies</i>, children.</li> +<li><i>Riah</i>, magistrate.</li> +<li><i>Chor</i>, thief.</li> +<li><i>Yaka</i>, eyes.</li> +<li><i>Grye</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Roys</i>, spoons.</li> +<li><i>Skews</i>, platters.</li> +<li><i>Mashlam</i>, metal.</li> +</ul> + +<p>I observed the woman instantly communicate to her husband +the conversation she had with me. She immediately +returned to me, and, after questioning me as to my name, +occupation, and place of residence, very earnestly entreated +me to save her <i>gaugie</i> from the <i>staurdie</i>. I asked her, how +many <i>chauvies</i> she had? “Twelve, sir.” Were any of +them <i>chors</i>? “None, sir.” Two of her <i>chauvies</i> were in +her hand, weeping bitterly. The woman was in great distress, +and when she heard the sound of her own language, +she thought she saw a friend. I informed one of the magistrates, +whom I knew, that the prisoners were Gipsies; and +proposed to him to mitigate the punishment of the woman’s +husband, on condition of his giving me a specimen of his +secret speech. But the reply of the man of authority was, +“The scoundrel shall lie in prison till the last hour of his +sentence.” The “scoundrel” however, did not remain in durance +so long. While the jailer was securing him in prison, +the determined Tinkler, with the utmost coolness and indifference, +asked him, which part of the jail would be the easiest +for him to break through. The jailer told him that, if he +attempted to escape, the watchman, stationed in the church-yard, +close to the prison, would shoot him. On visiting the +prison next morning, the turnkey found that the Gipsy had +undone the locks of the doors, and fled during the night. +O’Reilly, the other Gipsy, remained, in a separate cell, the +whole period of his sentence. When the officers were completing +the other part of his punishment—“banishing him +from the town”—the regardless, light-hearted Irish Tinkler +went capering along the streets, with his coat off, brandishing, +and sweeping, and twirling his shillalah, in the Gipsy +fashion. Meeting, in this excited state, his late judge, the +Tinkler, with the utmost contempt and derision, called out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +to him, “Plase your honour! won’t you now take a fight +with me, for the sake of friendship?” This worthy Irish +Gipsy represented himself as the head Tinkler in Perth, and +the first of the second class of boxers.</p> + +<p>On another occasion, I observed a horde of Gipsies on +the high street of Inverkeithing, employed in making spoons +from horn. I spoke to one of the young married men, partly +in Scottish Gipsy words, when he immediately answered me +in English. He said they were all natives of Ireland. They +had, male and female, the Irish accent completely. I invited +this man to accompany me to a public-house, that I might +obtain from him a specimen of his Irish Gipsy language. +The town-clerk being in my company at the time, I asked +him to go with me, to hear what passed; but he refused, +evidently because he considered that the company of a +Gipsy would contaminate and degrade him. I treated the +Tinkler with a glass of spirits, and obtained from him the +following words:</p> + +<ul class="words"> +<li><i>Yaik</i>, one.</li> +<li><i>Duie</i>, two.</li> +<li><i>Trin</i>, three.</li> +<li><i>Punch</i>, five.</li> +<li><i>Saus</i>, six.</li> +<li><i>Luften</i>, eight.</li> +<li><i>Sonnakie</i>, gold.</li> +<li><i>Roug</i>, silver.</li> +<li><i>Vanister</i>, ring.</li> +<li><i>Rat</i>, night.</li> +<li><i>Cham</i>, the moon.</li> +<li><i>Borlan</i>, the sun.</li> +<li><i>Yak</i>, fire.</li> +<li><i>Chowrie</i>, knife.</li> +<li><i>Bar</i>, stone.</li> +<li><i>Shuha</i>, coat.</li> +<li><i>Roy</i>, spoon.</li> +<li><i>Chauvie</i>, child.</li> +<li><i>Gaugie</i>, man.</li> +<li><i>Mort and kinshen</i>, wife and child.</li> +<li><i>Klistie</i>, soldier.</li> +<li><i>Ruffie lee ma</i>, devil miss me.</li> +<li><i>Nasher</i>, deserter.</li> +<li><i>Daw-douglars</i>, hand-cuffs.</li> +<li><i>Staurdie</i>, prison.</li> +<li><i>Lodie</i>, lodgings.</li> +<li><i>Vile</i>, town.</li> +<li><i>Yak</i>, eye.</li> +<li><i>Deekers</i>, eyes.</li> +<li><i>Shir</i>, head.</li> +<li><i>Test</i>, head.</li> +<li><i>Nak</i>, nose.</li> +<li><i>Mooie</i>, mouth.</li> +<li><i>Meffemel</i>, hand.</li> +<li><i>Grye</i>, horse.</li> +<li><i>Aizel</i>, ass.</li> +<li><i>Dugal</i>, dog.</li> +<li><i>Bakra</i>, sheep.</li> +<li><i>Ruffie</i>, devil.</li> +<li><i>Bing</i>, devil.</li> +<li><i>Feck</i>, take.</li> +<li><i>Ruffie feck ma</i>, devil take me.</li> +<li><i>Nawken</i>, Tinkler.</li> +<li><i>Baurie-dews, Nawken</i>, good-day, Tinkler.</li> +</ul> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>This man conducted himself very politely, his behaviour being +very correct and becoming; and he seemed much pleased +at being noticed, and kindly treated. At first, he spoke +wholly in the Gipsy language, thinking that I was as well +acquainted with it as himself. But when he found that I +knew only a few words of it, he, like all his tribe, stopped +in his communications, and, in this instance, began to quiz +and laugh at my ignorance. On returning to the street, I +repeated some of the words to one of the females. She +laughed, and, with much good humour, said, “You will put +me out, by speaking to me in that language.”</p> + +<p>These facts prove that the Irish Gipsies have the same +language as those in Scotland. The English Gipsy is substantially +the same. There are a great many Irish Gipsies +travelling in Scotland, of whom I will again speak, in the +<a href="#Page_341">following chapter</a>. They are not easily distinguished +from common Irish peasants, except that they are generally +employed in some sort of traffic, such as hawking +earthen-ware, trinkets, and various other trifles, through the +country.</p> + +<p>It may interest the reader to know how the idea originated +that the Gipsies, at all events their speech, came, or +was thought to have come, from Hindostan. According to +Grellmann, it was in this way:</p> + +<p>“The following is an article to be found in the Vienna +Gazette, from a Captain Szekely, who was thinking of +searching for (the origin of) the Gipsies, and their language, +in the East Indies: In the year 1763, on the 6th of November, +a printer, whose name was Stephen Pap Szathmar Nemethi, +came to see me. Talking upon various subjects, we +at last fell upon that of the Gipsies; and my guest related +to me the following anecdote, from the mouth of a preacher +of the Reformed Church, Stephen Vali, at Almasch. When +the said Vali studied at the University of Leyden, he was +intimately acquainted with some young Malabars, of whom +three are obliged constantly to study there; nor can they return +home till relieved by three others. Having observed that +their native language bore a great affinity to that spoken +by the Gipsies, he availed himself of the opportunity to note +down from themselves upwards of one thousand words, together +with their significations. After Vali was returned +from the University, he informed himself of the Raber Gipsies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +concerning the meaning of his Malabar words, which +they explained without trouble or hesitation.”<a name="FNanchor216" id="FNanchor216"></a><a href="#Footnote216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a></p> + +<p>None of the Scottish Gipsy words have as yet, I believe, +been collated with the Hindostanee, the supposed mother +tongue of the Gipsies.<a name="FNanchor217" id="FNanchor217"></a><a href="#Footnote217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> I showed my list to a gentleman +lately from India, who, at first sight, pointed out, from +among several hundred words and sentences scattered +through these pages, about thirty-nine which very closely resembled +Hindostanee. But in ascertaining the origin of the +Gipsies, the traveller, Dr. Bright, thinks it would be desirable +to procure some of the speech of the lowest classes in +India, and compare it with the Gipsy, as spoken in Europe; +for the purpose of showing, more correctly, the affinity of +the two languages. He supposes, as I understand him, that +the terms used by the despised and unlettered Gipsies +would probably resemble more closely the vulgar idiom of +the lowest castes in India, than the Hindostanee spoken by +the higher ranks, or that which is to be found in books. +The following facts show that Dr. Bright’s conjectures are +not far from the truth.</p> + +<p>I had occasion at one time to be on board of a vessel +lying in the harbour of Limekilns, Fifeshire, where I observed +a black man, acting as cook, of the name of John +Lobbs, about twenty-five years of age, and a native of Bombay, +who could neither read nor write any language whatever. +He stated that he was now a Christian, and had +been baptized by the name of John. He had been absent +from India three years, as cabin boy, in several British vessels, +and spoke English well. He appeared to be of a low +caste in his native land, but sharpened by his contact with +Europeans. Recollecting Dr. Bright’s hint, it occurred to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +me that this Hindoo’s vulgar dialect might resemble the +language of our Scottish Gipsies. I repeated to him about +one hundred and eighty Gipsy words and expressions. The +greater part were familiar to his ear, but many of them +that meant one thing in Gipsy, had quite a different signification +in his speech. I shall, however, give the following +Gipsy words, with the corresponding words of Lobb’s language, +and the English opposite.<a name="FNanchor218" id="FNanchor218"></a><a href="#Footnote218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a></p> + +<table summary="table p. 331"> + +<tr> +<td class="left top" style="width: 30%;">SCOTTISH GIPSY.</td> +<td class="left top" style="width: 30%;">JOHN LOBBS’ HINDOSTANEE.</td> +<td class="left top" style="width: 30%;">ENGLISH.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Baurie</i>, great, grand, rich.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Bura</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Grand, good, great, rich.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Been</i>, great, grand, rich.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Beenie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Grand, good, great, rich.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Callo</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Kala</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Black.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Lon</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Loon</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Salt.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Gourie</i>, a man.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gowra</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">White man.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Gaugie</i>, a man.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gaugie</i>, or <i>Fraugie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Rich man.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mort</i>, a wife.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Murgia</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Dead wife.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chavo</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Chokna</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A boy, a son.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Praw</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Praw</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Son.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Prawl</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Prawl</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Daughter.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Nais-gaugie</i>, grandfather.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Nais gaugie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Old man.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Nais-mort</i>, grandmother.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Nais mort</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Old woman.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Riah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Riah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A chief, a gentleman.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Rajah</i>, a chief, governor,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Rajah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A chief, a lord.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Raunie</i>, lady, wife of a gentleman.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Raunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The wife of a prince.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Been riah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Beenie riah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The king.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Been raunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Beenie raunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The queen.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Been gourie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Beenie gourie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A gentleman.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Bauree rajah</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span></td> +<td class="left top"><i>Bura rajah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The king.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Baurie raunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Bura raunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The queen.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Baurie forest</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Bura frost</i>, <i>bura malook</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Great town.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Baurie paunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Bura paunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The sea, the great water.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Lon paunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Loon paunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Salt water, the ocean.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Grye</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Ghora</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Horse.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Prancie</i>, a horse.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Prawncie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A gentleman’s carriage.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Gournie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Goroo</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A cow.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Backra</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Buckra</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A sheep.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Sherro</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Sir</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Head.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Yak</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Aukh</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Eye.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Yaka</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Aukha</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Eyes.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Nak</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Nak</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Nose.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mooie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Mooih</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Mouth.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chee</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Jeebh</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The tongue.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chee chee</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Choopra</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Hold your tongue.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Femmel</i>, hand.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Fingal</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Ends of the fingers.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Vast</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Wast</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The hand.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Peerie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Peir</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The foot.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Gave</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gaw</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Village.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Kair</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gur</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A house.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Wautheriz</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Waudrie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A bed.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Outhrie</i>, a window.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Outrie</i>, <i>Durvaja</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A door.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Eegees</i>, bed clothes.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Eegees</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Bed curtains.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Shuch-hamie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Shuamie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A waistcoat.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Jair-dah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Jairda</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Woman’s apron.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Gawd</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Dowglaw</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A man’s shirt.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Teeyakas</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Teeyaka</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Shoes.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Scaf</i>, a hat.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top"><i>Scaf</i>, a small piece of cloth tied around the head, like a fillet.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Skews</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Skows</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Platters, jugs.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chowrie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Choree</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Knife.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Harro</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Dhoro</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Sword.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Sauster</i>, iron.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Sauspoon</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Iron pot-lid, iron.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mass</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Mass</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Flesh.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Thood</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Doodh</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Milk.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chizcazin</i>, cheese.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Chizcaizim</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Cheese-knife.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Blaw</i>, meal.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Blaw</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Indian corn.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Flatrin</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Flatrin</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Fish of any kind.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Shaucha</i>, broth</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Shoorwa</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Soup.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Molzie</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span></td> +<td class="left top"><i>Mool</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Wine.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Romanie</i>, whiskey.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Rominie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Spirits, liquor.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mumlie</i>, a candle.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Membootie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Candles.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Fluffan</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Floofan</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Smoking tobacco.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Yak</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Ag</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Fire.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Paunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Paunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Water.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Casties</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Cashtes</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Fruit trees.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Bar</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Dunbar</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A stone.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Sonnakie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Sona</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Gold.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Roug</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Roopa</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Silver.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chinda</i>, silver.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Chindee</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Silver, tin.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Geeve</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Guing</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Wheat.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mang</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Chan</i>, <i>Jung</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The moon.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Bumie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Boomie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">To drink.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mar</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Marna</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">To strike.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Rauge</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Rawd</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Mad.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Choar</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Chorna</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">To steal.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chor</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Chor</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Thief.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Humff</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Huff</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Give me.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Moolie</i>, death, to die, dead.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Moola</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Dead.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Quad</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Quid</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Prison.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Staurdie</i>, prison.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Staurdee</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A prison, to confine, hold.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Jaw vree</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Jowa</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Go away.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Auvie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Aow</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Coming, come here.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Davies</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Din</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Day.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Rat</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Raut</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Night.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Pagrin</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Pawgrin</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">To break.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Davies-pagrin</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Dawis-pawgrin</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Day-break, the morning.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Klistie</i>, a soldier.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Kleestie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Black soldier, Sepoy.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Nash</i>, deserter.</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Natch</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">To run away.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Loudnie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Loonie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A bad woman.<a name="FNanchor219" id="FNanchor219"></a><a href="#Footnote219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>My informant understood, he said, two of the dialects of +Hindostan, the one called the Hindoo, and the other the +Moors’ language. The former, he said, the English in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +India generally spoke, but understood little of the latter; +and that he himself did not know a word of the language +of the Brahmins. When he failed to produce, in the Moors’ +language, the word corresponding to the Gipsy one, he frequently +found it in what he called the Hindoo speech. The +greater part of the Gipsy words, as I have already mentioned, +were familiar to his ear; but many of them that +signified one thing in his speech, meant quite another in +Gipsy. For example, the word <i>Graunagie</i>, in Gipsy, signifies +a <i>barn</i>; with Lobbs, it meant an <i>old rich man</i>. <i>Coories</i>, +bed clothes or blankets, signified, in Lobbs’ dialect, <i>ornaments +for the ears</i>. <i>Dill</i>, a servant maid, according to Lobbs, +was a <i>church</i>. <i>Shan davies</i>, a bad day, was the Hindostanee +for <i>holiday</i>. <i>Managie</i>, a woman, signifies the <i>name +of a person</i>, such as John or James. <i>Chavo</i>, a son, meant +a <i>female child</i>; and <i>Pooklie</i>, hulled barley, <i>anything +fine</i>. The two Gipsy words <i>Callo</i> and <i>Rat</i> are black and +night; but, according to Lobbs, <i>Callorat</i> is simply anything +dark.<a name="FNanchor220" id="FNanchor220"></a><a href="#Footnote220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a></p> + +<p>To confirm my collection of Scottish Gipsy words, I will +collate some of those which I sent to Sir Walter Scott, for +examination but not for publication, with those to be found +in Mr. Baird’s report, a publication which I first saw in +1842.</p> + +<table summary="table p. 334-335"> + +<tr> +<td class="left top" style="width: 30%;">SCOTTISH GIPSY.</td> +<td class="left top" style="width: 30%;">YETHOLM GIPSY.</td> +<td class="left top" style="width: 30%;">ENGLISH.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Gaugie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gadgé</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Man.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Managie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Manishee</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Woman.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mort</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Wife.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chavo</i>, (<i>chauvies</i>, children,)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span></td> +<td class="left top"><i>Shavies</i>, children,</td> +<td class="left top">Son.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Praw</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gouré</i> a boy,</td> +<td class="left top">Son.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Prawl</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Racklé</i>, a girl,</td> +<td class="left top">Daughter.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Riah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Rai</i>, a gentleman,</td> +<td class="left top">A chief.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Rajah</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Governor.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Baurie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Baré</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Good.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Sherro</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Shero</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Head.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Yak</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Yack</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Eye.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Yaka</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Eyes.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Nak</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Nak</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Nose.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mooie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Moi</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Mouth.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Vast</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Vastie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Hand.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Grye</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Grāī</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Horse.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Bashanie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Basné</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Cock.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Caunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Kanné</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Hen.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Drom</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Drone</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Road.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Gave</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gaave</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Village.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Graunagie</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Barn.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Graunzie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gransé</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Barn.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Kair</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Keir</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">House.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Outhrie</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Window.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Yag</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Yag</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Fire.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Thood</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Thud</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Milk.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mass</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Mass</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Flesh.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Peerie</i>, (or <i>blawkie</i>,)</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Blakie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Pot.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Paunie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Pawné</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Water.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Paurie</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Water.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Molzie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Mul</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Wine.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Roy</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Roy</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Spoon.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Nab</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Horn.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chorie</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Knife.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chowrie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Chouré</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Knife.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Shuha</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Shohé</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Coat.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Scaf</i>, (or <i>gogle</i>,)</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gogel</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Hat.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Harro</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Sword.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Beerie</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">Ship.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Bumie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Peevan</i>, drinking,</td> +<td class="left top">To drink.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Choar</i>,</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="left top">To steal.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Chor</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Tschor</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Thief.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Staurdie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Stardé</i>, a jail,</td> +<td class="left top">Prison.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Moolie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Moulian</i>, dying,</td> +<td class="left top">Death.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Moolie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Moulé</i>, to kill,</td> +<td class="left top">I’ll kill you.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Bing</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Bing</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The devil.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span>The following Scottish Gipsy words appear to have some +relation to the Sanscrit:</p> + +<table summary="Table p. 336"> + +<tr> +<td class="left top" style="width: 30%;">SCOTTISH GIPSY.</td> +<td class="left top" style="width: 30%;">SANSCRIT.</td> +<td class="left top" style="width: 30%;">ENGLISH.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Yag</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Agnish</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Fire.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Paurie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Varni</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Water.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Casties</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Cashth</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Wood.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Duff</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Dhupah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Smoke.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Sneepa</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Sweta</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">White.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Callo</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Cala</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Black.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Sherro</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Sira</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The head.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Rajah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Rajah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Lord.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Vast</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Hastah</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">The hand.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Praw</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Putra</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">Son.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Gave</i>, or <i>Gan</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Gramam</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">A village.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Mar</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Mar</i>,</td> +<td class="left top">To strike.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top"><i>Loudnie</i>,</td> +<td class="left top"><i>Lodha</i>, loved,</td> +<td class="left top">A whore.</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p>In order to show the relationship of the language of the +Gipsies in Scotland, England, Germany, Hungary, Spain, and +Turkey, and the affinity between it and the Persian, Hindostanee, +Sanscrit, Pali, and Kawi, I append a table containing +the first ten numerals in all these tongues:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span></p> + +<table class="fsize80" summary="Table p. 337"> + +<tr> +<td colspan="17" class="center fsize125">TABLE OF THE FIRST TEN NUMERALS IN VARIOUS GIPSY DIALECTS, COMPARED WITH THOSE IN OTHER ORIENTAL LANGUAGES.</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td colspan="17" class="blankrow"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr class="btd bb"> +<td rowspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1 bld brd">English.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="center top padl1 padr1 br">Scottish Gipsy.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1 br">English Gipsy.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1 br">German Gipsy.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Hunga-<br />rian Gipsy.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Hunga-<br />rian Gipsy.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Turkish Gipsy.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Spanish Gipsy.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Persian.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Vulgar Hin-<br />dostanee.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Sanscrit.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Sanscrit.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br">Pali.</td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 brd">Kawi.</td> +</tr> + +<tr class="bb"> +<td colspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1 br">W. S.</td> +<td colspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Hoyland.</span></td> +<td colspan="2" class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Grell-<br />mann.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Bright.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Borrow.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Hoyl’d.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Borrow.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Borrow.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">John Lobbs.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Polock.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Borrow.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 br"><span class="smcap">Polock.</span></td> +<td class="center padl1 padr1 brd"><span class="smcap">Polock.</span></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 bld brd">One</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Yaik</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Aick</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Ick, Ek</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Jeg</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Jek</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Yeck</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Yeque</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Ek</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Yek</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Eka</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Ega</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Ekka</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 brd">Eka</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 bld brd">Two</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Duie</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dooce</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Duj, Doj</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dui</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dui</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Duy</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dui</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Du</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Doh</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dui</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dvaya</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Di</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 brd">Dui</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 bld brd">Three</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Trin</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Trin</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Trin, Tri</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Tri</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Trin</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Trin</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Trin</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Se</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Tin</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Tri</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Treya</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Tri</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 brd">Tri</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bld brd">Four</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1 br">Tor</td> +<td class="left fsize150">{</td> +<td class="left padr1 br">Shtar,<br />Staur</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1 br">Schtar, Star</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Stah</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Schtar</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Shtiar</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Estar</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Chehar</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Char</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Chater</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Tschatvar</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Chatwa</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 brd">Chator</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bld brd">Five</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1 br">Punch, Fo</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1 br">Panji</td> +<td class="left fsize150">{</td> +<td class="left padr1 br">Pantsch,<br />Pansch</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Paunch</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Pansch</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Panch</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Pansche</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Pansch</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Paunsh</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Pancha</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Pantscha</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Pancha</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 brd">Pancha</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bld brd">Six</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1 br">Shaigh</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1 br">Shove</td> +<td class="left fsize150">{</td> +<td class="left padr1 br">Tschowe,<br />Schow,<br />Sof</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Schof</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Tschov</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Shove</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Job, Zoi</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Schesche</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Shaiah</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Shat</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Schasda</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Cho</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 brd">Sat</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 bld brd">Seven</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Naivairn<br /><a name="FNanchor221" id="FNanchor221"></a><a href="#Footnote221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a></td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Heftan</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Efta</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Epta</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Efta</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Efta</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Hefta</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Heft</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Saut</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Sapta</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Sapta</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Sap</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 brd">Sapta</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 bld brd">Eight</td> +<td class="left fsize150">{</td> +<td class="left padr1 br">Naigh,<br />Luften</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1 br">. . .</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left padl1 padr1 br">Ochto</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Opto</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Ochto</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Okto</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Otor</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Hescht</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Aut</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Ashta</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">Aschta</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 br">At-tha</td> +<td class="left padl1 padr1 brd">Asta</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 bld brd">Nine</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Line</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Henya</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Enja, Eija</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Ennia</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Enija</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Enia</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Esnia</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Nu</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Nong</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Nava</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Nava</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Nowa</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 brd">Nawa</td> +</tr> + +<tr class="bbd"> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 bld brd">Ten</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Nay</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Desh</td> +<td colspan="2" class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Desch, Des</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Desh</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dōsch</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Desh</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Deque</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">De</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dest</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dasa</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Dascha</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 br">Thotsa</td> +<td class="left top padl1 padr1 brd">Dasa</td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>That the Gipsy language, in Scotland, is intermixed with +cant, or slang, and other words, is certain, as will appear by the +specimens I have exhibited.<a name="FNanchor222" id="FNanchor222"></a><a href="#Footnote222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a> I am inclined to believe, however, +that were the cant and slang used by our flash men and +others carefully examined, much of it would turn out to be +corrupted Hindostanee, picked up from the Gipsies. I have, +after considerable trouble, produced, and, I may venture to +say, faithfully recorded, the raw materials as I found them: +to separate the other words from the original and genuine +Gipsy, is a task I leave to the learned philologist. I shall +only observe, that the way in which the Gipsy language has +been corrupted is this: That whenever the Gipsies find +words not understood by the people among whom they +travel, they commit such to memory, and use them in their +conversation, for the purpose of concealment. In the Lowlands +of Scotland, for example, they make use of Gaelic,<a name="FNanchor223" id="FNanchor223"></a><a href="#Footnote223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> Welsh, +Irish, and French words. These picked-up words and terms +have, in the end, become part of their own peculiar tongue; +yet some of the Gipsies are able to point out a number of +these foreign words, as distinguished from their own. In +this manner do the Gipsies carry along with them part of +the language of every country through which they pass.<a name="FNanchor224" id="FNanchor224"></a><a href="#Footnote224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>In concluding my account of the Scottish Gipsy language, +I may observe, that I think few who have perused my details +will hesitate for a moment in pronouncing that the +people have migrated from Hindostan. Many convincing +proofs of the origin of the race have been adduced by Grellmann, +Hoyland, and Bright; and I think that my researches, +made in Scotland alone, have confirmed the statements of +these respectable authors.</p> + +<p>The question which now remains to be solved is this: +From what tribe or nation at present in, or originally from, +Hindostan are the Gipsies descended? That they have +been a robber or predatory nation, from principle as well +as practice, I am convinced little doubt can be entertained. +Even yet, the greater the art and address displayed in committing +a dexterous theft or robbery, the higher is the merit +of such an action esteemed among their fraternity. I am +also convinced that this general, or national, propensity to +plunder has been the chief cause of the Gipsies concealing +their origin, language, customs, and religious observances, +at the time they entered the territories of civilized nations, +and up to this time. The intelligent old Gipsy, whose acquaintance +I made at St. Boswell’s, distinctly told me, that +his tribe were originally a nation of thieves and robbers; +and it is quite natural to suppose that, when they found +theft and robbery punished with such severity, in civilized +society, everything relating to them would be kept a profound +secret.</p> + +<p>The tribe in India whose customs, manners, and habits +have the greatest resemblance to those of the Gipsies, are +the <i>Nuts</i>, or <i>Bazegurs</i>; an account of which is to be found +in the 7th volume of the Asiatic Researches, page 451. In +Blackwood’s Magazine we find the following paragraph relative +to these Nuts, or Bazegurs, which induces a belief that +these people are a branch of the Gipsy nation, and a tribe +of the highest antiquity. They are even supposed to be the +wild, aboriginal inhabitants of India.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>“A lady of rank, who has resided some time in India, +lately informed me that the Gipsies are to be found there, +in the same way as in England, and practise the same arts of +posture-making and tumbling, fortune-telling, stealing, and +so forth. The Indian Gipsies are called Nuts, or Bazegurs, +and they are believed by many to be the remains of an +aboriginal race, prior even to the Hindoos, and who have +never adopted the worship of Bramah. They are entirely +different from the Parias, who are Hindoos that have lost +caste, and so become degraded.”</p> + +<p>The Nuts, or Bazegurs, under the name of Decoits or +Dukyts, are, it seems, guilty of frequently sacrificing victims +to the goddess Calie, under circumstances of horror and +atrocity scarcely credible. Now the old Gipsy, who gave +me the particulars relative to the Gipsy sacrifice of the +horse, stated that sometimes both woman and horse were +sacrificed, when the woman, by the action of the horse, was +found to have greatly offended.</p> + +<p>In the ordinances of Menu, the Nuts, or Bazegurs, are called +<i>Nata</i>. Now, our Scottish Gipsies, at this moment, call +themselves <i>Nawkens</i>, a word not very dissimilar in sound to +<i>Nata</i>. When I have spoken to them, in their own words, +I have been asked, “Are you a <i>nawken</i>?” a word to which +they attach the meaning of a <i>wanderer</i>, or <i>traveller</i>—one +who can do any sort of work for himself that may be required +in the world.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote189" id="Footnote189"></a><a href="#FNanchor189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> Before considering this trait in the character of the Scottish Gipsies, +it may interest the reader to know that the same peculiarity obtains among +those on the continent.</p> + +<p>Of the Hungarian Gipsies, Grellmann writes: “It will be recollected, from +the first, how great a secret they make of their language, and how suspicious +they appear when any person wishes to learn a few words of it. +Even if the Gipsy is not perverse, he is very inattentive, and is consequently +likely to answer some other rather than the true Gipsy word.”</p> + +<p>Of the Hungarian Gipsies, Bright says: “No one, who has not had experience, +can conceive the difficulty of gaining intelligible information, from +people so rude, upon the subject of their language. If you ask for a word, +they give you a whole sentence; and on asking a second time, they give +the sentence a totally different turn, or introduce some figure altogether +new. Thus it was with our Gipsy, who, at length, tired of our questions, +prayed most piteously to be released; which we granted him, only on condition +of his returning in the evening.”</p> + +<p>Of the Spanish Gipsies, Mr. Borrow writes: “It is only by listening +attentively to the speech of the Gitanos, whilst discoursing among themselves, +that an acquaintance with their dialect can be formed, and by seizing +upon all unknown words, as they fall in succession from their lips. Nothing +can be more useless and hopeless than the attempt to obtain possession +of their vocabulary, by enquiring of them how particular objects and ideas +are styled in the same; for, with the exception of the names of the most +common things, they are totally incapable, as a Spanish writer has observed, +of yielding the required information; owing to their great ignorance, the +shortness of their memories, or, rather, the state of bewilderment to which +their minds are brought by any question which tends to bring their reasoning +faculties into action; though, not unfrequently, the very words which +have been in vain required of them will, a minute subsequently, proceed +inadvertently from their mouths.”</p> + +<p>What has been said by the two last-named writers is very wide of the +mark; Grellmann, however, hits it exactly. The Gipsies have excellent memories. +It is all they have to depend on. If they had not good memories, how +could they, at the present day, speak a word of their language at all? The +difficulty in question is down-right shuffling, and not a want of memory on +the part of the Gipsy. The present chapter will throw some light on the +subject. Even Mr. Borrow himself gives an ample refutation to his sweeping +account of the Spanish Gipsies, in regard to their language; for, in another +part of his work, he says: “I recited the Apostles’ Creed to the +Gipsies, sentence by sentence, which they translated as I proceeded. They +exhibited the greatest eagerness and interest in their unwonted occupation, +and frequently broke into loud disputes as to the best rendering, many being +offered at the same time. I then read the translation aloud, whereupon +they raised a shout of exultation, and appeared not a little proud of the +composition.” On this occasion, Mr. Borrow evidently had the Gipsies in +the right humour—that is, off their guard, excited, and much interested in +the subject. He says, in another place: “The language they speak among +themselves, and they are particularly anxious to keep others in ignorance +of it.” As a general thing, they seem to have been bored by people much +above them in the scale of society; with whom, their natural politeness, +and expectations of money or other benefits, would naturally lead them to +do anything than give them that which it is inborn in their nature to +keep to themselves.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote190" id="Footnote190"></a><a href="#FNanchor190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> This opinion is confirmed by the fact that the Gipsies whom the Rev. +Mr. Crabbe has civilized will not now be seen among the others of the +tribe, at his annual festival, at Southampton. We have already seen, under +the head of Continental Gipsies, that “those who are gold-washers in +Transylvania and the Banat have no intercourse with others of their nation; +nor do they like to be called Gipsies.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote191" id="Footnote191"></a><a href="#FNanchor191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> On the whole, however, our Scottish peasantry, in some districts, do +not greatly despise the Tinklers; at least not to the same extent as the +inhabitants of some other countries seem to do. When not involved in +quarrels with the Gipsies, our country people, with the exception of a considerable +portion of the land-owners, were, and are even yet, rather fond +of the <i>superior</i> families of the <i>nomadic</i> class of these people, than otherwise.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote192" id="Footnote192"></a><a href="#FNanchor192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> Their (the female’s) speech is as fluent, and their eyes as unabashed, in +the presence of royalty, as before those from whom they have nothing to +hope or fear; the result of which is, that most minds quail before them.—<i>Borrow +on the Spanish Gipsies.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote193" id="Footnote193"></a><a href="#FNanchor193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> This woman evidently mistook our author for a Gipsy <i>gent</i>, such as he +is described at <a href="#Page_169">page 169</a>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote194" id="Footnote194"></a><a href="#FNanchor194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> It would be well for the reader to consider what a <i>Gipsy is</i>, irrespective +of the <i>language which he speaks</i>; for the <i>race</i> comes <i>before</i> the <i>speech</i> +which it uses. That will be done fully in my <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies. +The language, considered in itself, however interesting it may be, is a secondary +consideration; it may ultimately disappear, while the people who +now speak it will remain.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote195" id="Footnote195"></a><a href="#FNanchor195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> The Gipsies are always afraid to say what they would do in such cases. +Perhaps they don’t know, but have only a general impression that the individual +would “catch it;” or there may be some old law on the subject. +What Ruthven said of her’s being a desperate race is true enough, and +murderous too, among themselves as distinguished from the inhabitants +generally. Her remark was evidently part of that <i>frightening</i> policy which +keeps the natives from molesting the tribe. See <a href="#Page_44">page 44</a>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote196" id="Footnote196"></a><a href="#FNanchor196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> Ponqueville, in his travels, says that the Gipsies in the Levant have +no words in their language to express either God or the soul. Of ten +words of the Greek Gipsy, given by him, five of them are in use in Scotland.—<i>Paris</i>, +1820.</p> + +<p>[The Gipsy for God, according to Grellmann, is <i>Dewe</i>, <i>Dewel</i>, <i>Dewol</i>, +<i>Dewla</i>.]—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote197" id="Footnote197"></a><a href="#FNanchor197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> Had a German listened a whole day to a Gipsy conversation, he would +not have understood a single expression.—<i>Grellmann.</i></p> + +<p>The dialect of the English Gipsies, though mixed with English, is tolerably +pure, from the fact of its being intelligible to the race in the centre of +Russia.—<i>Borrow.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote198" id="Footnote198"></a><a href="#FNanchor198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> This letter is interesting to the extent that it illustrates the amount of +knowledge possessed by the Scottish community, generally, regarding the +subject of the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote199" id="Footnote199"></a><a href="#FNanchor199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> Sir Walter Scott was disposed to think that our Gipsy population was +rather exaggerated at five thousand souls; but when families such as the +above mentioned are taken into account—leaving alone those who may be +classed as settled Gipsies—I am convinced that their number is not over-estimated.</p> + +<p>[Not being in possession of sufficient information on the subject of the +Gipsies, the opinion of Sir Walter Scott, on the point in question, amounted +to nothing. See the Index, for <a href="#Secref1">Sir Walter Scott’s ideas of the Scottish +Gipsy population</a>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote200" id="Footnote200"></a><a href="#FNanchor200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> In speaking of the more original kind of Gipsy, Grellmann says: “No +Gipsy has ever signalized himself in literature, notwithstanding many of +them have partaken of the instruction to be obtained at public schools. +Their volatile disposition and unsteadiness will not allow them to complete +anything which requires perseverance or application. In the midst of his +career of learning, the recollection of his origin seizes him; he desires to +return to what he thinks a more happy manner of life; this solicitude encreases; +he gives up all at once, turns back again, and consigns over his +knowledge to oblivion.”</p> + +<p>There are too many circumstances surrounding such a Gipsy to remind +him of his origin, and arrest him in his career of learning: for his race +never having been tolerated—that is, no position ever having been assigned +it, he feels as if he were a vagabond, if known or openly avowed to the +public as a member of the tribe. And this, in itself, is sufficient to discourage +such a Gipsy in every effort towards improvement.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote201" id="Footnote201"></a><a href="#FNanchor201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> On mentioning to Sir Walter Scott, when at Abbotsford, that the Gipsies +were very partial to Hughie the Græme, he caused his eldest daughter, +afterwards Mrs. Lockhart, to sing this ancient Border song, which she +readily did, accompanying her voice with the harp. We were, at the time, +in the room which contained his old armour and other antiquities; to which +place he had asked me, after tea, to hear his daughter play on the harp. +She sang Hughie the Græme, in a plain, simple, unaffected manner, exactly +in the style in which I have heard the humble country-girls singing the +same song, in the south of Scotland. Sir Walter was much interested about +the Gipsies; and when I repeated to him a short sentence in their speech, +he, with great feeling, exclaimed, “Poor things! do you hear that?” This +was the first time, I believe, that he ever heard a Scottish Gipsy word +pronounced. It appeared to me that the mind of the great magician was +not wholly divested of the fear that the Gipsies might, in some way or +other, injure his young plantations.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote202" id="Footnote202"></a><a href="#FNanchor202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_58">pages 58</a> and <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote203" id="Footnote203"></a><a href="#FNanchor203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> These sixteen farms embraced about 25,000 acres of mountainous land, +maintained 13,000 sheep, 100 goats, 250 cattle, 50 horses, 20 draught-oxen, +and 60 dogs; 29 shepherds, 26 other servants, and 15 cotters, making, +with their families, 228 souls, supported by my ancestor’s property, as that +of a Scotch gentleman-farmer. On the farms mentioned, which lay in Mid-Lothian, +Tweed-dale, and Selkirkshire, the Gipsies were allowed to remain +as long as they pleased; and no loss was ever sustained by the indulgence.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote204" id="Footnote204"></a><a href="#FNanchor204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> I am convinced the Gipsies have a method of communicating with one +another by their hands and fingers, and it is likely this man tried me, in +that way, both at the fair and in his own house. I know a man who has +seen the Gipsies communicating their thoughts to each other in this way.</p> + +<p>“Bargains among the Indians are conducted in the most profound silence, +and by merely touching each other’s hands. If the seller takes the whole +hand, it implies a thousand rupees or pagodas; five fingers import five +hundred; one finger, one hundred; half a finger, fifty; a single joint only +ten. In this manner, they will often, in a crowded room, conclude the most +important transactions, without the company suspecting that anything +whatever was doing.”—<i>Historical Account of Travels in Asia, by Hugh +Murray.</i></p> + +<p>“<i>Method of the English selling their cargoes, at Jedda, to the Turks</i>: +Two Indian brokers come into the room to settle the price, one on the part +of the Indian captain, the other on that of the buyer or Turk. They are +neither Mahommedans nor Christians, but have credit with both. They sit +down on the carpet, and take an Indian shawl, which they carry on their +shoulders like a napkin, and spread it over their hands. They talk, in the +meantime, indifferent conversation, of the arrival of ships from India, or of +the news of the day, as if they were employed in no serious business whatever. +After about twenty minutes spent in handling each other’s fingers, +below the shawl, the bargain is concluded, say for nine ships, without one +word ever having been spoken on the subject, or pen or ink used in any +shape whatever.”—<i>Bruce’s Travels.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote205" id="Footnote205"></a><a href="#FNanchor205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> It is interesting to notice the reason for this old Gipsy chief being so +backward in giving our author some of his language. “He was ashamed +to do it.” Pity it is that there should be a man in Scotland, who, independent +of personal character, should be ashamed of such a thing. Then, see +how the Gipsy woman, in our author’s house, said that “the public would +look upon her with horror and contempt, were it known she could speak the +Gipsy language.” And again, the two female Gipsies, who would rather +allow themselves to be murdered, than give the meaning of two Gipsy +words to Sauchie colliers, for the reason that “it would have exposed their +tribe, and made themselves odious to the world.” And all for knowing the +Gipsy language!—which would be considered an accomplishment in another +person! What frightful tyranny! Mr. Borrow, as we will by and +by see, says a great deal about the law of Charles III, in regard to the prospects +of the Spanish Gipsies. But there is a law above any legislative +enactment—the law of society, of one’s fellow-creatures—which bears so +hard upon the Gipsies; the despotism of caste. If Gipsies, in such humble +circumstances, are so afraid of being known to be Gipsies, we can form some +idea of the morbid sensitiveness of those in a higher sphere of life.</p> + +<p>The innkeeper evidently thought himself in bad company, when our author +asked him for the Tinkler’s house, or that any intercourse with a Tinkler +would contaminate and degrade him. In this light, read an anecdote +in the history of John Bunyan, who was one of the same people, as I shall +afterwards show. In applying for his release from Bedford jail, his wife +said to Justice Hale, “Moreover, my lord, I have four small children that +cannot help themselves, of which one is blind, and we have nothing to live +upon but the charity of good people.” Thereat, Justice Hale, looking very +soberly on the matter, said, “Alas, poor woman!” “What is his calling?” +continued the judge. And some of the company, that stood by, said, (evidently +in interruption, and with a bitter sneer,) “A Tinker, my lord!” +“Yes,” replied Bunyan’s wife, “and because he is a Tinker, and a poor +man, therefore he is despised, and cannot have justice.” Noble woman! +wife of a noble Gipsy! If the world wishes to know who John Bunyan +really was, it can find him depicted in our author’s visit to this Scottish +Gipsy family, where it can also learn the meaning of Bunyan, at a time +when Jews were legally excluded from England, taking so much trouble to +ascertain whether he was of that race, or not. From the present work +generally, the world can learn the reason why Bunyan said nothing of his +ancestry and nationality, when giving an account of his own history.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote206" id="Footnote206"></a><a href="#FNanchor206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> <i>Sallah</i>, in the Scottish Gipsy speech, properly signifies accursed, or detested. +It is one of the most abusive expressions that can be used towards +your fellow creatures. Nothing terrifies a young Gipsy so much as to bawl +out to him, “<i>Sallah, jaw drom</i>,” which, in plain English, nearly means, +“You accursed, take the road.”</p> + +<p>It appears that, in Hindostanee, <i>Salla</i> is a word of the highest reproach, +and that nothing can provoke a Hindoo so much as the applying of it to +him. When cursing and swearing, by what would appear to be the Deity, +the Gipsies make use of the word <i>Sallahen</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote207" id="Footnote207"></a><a href="#FNanchor207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> <i>Nawken</i> has a number of significations, such as Tinkler, Gipsy, a wanderer, +a worker in iron, a man who can do anything for himself in the +mechanical arts, &c., &c.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote208" id="Footnote208"></a><a href="#FNanchor208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> The tradition among the Scottish Gipsies of being Ethiopians, whatever +weight the reader may attach to it, dates as far back, at least, as the +year 1615; for it is mentioned in the remission under the privy seal, +granted to William Auchterlony, of Cayrine, for resetting John Faa and +his followers. <i>See <a href="#Page_113">page 113</a>.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote209" id="Footnote209"></a><a href="#FNanchor209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> The Scottish Gipsies have doubtless an oral literature, like their brethren +in other countries. It would be strange indeed if they did not rank as +high, in that respect, as many of the barbarous tribes in the world. People +so situated, with no written language, are wonderfully apt at picking up, +and retaining, any composition that contains poetry and music, to which +oral literature is chiefly confined. In that respect, their faculties, like those +of the blind, are sharpened by the wants which others do not experience in +indulging a feeling common to all mankind.</p> + +<p>A striking instance of a people, unacquainted with the art of writing, +possessing a literature, is said to have been found in Hawaii; and to such +an extent, as to “possess a force and compass that, at the beginning of the +study of it, would not have been credited.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote210" id="Footnote210"></a><a href="#FNanchor210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> A song which a female Gipsy sang to Mr. Borrow, at Moscow, commenced +in this way, “Her head is aching with grief, as if she had tasted +wine;” and ended thus, “That she may depart in quest of the lord of her +bosom, and share his joys and pleasures.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote211" id="Footnote211"></a><a href="#FNanchor211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> Smith, in his “Hebrew people,” writes: “The Jews had almost lost, in +the <i>seventy</i> years’ captivity, their original language; that was now become +dead; and they spoke a jargon made up of their own language and that of +the Chaldeans, and other nations with whom they had mingled. Formerly, +preachers had only explained subjects; now, they were obliged to explain +words; words which, in the sacred code, were become obsolete, equivocal, +dead.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote212" id="Footnote212"></a><a href="#FNanchor212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> The Gipsies have been much annoyed, in late times, by people anxious +to find out their secrets. The circumstance caused them, at first, much +alarm as to what it meant; but when they came to learn the object of this +modern Gipsy-hunting, they became, in a measure, reconciled to their troubles; +for they were perfectly satisfied that the labours of these inquisitive +people would, in the language of Ruthven, “be in vain.” But the attempt +of our author, with his “open sesame,” caused not a few of them to travel +through life with the weight of a millstone hanging about their necks, +which the publication, now, is perhaps calculated to lighten. The “giving +to the world everything relative to their tribe,” was something they were +more apt to over than under estimate. To be “put in the papers,” judging +from the horror with which such is regarded by our own humble people, +was bad enough; still, the end of that would, in their peculiar way of +thinking, be merely the “lighting of the candles, and curling the hair, of +the gentle folk.” But to have themselves put in a book—to see themselves, +in their imaginations, “carried about in every bit herd-laddie’s pouch,” was +something that aggravated them. The presumptuous pride, the overweening +conceit of a high-mettled Scottish Gipsy; his boasted descent—a descent +at once high, illustrious, and lost in antiquity; his unbounded contempt +for the rabble of town and country—rendered him, under the circumstances, +almost incapable of brooking the idea of seeing his race +exposed to, what he would consider, the ridicule of the very herds. The +very idea of it was to him mortifying and maddening. Well might our +author, from having been so much mixed up with the Gipsies, show some +hesitancy ere taking a step that would have brought such a nest of hornets +about his ears. But, all things considered, my impression is, that the outdoor +Gipsies, at the present day, will feel extremely proud of the present +work; and that the same may be said of all classes of them, if one subject +had been excluded from the volume, over which they will be very apt to +growl a little in secret.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote213" id="Footnote213"></a><a href="#FNanchor213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> A lady, who had been seventeen years in India, told me that “<i>Chee</i>, +<i>chee</i>” was, in Hindostanee, an expression of reproof, corresponding exactly +with our “Fie, shame!” “Oh fie, shame!”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote214" id="Footnote214"></a><a href="#FNanchor214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> About four years after this occurrence, I was invited to dine at the +house of a friend, with whose wife I was not acquainted. On being introduced +to her, I was rather surprised at the repeated hard looks which she took at +me. At last she said, “I think I have seen you before. Were you never +engaged with a band of thimble-men, near Newhaven?” I said I was, +some years ago. “Do you recollect,” continued she, “of a female taking +you by the arm, and urging you to leave them?” I said, “Perfectly.” +“Well, then, I am the female; and I yet recollect your words were <i>Chee, +chee</i>.” She mentioned the circumstance to her husband at the time; but he +always said to her that I must have been only one of the blackguards +themselves, deceiving her. He would not listen to her when she described +me as not at all like a thimble-rigger, but always answered her, “I tell ye, +woman, the man you spoke to was nothing but one of these villains.”</p> + +<p>The thimble-riggers who molested Mr. Rose, ship-builder, so much, also +answered my Gipsy words distinctly; and, ever afterwards, took off their +hats to me, as I passed them playing at their game.</p> + +<p>[The thimble-men here alluded to took up their quarters immediately to +the west of Leith Fort, where the road takes a turn, at a right angle, a +little in front of Mr. Rose’s house, and there takes a similar turn towards +the west: the best position for carrying on the thimble game. So exasperated +was this gentleman, when, by every means in his power, he failed +to dislodge them, that he sent some of the men from his yard, to erect, on +the spot, a pole, which he covered with sheet-iron, to prevent its being cut +down; and placed on the top of it a board, having this upon it, “Beware +of thimble-riggers and chain-droppers,” with a hand pointing directly +below. This had no effect, however, for the “knights of the thimble” pursued +their game right under it. A gentleman, in passing one day, directed +their attention to the board, but the only reply he got was, “Bah! that’s +nothing. Where can you find a shop without a sign? and where’s the +other person that gets a sign from the public for nothing?”</p> + +<p>Thimble-rigging is peculiarly a Gipsy game. In Great Britain, the +Gipsies nearly monopolize it; and it would be singular if some of the +American thimblers were not Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote215" id="Footnote215"></a><a href="#FNanchor215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> There is a Gipsy belonging to one of these bands, known by the soubriquet +of the “winged duck,” from having lost an arm, of whom I have +often heard our author speak. He is what may be called the captain of +the company. A description of him, and his way of life, may be interesting, +inasmuch as it illustrates a class of Scottish Gipsies at the present +day.</p> + +<p>About the year 1853, three young gentlemen, from the town of Leith, had +occasion to take a stroll over Arthur’s Seat, a hill that overhangs Edinburgh, +on the east side of the city. In climbing the hill, they observed, a +little way before them, a man toiling up the ascent, whom they did not +notice till they came close upon him, and who had evidently been laying off +on the side of the path, and entered it as they approached it. He appears +about sixty years of age, is well dressed, and carries a fine cane, which he +keeps pressing into the ground, to help him up the hill. Just as they make +up to him, he abruptly stops, and turns round, so as almost to touch them. +“Hech, how! I’m blown, I’m blown; I’m fairly done up. Young gentlemen, +you have the advantage of me; I’m getting old, and it is hard for me +to climb the hill.” (Blown, done up, indeed! The fellow has stamina +enough to outclimb any of them for years yet.) An agreeable conversation +ensues, such as at once gains for him the confidence of the youths. He +appears to them so mild, so bland, so fatherly, so worthy of respect, in short, +a “nice old cove,” who is evidently enjoying his <i>otium cum dignitate</i> in his +old age, in some cottage near by, upon a pension, an annuity, or a moderate +competency of some sort. During the conversation, he manages to ascertain +that his young friends have not been on the hill for some time—that +one of them, indeed, has never been there before. All at once he exclaims, +“Ah! what can this be? Let us go and see.” Upon which they step forward +to look at a person like a mechanic playing at the thimbles. Placing +his arm around the neck of one of the young men, he begins to moralize: +“Pray, young gentlemen, don’t bet, (they had not shown the least symptoms +of doing that;) it’s wrong to bet; it’s a thing I never do; I would advise +you not to do it. This is a rascally thimbler; he’ll cheat, he’ll rob you.” +At this time there are three playing at the board, winning and losing +money rapidly. The “old cove” becomes impatient to be gone, and motions +so as to imply, “Boys, let us go, let us go.” Moving a few steps +forward, he halts to admire the scenery, (but casts a leering eye in the +direction of the board.) “Ah! there’s another goose gone to be plucked; +let us see what luck he meets with.”</p> + +<p>Now thimble rigging is the game, of all others, by which the uninitiated +can be duped. They see the pea put under one of the thimbles, (nutshells +they are, indeed;) there seems to be no doubt of that. The thimbles are +then so gently moved, that any one can follow them. The pea is not afterwards +tampered with—that is evident. All, then, that remains to be done, +is to lift the thimble under which the pea is, and secure your prize. But +the thimble man, with his long nail, and nimble finger, has secured the pea +under his nail, or, with the crook of his little finger, thrust it into the palm +of his hand, while he pretended to cover it with the thimble. An accomplice, +to make doubly sure of the pea being under the thimble, lifts it, and +shows a pea, which he, by sleight of hand, drops, and, while pretending to +cover it, as nimbly takes it up again.</p> + +<p>Betting and playing go on as before. The player makes some fine hauls, +but loses a game. He swears that foul play has been used. An altercation +follows. The man at the board gets excited, and to show that he really is +honourable in his playing, exclaims, “Well, sir, there’s your money again; +try another game if you have a mind.” “Now that is really honest, and +no mistake about it,” remarks the “old cove.” Then the thimbler averts +his head, to speak to a person behind him, and the “old cove” slyly lifts a +thimble and shows the pea, and whispers very confidentially to his friends, +“Now, young gentlemen, you can safely bet a few shillings on that.” They +shake their heads, however, for they know too much about thimbling. The +“old cove” now gets fidgety, and, managing to edge a little away from the +board, commences, in a subdued tone, to speak, in a strange gibberish, to +another bystander; but, forgetting himself, drops a word rather louder +than the others, on which, as he turns round and catches the eyes of his +young friends, he coughs and hems. On hearing the gibberish, a fear steals +over the young men, on finding themselves surrounded by a band of desperadoes, +in so solitary a place, and they make haste to be off. But the +“old cove,” to quiet their suspicions, accompanies them to a convenient +spot, where he leaves them, to go to his home, by a side-path that soon +leads him out of sight. On separating, he looks around him at the scenery, +now lets fall his stick, now picks up something, that he may, with less suspicion, +watch the movements of his escaped victims. They feel a singular +relief in getting rid of his company, and, with tact, dog him over the hill, +till they see him go back to the thimblers. They then think over their +adventure, and the strange jargon they have heard, and unanimously exclaim, +“Wasn’t he a slippery old serpent, after all!”</p> + +<p>On this occasion, there were no less than fourteen of these fellows present, +some of them stationed here, some there, while they kept artfully moving +around and about the hill, so as not to appear connected, but frequently +approached the board, to contribute to and watch their luck. They personated +various characters. One of them played the country lout, whose +dress, gait, gape, and stare were inimitable. On the slightest symptom of +danger manifesting itself, they would, by the movement of a hat, scatter, +and vanish in an instant.</p> + +<p>Among the people generally, a mystery attaches to these and other +thimble-men. No one seems to know any thing about them—who they are +or where they come from—and yet they are seen flitting everywhere through +the country; but hardly ever two days together in one dress. But the +mystery is solved by their being Gipsies. They are dangerous fellows to +meddle with; yet they seem to prefer thimbling, chain-dropping, card-playing, +pocket-picking, in fairs and thoroughfares, and pigeon-plucking +in every form, to robbery on the high-way, after the manner of their ancestors.</p> + +<p>Thimble-rigging, according to Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, was practised +in ancient Egypt. He calls it “thimble-rig, or the game of cups, under +which a ball was put, while the opposite party guessed under which of four +it was concealed.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote216" id="Footnote216"></a><a href="#FNanchor216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> “The opinion, that the Gipsies came originally from India, seems to +have been very early entertained, although it was again soon forgotten, or +silently relinquished. Hieronymus Foroliviensis, in the nineteenth volume +of Muratori, says, that on the 7th day of August, A. D. 1422, 200 of the +Cingari came to his native town, and remained there two days, on their +way to Rome, and that some of them said that they came from India, ‘<i>et +ut audivi aliqui dicebant quod erant de Indiâ</i>;’ and the account which Munster +gives of what he gathered from one of the Cingari, in 1524, seems to +prove that an impression existed amongst them of their having come from +that country.”—<i>Bright.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote217" id="Footnote217"></a><a href="#FNanchor217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> Mr. Baird’s Missionary Report contained a collation of the Scottish +Gipsy with Hindostanee, but that appeared considerably after what our +author has said was written.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote218" id="Footnote218"></a><a href="#FNanchor218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> Meeting a Bengalee at Peebles, begging money to pay his passage back +to India, I repeated to him, from memory, a few of the Gipsy words I had +collected a week before. After listening attentively, he answered that it +was the Moor’s language I had got, and gave me the English of <i>paunie</i>, +water, and <i>davies</i>, day. I took the first opportunity of mentioning this interview +to the Gipsies, observing it was the general opinion that their forefathers +came from India. They, however, persisted in their own tradition, +that they were a tribe of Ethiopians, which is believed by all the Scottish +Gipsies. [See <a href="#Page_113">pages 113</a> and <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote219" id="Footnote219"></a><a href="#FNanchor219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> A lady who resided seventeen years in India, already alluded to, mentioned +to me that the pronunciation of the Hindoos is broad, like that of +the Scotch, particularly where the letter a occurs; and that the Scotch +learn Hindostanee sooner, and more correctly, than the natives of other +countries. For this reason, I am inclined to think that the Scottish Gipsy +will have a greater resemblance to Hindostanee than the Gipsy of some +other countries.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote220" id="Footnote220"></a><a href="#FNanchor220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> In the report of the Fourteenth Gipsies’ Festival, held at Southampton, +under the superintendence of the Rev. James Crabb, the Gipsies’ friend, on +the 25th December, 1841, is the following statement:</p> + +<p>“The above gentleman, (the Rev. J. West, one of the speakers at the +festival,) with the Rev. Mr. Crabb, and two elderly Gipsies, who speak the +Gipsy language, called, the following morning, on a lady who had long +resided in India, and speaks the Hindostanee language; and it was clear +that many of the Rommany (Gipsy) words were pure Hindostanee, and +other words strongly resembled that language.”—<i>Hampshire Advertiser, +1st January, 1842.</i></p> + +<p>This statement, made some years subsequent to the period at which I +took down the words from Lobbs and the Gipsies in Scotland, is nearly in +my own words, and proves that my opinion, as to the close affinity between +Hindostanee and the Scottish Gipsy language, is correct.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote221" id="Footnote221"></a><a href="#FNanchor221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> The four last of these numerals, in the Scottish Gipsy language, differ very considerably from the corresponding ones in the Table. I leave +the matter to be settled by philologists.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote222" id="Footnote222"></a><a href="#FNanchor222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> It is remarkable, considering how much the habits and occupations of +the Gipsies bring them in contact with beggars, thieves, and other bad +and disorderly characters, how few of the slang words used by such persons +have been adopted by them.—<i>Rev. Mr. Baird’s Missionary Report to +the Scottish Church, 1840.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote223" id="Footnote223"></a><a href="#FNanchor223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> Of the Highland Gipsies, I had the following account from a person of +observation, and highly worthy of credit: There are many settled in Kintyre, +who travel through the Highlands and Lowlands annually. They +certainly speak, among themselves, a language totally distinct from either +Gaelic or Lowland Scotch.—<i>Blackwood’s Magazine.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote224" id="Footnote224"></a><a href="#FNanchor224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> “There is reason for supposing that the Gipsies had been wandering in +the remote regions of Sclavonia, for a considerable time previous to entering +Bohemia—the first civilized country of Europe in which they made +their appearance; as their language abounds with words of Sclavonic +origin, which could not have been adopted in a hasty passage through a +wild and half populated country.”—<i>Borrow.</i></p> + +<p>That the Gipsies were, in some way, drawn together, at a very remote +age, and became amalgamated, so as to form a race, can hardly admit of a +doubt. But it is an opinion that has no reasonable foundation which supposes +that they suddenly took their departure from India, and travelled +together, till they entered and spread over Europe. They may, as I have +conjectured in the <a href="#Page_55">Introduction</a>, have separated into bands, and passed into +countries in Asia, as they have done in Europe; and existed in Asia, and +Africa, long before they appeared in Europe. For this reason, their language +ought to vary in different countries; and it would be enough to +identify them as the same race, were the substance of their language and +their customs, or even their cast of mind, the same. In speaking of the +Hungarian Gipsies, Grellmann says, that their speech contains words from +the Turkish, Sclavonian, Greek, Latin, Wallachian, Hungarian, and German; +but that it would not be absurd to pronounce that there remain more, or at +least different, Gipsy words among those residing in one country than another.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>PRESENT CONDITION AND NUMBER OF THE GIPSIES IN SCOTLAND.</h3> + +<p>Every author who has written on the subject of the Gipsies +has, I believe, represented them as all having remarkably +dark hair, black eyes, and swarthy complexions. This +notion has been carried to such an extent, that Hume, on the +criminal laws of Scotland, thinks the black eyes should +make part of the evidence in proving an individual to be of +the Gipsy race. The Gipsies, in Scotland, of the last century, +were of all complexions, varying from light flaxen hair, +and blue eyes, and corresponding complexions, to hair of +raven black, dark eyes, and swarthy countenances. Many +of them had deep-red and light-yellow hair, with very fair +complexions. I am convinced that one-half of the Gipsies +in Scotland, at the present day, have blue eyes, instead of +black ones. According to the statistical account of the +parish of Borthwick, Mid-Lothian, (1839,) the Baillies, Wilsons, +and Taits, at Middleton, the descendants of the old +Tweed-dale Gipsies, are described as, “in general, of a +colour rather cadaverous, or of a darkish pale; their cheek-bones +high; their eyes small, and light coloured; their hair +of a dingy white or red colour, and wiry; and their skin, +drier and of a tougher texture than that of the people of +this country.” This question of colour has been illustrated +in my enquiry into the history of the Gipsy language; for +the language is the only satisfactory thing by which to test +a Gipsy, let his colour be what it may.</p> + +<p>In other countries, besides Scotland, the Gipsies are not all +of one uniform swarthy hue. A Russian gentleman stated +to me that many of the Gipsies in Finland have light hair, +and fair complexions. I am also informed there are Gipsies +in Arabia with fair hair.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>Among many other mal-practices, the Gipsies have, in all +countries, been accused of stealing children; but what became +of these kidnapped infants, no one appears to have +given any account, that I am aware of. To satisfy myself +on this trait of their character, I enquired of a Gipsy the +reasons which induced his tribe to steal children. He candidly +acknowledged the practice, and said that the stolen +children were adopted as members of the tribe, and instructed +in the language, and all the mysteries of the body. +They became, he said, equally hardy, clever, and expert in +all the practices of the fraternity. The male Gipsies were +very fond of marrying the stolen females. Some of the kidnapped +children were made servants, or, rather, a sort of +slaves, to the tribe. They considered that the occasional +introduction of another race into their own, and mixing the +Gipsy blood, in that manner, invigorated and strengthened +their race. In this manner would the Gipsies alter the +complexion of their race, by the introduction of foreign +blood among them.<a name="FNanchor225" id="FNanchor225"></a><a href="#Footnote225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>Before going into details to show the condition in which +the Gipsies are at the present day, I will consider, shortly, +the causes which have contributed to the change that has +come over their outward circumstances, and driven so many +of them, as it were, “to cover,” in consequence of the unfortunate +times on which they had fallen; a state of things +which, however unfortunate to them, in their peculiar way +of thinking, has been of so much benefit to civilization, and +society at large.</p> + +<p>About the commencement of the American war of independence, +in 1775, the Gipsies, in Scotland, occupied a very +singular position in society. Instead of being the proscribed, +and, as they thought, persecuted, members of the community, +many of them then became the <i>preservers</i> of the peace and +good order of the country. The country, as appears by the +periodical publications of the day, was, about this time, +greatly pestered by rogues and vagabonds. The Gipsies +had art enough to get a number of their chiefs appointed +constables, peace-officers, and <i>country-keepers</i>, in several +counties in Scotland. These public officers were to clear +the country of all idle vagrants, vagabonds, and disturbers +of the peace. This was, sure enough, a very extraordinary +employment for the Gipsies. The situation of country-keeper +was, of all others, the office in society the most completely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +to their liking. It gave them authority over every +rogue in the country, and they certainly followed out their +instructions to the very letter. They hunted down, with +the utmost vigilance, every delinquent who was not of their +tribe; but, on the other hand, they took especial care to +protect every individual of their own fraternity, excepting +those that were obnoxious to themselves. When it agreed +with their inclinations, these Gipsy country-keepers sometimes +caused stolen property to be returned to the owners, as +if it had been done by magic. It is needless to observe that +they were themselves the very chiefs of the depredators, but +had generally the dexterity never to be seen in the transactions.<a name="FNanchor226" id="FNanchor226"></a><a href="#Footnote226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a></p> + +<p>A Gipsy country-keeper was at the height of his vanity +and glory, when he got an unfortunate individual of the +community into his clutches. In the presence of his captive, +he would draw his sword, flourish it in the air, and swear a +terrible oath, that he would, at a blow, cut the head from +his body, if he made the least attempt at escape.</p> + +<p>The public services of the Gipsies were in a short time +discontinued, as their conduct only made matters a great +deal worse. A friend of mine<a name="FNanchor227" id="FNanchor227"></a><a href="#Footnote227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> saw those Gipsy constables, +for Peebles-shire, sworn into office, at the town of Peebles, +when they were first appointed. He said he never saw +such a set of gloomy, strange-looking fellows, in his life; +and expressed his surprise at the conduct of the county +magistrates, for employing such banditti as conservators of +the public peace. The most extraordinary circumstance +attending their appointment, he said, was, that not one of +them had a permanent residence within the county.</p> + +<p>During the American war, however, the tide of fortune +again completely turned against the Gipsies. The Government +was in need of soldiers and sailors; the Gipsies were +a proscribed race; their peculiar habits were continually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +involving them in serious scrapes and difficulties; the consequence +was, that the Tinklers were apprehended all over +the country, and forced into our fleets and armies then +serving in America. All the aged persons of intelligence +with whom I have conversed on this subject, agree in representing +that the kidnapping system at that period was the +means of greatly breaking up and dispersing the Gipsy +bands in Scotland. From this blow these unruly vagrants +have never recovered their former position in the country.<a name="FNanchor228" id="FNanchor228"></a><a href="#Footnote228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a></p> + +<p>The war in America had been concluded only a few years +before that with France broke out. Our army and navy +were, of necessity, again augmented to an extent beyond +precedent. It was not difficult to find pretences for renewing +the chase of the Gipsies, and apprehending them, under +the name of vagrants and disorderly persons. They were +again compelled to enlist into our regiments, and embark +on board our ships of war, as sailors and marines. An individual +stated to me that, about the commencement of this +war, he had seen English Gipsies sent, in scores at a time, +on board of men-of-war, in the Downs.</p> + +<p>But, rather than be forced into a service so much against +their inclinations, numerous instances occurred of Gipsies +voluntarily mutilating themselves. In the very custody of +press-gangs, and other hardened kidnappers, the determined +Gipsies have, with hatchets, razors, and other sharp instruments, +struck from their hands a thumb, or finger or two, +to render them unfit for a military life. Several instances +have come to my knowledge of these resolute acts of the +Scottish Gipsies. I have myself seen several of the tribe +without fingers; and, on enquiry, I found that they themselves +had struck them from their hands, in consequence of +their aversion to become soldiers and sailors. One man, of +the name of Graham, during the last war, laid his hand upon +a block of wood, and, in a twinkling, struck, with a hatchet, +his thumb from one of his hands. Another, of the name +of Gordon, struck two of his fingers from one of his hands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +with a razor. Such, indeed, was the aversion which the +whole Gipsy race had to a military life, that even mothers +sometimes mutilated their infants, by cutting off certain fingers, +to render them, when they became men, entirely incapable +of serving in either the army or navy.<a name="FNanchor229" id="FNanchor229"></a><a href="#Footnote229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a></p> + +<p>Such causes as these, taken in connection with the improved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +internal administration of the country, and the progression +of the age, have cast a complexion over the outward aspect +of the bulk of the Scottish Gipsy race, entirely different +from what it was before they came into existence.</p> + +<p>Many of the Gipsies now keep shops of earthen-ware, +china, and crystal. Some of them, I am informed on the +best authority, have from one to eight thousand pounds invested +in this line of business.<a name="FNanchor230" id="FNanchor230"></a><a href="#Footnote230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> I am disposed to think that +few of these shops were established prior to the commencement +of the French war; as I find that several of their +owners travelled the country in their early years. Perhaps +the fear of being apprehended as vagrants, and compelled +to enter the army or navy, forced some of the better sort to +settle in towns.<a name="FNanchor231" id="FNanchor231"></a><a href="#Footnote231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> Like their tribe in other countries, numbers +of our Scottish Gipsies deal in horses; others keep +public-houses; and some of them, as innkeepers, will, in +heritable and moveable property, possess, perhaps, two or +three thousand pounds. These innkeepers and stone-ware +merchants are scarcely to be distinguished as Gipsies; yet +they all retain the language, and converse in it, among +themselves. The females, as is their custom, are particularly +active in managing the affairs of their respective concerns.</p> + +<p>Many of them have betaken themselves to some of the +regular occupations of the country, such as coopers, shoemakers, +and plumbers; some are masons—an occupation to +which they seem to have a partiality. Some of them are +members of masons’ lodges. There are many of them itinerant +bell-hangers, and umbrella-menders. Among them +there are tin-smiths, braziers, and cutlers, in great numbers; +and the tribe also furnish a proportion of chimney-sweeps. +I recollect of a Gipsy, who travelled the country, selling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +earthen-ware, becoming, in the end, a master-sweep. Several +were, and I believe are, constables; and I am inclined to +think that the police establishments, in large as well as +small towns, contain some of the fraternity.<a name="FNanchor232" id="FNanchor232"></a><a href="#Footnote232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> Individuals +of the female Gipsies are employed as servants, in the families +of respectable persons, in town and country. Some of +them have been ladies’ maids, and even house-keepers to +clergymen and farmers.<a name="FNanchor233" id="FNanchor233"></a><a href="#Footnote233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> I heard of one, in a very respectable +family, who was constantly boasting of her ancient +and high descent; her father being a Baillie, and her +mother a Faa—the two principal families in Scotland. +Some of those persons who sell gingerbread at fairs, or +what the country-people call <i>rowly-powly-men</i>, are also of +the Gipsy race. Almost all these individuals hawking earthen-ware +through the country, with carts, and a large proportion +of those hawking japan and white-iron goods, are +Gipsies.</p> + +<p>Some of the itinerant venders of inferior sorts of jewelry, +part of which they also manufacture, and carry about in +boxes on their shoulders, are of the tribe; and some of +them even carry these articles in small, handsome, light-made +carts. I had frequently observed, in my neighbourhood,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +a very smart-looking and well-dressed man, who, with +his wife and family, and a servant to take care of his children, +travelled the country, in a neat, light cart, selling +jewelry. All the family were well dressed. I was curious +to know the origin of this man, and, upon enquiring of one +of the tribe, but of a different clan, I found that he was a +Gipsy, of the name of Robertson, descended from the old +<i>horners</i> who traversed the kingdom, about half a century +ago. He still retained the speech, peculiar dance, and manner +of handling the cudgel, the practices and roguish tricks +of his ancestors. I believe he also practised chain-dropping. +To show the line of life which some of the descendants of +the old style of Gipsies are now pursuing, in Scotland, I will +give the following anecdote, which I witnessed, relative to +this Gipsy jeweller.</p> + +<p>I happened to be conversing, about twenty years ago, +with four or five individuals, on a public quay in Fifeshire, +when a smart, well-dressed sailor, apparently of the rank of +a mate, obtruded himself on our company. He said he was +“a sailor, and had spent all his money in a frolic, as many +thoughtless sailors had done;” and, pulling out a watch, he +continued, “he would give his gold watch for a mere trifle, +to supply his immediate wants.” One of the company at +once thought he was an impostor, and told him his watch +was not gold at all, and worth very little money. “Not +worth much money!” he exclaimed; “why, I paid not less +than ten francs for it, in France, the other day!” At this +assertion, all present burst out a laughing at the impostor’s +ignorance in exposing his own trick. “Why, friend,” said a +ship-master, who was one of the company, “a franc is only +worth tenpence; so you have paid just eight and fourpence +for this valuable watch of yours. Do not attempt to +cheat us in this manner.” At finding himself so completely +exposed, the villain became furious, and stepping close up to +the ship-master, with abusive language, <i>chucked</i> him under +the chin, to provoke him to fight. I at once perceived that +the feigned sailor was a professional boxer and cudgelist, +and entreated the ship-master not to touch him, notwithstanding +his insolence. The “sailor,” now disappointed on +all hands, brandished his bludgeon, and retreated backwards, +dancing in the Gipsy manner, and twirling his +weapon before him, till he got his back to a wall. Here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +he set all at defiance, with a design that some one should +strike at him, that he might avenge the affront he had received. +But he was allowed to go away without interruption. +This man was, in short, Robertson, the Gipsy travelling +jeweller, disguised as a sailor, and a well-known prize-fighter.</p> + +<p>Almost all those cheats called thimble-riggers, who infest +thoroughfares, highways and byways, are also Gipsies, of a +superior class. I have tried them by the language, and +found they understood it, as has been seen in my account of +the Gipsy language.</p> + +<p>I need scarcely say, that all those females who travel the +country in families, selling articles made from horn, while +the males practise the mysteries of the tinker, are that portion +of the Gipsies who adhere more strictly to their ancient +customs and manner of life. Some of the principal families +of these nomadic horner bands have yet districts on which +none others of the tribe dare encroach. This division of +the Gipsies are, by superficial observers, considered the only +Gipsies in existence in Scotland; which is a great mistake. +The author of Guy Mannering, himself, seems to have had +this class of Gipsies, only, in view, when he says, “There are +not now above five hundred of the tribe in Scotland.” +Those who deal in earthen-ware, and work at the tinsmith +business, call these horners Gipsies; and nothing can give +greater offence to these Gipsy potters and smiths than to +ask them if they ever <i>made horn spoons</i>; for, by asking +them this question, you indirectly call them Gipsies, an appellation +that alarms them exceedingly.<a name="FNanchor234" id="FNanchor234"></a><a href="#Footnote234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a></p> + +<p>Since the termination of the long-protracted French war, +the Gipsies have, to some extent, resumed their ancient manners; +and many of them are to be seen encamped in the +open fields. There are six tents to be observed at present, +for one during the war. To substantiate what I have said +of the numbers and manners of the nomadic Gipsies since<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +the peace, I will give the two following paragraphs, taken +from the Caledonian Mercury newspaper:</p> + +<p>“<i>Tinklers and vagabonds</i>: The country has been much +infested, of late years, by wandering hordes of vagabonds, +who, under pretence of following the serviceable calling of +tinkers, assume the name and appearance of such, merely to +extort contributions of victuals, and other articles of value, +from the country-people, particularly in lonely districts. +The evil has encreased rapidly of late, and calls loudly for +redress upon those in whose charge the police of the country +districts is placed. They generally travel in bands, varying +in number from ten to thirty; and wherever they pitch their +camp, the neighbours are certain of suffering loss of cattle +or poultry, unless they submit to pay a species of black-mail, +to save themselves from heavier and more irregular contributions. +These bands possess all the vices peculiar to the +regular Gipsies, without any of the extenuating qualities +which distinguish these foreign tribes. Unlike the latter, +they do not settle in one place sufficiently long to attach +themselves to the soil, or to particular families; and seem +possessed of no industrious habits, but those of plunder, +knavery, and riot. The chief headquarters of the hordes +are at the caves of Auchmithie, on the east coast of Forfarshire; +from which, to the wilds of Argyleshire, seems to +be the usual route of their bands; small detachments being +sent off, at intermediate places, to extend the scene of their +plunder. Their numbers have been calculated by one who +lives on the direct line of their passage, through the braes +of Perthshire, and who has had frequent opportunities for +observation; and he estimates them at several hundred.”—<i>22d +August, 1829.</i></p> + +<p>“A horde of Gipsies and vagabonds encamped, last week, +in a quarry, on the back of the hill opposite Cherry-bank. +Their number amounted to about thirty. The inhabitants +in that quarter became alarmed; and Provost Ross, whose +mansion is in the vicinity of the new settlers, ordered out a +strong posse of officers from Perth, to dislodge them; which +they effected. The country is now kept in continual terror +by these vagabonds, and it will really be imperative on the +landed proprietors to adopt some decided measure for the +suppression of this growing evil.”—<i>3d October, 1829.</i><a name="FNanchor235" id="FNanchor235"></a><a href="#Footnote235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>A gentleman informed me that, in the same year, he +counted, in Aberdeenshire, thirty-five men, women, and children, +in one band, with six asses and two carts, for carrying +their luggage and articles of merchandise. Another individual +stated to me, that upwards of three hundred of the +Gipsies attended the funeral of one of their old females, +who died near the bridge of Earn. So late as 1841, the +sheriff of East Lothian addressed a representation to the +justices of the peace of Mid-Lothian, recommending a new +law for the suppression of the numerous Gipsy tents in the +Lothians. I have, myself, during a walk of two hours, +counted, in Edinburgh and its suburbs, upwards of fifty of +these vagrants, strolling about.<a name="FNanchor236" id="FNanchor236"></a><a href="#Footnote236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a></p> + +<p>When I visited St. Boswell’s, I felt convinced, as mentioned +in the last chapter, that there were upwards of three hundred +Gipsies in the fair held at that place. Part of them formed +their carts, laden with earthen-ware, into two lines, leaving a +space between them, like a street. In the rear of the carts +were a few small tents, in which were Gipsies, sleeping in +the midst of the noise and bustle of the market; and numbers +of children, horses, asses, and dogs, hanging around +them. There were also kettles, suspended from triangles, in +which victuals were cooking; and many of the Gipsies enjoyed +a warm meal, while others at the market had to content +themselves with a cold repast. In the midst of the +throng of this large and crowded fair, I noticed, without the +least discomposure on their part, some of the male Gipsies +changing their dirty, greasy-looking shirts for clean ones,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +leaving no covering on their tawny persons, but their +breeches; and some of the old females, with bare shoulders +and breasts, combing their dark locks, like black horses’ +tails, mixed with grey. “Ae whow! look at that,” exclaimed +a countryman to his companion; and, without waiting +for his friend’s reply, he gravely added: “Everything +after its kind.” The Gipsies were, in short, dressing themselves +for the fair, in the midst of the crowd, regardless of +everything passing around them.</p> + +<p>On my return from the English Border, I passed over the +field where the fair had been held, two days before, and +found, to my surprise, the Gipsies occupying their original +encampment. They, alone, were in possession of St. Boswell’s +Green. I counted twenty-four carts, thirty horses, twenty +asses, and about thirty dogs; and I thought there were upwards +of a hundred men, women, and children, on the spot. +The horses were, in general, complete rosinantes—as lean, +worn-out, wretched-looking animals, as possibly could be imagined. +The field trampled almost to mortar, by the multitude +of horses, cattle, and sheep, and human beings, at the +fair; the lean, jaded and lame horses, braying asses, and +surly-looking dogs; the groups of miserable furniture, ragged +children, and gloomy-looking parents; a fire, here and there, +smoking before as many miserable tents—when contrasted +with the gaily-dressed multitude, of both sexes, on the spot, +two days before—presented a scene unequalled for its +wretched, squalid and desolate appearance. Any one desirous +of viewing an Asiatic encampment, in Scotland, should visit +St. Boswell’s Green, a day or two after the fair.<a name="FNanchor237" id="FNanchor237"></a><a href="#Footnote237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a></p> + +<p>The following may be said to be about the condition in +which the present race of Scottish <i>tinkering</i> Gipsies are to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +be found: I visited, at one time, a horde of Gipsy tinsmiths, +bivouacked by the side of a small streamlet, about half a +mile from the town of Inverkeithing. It consisted of three +married couples, the heads of as many families, one grown-up, +unmarried female, and six half-clad children below six +years of age. Including the more grown-up members, scattered +about in the neighbourhood, begging victuals, there +must have been above twenty souls belonging to this band. +The tinsmiths had two horses and one ass, for carrying +their luggage, and several dogs. They remained, during +three cold and frosty nights, encamped in the open fields, +with no tents or covering, for twenty individuals, but two +pairs of old blankets.<a name="FNanchor238" id="FNanchor238"></a><a href="#Footnote238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a> Some of the youngest children, however, +were pretty comfortably lodged at night. The band +had several boxes, or rather old chests, each about four feet +long, two broad, and two deep, in which they carried their +white-iron plates, working tools, and some of their infants, +on the backs of their horses. In these chests the children +passed the night, the lids being raised a little, to prevent +suffocation. The stock of working tools, for each family, +consisted of two or three files, as many small hammers, a +pair of bellows, a wooden mallet, a pair of pincers, a pair of +large shears, a crucible, a soldering-iron or two, and a small +anvil, of a long shape, which was stuck into the ground.</p> + +<p>The females as well as the males of this horde of Gipsies +were busily employed in manufacturing white-iron into +household utensils, and the clink of their hammers was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +heard from daybreak till dark.<a name="FNanchor239" id="FNanchor239"></a><a href="#Footnote239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> The males formed the +plates into the shapes of the different utensils required, and +the females soldered and otherwise completed them, while +the younger branches of the families presented them for sale +in the neighbourhood. The breakfast of the band consisted +of potatoes and herrings, which the females and children +had collected in the immediate neighbourhood by begging. +I noticed that each family ate their meals by themselves, +wrought at their calling by themselves, and sold their goods +for themselves. The name of the chief of the gang was +Williamson, who said he travelled in the counties of Fife +and Perth. When I turned to leave them, they heaped upon +me the most fulsome praises, and so loud, that I might distinctly +hear them, exactly in the manner as those in Spain, +mentioned by Dr. Bright.</p> + +<p>I have, for many months running, counted above twenty +Gipsies depart out of the town of Inverkeithing, about ten +o’clock in the forenoon, every day, on their way to various +parts of the country; and I have been informed that from +twenty to thirty vagrants lodged in this small burgh nightly. +Some of the bakers declared that the persons who were the +worst to please with hot rolls for breakfast, were the beggars, +or rather Gipsies, who frequented the place. On one +occasion, I observed twelve females, without a single male +among them, decamp out of the town, all travelling in and +around a cart, drawn by a shagged pony. The whole party +were neatly attired, some of the young girls having trowsers, +with frills about their ankles; and very few would +have taken them for Gipsies. A large proportion of those +miserable-looking females, who are accompanied by a number +of ragged children, and scatter themselves through the +streets, and beg from door to door, are Gipsies. I do not +recollect, distressing as the times ever have been, of having +seen reduced Scotch tradesmen <i>begging in families</i>. I +remember once seeing a man with a white apron wrapped +around his waist, his coat off, an infant in his arms, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +two others at his feet, accompanied by a dark-looking fellow +of about twenty, singing through the town mentioned. They +represented themselves as broken-down tradesmen, and had +the appearance of having just left their looms, to sing for +bread; and many half-pence they received. Suspecting +them to be impostors, I observed their motions, and soon +saw them join other vagrants, outside of the town, among +whom were females. The poor tradesmen were now +dressed in very substantial drab surtouts. They were +nothing but a family of Tinklers. They were proceeding, +with great speed, to the next town, to practise their +impositions on the inhabitants; and I learned that they +had, in this manner, traversed several counties in Scotland. +At a subsequent period, I fell in with another family, consisting +of five children and their parents, driving an ass and +its colt, near the South Queensferry. Upon the back of the +ass were two stone-hammers, and two reaping-hooks, placed +in such a manner as any one, in passing, might observe +them. I enquired where they had been. “We have been +in England, sir, seeking work, but could find none.” Few +would have taken them for anything but country labourers; +but the truth was, they were a family of Gipsies, of the +well-known name of Marshall, from about Stranraer. Their +implements of industry, so conspicuously exhibited on the +back of their ass, was all deception.</p> + +<p>It is only about twenty-five years since the Irish Gipsies, +in bands, made their appearance in Scotland. Many severe +conflicts they had with our Scottish tribes, before they obtained +a footing in the country. But there is a new swarm of +Irish Gipsies at present scattered, in bands, over Scotland, +all acquainted with the Gipsy language. They are a set of +the most wretched creatures on the face of the earth. A +horde of them, consisting of several families, encamped, at +one time, at Port Edgar, on the banks of the Forth, near +South Queensferry. They had three small tents, two horses, +and four asses, and trafficked in an inferior sort of earthen-ware. +On the outside of one of the tents, in the open air, +with nothing but the canopy of heaven above her, and the +greensward beneath her, one of the females, like the deer +in the forest, brought forth a child, without either the infant +or mother receiving the slightest injury.<a name="FNanchor240" id="FNanchor240"></a><a href="#Footnote240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a> The woman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +however, was attended by a midwife from Queensferry, who +said that these Irish Gipsies were so completely covered +with filth and vermin, that she durst not enter one of their +tents, to assist the female in labour. Several individuals +were attracted to the spot, by the novelty of such an occurrence, +in so unusual a place as the open fields. Immediately +after the child was born, it was handed about to every one +of the band, that they might look at the “young donkey,” +as they called it. In about two days after the accouchement, +the horde proceeded on their journey, as if nothing +had happened.<a name="FNanchor241" id="FNanchor241"></a><a href="#Footnote241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span>But there are Irish Gipsies of a class much superior to +the above, in Scotland. In 1836, a very respectable and +wealthy master-tradesman informed me that the whole of +the individuals employed in his manufactory, in Edinburgh, +were Irish Gipsies.<a name="FNanchor242" id="FNanchor242"></a><a href="#Footnote242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a></p> + +<p>The Gipsies do not appear to have been altogether free from +the crime of destroying their offspring, when, by infirmities, +they could not be carried along with them in their wanderings, +and thereby became an encumbrance to them. It has, +indeed, been often noticed that few, or no, deformed or +sickly individuals are to be found among them.<a name="FNanchor243" id="FNanchor243"></a><a href="#Footnote243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a> The following +appears to be an instance of something like the practice +in question. A family of Gipsies were in the habit of +calling periodically, in their peregrinations over the country, +at the house of a lady in Argyleshire. They frequently +brought with them a daughter, who was ailing of some lingering +disorder. The lady noticed the sickly child, and +often spoke kindly to her parents about her condition. On +one occasion, when the family arrived on her premises, she +missed the child, and enquired what had become of her, and +whether she had recovered. The father said his daughter +was “a poor sickly thing, not worth carrying about with +them,” and that he had “made away with her.” Whether +any notice was taken of this murder, by the authorities, is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +not mentioned. The Gipsies, however, are generally noted +for a remarkable attachment to their children.<a name="FNanchor244" id="FNanchor244"></a><a href="#Footnote244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a></p> + +<p>Several authors have brought a general charge of +cowardice against the Gipsies, in some of the countries of +Europe; but I never saw or heard of any grounds for +bringing such a charge against the Scottish Gipsies. On +the contrary, I always considered our Tinklers the very +reverse of cowards. Heron, in his journey through part of +Scotland, before the year 1793, when speaking of the Gipsies +in general, says: “They make excellent soldiers, whenever +the habit of military discipline can be sufficiently impressed +upon them.” Several of our Scottish Gipsies have even +enjoyed commissions, as has already been noticed.<a name="FNanchor245" id="FNanchor245"></a><a href="#Footnote245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a> But the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +military is not a life to their taste, as we have already seen; +for, rather than enter it, they will submit to even personal +mutilation. There is even danger in employing them in our +regiments at the seat of war; as I am convinced that, if +there are any Gipsies in the ranks of the enemy, an improper +intercourse will exist between them in both armies. +During the last rebellion in Ireland, the Gipsy soldiers in +our regiments kept up an intimate and friendly correspondence +with their brethren among the Irish rebels.<a name="FNanchor246" id="FNanchor246"></a><a href="#Footnote246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a></p> + +<p>The Scottish Gipsies have ever been distinguished for +their gratitude to those who treated them with civility and +kindness, during their progress through the country. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +particulars of the following instance of a Gipsy’s gratitude +are derived from a respectable farmer, to whom one of the +tribe offered assistance in his pecuniary distress. I was +well acquainted with both of them. The occurrence, which +took place only about ten years ago, will show that gratitude +is still a prominent feature in the character of the Scottish +Gipsy.</p> + +<p>The farmer became embarrassed in his circumstances, in +the spring of the year, when an ill-natured creditor, for a +small sum, put him in jail, with a design to extort payment +of the debt from his relatives. The farmer had always allowed +a Gipsy chief, of the name of ——, with his family, +to take up his quarters on his premises, whenever the horde +came to the neighbourhood. The Gipsy’s horse received the +same provender as the farmer’s horses, and himself and family +the same victuals as the farmer’s servants. So sure was +the Gipsy of his lodgings, that he seldom needed to ask permission +to stay all night on the farm, when he arrived. On +learning that the farmer was in jail, he immediately went to +see him. When he called, the jailer laughed at him, and, +for long, would not intimate to the farmer that he wished to +see him. With tears in his eyes, the Gipsy then told him +he “would be into the jail, and see the honest man, whether +he would or not.” At last, an hour was fixed when he +would be allowed to enter the prison. When the time arrived, +the Gipsy made his appearance, with a quantity of +liquor in his hand, for his friend the farmer. “Weel, man,” +said he to the turnkey, “is this your hour, now?” being displeased +at the delay which had taken place. The jailer +again said to him that he was surely joking, and still refused +him admittance. “Joking, man?” exclaimed the +Gipsy, with the tears again glistening in his dark eyes, “I +am not joking, for into this prison I shall be; and if it is not +by the door, it shall be by another way.” Observing the +determined Gipsy quite serious, the jailer at last allowed +him to see the object of his search. The moment he saw the +farmer, he took hold of both his hands, and, immediately +throwing his arms around him, burst into tears, and was for +some time so overcome by grief, that he could not give utterance +to his feelings. Recovering himself, he enquired if it +was the laird that had put him in prison; but on being told +it was a writer, one of his creditors, the Gipsy exclaimed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +“They are a d——d crew, thae writers,<a name="FNanchor247" id="FNanchor247"></a><a href="#Footnote247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a> and the lairds are +little better.” With much feeling, he now said to his friend, +“Your father, honest man, was aye good to my horse, and +your mother, poor body, was aye kind to me, when I came +to the farm. I was aye treated like one of their own household, +and I can never forget their kindness. Many a night’s +quarters I received from them, when others would not suffer +me to approach their doors.” The grateful Gipsy now offered +the farmer fifty pounds, to relieve him from prison. +“We are,” said he, “not so poor as folk think we are;” and, +putting his hand into his pocket, he added, “Here is part +of the money, which you will accept; and if fifty pounds +will not do, I will sell all that I have in the world, horses +and all, to get you out of this place.” “Oh, my bonnie man,” +continued the Gipsy, “had I you in my camp, at the back +of the dyke, I would be a happy man. You would be far +better there than in this hole.” The farmer thanked him +for his kind offer, but declined to accept it. “We are,” resumed +the Gipsy, “looked upon as savages, but we have our +feelings, like other people, and never forget our friends and +benefactors. Kind, indeed, have your relatives been to me, +and all I have in this world is at your service.” When the +Gipsy found that his offer was not accepted, he insisted that +the farmer would allow him to supply him, from time to +time, with pocket money, in case he should, during his confinement, +be in want of the necessaries of life. Before leaving +the prison, the farmer asked the Gipsy to take a cup of +tea with him; but long the Gipsy modestly refused to eat +with him, saying, “I am a black thief-looking deevil, to sit +down and eat in your company; but I will do it, this day, +for your sake, since you ask it of me.” The Gipsy’s wife, +with all her family, also insisted upon being allowed to see +the farmer in prison.<a name="FNanchor248" id="FNanchor248"></a><a href="#Footnote248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>This interview took place in presence of several persons, +who were surprised at the gratitude and manner of the determined +Gipsy. It is proper to mention that he is considered +a very honest man, and is a protection to the property +of the country-people, wherever he is quartered. He +sells earthen-ware, through the country, and has, sometimes, +several horses in his possession, more for pleasure than +profit, some of which the farmers graze for nothing, as he is +a great favourite with those who are intimately acquainted +with him. He is about fifty years of age, about six feet in +height, is spare made, has small black eyes, and a swarthy +complexion. He is styled King of the Gipsies, but the country-people +call him “Terrible,” for a by-name. It was said +his mother was a witch, and many of the simple, ignorant +people, in the country, actually believed she was one. That<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +her son believed she possessed supernatural power, will appear +from the following fact: As some one was lamenting +the hard case of the farmer remaining in prison, the Gipsy +gravely said, “Had my mother been able to go to the jail, +to see the honest man, she possessed the power to set him +free.”</p> + +<p>That numbers of our Gipsies attend the church, and publicly +profess Christianity, and get their children baptized, is +certain; and that many of the male heads of principal families +have the appearance and reputation of great honesty +of character, is also certain. Yet their wives and other +members of their families are, in general, little better than +professed thieves; and are secretly countenanced and encouraged +in their practices by many of those very chief +males, who designedly keep up an outward show of integrity, +for the purpose of deception, and of affording their plundering +friends protection. When the head of the family is believed +to be an honest man, it excites a feeling of sympathy +for his tribe on his account, and it enables him to step forward, +with more freedom, to protect his kindred, when they +happen to get into scrapes. I am convinced, could the fact +be ascertained, that many of the offenders who are daily +brought before our courts of justice are Gipsies, though +their external appearance does not indicate them to be of +that race.</p> + +<p>With regard to the education of our Scottish Gipsies, I +am convinced that very few of them receive any education +at all; except some of those among the superior classes, +who have property in houses, and permanent residences. A +Gipsy, of some property, who gave one of her sons a good +education, declared that the young man was entirely spoiled.<a name="FNanchor249" id="FNanchor249"></a><a href="#Footnote249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> +It appears, however, that the males of the Yetholm colony +received such an education as is commonly given to the +working classes; but it is supposed there is scarcely such a +thing as a female Gipsy who has been educated. There +are, however, instances to the contrary; and I know one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +female at least, who can handle her pen with some dexterity.<a name="FNanchor250" id="FNanchor250"></a><a href="#Footnote250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a></p> + +<p>As to their religious sentiments, I am inclined to think +that the greater part of the Scottish Gipsies are quite indifferent +on the subject. Numbers of them certainly attend +church, occasionally, when at home, in their winter quarters; +but not one of them will enter its door when travelling +through the country.<a name="FNanchor251" id="FNanchor251"></a><a href="#Footnote251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a> On Sundays, while resting themselves +by the side of the public roads, the females employ themselves +in washing and sewing their apparel, without any regard +for that sacred day. It appears to me that a large +proportion of them comply with our customs and forms of +worship, more for the purpose of concealing their tribe and +practices, than from any serious belief in the doctrines of +Christianity. I recollect, however, of once conversing with +an aged man who professed much apparent zeal in religious +matters; and I mind well that he stoutly maintained, in +opposition to Calvin’s ideas on the subject of free grace, +that everything depended upon our own works. “By my +works in this life,” said he, “I must stand, or fall, in the +world to come.” This very man acknowledged to me that +the Gipsies were a tribe of thieves. But almost all the Gipsies, +when the subject of religion is mentioned to them, affect +to be very pious; speak of the goodness of God to them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +with much apparent sincerity; lament the want of education; +and reprobate, in strong terms, every act of immorality. +This, I am sorry to say, is, in general, all hypocrisy +and deception. There is not a better test, in a general way, +for discovering who are Gipsies, than the expression of “God +bless you,” which is constantly in the mouth of every female.<a name="FNanchor252" id="FNanchor252"></a><a href="#Footnote252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a></p> + +<p>With regard to the general politics of the Scottish Gipsies, +if they entertain any political sentiments at all, I am +convinced they are monarchical; and that, were any revolutionary +convulsion to loosen the bonds of society, and +separate the lower from the higher classes, they would take +to the side of the superior portion of the community. They +have, at all times, heartily despised the peasantry, and been +disposed to treat menials with great contempt, though, at +the very moment, they were begging at the doors of their +masters. In the few instances which have come to my +knowledge, of Scottish Gipsies forming matrimonial connexions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +with individuals of the community, those individuals +were not of the working or lower classes of society.<a name="FNanchor253" id="FNanchor253"></a><a href="#Footnote253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a></p> + +<p>I believe there are Gipsies, in more or less numbers, in +almost every town in Scotland, permanent as well as periodical +residenters. In many of the villages there are also +Gipsy inhabitants. In Mid-Lothian there are great numbers +of them, who have houses, in which they reside permanently, +but a portion of them travel in other districts, during the +summer season. I have been at no ordinary pains and trouble +in making enquiries regarding the number of the Gipsies, +and the result of my numerous investigations induces +me to believe that there are about five thousand of them in +Scotland, at the present day. Indeed, some of the Gipsies +themselves entertain the same opinion, and they must certainly +be allowed to have some idea of the number of their +own fraternity.<a name="FNanchor254" id="FNanchor254"></a><a href="#Footnote254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a></p> + +<p>It appears to me that the civilization and improvement of +the body, generally, would be a work of great difficulty. I +would be apt to give nearly the same answer which a Hungarian +nobleman gave to Dr. Bright, when that traveller +asked him if he could not devise a plan for bettering the +condition of the race in Hungary. The nobleman said he +knew of no manner of improving the Gipsies.<a name="FNanchor255" id="FNanchor255"></a><a href="#Footnote255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a> The best +plan yet proposed for improving the race appears to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> +the one suggested by the Rev. James Crabb, of Southampton, +and the Rev. John Baird, of Yetholm.<a name="FNanchor256" id="FNanchor256"></a><a href="#Footnote256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> One of the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +steps, however, should be a complete publicity to their language, +if that was possible; and encouragement held out to +them to speak it openly, without fear or reproach. Their +secret speech is a strong bond of union among them, and +forms, as it were, a wall of separation between them and +the other inhabitants of the country.</p> + +<p>Many of the Gipsies, following the various occupations +enumerated, are not now to be distinguished from others of +the community, except by the most minute observation; yet +they appear a distinct and separate people; seldom contracting +marriage out of their own tribe.<a name="FNanchor257" id="FNanchor257"></a><a href="#Footnote257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> A tradesman of +Gipsy blood will sooner give his hand to a lady’s maid of +his own race, than marry the highest female in the land; +while the Gipsy lady’s maid will take a Gipsy shoemaker, +in preference to any one out of her tribe. A Gipsy woman +will far rather prefer, in marriage, a man of her own blood +who has escaped the gallows, to the most industrious and +best-behaved tradesman in the kingdom. Like the Jews, +almost all those in good circumstances marry among themselves, +and, I believe, employ their poorer brethren as servants. +I have known Gipsies most solemnly declare, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +no consideration would induce them to marry out of their +own tribe; and I am informed, and convinced, that almost +every one of them marries in that way. One of them stated +to me that, let them be in whatever situation of life they +may, they all “stick to each other.”</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote225" id="Footnote225"></a><a href="#FNanchor225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> An objection is perhaps started, that these incorporated individuals are +not Gipsies. They have been brought into the body at such an age as to +leave no trace of past recollections, leaving alone past associations. There +was no occasion for such children being either “squalling infants,” or of +such an age as was likely to lead them to “betray the Gipsies,” as Mr. +Borrow supposes would be the case, when he says that Gipsies have never +stolen children, to bring them up as Gipsies. How are they to discover +their origin, when so many of the body around them have the same colour +of hair and complexion? If the idea has ever entered into their imaginations, +it has led to a greater antipathy towards their own race, and attachment +to the tribe, from the special education which they have received to +those ends. So far as the matter of blood is concerned, they are not what +may be physiologically called Gipsies; and, by being married to Gipsies, +they become doubly attached to the body. What has been said of children +introduced among the Gipsies, in the way described, applies with infinitely +greater force to those born of one of such parents.</p> + +<p>Suppose, for instance, that the Spanish race was originally of an exclusively +<i>dark</i> hair and complexion: should we therefore say that a <i>fair</i> +Spaniard, at the present day, was no Spaniard? Or that the Turks of Constantinople, +on account of the mixture of their blood, were not Turks? In +the same manner are Gipsies with white blood in their veins Gipsies. They +may be half-breed, but it would be improper to call them half-caste, Gipsies. +But what are full-blood Gipsies, to commence with? The idea itself is intangible; +for, by adopting, more or less, wherever they have been, others +into their body, during their singular history, a pure Gipsy, like the pure +Gipsy language, is doubtless nowhere to be found.</p> + +<p>An English Gipsy acquaintance, of perfect European appearance, who, +for love of race and language, may be termed “a Gipsy of the Gipsies,” +admitted that he was only one-eighth Gipsy; his father, a full-blood white, +having married a quadroon Gipsy. He spoke Gipsy with great fluency. +He married a seven-eighths Gipsy. Were his descendants to marry what +are supposed to be pure Gipsies, the result would be as follows: the first +generation, (his children,) would be one-half Gipsy; the second, three-fourths; +the third, seven-eighths; the fourth, fifteen-sixteenths; the fifth, +thirty-one thirty-seconds; and the sixth, sixty-three sixty-fourths. If this +were to go on <i>ad infinitum</i>, the issue would always lack the one part to +make the full blood. But the Gipsies do not calculate their vulgar fractions +so closely as that; the division of the blood doubtless bothers them, so that +they “lump” the question. What has been said, is breeding <i>up</i>. Sometimes +they breed <i>down</i>, and sometimes <i>across</i>. Mixing the blood, in this +way, is quite a peculiarity among the English Gipsies. I asked my friend, +if he was sure his wife was a pure Gipsy. He said she was considered +such, (I have put her down at seven-eighths,) but that one of her forefathers +was a fair-haired French Gipsy. According to a well-admitted principle in +physiology, a fair-haired Gipsy, of almost full blood, is by no means so <i>rara +avis in terris</i> as a white crow. Some of the children of my acquaintance +took after himself, and had blue eyes; and others after the mother, and +had black ones. But the English Gipsies, (the tented ones at least,) are +much purer, in point of blood, than their brethren in Scotland. Many of +the Irish Gipsies have very red hair—fiery and shaggy in the extreme. +Indeed, they seem to be pretty much all of a fairish kind.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote226" id="Footnote226"></a><a href="#FNanchor226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> The following extract from the Fife Herald, for the 18th June, 1829, +will give the reader an idea of a Scotch “country-keeper,” at the time +alluded to: “A Gipsy chief, of the name of Pat Gillespie, was keeper for +the county of Fife. He rode on horse-back, armed with a sword and pistols +attended by four men, on foot, carrying staves and batons. He appears to +have been a sort of travelling justice of the peace. The practice seems to +have been general. About the commencement of the late French war, a +man, of the name of Robert Scott, (Rob the Laird,) was keeper for the counties +of Peebles, Selkirk, and Roxburgh.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote227" id="Footnote227"></a><a href="#FNanchor227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> The late Mr. Charles Alexander, tenant of Happrew.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote228" id="Footnote228"></a><a href="#FNanchor228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> We may very readily believe that almost all of the Gipsies would +desert the army, on landing in America, and marry Gipsy women in the +colonies, or bring others out from home, or marry with common natives, +or return home. Indeed, native-born American Gipsies say that many of +the British Gipsies voluntarily accepted the bounty, and a passage to the +colonies, during the war of the Revolution, and deserted the army on landing. +This would lead to a migration of the tribe generally to America.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote229" id="Footnote229"></a><a href="#FNanchor229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> “When Paris was garrisoned by the allied troops, in the year 1815, I +was walking with a British officer, near a post held by the Prussian troops. +He happened, at the time, to smoke a cigar, and was about, while passing +the sentinel, to take it out of his mouth, in compliance with a general regulation +to that effect; when, greatly to the astonishment of the passengers, +the soldier addressed him in these words; ‘Rauchen Sie immer fort; verdamt +sey der Preussische Dienst;’ that is: ‘Smoke away; may the Prussian +service be d——d.’ Upon looking closer at the man, he seemed plainly to +be a <i>Zigeuner</i>, or Gipsy, who took this method of expressing his detestation +of the duty imposed on him. When the risk he ran, by doing so, is considered, +it will be found to argue a deep degree of dislike which could make +him commit himself so unwarily. If he had been overheard by a sergeant +or corporal, the <i>prugel</i> would have been the slightest instrument of punishment +employed.”—<i>Sir Walter Scott: Note to Quentin Durward.</i></p> + +<p>Mutilation was also very common among the English Gipsies, during the +French war. Strange as it may appear, the same took place among them, +at the commencement of the late Russian war; from which we may conclude, +that they had suffered severely during the previous war, or they +would not have resorted to so extreme a measure for escaping military duty, +when a press-gang was not even thought of. An English Gipsy, at the latter +time, laid two of his fingers on a block of wood, and, handing his broom-knife +to his neighbour, said, “Now, take off these fingers, or I’ll take off +your head with this other hand!”</p> + +<p>During the French war, Gipsies again and again accepted the bounty +for recruits, but took “French leave” of the service. The idea is finely +illustrated in Burns’ “Jolly Beggars:”</p> + +<p class="center">“<span class="smcap">Tune</span>—<i>Clout the caudron</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem" style="font-size: 90%;"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“My bonny lass, I work in brass,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A Tinkler is my station:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I’ve travell’d round all Christian ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In this my occupation.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I’ve ta’en the gold, an’ been enroll’d<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In many a noble squadron:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But vain they searched when off I march’d<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To go and clout the caudron.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Poosie Nancie and her reputed daughter, Racer Jess, were very probably +Gipsies, who kept a poor “Tinkler Howff” at Mauchline.</p> + +<p>Gipsies sometimes voluntarily join the navy, as musicians. Here their +vanity will have a field for conspicuous display; for a good fifer, on board +of a man-of-war, in accompanying certain work with his music, is equal to +the services of ten men. There were some Gipsy musicians in the fleet at +Sebastopol. But, generally speaking, Gipsies are like cats—not very fond +of the water.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote230" id="Footnote230"></a><a href="#FNanchor230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> Mr. Borrow mentions having observed, at a fair in Spain, a family of +Gipsies, richly dressed, after the fashion of their nation. They had come +a distance of upwards of a hundred leagues. Some merchants, to whom he +was recommended, informed him, that they had a credit on their house, to +the amount of twenty thousand dollars.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote231" id="Footnote231"></a><a href="#FNanchor231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> In his enquiry into the present condition of the Gipsies, our author +has apparently confined his remarks exclusively to the body in its present +wandering state, and such part of it as left the tent subsequently to the +commencement of the French war. In the <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies, the +subject will be fully reviewed, from the date of arrival of the race in the +country.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote232" id="Footnote232"></a><a href="#FNanchor232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> This is quite common. An English mixed Gipsy spontaneously informed +me that he had been a constable In L——, and that he had a cousin +who was lately a <i>runner</i> in the police establishment of M——. Among +other motives for the Gipsies joining the police is the following: that such +is their dislike for the people among whom they live, owing to the prejudice +which is entertained against them, that nothing gives them greater +satisfaction than being the instruments of affronting and punishing their +hereditary enemies. Besides this, the lounging and idle kind of life, coupled +with the activity, of a constable, is pretty much to their natural disposition. +An intelligent mixed Gipsy is calculated to make a first-rate constable +and thief-catcher. Of course, he will not be very hard on those of +his own race who come in his way.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote233" id="Footnote233"></a><a href="#FNanchor233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> Our author frequently spoke of a dissenting Scottish clergyman having +been married to a Gipsy, but was not aware, as far as I know, of the circumstances +under which the marriage took place. The clergyman was not, +in all probability, aware that he was taking a Gipsy to his bosom; and as +little did the public generally; but it was well known to the initiated that +both her father and mother had cut and divided many a purse. The unquestionable +character and standing of the father, and the prudent conduct +of the mother, protected the children. One of the daughters married another +dissenting clergyman, which fairly disarmed those not of the Gipsy +race of any prejudice towards the grand-children. The issue of these +marriages would pass into Gipsydom, as explained in the <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on +the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote234" id="Footnote234"></a><a href="#FNanchor234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> It is only within these forty years that spoon-making from horn became +a regular trade. It would seem the Gipsies had a monopoly of the business; +for I am informed that the first man in Scotland who served a regular apprenticeship +to it was alive, in Glasgow, in 1836. [There is nothing in this +remark to imply that the manufacturing of spoons, and other articles, from +horn, may not be monopolized by the Gipsies yet, whatever the way in +which it may be carried on.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote235" id="Footnote235"></a><a href="#FNanchor235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> From the numerous enquiries I have made, I am fully satisfied that the +greater part of the vagrants mentioned in these notices are Gipsies; at +least most of them speak the Gipsy language. [It matters not whether the +people mentioned are wholly or only partly of Gipsy blood; it is sufficient +if they have been reared as Gipsies. There are enough of the tribe in the +country to follow the kind of life mentioned, to the extent the people can +afford to submit to, without having their prerogatives infringed upon by +ordinary natives. Where will we find any of the latter, who would betake +themselves to the tent, and follow such a mode of life? Besides, the Gipsies, +with their organization, would not tolerate it; and far less would they +allow any common natives, of the lowest class, to travel in their company.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote236" id="Footnote236"></a><a href="#FNanchor236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> Owing to such causes as these, many of the Gipsies have been again +driven into their holes. It is amusing to notice the tricks which some of +them resort to, in evading the letter of the Vagrant Act. They generally +encamp on the borders of two counties, which they will cross—passing +over into the other—to avoid being taken up: for county officers have no +jurisdiction over them, beyond the boundaries of their respective shires.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote237" id="Footnote237"></a><a href="#FNanchor237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> St. Boswell’s fair “is the resort of many salesmen of goods, and, in +particular, of <i>tinkers</i>. Bands of these very peculiar people, the direct descendants +of the original Gipsies, who so much annoyed the country in the +fifteenth century, haunt the fair, for the disposal of earthen-ware, horn +spoons, and tin culinary utensils. They possess, in general, horses and +carts, and they form their temporary camp by each <i>whomling</i> his cart upside +down, and forming a lodgement with straw and bedding beneath. Cooking +is performed outside the <i>craal</i>, in Gipsy fashion. There could not, perhaps, +be witnessed, at the present day, in Britain, a more amusing and +interesting scene, illustrative of a rude period, than is here annually exhibited.”—<i>Chambers’ +Gazetteer of Scotland.</i> [This writer is in error as to +the Gipsies annoying the country in the <i>fifteenth</i> century: that occurred +during the three following centuries.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote238" id="Footnote238"></a><a href="#FNanchor238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> The Gipsies’ supreme luxury is to lie, day and night, so near the fire +as to be in danger of burning. At the same time, they can bear to travel +in the severest cold, bare-headed, with no other covering than a torn shirt, +or some old rags carelessly thrown over them, without fear of catching +cold, cough, or any other disorder. They are a people blessed with an +iron constitution. Neither wet nor dry weather, heat nor cold, let the extremes +follow each other ever so close, seems to have any effect upon them.—<i>Grellmann +on the Hungarian Gipsies.</i></p> + +<p>Their power of resisting cold is truly wonderful, as it is not uncommon +to find them encamped, in the midst of the snow, in light canvas tents, +when the temperature is 25 or 30 degrees below freezing point, according +to Raumer.—<i>Borrow on the Russian Gipsies.</i></p> + +<p>It is no uncommon thing to see a poor Scottish Gipsy wrap himself and +wife in a thin, torn blanket, and pass the night, in the cold of December, in +the open air, by the wayside. On rising up in the morning, they will +shake themselves in their rags, as birds of prey, in coming off their perch, +do their feathers; make for the nearest public-house, with, perhaps, their +last copper, for a gill; and, like the ravens, go in search of a breakfast, +wherever and whenever Providence may send it to them.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote239" id="Footnote239"></a><a href="#FNanchor239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> Some of the itinerant Gipsies, doubtless, use their trades, in a great +measure, as a cover for living by means such as society deems very objectionable. +Many of them work hard while they are at it, as in the above +instance, when “the clink of their hammers was heard from daybreak till +dark;” and as has been said of those in Tweed-dale—“however early the +farm servants rose to their ordinary employments, they always found the +Tinklers at work.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote240" id="Footnote240"></a><a href="#FNanchor240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> I know another instance of a Gipsy having a child in the open fields. +It took place among the rushes on Stanhope-hangh, on the banks of the +Tweed. In the forenoon, she was delivered of her child, without the +assistance of a midwife, and in the afternoon the hardy Gipsy resumed her +journey. The infant was a daughter, named Mary Baillie.</p> + +<p>[When a Gipsy woman is confined, it is either in a miserable hut or in +the open air, but always easily and fortunately. True Gipsy-like, for want +of some vessel, a hole is dug in the ground, which is filled with cold water, +and the new-born child is washed in it—<i>Grellmann, on the Hungarian +Gipsies.</i> We may readily believe that a child coming into the world under +the circumstances mentioned, would have some of the peculiarities of a wild +duck. Mr. Hoyland says that “on the first introduction of a Gipsy child +to school, he flew like a bird against the sides of its cage; but by a steady +care, and the influence of the example of the other children, he soon became +settled, and fell into the ranks.” It pleases the Gipsies to know that +their ancestors came into the world “like the deer in the forest,” and, when +put to school, “flew like a bird against the sides of its cage.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote241" id="Footnote241"></a><a href="#FNanchor241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> This invasion of Scotland by Irish Gipsies has, of late years, greatly +altered the condition of the nomadic Scottish tribes; for this reason, that +as Scotland, no less than any other country, can support only a certain +number of such people who “live on the road,” so many of the Scottish +Gipsies have been forced to betake themselves to other modes of making a +living. To such an extent has this been the case, that Gipsies, speaking +the Scottish dialect, are in some districts comparatively rarely to be met +with, where they were formerly numerous. The same cause may even lead +to the extinction of the Scottish Gipsies as wanderers; but as the descendants +of the Irish Gipsies will acquire the Scottish vernacular in the second +generation, (a remarkably short period among the Gipsies,) what will then +pass for Scottish Gipsies will be Irish by descent. The Irish Gipsies are +allowed, by their English brethren, to speak good Gipsy, but with a broad +and vulgar accent; so that the language in Scotland will have a still better +chance of being preserved.</p> + +<p>England has likewise been invaded by these Irish swarms. The English +Gipsies complain bitterly of them. “They have no law among them,” +they say; “they have fairly destroyed Scotland as a country to travel in; +if they get a loan of anything from the country-people, to wrap themselves +in, in the barn, at night, they will decamp with it in the morning. They +have brought a disgrace upon the very name of Gipsy, in Scotland, and are +heartily disliked by both English and Scotch.” “There is a family of Irish +Gipsies living across the road there, whom I would not be seen speaking +to,” said a superior English Gipsy; “I hate a Jew, and I dislike an Irish +Gipsy.” But English and Scottish Gipsies pull well together; and are on +very friendly terms in America, and frequently visit each other. The +English sympathise with the Scottish, under the wrongs they have experienced +at the hands of the Irish, as well as on account of the persecutions +they experienced in Scotland, so long after such had ceased in England.</p> + +<p>Twenty-five years ago, there were many Gipsies to be found between +Londonderry and Belfast, following the style of life described under the +chapter of <a href="#Page_185">Tweed-dale and Clydesdale Gipsies</a>. Their names were Docherty, +McCurdy, McCloskey, McGuire, McKay, Holmes, Dinsmore, Morrow, Allan, +Stewart, Lindsay, Cochrane, and Williamson. Some of these seem to have +migrated from Scotland and the North of England.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote242" id="Footnote242"></a><a href="#FNanchor242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> In England, some of the Irish Gipsies send their children to learn +trades. There are many of such Irish mechanic Gipsies in America. A +short time ago, a company of them landed in New York, and proceeded on to +Chicago. Their occupations, among others, were those of hatters and +tailors.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote243" id="Footnote243"></a><a href="#FNanchor243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> They are neither overgrown giants nor diminutive dwarfs; and their +limbs are formed in the justest proportions. Large bellies are as uncommon +among them as humpbacks, blindness, or other corporeal defects.—<i>Grellmann +on the Hungarian Gipsies.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote244" id="Footnote244"></a><a href="#FNanchor244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> The <i>Ross-shire Advertiser</i>, for April, 1842, says: “Gipsy Recklessness.—Last +week, two Gipsy women, who were begging through the country, each +with a child on her back, having got intoxicated, took up their lodgings, +for the night, in an old sawpit, in the parish of Logie-Easter. It is supposed +that they forgot to take the children off their backs, when going to +rest; for, in the morning, they were found to be both dead, having been +smothered by their miserable mothers lying upon them through the night. +One of the women, upon awakening in the morning, called to the other, +‘that her baby was dead,’ to which the reply was, ‘that it could not be +helped.’ Having dug a hole, they procured some straw, rolled up the +children in it, put them in the hole, and then filled it up with the earth.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote245" id="Footnote245"></a><a href="#FNanchor245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> Though Gipsies everywhere, they differ, in some respects, in the +various countries which they inhabit. For example, an English Gipsy, of +pugilistic tendencies, will, in a vapouring way, engage to <i>thrash</i> a dozen of +his Hungarian brethren. The following is the substance of what Grellmann +says on this feature of their character:</p> + +<p>Sulzer says a Gipsy requires to have been a long time in the army before +he can meet an enemy’s balls with decent soldiers’ resolution. They have +often been employed in military expeditions, but never as regular soldiers. +In the thirty years’ war, the Swedes had a body of them in the army; and +the Danes had three companies of them at the siege of Hamburg, in 1686. +They were chiefly employed in flying parties, to burn, plunder, or lay +waste the enemy’s country.</p> + +<p>In two Hungarian regiments, nearly every eighth man is a Gipsy. In +order to prevent either them(!) or any others from remembering their descent, +it is ordered, by the Government, that as soon as a Gipsy joins the regiment, +he is no longer to be called by that appellation. Here he is placed promiscuously +with other men. But whether he would be adequate to a +soldier’s station—unmixed with strangers, in the company of his equals +only—is very doubtful. He has every outward essential for a soldier, +yet his innate properties, his levity, and want of foresight, render him +incompatible for the services of one, as an instance may illustrate. +Francis von Perenyi, who commanded at the siege of Nagy Ida, being +short of men, was obliged to have recourse to the Gipsies, of whom +he collected a thousand. These he stationed behind the entrenchments, +while he reserved his own men to garrison the citadel. The Gipsies supported +the attack with so much resolution, and returned the fire of the +enemy with such alacrity, that the assailants—little suspecting who were +the defendants—were compelled to retreat. But the Gipsies, elated with +victory, immediately crept out of their holes, and cried after them, “Go, +and be hanged, you rascals! and thank God that we had no more powder +and shot, or we would have played the devil with you!” “What!” they +exclaimed, bearing in mind the proverb, “You can drive fifty Gipsies before +you with a wet rag,” “What! are <i>you</i> the heroes?” and, so saying, the +besiegers immediately wheeled about, and, sword in hand, drove the black +crew back to their works, entered them along with them, and in a few +minutes totally routed them.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote246" id="Footnote246"></a><a href="#FNanchor246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> A Gipsy possesses all the properties requisite to render him a fit agent +to be employed in traitorous undertakings. Being necessitous, he is easily +corrupted; and his misconceived ambition and pride persuade him that he +thus becomes a person of consequence. He is, at the same time, too inconsiderate +to reflect on danger; and, artful to the greatest decree, he works +his way under the most difficult circumstances. Gipsies have not only +served much in the capacity of spies, but their garb and manner of life +have been assumed by military and other men for the same purpose.—<i>Grellmann +on the Hungarian Gipsies.</i></p> + +<p>Mr. Borrow gives a very interesting description of a meeting of two +Gipsies, in a battle between the French and Spaniards, in the Peninsula, +in Bonaparte’s time. In the midst of a desperate battle—when everything +was in confusion—sword to sword and bayonet to bayonet—a French soldier +singled out one of the enemy, and, after a severe personal contest, got +his knee on his breast, and was about to run his bayonet through him. +His cap at this moment fell off, when his intended victim, catching his eye, +cried, “<i>Zincali, Zincali!</i>” at which the other shuddered, relaxed his grasp, +smote his forehead, and wept. He produced his flask, and poured wine +into his brother Gipsy’s mouth; and they both sat down on a knoll, while +all were fighting around. “Let the dogs fight, and tear each other’s +throats, till they are all destroyed: what matters it to us? They are not +of our blood, and shall that be shed for them?”</p> + +<p>What our author says of there being danger in employing Gipsies in +time of war has little or no foundation; for the associations between those +in the opposite ranks would be merely those of interest, friendship, assistance, +and scenes like the one depicted by Mr. Borrow. The objection to +Gipsies, on such occasions, is as applicable to Jews and Freemasons.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote247" id="Footnote247"></a><a href="#FNanchor247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> A <i>writer</i> in Scotland corresponds with an <i>attorney</i> in England. It is +interesting to notice the opinion which the Gipsy entertained of the writers. +Possibly he had been a good deal worried by them, in connection with the +conduct of some of his folk.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote248" id="Footnote248"></a><a href="#FNanchor248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> There is something singularly inconsistent in the mind of the Gipsies. +They pride themselves, to an extraordinary degree, in their race and language; +at the same time, they are extremely sensitive to the prejudice that +exists against them. “We feel,” say they, “that every other creature +despises us, and would crush us out of existence, if it could be done. No +doubt, there are things which many of the Gipsies do not hold to be a +shame, that others do; but, on the other hand, they hold some things to +be a shame which others do not. They have many good points. They are +kind to their own people, and will feed and clothe them, if it is in their +power; and they will not molest others who treat them civilly. They are +somewhat like the wild American Indians: they even go so far as to despise +their own people who will willingly conform to the ways of the people +among whom they live, even to putting their heads under a roof. But, +alas! a hard necessity renders it unavoidable; a necessity of two kinds—that +of making a living under the circumstances in which they find themselves +placed, and the impossibility of enforcing their laws among themselves. +Let them do what they may, live as they may, believe what they +may, they are looked upon as everything that is bad. Yet they are a +people, an ancient and mysterious people, that have been scattered by the +will of Providence over the whole earth.”</p> + +<p>It is to escape this dreadful prejudice that all Gipsies, excepting those +who avowedly live and profess themselves Gipsies, will hide their race, if +they can, and particularly so, in the case of those who fairly leave the tent, +conform to the ordinary ways of society, and engage in any of its various +callings. While being convoyed by the son of an English Gipsy, whose +family I had been visiting, at their house, where I had heard them freely +speak of themselves as Gipsies, and converse in Gipsy, I said, in quite a +pleasant tone, “Ah, my little man, and you are a young Gipsy?—Eh, +what’s the matter?” “I don’t wish to be known to the people as a Gipsy.” +His father, on another occasion, said, “We are not ashamed to say to a +friend that we are Gipsies; but my children don’t like people to be crying +after them, ‘Look at the Gipsies!’” And yet this family, like all Gipsies, +were strongly attached to their race and language. It was pitiful to think +that there was so much reason for them to make such a complaint. On one +occasion, I was asked, “If you would not deem it presumptuous, might we +ask you to take a bite with us?” “Eat with you? Why not?” I replied. +“What will your people think, if they knew that you had been eating with +us? You will lose caste.” This was said in a serious manner, but slightly +tinged with irony. Bless me, I thought, are all our Scottish Gipsies, of +high and low degree, afraid that the ordinary natives would not even eat +with them, if they knew them to be Gipsies?—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote249" id="Footnote249"></a><a href="#FNanchor249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> It it well to notice the fact, that by giving a Gipsy child a good education, +it became “entirely spoiled.” It would be well if we could “spoil” +all the Gipsies. A thoroughly spoiled Gipsy makes a very good man, but +leaves him a Gipsy notwithstanding. A “thorough Gipsy” has two meanings; +one strongly attached to the tribe, and its <i>original habits</i>, or one +without these original habits. There are a good many “spoiled” Gipsies, +male and female, in Scotland.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote250" id="Footnote250"></a><a href="#FNanchor250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> The education and acquirements of the Spanish Gipsies, according to +Mr. Borrow, are, on the whole, not inferior to those of the lower classes +of the Spaniards; some of the young <i>men</i> being able to read and write in +a manner by no means contemptible; but such never occurs among the females. +Neglecting females, in the matter of education, is quite in keeping +with the Oriental origin of the Gipsies. The same feature is observable +among the Jews; and the Talmud bears heavily upon Jewish women. +Every Jew says, in his morning prayer, “Blessed art thou, O Lord, our +God, King of the Universe, who hast not made me a woman!” And the +woman returns thanks for having been “created according to God’s will.”—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote251" id="Footnote251"></a><a href="#FNanchor251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> The ostensible reason which the Gipsy gives for not attending church, +when travelling, is to prevent himself being ridiculed by the people. If +he enters a place of worship, he makes the old people stare, and frightens +the children. On returning from church, a child will exclaim, “Mother, +mother, there was a Tinkler at the kirk, to-day.”—“A what? a <i>Tinkler</i> at +the kirk? What could have possessed <i>him</i> to go there?”</p> + +<p>Gipsies are extremely sensitive to the feeling in question. A short time +ago, one of them entered ——, in the State of ——, with a “shears to +grind,” having a small bell attached. Some bar-room gentry assembled +around him, and saluted him with, “Oh, oh, a Gipsy in a new rig!” So +keenly did he feel the insult, that he at once left the village.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote252" id="Footnote252"></a><a href="#FNanchor252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> According to Grellmann, the Gipsies did not bring any particular religion +with them from their own country, but have regulated it according to +those of the countries in which they have lived. They suffer themselves to +be baptized among Christians, and circumcised among Mahommedans. They +are Greeks with Greeks, Catholics with Catholics, Protestants with Protestants, +and as inconstant in their creed as their place of residence. They +suffer their children to be several times baptised. To-day, they receive the +sacrament as a Lutheran; next Sunday, as a Catholic; and, perhaps before +the end of the week, in the Reformed Church. The greater part of them +do not go so far as this, but live without any religion at all, and worse than +heathens. So thoroughly indifferent are they in this respect, as to have +given rise to the adage, “The Gipsy’s church was built of bacon, and the +dogs ate it.” So perfectly convinced are the Turks of the insincerity of +the Gipsy in matters of religion, that, although a Jew, by becoming a +Mahommedan, is freed from the payment of the poll-tax, a Gipsy—at least in +the neighbourhood of Constantinople—is not, even although his ancestors, +for centuries, had been Mahommedans, or he himself should actually have +made a pilgrimage to Mecca. His only privilege is to wear a white turban, +which is denied to unbelieving Jews and Gipsies.</p> + +<p>Mr. Borrow says, that when the female Gipsies, who sing in the choirs +of Moscow, were questioned, in their own language, about their externally +professing the Greek religion, they laughed, and said it was only to please +the Russians.</p> + +<p>The same author mentions an instance in which he preached to them; +taking, for his text, the situation of the Hebrews in Egypt, and drawing a +comparison between it and theirs in Spain. Warming with his subject, he +spoke of the power of God in preserving both, as a distinct people, in the +world to this day. On concluding, he looked around to see what impression +he had made upon them, but the only response he got from them all +was—a squint of the eye!—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote253" id="Footnote253"></a><a href="#FNanchor253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> What our author says of the politics of the Gipsies is rather more applicable +to their ideas of their social position. Being a small body in +comparison with the general population of the country, they entertain a +very exclusive and, consequently, a very aristocratic idea of themselves, +whatever others may think of them; and therefore scorn the prejudice of +the very lowest order of the common natives.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote254" id="Footnote254"></a><a href="#FNanchor254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> Before the reformation of our criminal law, many of the male Gipsies +perished on the gallows, but now, the greatest punishment they meet with +is banishment, or a short imprisonment, for “sorning, pickery, and little +thieving.” Few of them are now “married to the gallows tree,” in the manner +of Graham, as described under the head of Fifeshire Gipsies. Owing to +their, (the more original kind especially,) all marrying very young, and +having very large families, their number cannot fail to encrease, under the +present laws, in a ratio far beyond that of our own population. Instead of +there being only 5,000 Gipsies in Scotland, there are, as I have already said, +nearer 100,000, for reasons to be given in my <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote255" id="Footnote255"></a><a href="#FNanchor255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> Speaking of the attempted civilization of the Gipsies, by the Empress +Maria Theresa, Grellmann says, “A boy, (for you must leave the old stock +alone,) would frequently seem in the most promising train to civilization; +on a sudden, his wild nature would appear, a relapse follow, and he become +a perfect Gipsy again.”</p> + +<p>“<i>Curate.</i>—Could you not, by degrees, bring yourself to a more settled +mode of life?</p> + +<p>“<i>Gipsy.</i>—I would not tell you a lie, sir; I really think I could not, having +been brought up to it from a child.”—<i>Hoyland on the English Gipsies.</i></p> + +<p>The restless desire which the more original kind of Gipsies, and those +more recently from the tent, have for moving about, is generally gratified +in some way or other. The poorer class will send their wives and young +ones to the “grass,” in company with the nomadic portion, or to the +streets in towns. In either case, they have no great occasion to feel uneasy +about their support; for she would be a poor wife indeed, if she could +not forage for herself and “weary bairns.” Among other things, she can +hire herself to assist in disposing of the wares made by another Gipsy. Her +husband will then work at his calling, or go on the <i>tramp</i>, like some of our +ordinary mechanics.</p> + +<p>The feeling which mankind in general have for the sweets of the country, +and the longing which so many of us have to end our days in the midst of +them, amount almost to a mania with these Gipsies. Frequently will Gipsies, +in England, after spending the best part of their lives in a settled occupation, +again take to the tent; while others of them, on arrival in America, +will buy themselves places, and live on them till seized with the travelling +epidemic, communicated by a roving company of their tribe accidentally +arriving in their neighbourhood. Some of the more recently settled class +of Gipsies, whose occupations do not easily admit of their enjoying the +pleasure of a country or travelling life, show a great partiality to their +wandering brethren, however poor, with whom they are on terms of +intimacy, and especially if they happen to be related. Their children, from +hearing their parents speak of the “good old times”—the “golden age” of +the Gipsies—when they could wander hither and thither, with little molestation, +and live, in a measure, at free-quarters, wherever they went, grow +impatient under the restraint which society has thrown around them; and +vent their feelings in abusing that same society, and all the members +thereof. They envy the lot of these “country cousins.” Meetings of that +kind render these Gipsies, (old as well as young,) irritable, discontented, +and gloomy: they feel like “birds in a cage,” as a Gipsy expressed it. Not +unfrequently will a young town Gipsy travel in the company of these +country relatives, dressed <i>a la Tinklaire</i>, as a relief to the discontentment +which a restrained and pent-up life creates within him. At other times, +his parents will know nothing of his movements, beyond his coming home +to “roost” at night.</p> + +<p>The nomadic class take to winter-quarters in some village, towards the +close of the year, and fret themselves all day long, till, on the return of +spring, they can say, “To your tents, O Gipsies!” There is as little direct +relation existing between the tent and the long-settled Gipsies, as there is +between it and ordinary Scotch people. But there is that tribal or national +association connected with it, that is inseparable from the feelings of a +Gipsy, however high may be the position in life to which he may have +risen.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote256" id="Footnote256"></a><a href="#FNanchor256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> The Fourteenth Annual Festival of the Rev. James Crabb’s Association, +for civilizing and teaching the principles of Christianity to the Gipsies in +England, was held on the 25th December, 1841. At that time, twenty +Gipsy youths were attending his school. He was very sanguine of ultimately +ameliorating the condition of the British Gipsies.</p> + +<p>At Yetholm, in the same year, after the Rev. John Baird’s school had +been in existence about two years, there were about forty Gipsy children +receiving instruction. When they were educated, they were hired as servants +to families, or bound apprentices to different trades.</p> + +<p>[I will offer some remarks on the improvement of the Gipsies, in the <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> +on the Gipsies.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span>]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote257" id="Footnote257"></a><a href="#FNanchor257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> It is a difficult matter to tell some of the settled Scottish Gipsies. In +searching for them, some regard must be had to the employment of the individual, +his associations, and his isolation from the community generally, +beyond what is necessary in following his calling and out-door relations, as +contrasted with his hospitality to strangers from a distance; a close scrutiny +of the habits of himself and his numerous motley visitors; the rough-and-tumble +way in which he sometimes lives; his attachment to animals, +such as horses, asses, dogs, cats, birds, or pets of any kind; these, and +other relative circumstances, go a great way to enable one to pounce upon +some of them. But the use of their language, and the effect it has upon +them, (barring their responding to it,) is, at the present stage of their history, +the only satisfactory test. Scottish Gipsy families will generally be +found to be all dark in their appearance, or all very fair or reddish, or +partly very fair, and partly very dark, and sometimes dark or fair nondescript. +Many of the residentary class of mechanic Gipsies are difficult +of detection; so are the better classes, generally, if it is long since their +ancestors left the tent—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></p> + +<h2>A DISQUISITION ON THE PAST, PRESENT, AND +FUTURE OF GIPSYDOM.</h2> + +<hr class="c05" /> +<p class="center fsize80">“There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed.”</p> +<hr class="c05" /> + +<p>In giving an account of the Gipsies, the subject would be +very incomplete, were not something said about the manner +in which they have drawn into their body the blood of other +people, and the way in which the race is perpetuated; and +a description given of their present condition, and future +prospects, particularly as our author has overlooked some +important points connected with their history, which I will +endeavour to furnish. One of these important points is, +that he has confined his description of the present generation +of settled Gipsies to the descendants of those who left +the tent subsequently to the commencement of the French war, +to the exclusion of those who settled long anterior to that +time. It is also necessary to treat the subject abstractly—to +throw it into principles, to give the philosophy of it—to ensure +the better understanding, and perpetuate the knowledge +of it, amid the shifting objects that present themselves to +the eye of the world, and even of the people described.</p> + +<p>Gipsydom may, in a word, be said to be literally a sealed +book, a <i>terra incognita</i>, to mankind in general. The Gipsies +arrived in Europe a strange race; strange in their origin, +appearance, habits and disposition. Supposing that their +habits had never led them to interfere with the property of +others, or obtain money by any objectionable way, but that +they had confined their calling to tinkering, making and +selling wares, trading, and such like, they would, in all probability, +still have remained a caste in the community, with +a strong feeling of sympathy for those living in other countries, +in consequence of the singularity of their origin and +development, as distinguished from those of the other inhabitants, +their language and that degree of prejudice which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +most nations have for foreigners settling among them and +particularly so in the case of a people so different in their +appearance and mode of life as were the Gipsies from those +among whom they settled. That may especially be said of +tented Gipsies, and even of those who, from time to time, +would be forced to leave the tent, and settle in towns, or +live as <i>tramps</i>, as distinguished from tented Gipsies. The +simple idea of their origin and descent, tribe and language, +transmitted from generation to generation, being so different +from those of the people among whom they lived, was, in itself, +perfectly sufficient to retain them members of Gipsydom, +although, in cases of intermarriages with the natives, +the mixed breeds might have gone over to the white race, +and been lost to the general body. But in most of such +cases that would hardly have taken place; for between the +two races, the difference of feeling, were it only a slight +jealousy, would have led the smaller and more exclusive and +bigoted to bring the issue of such intermarriages within its +influence. In Great Britain, the Gipsies are entitled, in one +respect at least, to be called Englishmen, Scotchmen, or +Irishmen; for their general ideas as men, as distinguished +from their being Gipsies, and their language, indicate them, +at once, to be such, nearly as much as the common natives +of these countries. A half or mixed breed might more +especially be termed or pass for a native; so that, by clinging +to the Gipsies, and hiding his Gipsy descent and affiliation +from the native race, he would lose nothing of the outward +character of an ordinary inhabitant; while any benefit +arising from his being a Gipsy would, at the same time, be +enjoyed by him.</p> + +<p>But the subject assumes a totally different aspect when, +instead of a slight jealousy existing between the two races, +the difference in feeling is such as if a gulf had been placed +between them. The effect of a marriage between a white +and a Gipsy, especially if he or she is known to be a Gipsy, +is such, that the white instinctively withdraws from any connexion +with his own race, and casts his lot with the Gipsies. +The children born of such unions become ultra Gipsies. +A very fine illustration of this principle of half-breed +ultra Gipsyism is given by Mr. Borrow, in his “Gipsies in +Spain,” in the case of an officer in the Spanish army adopting +a young female Gipsy child, whose parents had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +executed, and educating and marrying her. A son of this +marriage, who rose to be a captain in the service of Donna +Isabel, hated the white race so intensely, as, when a child, +to tell his father that he wished he (his father) was dead. +At whose door must the cause of such a feeling be laid? +One would naturally suppose that the child would have left, +perhaps despised, his mother’s people, and clung to those +whom the world deemed respectable. But the case was +different. Suppose the mother had not been prompted by +some of her own race, while growing up, and the son, in his +turn, not prompted by the mother, all that was necessary to +stir up his hatred toward the white race was simply to +know who he was, as I will illustrate.<a name="FNanchor258" id="FNanchor258"></a><a href="#Footnote258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a></p> + +<p>Suppose that a great iron-master should fancy a Cinderella, +living by scraping pieces of iron from the refuse of his furnaces, +educate her, and marry her, as great iron-masters have +done. Being both of the same race, a complete amalgamation +would take place at once: perhaps the wife was the +best person of the two. Silly people might sneer at such a +marriage; but if no objection attached to the personal character +of the woman, she might be received into society at +once, and admired by some, and envied by others, particularly +if she had no “low relations” living near her. She +might even boast of having been a Cinderella, if it happened +to be well known; in which case she might be deemed free +of pride, and consequently a very sensible, amiable woman, +and worthy of every admiration.</p> + +<p>But who ever heard of such a thing taking place with a +Gipsy? Suppose a Gipsy elevated to such a position as that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> +spoken of; she would not, she dare not, mention her descent +to any one not of her own race, and far less would she give +an <i>exposé</i> of Gipsydom; for she instinctively perceives, or +at least believes, that, such is the prejudice against her race, +people would avoid her as something horridly frightful, although +she might be the finest woman in the world. Who +ever heard of a civilized Gipsy, before Mr. Borrow mentioned +those having attained to such an eminent position in +society at Moscow? Are there none such elsewhere than in +Moscow? There are many in Scotland. It is this unfortunate +prejudice against the name that forces all our Gipsies, +the moment they leave the tent, (which they almost invariably +do with their blood diluted with the white,) to hide +from the public their being Gipsies; for they are morbidly +sensitive of the odium which attaches to the name and race +being applied to them. It is quite time enough to discover +the great secret of Nature, when it is unavoidable to enter</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“The undiscovered country from whose bourne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No traveller returns.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As little disposition is manifested by these Gipsies to “show +their hands:” the uncertainty of such an experiment makes +the very idea dreadful to them. Hence it is that the constant +aim of settled Gipsies is to hide the fact of their being +Gipsies from other people.</p> + +<p>It is a very common idea that Gipsies do not mix their +blood with that of other people. Now, what is the fact? I +may, indeed, venture to assert, that there is not a full-blooded +Gipsy in Scotland;<a name="FNanchor259" id="FNanchor259"></a><a href="#Footnote259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> and, most positively, that in England, +where the race is held to be so pure, all that can be said of +<i>some</i> families is, that they have not been crossed, <i>as far +as is known</i>; but that, with these exceptions, the body is +much mixed: “dreadfully mixed” is the Gipsies’ description, +as, in many instances, my own eyes have witnessed. +This brings me to an issue with a writer in the Edinburgh +Review, who, in October, 1841, when reviewing the +“Gipsies in Spain,” by Mr. Borrow, says, “Their descent +is purity itself; no mixture of European blood has contaminated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +theirs. . . . . . They, (the stranger and Gipsy,) +may live together; the European vagrant is often to be +found in the tents of the Gipsies; they may join in the fellowship +of sport, the pursuit of plunder, the management of +their low trades, but they can never fraternize.” A writer +in Blackwood’s Magazine, on the same occasion, says, “Their +care to preserve the purity of their race might, in itself, +have confuted the unfounded charge, so often brought against +them, of stealing children, and bringing them up as Gipsies.” +More unfounded ideas than those put forth by these two +writers are scarcely possible to be imagined.<a name="FNanchor260" id="FNanchor260"></a><a href="#Footnote260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a></p> + +<p>This mixture of “the blood” is notorious. Many a full or +nearly full-blood Gipsy will say that Gipsies do not mix +their blood with that of the stranger. In such a case he +only shuffles; for he whispers to himself two words, in his +own language, which contradict what he says; which words +I forget, but they mean “I belie it;” that is, he belies what +he has just said. Besides, it lets the Gipsies down in their +imagination, and, they think, in the imagination of others, +to allow that the blood of their race is mixed. It is also a +secret which they would rather hide from the world.<a name="FNanchor261" id="FNanchor261"></a><a href="#Footnote261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> I am +intimate with English Gipsy families, in none of whom is +full blood; the most that can be said of them is, that they +range from nearly full, say from seven-eighths, down to one-eighth, +and perhaps less. Suppose that a fair-haired common +native marries a full-blood Gipsy: the issue of such an +union will show some of the children, in point of external<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +appearance, perfectly European, like the father, and others, +Gipsies, like the mother. If two such European-like Gipsies +marry, some of their children will take after the Gipsy, +and be pretty, even very, dark, and others after the white +race. In crossing a second time with full white blood, the +issue will take still more after the white race. Still, the +Gipsy cannot be crossed altogether out; he will come up, +but of course in a modified form. Should the white blood +be of a dark complexion and hair, and have no tendency, +from its ancestry, to turn to fair, in its descent, then the +issue between it and the Gipsy will always be dusky. I +have seen all this, and had it fully explained by the Gipsies +themselves.</p> + +<p>The result of this mixture of the Gipsy and European +blood is founded, not only on the ordinary principles of +physiology, but on common sense itself; for why should not +such issue take after the European, in preference to the +Gipsy? If a residence in Europe of 450 years has had no +effect upon the appearance of what may be termed pure +Gipsies, (a point which, at least, is questionable,) the length +of time, the effects of climate, and the influence of mind, +should, at least, predispose it to merge, by mixture, into +something bearing a resemblance to the ordinary European; +which, by a continued crossing, it does. Indeed, it soon disappears +to the common eye: to a stranger it is not observable, +unless the mixture happens to be met with in a tent, +or under such circumstances as one expects to meet with +Gipsies. In paying a visit to an English Gipsy family, I +was invited to call again, on such a day, when I would meet +with some Welsh Gipsies. The principal Welsh Gipsy I +found to be a very quiet man, with fair hair, and quite like +an ordinary Englishman; who was admitted by his English +brethren to “speak deep Gipsy.” He had just arrived from +Wales, where he had been employed in an iron work. Unless +I am misinformed, the issue of a fair-haired European +and an ordinary Hindoo woman, in India, sometimes shows +the same result as I have stated of the Gipsies; but it ought +to be much more so in the case of the Gipsy in Europe, on +account of the race having been so long acclimated there. +Indeed, it is generally believed, that the population of +Europe contains a large part of Asiatic blood, from that continent +having at one time been overrun by Asiatics, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> +mixed their blood with an indigenous race which they met +with there.</p> + +<p>Of the mixed Spanish Gipsy, to whom I have alluded, Mr. +Borrow says, that “he had <i>flaxen hair</i>; his eyes small, and, +like ferrets, red and fiery; and his complexion like a brick, +or dull red, chequered with spots of purple.” This description, +with, perhaps, the exception of the red eyes, and spots +of purple, is quite in keeping with that of many of the mixed +Gipsies. The race seems even to have given a preference +to fair or red hair, in the case of such children and grown-up +natives as they have adopted into their body. I have +met with a young Spaniard from Corunna, who is so much +acquainted with the Gipsies in Spain, that I took him to be +a mixed Gipsy himself; and he says that mixtures among +the Spanish Gipsies are very common; the white man, in +such cases, always casting his lot with the Gipsies. None +of the French, German, or Hungarian Gipsies whom I have +met with in America are full blood, or anything like it; but +I am told there are such, and very black too, as the English +Gipsies assert. Indeed, considering how “dreadfully mixed” +the Gipsies are in Great Britain and Ireland, I cannot but +conclude that they are more or less so all over the world.<a name="FNanchor262" id="FNanchor262"></a><a href="#Footnote262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a></p> + +<p>The blood once mixed, there is nothing to prevent a little +more being added, and a little more, and so on. There are +English Gipsy girls who have gone to work in factories in +the Eastern States, and picked up husbands among the +ordinary youths of these establishments. And what difference +does it make? Is not the game in the Gipsy woman’s +own hands? Will she not bring up her children Gipsies, +initiate them in all the mysteries of Gipsydom, and teach +them the language? There is another married to an American +farmer “down east.” All that she has to do is simply +to “tell her wonderful story,” as the Gipsies express it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> +Jonathan must think that he has caged a queer kind of a bird +in the English Gipsy woman. But will he say to his friends, +or neighbours, that his wife is a Gipsy? Will the children +tell that their mother, and, consequently, they themselves +are Gipsies? No, indeed. Jonathan, however, will find +her a very active, managing woman, who will always be +a-stirring, and will not allow her “old man” to kindle the +fires of a morning, milk his cows, or clean his boots, and, as +far as she is concerned, will bring him lots of <i>chabos</i>.</p> + +<p>Gipsies, however, do not like such marriages; still they +take place. They are more apt to occur when they have +attained to that degree of security in a community where no +one knows them to be Gipsies, or when they have settled in +a neighbourhood to which they had come strangers. The +parents exercise more constraint over their sons than daughters; +they cannot bear the idea of a son taking a strange +woman for a wife; for a strange woman is a snare unto the +Gipsies. If a Scottish Gipsy lad shows a hankering after a +stranger lass, the mother will soon “cut his comb,” by asking +him, “What would she say if she knew you to be a loon +of a Gipsy? Take such or such a one (Gipsies) for a wife, +if you want one.” But it is different with the girls. If a +Gipsy lass is determined to have the stranger for a husband, +she has only to say, “Never mind, mother; it makes no +earthly difference; I’ll turn that fellow round my little finger; +I’ll take care of the children when I get them.” I do +not know how the settled Scottish Gipsies broach the subject +of being Gipsies to the stranger son-in-law when he is +introduced among them. I can imagine the girl, during the +courtship, saying to herself, with reference to her intended, +“I’ll lead you captive, my pretty fellow!” And captive she +does lead him, in more senses than one. Perhaps the subject +is not broached to him till after she has borne him children; +or, if he is any way soft, the mother, with a leering +eye, will say to him at once, “Ah ha, lad, ye’re among Gipsies +now!” In such a case, the young man will be perfectly +bewildered to know what it all means, so utterly ignorant +is he about Gipsies; when, however, he comes to learn all +about it, it will be <i>mum</i> with him, as if his wife’s friends +had <i>burked</i> him, or some “old Gipsy” had come along, and +sworn him in on the point of a drawn dirk. It may be that +the Gipsy never mentions the subject to her husband at all,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> +for fear he should “take her life;” she can, at all events, trust +her secret with her children.</p> + +<p>Why should there be any hard feelings towards a Gipsy +for “taking in and burking” a native in this way? She +does not propose—she only disposes of herself. She has no +business to tell the other that she is a Gipsy. She does not +consider herself a worse woman than he is a man, but, on +the contrary, a better. She would rather prefer a <i>chabo</i>, +but, somehow or other, she sacrifices her feelings, and takes +the <i>gorgio</i>, “for better or worse.” Or there may be considerable +advantages to be derived from the connexion, so +that she spreads her snares to secure them. Being a Gipsy, +she has the whip-hand of the husband, for no consideration +will induce him to divulge to any one the fact that his wife +is a Gipsy—should she have told him; in which case she +has such a hold upon him, as to have “turned him round her +little finger” most effectually. “Married a Gipsy! it’s no’ +possible!” “Ay, it is possible. There!” she will say, chattering +her words, and, with her fingers, showing him the +signs. He soon gets reconciled to the “better or worse” +which <i>he</i> has taken to his bosom, as well as to her “folk,” +and becomes strongly attached to them. The least thing +that the Gipsy can then do is to tell her “wonderful story” +to her children. It is not teaching them any damnable +creed; it is only telling them who they are; so that they +may acknowledge herself, her people, her blood, and the +blood of the children themselves.</p> + +<p>And how does the Gipsy woman bring up her children in +regard to her own race? She tells them her “wonderful +story”—informs them who they are, and of the dreadful prejudice +that exists against them, simply for being Gipsies. +She then tells them about Pharaoh and Joseph in Egypt, +terming her people, “Pharaoh’s folk.” In short, she dazzles +the imagination of the children, from the moment they can +comprehend the simplest idea. Then she teaches them her +words, or language, as the “real Egyptian,” and frightens +and bewilders the youthful mind by telling them that they +are subject to be hanged if they are known to be Gipsies, +or to speak these words, or will be looked upon as wild +beasts by those around them. She then informs the children +how long the Gipsies have been in the country; how +they lived in tents; how they were persecuted, banished,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> +and hanged, merely for being Gipsies. She then tells them +of her people being in every part of the world, whom they +can recognize by the language and signs which she is +teaching them; and that her race will everywhere be ready +to shed their blood for them. She then dilates upon the +benefits that arise from being a Gipsy—benefits negative as +well as positive; for should they ever be set upon—garroted, +for example—all that they will have to do will be to cry +out some such expression as “<i>Biené raté, calo chabo</i>,” (good-night, +Gipsy, or black fellow,) when, if there is a Gipsy near +them, he will protect them. The children will be fondled +by her relatives, handed about and hugged as “little ducks +of Gipsies.” The granny, while sitting at the fireside, like +a witch, performs no small part in the education of the children, +making them fairly dance with excitement. In this +manner do the children of Gipsies have the Gipsy soul literally +breathed into them.<a name="FNanchor263" id="FNanchor263"></a><a href="#Footnote263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a></p> + +<p>In such a way—what with the supreme influence which +the mother has exercised over the mind of the child from its +very infancy; the manner in which its imagination has been +dazzled; and the dreadful prejudice towards the Gipsies, +which they all apply, directly or indirectly, to themselves—does +the Gipsy adhere to his race. When he comes to be +a youth, he naturally enough endeavours to find his way to +a tent, to have a look at the “old thing.” He does not, +however, think much of it as a reality; but it presents something +very poetical and imaginative to his mind, when he +contemplates it as the state from which his mysterious forefathers +have sprung.<a name="FNanchor264" id="FNanchor264"></a><a href="#Footnote264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> It makes very little difference, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> +case to which I have alluded, whether the father be a Gipsy +or not; the children all go with the mother, for they inherit +the blood through her. What with the blood, the education, +the words, and the signs, they are simply Gipsies, +and will be such, as long as they retain a consciousness of +who they are, and any peculiarities exclusively Gipsy. +As it sometimes happens that the father, only, is a Gipsy, the +attachment may not be so strong, on the part of the children, +as if the blood had come through the mother; still, it likewise +attaches them to the body. A great deal of jealousy +is shown by the Gipsies, when a son marries a strange woman. +A greater ado is not made by some Catholics, to +bring up their children Catholics, under such circumstances, +than is exhibited by Gipsies for their children knowing their +secret—that is, the “wonderful story;” which has the effect +of leading them, in their turn, to marry with Gipsies. The +race is very jealous of “the blood” being lost; or that their +“wonderful story” should become known to those who are +not Gipsies.</p> + +<p>There are people who cannot imagine how a man can be +a Gipsy and have fair hair. They think that, from his having +fair hair, he cannot have the same feelings of what they +imagine to be a true Gipsy, that is, a black-haired one. +One naturally asks, what effect can the matter of colour of +<i>hair</i> have upon the <i>mind</i> of a member of any community or +clan, whether the hair be black, brown, red, fair, or white, +or the person have no hair at all? Let us imagine a Gipsy +with fair hair. How long is it since the white blood was +introduced among his ancestors? Perhaps three hundred +and fifty years. The race of which he comes has been, +more or less, mixing and crossing ever since, but always +retaining the issue within its own community. Is he fair-haired? +Then he may be half a Gipsy; he may be three-fourths +Gipsy, and perhaps even more. At the present day,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> +the “points” of such a Gipsy are altogether arbitrary; some +profess to know their points, but it is a thing altogether uncertain. +All that they know and adhere to is, that they are +Gipsies, and nothing else. In this manner are the British +Gipsies, (with the exception of some English families, about +whom there is no certainty,) members of the Gipsy community, +or nation, as such—each having some of the blood; and +not Gipsies of an ideal purity of race. What they know is, +that their parents and relatives are Gipsies; that Gipsies +separate them from the eternity that is past; and, consequently, +that they are Gipsies. They, indeed, accept their +descent, blood, and nationality as instinctively as they accept +the very sex which God has given them. Which of the two +knows most of Gipsydom—the fair-haired or black? Almost +invariably the fair.<a name="FNanchor265" id="FNanchor265"></a><a href="#Footnote265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a></p> + +<p>We naturally ask, what effect has this difference in appearance +upon two such members of one family—the one with +European, the other with Gipsy, features and colour? and +the answer is this: The first will hide the fact of his being +a Gipsy from strangers; indeed, he is ashamed to let it be +known that he is a Gipsy; and he is afraid that people, not +knowing how it came about, would laugh at him. “What!” +they would ask, “<i>you</i> a Gipsy? The idea is absurd.” Besides, +it facilitates his getting on in the world, to prevent it +being known that he is a Gipsy. The other member cannot +deny that he is a Gipsy, because any one can see it. Such +are the Gipsies who are more apt to cling to the tent, or the +more original ways of the old stock. They are very proud<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> +of their appearance; but it is a pride accompanied with disadvantages, +and even pain. For, after all, the beauty and +pleasure in being a Gipsy is to have the other cast of features +and colour; he has as much of the blood and language +as the other, while he can go into any kind of company—a +sort of Jack-the-Giant-Killer in his invisible coat. The +nearer the Gipsy comes to the original colour of his race, +the less chance is there of improving him. He knows what +he is like; and well does he know the feeling that people +entertain for him. In fact, he feels that there is no use in +being anything but what people call a Gipsy. But it is different +with those of European countenance and colour, or +when these have been modified or diluted by a mixture of +white blood. They can, then, enter upon any sphere of employment +to which they have a mind, and their personal advantages +and outward circumstances will admit of.<a name="FNanchor266" id="FNanchor266"></a><a href="#Footnote266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a></p> + +<p>Let us now consider the destiny of such European-like +Gipsies. Suppose a female of this description marries a +native in settled life, which both of them follow. She brings +the children up as Gipsies, in the way described. The children +are apt to become ultra Gipsies. If they, in their turn, +marry natives, they do the same with their children; so that, +if the same system were always followed, they would continue +Gipsies forever. For all that is necessary to perpetuate +the tribe, is simply for the Gipsies to know who they are, +and the prejudice that exists toward the race of which they +are a part; to say nothing of the innate associations connected +with their origin and descent. Such a phenomenon +may be fitly compared to the action of an auger; with this +difference, that the auger may lose its edge, but the Gipsy +will drill his way through generations of the ordinary +natives, and, at the end, come out as sharp as ever; all the +circumstances attending the two races being exactly the +same at the end as at the beginning. In this way, let their +blood be mixed as it may, let even their blood-relationship +outside of their body be what it may, the Gipsies still remain, +in their private associations, a distinct people, into whatever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +sphere of human action they may enter; although, in point +of blood, appearance, occupation, character, and religion, +they may have drifted the breadth of a hemisphere from the +stakes and tent of the original Gipsy.</p> + +<p>There can surely be no great difficulty in comprehending +so simple an idea as this. Here we have a foreign race introduced +amongst us, which has been proscribed, legally as +well as socially. To escape the effects of this double proscription, +the people have hidden the fact of their belonging +to the race, although they have clung to it with an ardour +worthy of universal admiration. The proscription is toward +the name and race as such, that is, the blood; and is not +general, but absolute; none having ever been received into +society as Gipsies. For this reason, every Gipsy, every one +who has Gipsy blood in his veins, applies the proscription +to himself. On the other hand, he has his own descent—the +Gipsy descent; and, as I have already said, he has +naturally as little desire to wish a different descent, as he +has to have a different sex. As Finns do not wish to have +been born Englishmen, or Englishmen Finns, so Gipsies are +perfectly satisfied with their descent, nay, extremely proud +of it. They would not change it, if they could, for any consideration. +When Gipsies, therefore, marry natives, they do +not only willingly bring up their children as Gipsies, but by +every moral influence they are forced to do it, and cling to +each other. In this way has the race been absolutely cut off +from that of the ordinary natives; all intercourse between +the two, unless on the part of the <i>bush</i> Gipsy, in the way of +dealings, having been of a clandestine nature, on the side of +the Gipsy, or, in other words, <i>incog.</i> How melancholy it is +to think that such a state of things exists in the British +Islands!</p> + +<p>The Gipsy, born of a Gipsy mother and a native father, +does, therefore, most naturally, and, I may say, invariably, +follow the Gipsy connexion; the simplest impulse of manhood +compels him to do it. Being born, or becoming a +member of settled society, he joins in the ordinary amusements +or occupations of his fellow-creatures of both races; +which he does the more readily when he feels conscious of +the incognito which he bears. But he has been brought up +from his mother’s knee a Gipsy; he knows nothing else; his +associations with his relatives have been Gipsy; and he has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> +in his veins that which the white damns, and, he doubts not, +would damn in him, were he to know of it. He has, moreover, +the words and signs of the Gipsy race; he is brought +in contact with the Gipsy race; he perceives that his feelings +are reciprocated by them, and that both have the same +reserve and timidity for “outsiders.” He does not reason +abstractly what he is <i>not</i>, but instinctively holds that he is +“one of them;” that he has in his mind, his heart, and his +blood, that which the common native has not, and which +makes him a <i>chabo</i>, that is, a Gipsy.</p> + +<p>The mother, in the case mentioned, is certainly not a full-blood +Gipsy, nor anything like it; she does not know her +real “points;” all that she knows is, that she is a “Gipsy:” +so that, if the youth’s father is an ordinary native, the youth +holds himself to be a half-and-half, nominally, though he +does not know what he really is, as regards blood. Imagine, +then, that he takes such a half-and-half Gipsy for a wife, and +that both tell their children that they are “Gipsies:” the +children, perhaps, knowing nothing of the real origin of +their parents, take up the “wonderful story,” and hand it +down to their children, initiating them, in their turn, in the +“mysteries.” These children never doubt that <i>they</i> are +“Gipsies,” although <i>their</i> Gipsyism may, as I have already +said, have “drifted the breadth of a hemisphere from the +stakes and tent of the original Gipsy.” In this manner is +Gipsydom kept alive, by its turning round and round in a +perpetual circle. And in this manner does it happen, that +a native finds his own children Gipsies, from having, in seeking +for a wife, stumbled upon an Egyptian woman. Gipsydom +is, therefore, the aggregate of Gipsies, wherever, or +under whatever circumstances, they are to be found. It is, +in two respects, an absolute question; absolute as to blood, +and absolute as to those teachings, feelings, and associations, +that, by a moral necessity, accompany the possession of the +blood.</p> + +<p>This brings me to an issue with Mr. Borrow. Speaking +of the destination of the Spanish Gipsies, he says: “If the +Gitanos are abandoned to themselves, by which we mean, no +arbitrary laws are again enacted for their extinction, the +sect will eventually cease to be, and its members become +confounded with the residue of the population.” I can well +understand that such procedure, on the part of the Spanish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +Government, was calculated to soften the ferocious disposition +of the Gipsies; but did it bring them a point nearer +to an amalgamation with the people than before? Mr. Borrow +continues: “The position which they occupy is the +lowest. . . . . The outcast of the prison and the <i>presidio</i>, +who calls himself Spaniard, would feel insulted by being +termed Gitano, and would thank God that he is not.” He +continues: “It is, of course, by intermarriage, alone, that the +two races will ever commingle; and before that event is +brought about, much modification must take place amongst +the Gitanos, in their manners, in their habits, in their affections +and their dislikes, and perhaps <i>even in their physical +peculiarities</i>, (yet ‘no washing,’ as Mr. Borrow approvingly +quotes, ‘will turn the Gipsy white;’) much must be forgotten +on both sides, and everything is forgotten in course +of time.” So great, indeed, was the prejudice against the +Gipsies, that the law of Charles III, in 1783, forbade the +people calling them Gitanos, under the penalty of being +punished for <i>slander!</i> because, his majesty said: “I declare +that those who go by the name of Gitanos are not so by +origin or nature; nor do they proceed from any infected +root(!)” What regard would the native Spaniards pay to +the injunction, that they would be punished for “slander,” +for calling the Gipsies <i>Gitanos</i>, in place of <i>Spaniards</i>? +We may well believe that such a law would be a dead letter +in Spain; where, according to Mr. Borrow, “justice has invariably +been a mockery; a thing to be bought and sold, +terrible only to the feeble and innocent, and an instrument +of cruelty and avarice.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Borrow leaves the question where he found it. Even +remove the prejudice that exists against the Gipsies, as regards +their colour, habits, and history; what then? Would +they, as a people cease to be? Would they amalgamate +with the natives, <i>so as to be lost</i>? Assuredly not. They +may mix their blood, but they preserve their mental identity +in the world; even although, in point of physical appearance, +habits, manners, occupation, character, and creed, they +might “become confounded with the residue of the population.” +In that respect, they are the most exclusive people +of almost any to be found in the world. We have only to +consider what Freemasonry is, and we can form an idea of +what Gipsyism is, in one of its aspects. It rests upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +broadest of all bases—flesh and blood, a common and +mysterious origin, a common language, a common history, a +common persecution, and a common odium, in every part of +the world. Remove the prejudice against the Gipsies, make +it as respectable to be Gipsies, as the world, with its ignorance +of many of the race, deem it desreputable; what +then? Some of them might come out with their “tents and +encampments,” and banners and mottoes: the “cuddy and +the creel, the hammer and tongs, the tent and the tin kettle” +forever. People need not sneer at the “cuddy and the +creel.” The idea conveys a world of poetry to the mind of +a Gipsy. Mrs. Fall, of Dunbar, thought it so poetical, that +she had it, as we have seen, worked in tapestry; and it is +doubtless carefully preserved, as an heir-loom, among her +collateral descendants.<a name="FNanchor267" id="FNanchor267"></a><a href="#Footnote267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Borrow speaks of the Gipsies “declining” in Spain. +Ask a Scotchman about the Scottish Gipsies, and he will answer: +“The Scotch Gipsies have pretty much died out.” +“Died out?” I ask; “that is impossible; for who are more +prolific than Gipsies?” “Oh, then, they have become settled,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +and civilized.” “And <i>ceased to be Gipsies</i>?” I continue. +“Exactly so,” he replies. What idea can be more ridiculous +than that of saying, that if a Gipsy leaves the tent, +settles in a town, and attends church, he ceases to be a +Gipsy; and that, if he takes to the tent again, he becomes a +Gipsy again? What has a man’s occupation, habits, or character, +to do with his clan, tribe, or nationality? Does education, +does religion, remove from his mind a knowledge of +who he is, or change his blood? Are not our own Borderers +and Highlanders as much Borderers and Highlanders as ever +they were? Are not Spanish Gipsies still Spanish Gipsies, although +a change may have come over the characters and circumstances +of some of them? It would be absurd to deny it.<a name="FNanchor268" id="FNanchor268"></a><a href="#Footnote268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a></p> + +<p>Mr. Borrow has not sufficiently examined into Spanish +Gipsyism to pass a reliable opinion upon it. He says: +“One thing is certain, in the history of the Gitanos; that +the sect flourished and encreased, so long as the law recommended +and enjoined measures the most harsh and severe +for its suppression. . . . The caste of the Gitanos still +exists, but is neither so extensive, nor so formidable, as a +century ago, when the law, in denouncing Gitanismo, proposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +to the Gitanos the alternatives of death for persisting +in their profession, or slavery for abandoning it.” These +are very singular alternatives. The latter is certainly not +to be found in any of the Spanish laws quoted by Mr. Borrow. +I am at a loss to perceive the point of his reasoning. +There can be no difficulty in believing that Gipsies would +rather <i>encrease</i> in a state of peace, than if they were hunted +from place to place, like wild beasts; and consequently, +having renounced their former mode or life, they would, in +Mr. Borrow’s own words, “cease to play a distinct part in +the history of Spain, and the <i>law</i> would no longer speak of +them as a distinct people.” And the same might, to a certain +extent, be said of the Spanish <i>people</i>. Mr. Borrow +again says: “That the Gitanos are not so numerous as in +former times, witness those <i>barrios</i>, in various towns, still denominated +<i>Gitanerias</i>, but from whence the Gitanos have +disappeared, even like the Moors from the <i>Morerias</i>.” But +Mr. Borrow himself, in the same work, gives a good reason +for the disappearance of the Gipsies from these <i>Gitanerias</i>; +for he says: “The <i>Gitanerias</i> were soon considered as public +nuisances, on which account the Gitanos were forbidden to +live together in particular parts of the town, to hold meetings, +and even to intermarry with each other.” If the disappearance +of the Gipsies from Spain was like that of the +Moors, it would appear that they had left, or been expelled +from, the country; a theory which Mr. Borrow does not advance. +The Gipsies, to a certain extent, may have left these +barriers, or been expelled from them, and settled, as tradesmen, +mechanics, and what not, in other parts of the same or +other towns; so as to be in a position the more able to get +on in the world. Still, many of them are in the colonies. +In Cuba there are many, as soldiers and musicians, dealers +in mules and red pepper, which businesses they almost +monopolize, and jobbers and dealers in various wares; and +doubtless there are some of them innkeepers, and others +following other occupations. In Mexico there are not a few. +I know of a Gitano who has a fine wholesale and retail cigar +store in Virginia.<a name="FNanchor269" id="FNanchor269"></a><a href="#Footnote269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span>Mr. Borrow concludes, in regard to the Spanish Gipsies, +thus: “We have already expressed our belief that the caste +has diminished of latter years; whether this diminution was +the result of one or many causes combined; of a <i>partial +change of habits</i>, of pestilence or sickness, of war or +famine, or of a <i>freer intercourse with the Spanish population</i>, +we have no means of determining, and shall abstain from +offering conjectures on the subject.” In this way does he +leave the question just where he found it. Is there any +reason to doubt that Gipsydom is essentially the same in +Spain as in Great Britain; or that its future will be guided +by any other principles than those which regulate that of +the British Gipsies? Indeed, I am astonished that Mr. +Borrow should advance the idea that Gipsies should <i>decrease</i> +by “changing their habits;” they might not <i>encrease so fast</i>, +in a settled life, as when more exposed to the air, and not +molested by the Spanish Government. I am no less astonished +that he should think they would decrease by “a freer +intercourse with the Spanish population;” when, in fact, +such mixtures are well known to go with the Gipsies; the +mixture being, in the estimation of the British Gipsies, calculated +to strengthen and invigorate the race itself. Had +Mr. Borrow kept in mind the case of the half-blood Gipsy +captain, he could have had no difficulty in learning what +became of mixed Gipsies.<a name="FNanchor270" id="FNanchor270"></a><a href="#Footnote270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span>It doubtless holds in Spain, as in Great Britain, that as +the Gipsy enters into settled life, and engages in a respectable +calling, he hides his descent, and even mixes his blood +with that of the country, and becomes ashamed of the name +before the public; but is as much, at heart, a Gipsy, as any +others of his race. And this theory is borne out by Mr. +Borrow himself, when he speaks of “the unwillingness of +the Spanish Gipsies to utter, when speaking of themselves, +the detested expression Gitano; a word which seldom escapes +their mouths.” We might therefore conclude, that +the Spanish Gipsies, with the exception of the more original +and bigoted stock, would <i>hide their nationality</i> from the common +Spaniards, and so escape their notice. It is not at all +likely that the half-pay Gipsy captain would mention to the +public that he was a Gipsy, although he admitted it to Mr. +Borrow, under the peculiar circumstances in which he met +him. My Spanish acquaintance informs me that the Gitanos, +generally, hide their nationality from the rest of the world.</p> + +<p>Such a case is evidently told by Mr. Borrow, in the vagabond +Gipsy, Antonio, at Badajoz, who termed a rich Gipsy, +living in the same town, a hog, because he evidently would +not countenance him. Antonio may possibly have been +kicked out of his house, in attempting to enter it. He accused +him of having married a Spaniard, and of fain attempting +to pass himself for a Spaniard. As regards the wife, +she might have been a Gipsy with very little of “the blood” +in her veins; or a Spaniard, reared by Gipsies; or an ordinary +Spanish maiden, to whom the Gipsy would teach his +language, as sometimes happens among the English Gipsies. +His wishing to pass for a Spaniard had nothing to do with +his being, but not wishing to be known as, a Gipsy. The +same is done by almost all our Scottish Gipsies. In England, +those who do not follow the tent—I mean the more +mixed and better-class—are even afraid of each other. +“Afraid of what?” said I, to such an English Gipsy; +“ashamed of being Gipsies?” “No, sir,” (with great emphasis;) +“not ashamed of being Gipsies, but of being <i>known</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +<i>to other people as Gipsies</i>.” “A world of difference,” I replied. +What does the world hold to be a <i>Gipsy</i>, and what +does it hold to be the <i>feelings of a man</i>? If we consider +these two questions, we can have little difficulty in understanding +the wish of such Gipsies to disguise themselves. +It is in this way, and in the mixing of the blood, that this +so-called “dying out of the Gipsies” is to be accounted +for.<a name="FNanchor271" id="FNanchor271"></a><a href="#Footnote271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a></p> + +<p>It is singular that Mr. Borrow should attribute the change +which has come over the Spanish Gipsies, so much to the +law passed by Charles III. in 1783; and that he should +characterize it as an enlightened, wise, and liberal law; distinguished +by justice and clemency; and as being calculated +to exert considerable influence over the destiny of the race; +nay, as being the principal, if not the only, cause for the +“decline” of it in Spain. It was headed: “Rules for <i>repressing</i> +and <i>chastising</i> the vagrant mode of life, and other excesses, +of those who are called Gitanos.” Article II. forbids, +under penalties, the Gipsies “using their <i>language</i>, dress, or +vagrant kind of life, which they had hitherto followed.” +Article XI. prohibits them from “wandering about the +roads and uninhabited places, even with the pretext of +<i>visiting markets and fairs</i>.” Article IX. reads thus: “Those +<i>who have abandoned the dress, name, language or jargon, +associations and manners of Gitanos</i>, and shall have, moreover, +chosen and established a domicile, but shall not have +devoted themselves to any office or employment, though it +be only that of day-labourer, shall be <i>proceeded against as +common vagrants</i>.” Articles XVI. and XVII. enact, that +“the children, and young people of both sexes, who are not +above sixteen years of age, shall be separated from their +parents, <i>who wander about and have no employment</i>, [which +was forbidden by the law itself,] and shall be destined to +learn something, or shall be placed out in hospices or houses +of instruction.” Article XX. <i>dooms to death, without remission,</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +<i>Gipsies who, for the second time, relapse into their old +habits</i>.</p> + +<p>I cannot agree with Mr. Borrow, when he says, that this +law “differs in <i>character</i>” from any which had hitherto been +enacted, in connection with the body in Spain, if I take +those preceding it, as given by himself. The only difference +between it and some of the previous laws is, that it allowed +the Gipsy to be admitted to whatever office or employment +<i>to which he might apply himself</i>, and likewise to any guilds +or communities; but it prohibited him from settling in the +capital, or any of the royal residences; and forbade him, <i>on +pain of death</i>, to publicly profess what he was—that is, a +Gipsy. With the trifling exceptions mentioned, the law of +Charles III. was as foolish a one as ever was passed +against the Gipsies. These very exceptions show what the +letter, whatever the execution, of previous laws must have +been. Nor can we form any opinion as to the effects the +law in question had upon the Gipsies, unless we know how +it was carried out. The law of the Empress Maria Theresa +produced no effect upon the Gipsies in Hungary. “In Hungary,” +says Mr. Borrow, “two classes are free to do what +they please—the nobility and the Gipsies—the one above +the law, the other below it.” And what did Mr. Borrow +find the Gipsies in Hungary? In England, the last instances +of condemnation, under the old sanguinary laws, happened +a few years before the Restoration, although these were not +repealed till 23d Geo. III., c. 54. The Gipsies in England +can follow any employment, common to the ordinary natives, +they please: and how has Mr. Borrow described them +there? In Scotland, the tribe have been allowed to do +nothing, not even acknowledge their existence, as Gipsies: +and this work describes what they are in that country.</p> + +<p>Instead of the law of Charles III. exercising any great +beneficial influence over the character of the Spanish Gipsies, +I would attribute the change in question to what Mr. +Borrow himself says: “It must be remembered that during +the last seventy years, a revolution has been progressing in +Spain, slowly it is true; and such a revolution may have +affected the Gitanos.” The Spanish Gipsy proverb, “Money +is to be found in the town, not in the country,” has had its influence +on bringing the race to settle in towns. And by residing +in towns, and not being persecuted, they have, in Mr. Borrow’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> +own words, “insensibly become more civilized than their +ancestors, and their habits and manners less ferocious.” The +only good which the law of Charles III. seems to have done +to the Spanish Gipsies was, as already said, to permit them +to follow any occupation, and be admitted to any guilds, or +communities, (barring the capital, and royal residences,) they +pleased; but only on the condition, and that <i>on the pain of +death</i>, that they <i>renounced every imaginable thing connected +with their tribe</i>; which, we may reasonably assume, no +Gipsy submitted to, however much in appearance he might +have done so.</p> + +<p>But it is doubtful if the law of Charles III. was anything +but the one which it was customary for every Spanish monarch +to issue against the tribe. Mr. Borrow says: “Perhaps +there is no country in which more laws have been +framed, having in view the suppression and extinction of +the Gipsy name, race, and manner of life, than Spain. Every +monarch, during a period of three hundred years, appears, +at his accession to the throne, to have considered that one +of his first and most imperative duties consisted in suppressing +and checking the robberies, frauds, and other enormities +of the Gitanos, with which the whole country seems to have +resounded since the time of their first appearance.” The +fact of so many laws being passed against the Gipsies, is, to +my mind, ample proof, as I shall afterwards explain, that +few, if any, of them were put, to any extent, in force; and +that the act in question, viewed in itself, as distinct from the +laws previously in existence, was little more than a form. It +contains a flourish of liberality, implied in the Gitanos being +allowed to enter, if they pleased, any guilds, (which they +were not likely to do,) or communities, (where they were +doubtless already;) but it debars, (that is, expels,) them from +the king’s presence, at the capital or any of the royal residences. +Moreover, it allowed the Gitano to be “admitted to +whatever office or employment to which he might apply himself,” +(against which, there probably was, or should have +been, no law in existence.) His majesty must also impose +his pragmatical conceit upon his loyal subjects, by telling +them, that “Gitanos are <i>not</i> Gitanos”—that they “do <i>not</i> +proceed from any infected root;” and threaten them, that if +they maintain the contrary, and call them Gitanos, he will +have them punished for slander!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>The Gipsies, after a residence of 350 years in the country, +would have comparatively little notice taken of them, +under this law, except when they made themselves really +obnoxious, or gave an official an occasion to display his +authority, or his zeal for the public service.<a name="FNanchor272" id="FNanchor272"></a><a href="#Footnote272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a> Whatever may +have been the treatment which the Gipsies experienced at +the hands of the <i>civil</i> authorities, the <i>church</i> does not seem +to have disturbed, and far less distressed, them. Mr. Borrow +represents a priest of Cordova, formerly an Inquisitor, +saying to him: “I am not aware of one case of a Gitano +having been tried or punished by the Inquisition. The Inquisition +always looked upon them with too much contempt, +to give itself the slightest trouble concerning them; for, as +no danger, either to the State or to the Church of Rome, +could proceed from the Gitanos, it was a matter of perfect +indifference to the holy office whether they lived without religion +or not. The holy office has always reserved its anger +for people very different; the Gitano having, at all times, +been <i>Gente barrata y despreciable</i>.”</p> + +<p>Should the Spanish Gipsies not now assist each other, to +the extent they did when banditti, under the special proscription +of the Government, it would be absurd to say that +they were therefore not as much Gipsies as ever they were. +The change in this respect arose, to some extent, from the +toleration extended to them, as a people and as individuals, +whether by the law, or society in general. Such Gipsies +as Mr. Borrow seems to have associated with, in Spain, +were not likely to be very reliable authority on the questions +at issue; for he has described them as “being endowed +with a kind of instinct, (in lieu of reason,) which assists them +to a very limited extent, and no further.”</p> + +<p>Might it not be in Spain as in Great Britain? Even in +England, those that pass for Gipsies are few in number, +compared to the mixed Gipsies, following various occupations; +for a large part of the Gipsy blood in England has, +as it were, been spread over a large surface of the white. In +Scotland it is almost altogether so. There seems considerable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> +reason for believing that Gipsydom is, perhaps, as much +mixed in Spain as in Great Britain, although Mr. Borrow +has taken no notice of it. We have seen, (<a href="#Page_92">page 92.</a>) how +severe an enactment was passed by Queen Elizabeth, against +“any person, whether natural born or <i>stranger</i>, to be seen +in the fellowship of the Gipsies, or disguised like them.” In +the law of Ferdinand and Isabella, the first passed against +the Gipsies, in Spain, a class of people is mentioned, in conjunction +with them, but distinguished from them, by the +name of “foreign tinkers.” Philip III., at Belan, in Portugal, +in 1619, commands all Gipsies to quit the kingdom +within six months. “Those who should wish to remain are +to establish themselves in cities, and are not to be allowed +to use the dress, name, and language, in order, that forasmuch +as they are not such by nation,(!) this name, and manner +of life, may be for evermore confounded and forgotten(!)” +Philip IV., on the 8th May, 1633, declares “that they are +not Gipsies by origin or nature, but have adopted this form +of life(!)” This idea of “Gitanos <i>not</i> being Gitanos, and +<i>not</i> proceeding from any infected root,” was not original +with Charles III., in 1783; his proclamation having been in +formal keeping with previous ones, whether of his own +country, or, as in Scotland, in 1603, “recommended by the +example of some other realm,” (<a href="#Page_111">page 111</a>.) There had evidently +been a great curiosity to know who some of the “not +Gipsies by origin and nature,” (evidently judging from their +appearance,) could be; for Philip IV. enacts, “that they +shall, within two months, leave the quarters where now they +<i>live with the denomination of Gitanos</i>, and that they shall +<i>separate from each other</i>, and <i>mingle with the other inhabitants</i>: +that the ministers of justice are to observe, <i>with particular +diligence</i>, whether they <i>hold communication with each +other</i>, or <i>marry among themselves</i>.”</p> + +<p>The “foreign tinkers” mentioned in the Act of Ferdinand +and Isabella, and the individuals distinguished from +the Gipsies in that of Queen Elizabeth, were doubtless <i>mixed</i> +Gipsies; whose relationship with the Gipsies proper, and +isolation from the common natives, are very distinctly pointed +out in the above extract from the law of Philip IV. Mr. +Borrow expresses a great difficulty to understand who these +people could be, <i>if not Gipsies</i>. How easy it is to get quit +of the difficulty, by concluding that they were Gipsies whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> +blood, perhaps for the most part, was native; and who had +been brought into the body in the manner explained in the +<a href="#Page_5">Preface</a> to this work, and more fully illustrated in this <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a>. +If Mr. Borrow found in Spain a half-pay captain, +in the service of Donna Isabel, with <i>flaxen</i> hair, a <i>thorough +Gipsy</i>, who spoke Gipsy and Latin, with great fluency, and +his cousin, Jara, in all probability another Gipsy, what difficulty +can there be in believing, that the “foreign tinkers,” +or tinkers of any kind, now to be met with in Spain, are, +like the same class in Great Britain and Ireland, Gipsies of +mixed blood? Indeed, the young Spaniard, to whom I have +alluded, informs me that the Gipsies in Spain are very much +mixed. Mr. Borrow himself admits that the Gipsy blood in +Spain has been mixed; for, in speaking of the old Gipsy +counts, he says: “It was the counts who determined what individuals +were to be admitted into the fellowship and privileges +of the Gitanos. . . . . They (the Gipsies) were +not to teach the language to any but those who, by birth or +<i>inauguration</i>, belonged to that sect.” And he gives a +case in point, in the bookseller of Logrono, who was married +to the only daughter of a Gitano count; upon whose +death, the daughter and son-in-law succeeded to the authority +which he had exercised in the tribe. If the Gipsies in +Spain were not mixed in point of blood, why should they +have taken Mr. Borrow for a Gipsy, as he said they did? +The persecutions to which the race in Spain were subjected +were calculated to lead to a mixture of the blood, as in +Scotland, for the reasons given in the <a href="#Page_5">Preface</a>; but, perhaps, +not to the same extent; as the Spanish Acts seem to have +given the tribe an opportunity of escape, under the condition +of settling, &c., &c., which would probably be complied +with, nominally, for the time being; while the face of part +of the country would afford a refuge till the storm had +blown over. (See <a href="#Page_71">pages 71</a> and <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.)</p> + +<p>It is very likely that the following people, described by +Paget, in his travels in Central Europe, are mixed Gipsies. +He says: “In almost every part of the Austrian dominions +are to be found a kind of wandering tinkers, wire-workers, +and menders of crockery, whose language appears to be +that of the Sclaves, who travel about, and, at certain seasons, +return to their own settlements, where the women and +children remain during their absence.” The wandering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> +Rothwelsh, perhaps the same mentioned by Paget, may be +mixed Gipsies. In the Encyclopædia Britannica they are +spoken of as “a vagabond people, in the south of Germany, +who have sometimes been confounded with the Gipsies.” +The <i>appearance</i> of such persons has nothing to do with +their being, or not being, members of Gipsydom.<a name="FNanchor273" id="FNanchor273"></a><a href="#Footnote273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a></p> + +<p>I will now consider the present condition of the Scottish +Gipsies. But, to commence with, what is the native capacity +of a Gipsy? It is good. Take a common tinkering Gipsy, +without a particle of education, and compare him with a +common native, without a particle of education, and the tinker, +in point of smartness, is worth, perhaps, a dozen of the +other. If not a learned, he is at least a travelled, Athenian, +considerably rubbed up by his intercourse with the world. +This is the proper way by which to judge of the capacity +of a Gipsy. It will differ somewhat according to the countries +and circumstances in which he is found. Grellmann, +about the year 1780, says, of evidently the more original +kind of Hungarian Gipsies: “Imagine a people of childish +thoughts, whose minds are filled with raw, undigested conceptions, +guided more by sense than reason, and using understanding +and reflection only so far as they promote the +gratification of any particular appetite; and you have a +perfect sketch of the general character of the Gipsies.” +“They are lively, uncommonly loquacious, fickle to an extreme; +consequently, inconstant in their pursuits.” Bischoff, +in speaking of the German Gipsies, in 1827, says: “They +have a good understanding, an excellent memory, are quick +of comprehension, lively and talkative.” Mr. Borrow, in +evident allusion to the very lowest, and most ignorant, class +of the Spanish Gipsies, says: “They seem to hunt for their +bread, as if they were not of the human, but rather of the +animal, species, and, in lieu of reason, were endowed with a +kind of instinct, which assists them to a very limited extent, +and no further.” I admit that this class of Gipsies +may have as little intellect as there is in an ant-catcher’s +nose, but the remark can apply to them exclusively.</p> + +<p>Without taking into account any opinion expressed by +other writers on the Gipsies, Mr. Borrow says: “Should it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span> +be urged that certain individuals have found them very different +from what they are represented in these volumes, +(‘The Gipsies in Spain,’) he would frankly say that he +yields no credit to the presumed fact.” And he refers his +readers to his Spanish-Gipsy vocabulary for the words <i>hoax</i> +and <i>hocus</i>, as a reason for such an opinion! He himself +gives descriptions of quite a different caste. For example, +he speaks of a rich Gipsy appearing in a fair, at Leon, in +Spain, with a twenty thousand dollar credit in his pocket. +And of another Gipsy, a native of Constantinople, who had +visited the most remote and remarkable portions of the world, +“passing over it like a cloud;” and who spoke several dialects +of the Malay, and understood the original language of +Java. This Gipsy, he says, dealt in precious stones and +poisons; and that there is scarcely a bey or satrap in Persia, +or Turkey, whom he has not supplied with both. In Moscow, +he says, “There are not a few who inhabit stately +houses, go abroad in elegant equipages, and are behind the +higher orders of the Russians, neither in appearance nor +mental acquirements.” From these specimens, one might +naturally conclude that there was some room for discrimination +among different classes of Gipsies, instead of rating +them as having the intellect of ant-catchers.</p> + +<p>When the Gipsies appeared in Scotland, the natives themselves, +as I have already said, were nearly wholly uneducated. +Many of the Gipsies, then, and long afterwards, +being smart, presumptuous, overbearing, audacious fellows, +seem to have assumed great importance, and been looked +upon as no small people by the authorities and the inhabitants +of the country. In every country in which they have +settled, they seem to have instinctively and very readily +appreciated the ways and spirit of the people, while, at the +same time, they preserved what belonged particularly to +themselves—their Gipsyism. Gipsydom being, in its very +essence, a “working in among other people,” “a people +within a people,” it followed, that marriages between adopted +Gipsies, and even Gipsies themselves, and the ordinary natives, +would be encouraged, were it only to contribute to +their existence in the country. The issue of such marriages, +go where they might, would become centres of little Gipsy +circles, which, in their turn, would throw off members that +would become the centres of other little Gipsy circles; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> +leaven of Gipsydom leavening into a lump everything that +proceeded out of itself. To such an extent has this been +followed, that, at the present day, the Scottish Gipsies—at +least the generality of them—have every outward characteristic +of Scotchmen. But the secret of being Gipsies, +which they carry in their bosoms, makes them appear a little +queer to others; they have a something about them that +makes them look somewhat odd to the other Scotchman, who +is not “one of them,” although he does not know the cause +of it.</p> + +<p>Upon, or shortly after, their arrival, they seem to have +divided the country among themselves; each tribe exercising +its rights over its own territory, to the exclusion of +others, just as a native lord would have done against other +natives; with a system of passes, regulated by councils of +local or provincial chieftains, and a king, over all. The +Scottish Gipsies, from the very first, seem to have been +thoroughly versed in their vocation, from having had about +a hundred years’ experience, in some other part of Europe, +before they settled in Scotland; although stragglers of their +race evidently had made their appearance in the country +many years before. What might have been the number of +Gipsies then in Scotland, it is impossible to conjecture; it +must have been considerable, if we judge from what is said +in Wraxall’s History of France, vol. 2, page 32, when, in +reference to the Act of Queen Elizabeth, in 1563, he states, +that, in her reign, the Gipsies throughout England were supposed +to exceed ten thousand. The employments of the +original Gipsies, within their respective districts, seem to +have been what is described under the head of Tweed-dale +and Clydesdale Gipsies; that is, tinkering, making spoons +and other wares, petty trading, telling fortunes, living as +much as possible at free-quarters, dealing in horses, and +visiting fairs. It is extremely likely that those who travelled +Tweed-dale, for example, always averaged about the +same number, down to the time of the American Revolution, +(except in times of civil commotion, when they would have +the country pretty much to themselves,) and were confined +to such of the families of the respective tribes, or the members +of these families, in whom the right was hereditary. +The consequence seems to have been, that perhaps the +younger members of the family had to betake themselves to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> +towns and villages, and engage in whatever they could possibly +turn their hands to. Some would, of course, take to +the highway, and kindred fields of industry. Admitting +that the circumstances attending the Gipsies in Scotland, at +that time, and subsequently, were the same, as regards the +manner of making a living, which attend those in England, +at the present day, (with this difference, that they could +more easily roam at large then than now,) and we can have +no difficulty in coming to a conclusion how the surplus of +the tented Gipsy population was disposed of. Among the +English Gipsies of to-day, taking year with year, and tent +with tent, there is, yearly, a continual moving out of the tent; +a kind of Gipsy crop is annually gathered from tented Gipsydom; +and some of these gradually find themselves drawn +into almost every kind of mechanical or manual labour, even +to working in coal-mines and iron-works; others become +peddlers, itinerant auctioneers, and <i>tramps</i> of almost every +imaginable kind; not to speak of those who visit fairs, in +various capacities, or engage in various settled traffic.</p> + +<p>Put a Gipsy to any occupation you like, and he shows a +capability and handiness that is astonishing, if he can only +muster up steadiness in his new vocation. But it is difficult +to break him off the tent; he will return, and lounge, for +weeks together, about that of his father, or some other relative. +But get him fairly out of the tent, married, and, in a +degree, settled to some occupation, in a town where there +are not too many of his own race in close proximity to him, +but where he gets mixed up, in his daily avocation, with the +common natives, and he sooner or later falls into the ranks. +Still, his intimate associations are always with Gipsies; for +his ardent attachment to his people, and a corresponding +resentment of the prejudice that exists against it, keep him +aloof from any intimate intercourse with the ordinary inhabitants; +his associations with them hardly ever extending +beyond the commons or the public-house. If he experiences +an attack from his old habits, he will take to the tramp, from +town to town, working at his mechanical occupation; leaving +his wife and children at home. But it is not long before +he returns. His children, having been born and reared in a +town, become habituated to a settled life, like other people.</p> + +<p>There is a vast amount of ambition about every Gipsy, +which is displayed, among the humble classes, in all kinds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +of athletic exercises.<a name="FNanchor274" id="FNanchor274"></a><a href="#Footnote274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a> The same peculiarity is discernible +among the educated Scottish Gipsies. Carrying about with +them the secret of being Gipsies, which they assume would +be a terrible imputation cast upon them by the ordinary natives, +if they knew of it, they, as it were, fly up, like game-cocks, +and show a disposition to surpass the others in one +way or other; particularly as they consider themselves better +than the common inhabitants. They must always be +“cock of the company,” master of ceremonies, or stand at +the top of the tree, if possible. The reader may ask, how +do they consider themselves better than the ordinary natives? +And I answer, that, from having been so long in Scotland, +they are Scotchmen, (as indeed they are, for the most part, in +point of blood,) and consider themselves as good as the +others—nay, smarter than others in the same sphere, which, +generally speaking, they are; and, in addition to that, being +Gipsies, a great deal better. They pique themselves on +their descent, and on being in possession of secrets which +are peculiarly and exclusively theirs, and which they imagine +no other knows, or will ever know. They feel that +they are part and parcel of those mysterious beings who are +an enigma to others, no less than to themselves. Besides +this vanity, which is peculiar to the Gipsy everywhere, the +Scottish Gipsies have chimed in with all the native Scotch +ideas of clanism, kith, kin, and consequence, as regards +family, descent, and so forth; and applied them so peculiarly +to themselves, as to render their opinion of their body +as something of no small importance. Some of them, +whose descent leads them more directly back to the tented +stock, speak of their families having possessed this district +or the other district of the country, as much, almost, as we +would expect to hear from some native Scottish chieftain.</p> + +<p>As regards the various phases of history through which +many of the Scottish Gipsies have passed, we can only form +an estimate from what has been observed in recent times. +The further back, however, we go, the greater were their +facilities to rise to a position in society; for this reason,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> +that a very little education, joined to good natural talents, +were all that was necessary, in a mixed Gipsy, to raise +himself in the world, at the time to which I allude. He +could leave the district in which, when a youth, he had +travelled, with his parents; settle in a town where he +was not personally known; commence some traffic, and, +by his industry, gradually raise himself up, and acquire +wealth. He would not lack a proper degree of innate manners, +or personal dignity, to deport himself with propriety +in any ordinary company into which he might enter. Even +at the present day, in Scotland, a poor Gipsy will commence +life with a wheelbarrow, then get a donkey-cart, and, in a +few years, have a very respectable crockery-shop. I am intimate +with an English mixed Gipsy family, the father of +which commenced life as a basket-maker, was afterwards a +constable, and now occasionally travels with the tent. His +son is an M. D., for I have seen his diploma; and is a smart, +intelligent fellow, and quite an adept at chemistry. To +illustrate the change that has taken place among some of the +Scottish Gipsies, within the last fifty years, I may mention +that the grand-children of a prominent Gipsy, mentioned in +<a href="#Page_140">chapter V.</a>, follow, at the present day, the medical, the legal, +and the mercantile professions. Such occurrences have been +frequent in Scotland. There are the cases mentioned by our +author; such as one of the Faas rising to such eminence in +the mercantile world, at Dunbar; and another who rose to +the rank of lieutenant in the East India Company’s service; +and the Baillie family, which furnished a captain and a +quarter-master to the army, and a country surgeon. These +are but instances of many others, if they were but known. +Some may object, that these were not full-blood Gipsies. +That, I readily admit. But the objection is more nominal +than real. ‘If a white were to proceed to the interior of +the American continent, and cast his lot with a tribe of +Indians, his children would, of course, be expected to be +superior, in some respects, to the children of the native +blood exclusively, owing to what the father might be supposed +to teach them. But it is different in the case of a +white marrying a Scottish Gipsy woman, born and reared in +the same community with himself; for the white, in general +cases, brings only his blood, which enables the children, if +they take after himself, in appearance, to enter such places<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> +as the black Gipsies would not enter, or might not be +allowed to enter. The white father, in such a case, might +not even be so intelligent as the Gipsy mother. Be that as +it may, the individuals to whom I have alluded were nothing +but Gipsies; possibly they did not know when, or through +whom, the white blood was introduced among them; they +knew, at least, that they were Gipsies, and that the links +which connected them with the past were substantially +Gipsy links. Besides the Scottish Gipsies rising to respectable +positions in life, by their own exertions, I can well believe +that Gipsydom has been well brought up through the +female line; especially at a time when females, and particularly +country females, were rude and all but uneducated. +Who more capable of doing that than the lady Baillies, of +Tweed-dale, and the lady Wilsons, of Stirlingshire? Such +Gipsy girls could “turn natives round their little fingers” +and act, in a way, the lady at once; “turn over a new leaf,” +and “pin it down;” and conduct themselves with great +propriety.</p> + +<p>Upon a superior Scottish Gipsy settling in a town, and +especially a small town, and wishing to appear respectable, +he would naturally take a pew in the church, and attend +public worship, were it only, as our author asserts, to hide +the fact of his being a Gipsy. Because, among the Scotch, +there is that prying inquisitiveness into their neighbours’ +affairs, that compels a person to be very circumspect, in all +his actions, movements, and expressions, if he wishes to be +thought anything of, at all. The habit of attending church +would then become as regular, in the Gipsy’s family, as in +the families of the ordinary natives, and, in a great measure, +proceed from as legitimate a motive. The family would be +very polite, indeed, extra polite, to their neighbours. After +they had lulled to sleep every suspicion of what they were, +or, by their really good conduct, had, according to the +popular idea, “ceased to be Gipsies,” they would naturally +encourage a formal acquaintance with respectable (and +nothing but respectable,) people in the place. The Gipsy +himself, a really good fellow at heart, honourable in his +dealings, but fond of a bargain, when he could drive a bargain, +and, moreover, a jovial fellow, would naturally make +plenty of business and out-door friends, at least. Rising in +circumstances and the public esteem, he makes up his mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +that his children ought to be something better than himself, +at all events; in short, that they ought not to be behind +those of his respectable neighbours. Some of them he, +therefore, educates for a liberal profession. The Gipsy +himself becomes more and more ambitious: besides attending +church, he must become an elder of the church; or it +may be that the grace of God takes hold of him, and brings +him into the fold. He and his wife conduct themselves +with much propriety; but some of the boys are rather wild; +the girls, however, behave well. Altogether, the whole +family is very much thought of. Such is a Scottish Gipsy +family, (the parents of which are now dead,) that I have in +my mind at the present moment. No suspicion existed in +regard to the father, but there was a breath of suspicion in +regard to the mother. But what difference did that make? +What knowledge had the public of the nature of Gipsydom?</p> + +<p>Consider, then, that the process which I have attempted +to describe has been going on, more or less, for at least the +last three hundred and fifty years; and I may well ask, +where might we <i>not</i> expect to meet with Gipsies, in Scotland, +at the present day? And I reply, that we will meet with +them in every sphere of Scottish life, not excepting, perhaps, +the very highest. There are Gipsies among the very best +Edinburgh families. I am well acquainted with Scotchmen, +youths and men of middle age, of education and character, +and who follow very respectable occupations, that are +Gipsies, and who admit that they are Gipsies. But, apart +from my own knowledge, I ask, is it not a fact, that, a few +years ago, a pillar of the Scottish church, at Edinburgh, +upon the occasion of founding a society for the reformation +of the poor class of Scottish Gipsies, and frequently thereafter, +said that he himself was a Gipsy? I ask, again, is not +that a fact? It is a fact. And such a man! Such prayers! +Such deep-toned, sonorous piety! Such candour! Such +judgment! Such amiability of manners! How much respected! +How worthy of respect! The good, the godly, +the saintly doctor! When will we meet his like again?<a name="FNanchor275" id="FNanchor275"></a><a href="#Footnote275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>This leads me to speak of a high-class Scottish Gipsy +family—the Falls, who settled at Dunbar, as merchants, alluded +to under the chapter on <a href="#Page_236">Border Gipsies</a>.<a name="FNanchor276" id="FNanchor276"></a><a href="#Footnote276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> Who can +doubt that they were Gipsies to the last? How could they +avoid being Gipsies? The Gipsies were their people; their +blood was Gipsy blood. How could they get rid of their +blood and descent? Could they throw either off, as they +would an old coat? Could medical science rid them of +either? Assuredly not. They admitted their descent, <i>over +their cups</i>. But being <i>descendants of Gipsies</i>, and yet <i>not +Gipsies</i>, is a contradiction in terms. The principles which +regulate the descent of other Gipsy families applied equally +to theirs. The fact that Mrs. Fall had the history of her +people, in the act of leaving Yetholm, represented in tapestry, +may be taken as but a straw that indicated how the +wind blew. Was not old Will Faa, the Gipsy king, down +to his death, at the end of the first American war, admitted +to their hospitality as a relative? And do not the Scottish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> +Gipsies, at the present day, claim them to have been Gipsies? +Why might not the Falls glory in being Egyptians +among themselves, but not to others? Were not their ancestors +<i>kings</i>? “Wee kings,” no doubt, but still kings; +one of them being the “loved John Faw,” of James V., whom +all the tribe consider as a great man, (which, doubtless, he +was, in that barbarous age,) and the principal of the thirteen +patriarchs of Scottish Gipsydom. Was not a Gipsy king, +(themselves being Gipsies,) an ancestor of far more respect, +in their eyes, than the founder of a native family, in their +neighbourhood; who, in the reign of Charles II., was a common +country <i>snip</i>, and most likely commenced life with +“whipping the cat” around the country, for fivepence a +day, and victuals and clippings?<a name="FNanchor277" id="FNanchor277"></a><a href="#Footnote277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a></p> + +<p>The truth of the matter is, these Falls must have considered +themselves a world better than other people, merely +on account of their being Gipsies, as all Gipsies do, arising, +in part, from that antagonistic spirit of opposition which the +prejudice of their fellow-creatures is so much calculated to +stir up in their minds. Saying, over their cups, that they +were descended from the Faws, the historical Gipsy name +in Scotland, did not divulge very much to the public. For +what idea had the public of the <i>working of Gipsydom</i>—what +idea of the Gipsy language? Did the public know of +the existence of a Gipsy language in Scotland? In all probability, +it generally did not. If the public heard a Tinkler +use a strange word, all that it would think of it would be, +that it was <i>cant</i>, confined to vagabonds strolling the country. +Would it ever dream that what the vagabonds used +was carefully preserved and spoken among the great +Falls, of Dunbar, within the sanctity of their own dwellings, +as it assuredly must have been? Would the public believe +in such a thing, if even its own ears were made the witnesses +to it? Was the love which the Falls had for their Yetholm +connexion confined to a mere group of their ancestors +worked in tapestry? Where was the Gipsy language, during +all this time? Assuredly it was well preserved in their +family. If it showed the least symptoms of falling off, how +easily could the mothers bring into the family, as servants,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> +other Gipsies, who would teach it to the children! For, besides +the dazzling hold which the Gipsy language takes of +the mind of a Gipsy, as the language of those black, mysterious +heroes from whom he is descended, the keeping of it +up forms the foundation of that self-respect which a Gipsy +has for himself, amidst the prejudice of the world; from +which, at the bottom of his heart, whatever his position in +life, or character, or associations, may be, he considers himself +separated. I am decidedly of opinion that all the domestics +about this Fall family were Gipsies of one caste, +colour, condition, or what not.</p> + +<p>Then, we are told that Miss Fall, who married Sir John +Anstruther, of Elie, baronet, was looked down upon by her +husband’s friends, and received no other name than Jenny +Faa; and that she was indirectly twitted with being a +Gipsy, by the rabble, while attending an election in which +Sir John was a candidate. What real satisfaction could Jenny, +or any other Gipsy, have for ordinary natives of the country, +when she was conscious of being what she was, and how +she was spoken of, by her husband’s relatives and the public +generally? She would take comfort in telling her “wonderful +story” to her children, (for I presume she would have +children,) who would sympathize with her; and in conversing +with such of her own race as were near her, were it +only her trusty domestics. It is the Gipsy woman who feels +the prejudice that exists towards her race the most acutely; +for she has the rearing of the children, and broods more +over the history of her people. As the needle turns to the +pole, so does the mind of the Gipsy woman to Gipsydom.</p> + +<p>We are likewise told that this eminent Gipsy family were +connected, by marriage, with the Footies, of Balgonie; the +Coutts, afterwards bankers; Collector Whyte, of Kirkaldy, +and Collector Melville, of Dunbar. We may assume, as a +mathematical certainty, that Gipsydom, in a refined form, is +in existence in the descendants of these families, particularly +in such of them as were connected with this Gipsy +family by the female side.<a name="FNanchor278" id="FNanchor278"></a><a href="#Footnote278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span>A person who has never considered this subject, or any +other cognate to it, may imagine that a Gipsy reproaches +himself with his own blood. Pshaw! Where will you +find a man, or a tribe of men, under the heavens, that will +do that? It is not in human nature to do it. All men +venerate their ancestors, whoever they have been. A Gipsy +is, to an extraordinary degree, proud of his blood. “I have +very little of the blood, myself,” said one of them, “but just +come and see my wife!” But people may say that the ancestors +of the Falls were thieves. And were not all the +Borderers, in their way, the worst kind of thieves? They +might not have stolen from their nearest relatives; but, with +that exception, did they not steal from each other? Now, +Gipsies never, or hardly ever, steal from each other. Were +not all the Elliots and Armstrongs thieves of the first +water? Were not the Scotts and the Kers thieves, long +after the Gipsies entered Scotland? When the servants of +Scott of Harden drove out his last cow, and said, “There goes +Harden’s cow,” did not the old cow-stealer say, “It will soon +be Harden’s <i>kye</i>“—meaning, that he would set out on a cow-stealing +expedition? In fact, he lived upon spoil. Was it +not his lady’s custom, on the last bullock being killed, to +place on the table a dish, which, on being uncovered, was +found to contain a pair of clean spurs—a hint, to her husband +and his followers, that they must shift for their next +meal? The descendants of these Scotts, and the Scottish +public generally, look, with the utmost complacency and +pride, upon the history of such families; yet would be very +apt to make a great ado, if the ancestress of a Gipsy should, +in such a predicament, have hung out a cock’s tail at the +mouth of her tent, as a hint to her “laddies” to look after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> +poultry. Common sense tells us, that, for one excuse to be +offered for such conduct, on the part of the <i>landed-gentry</i> +of the country, a hundred can be found for the ancestor of a +Gipsy—an unfortunate wanderer on the face of the earth, +who was hunted about, like a wolf of the forest.<a name="FNanchor279" id="FNanchor279"></a><a href="#Footnote279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a></p> + +<p>And what shall we say of our Highland thieves? Highlanders +may be more touchy on this point, for their ancestors +were the last of the British race to give up that kind of +life. Talk of the laws passed against the Gipsies! Various +of our Scottish monarchs issued decrees against “the +wicked thieves and limmers of the clans and surnames, inhabiting +the Highlands and Isles,” accusing “the chieftains +principal of the branches worthy to be esteemed the very +authors, fosterers, and maintainers, of the wicked deeds of +the vagabonds of their clans and surnames.” Indeed, the +doweries of the chiefs’ daughters were made up by a share +of the booty collected on their expeditions. The Highlands +were, at one time, little better than a nest of thieves; +thieving from each other, and more particularly from their +southern neighbours. It is notorious that robbery, in the +Highlands, was “held to be a calling not merely innocent, +but honourable;” and that a high-born Highland warrior +was “much more becomingly employed, in plundering the +lands of others, than in tilling his own.” At stated times of +the year, such as at Candlemas, regular bands of Highlanders, +the sons of gentlemen and what not, proceeded south +in quest of booty, as part of their winter’s provisions. The +Highlanders might even have been compared, at one time, to +as many tribes of Afghans. Mr. Skene, the historian of the +Highlands, and himself a Highlander, says that the Highlanders +believed that they <i>had a right</i> to plunder the people +of the low country, <i>whenever it was in their power</i>. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +naturally ask, how did the Highlanders <i>acquire</i> this right of +plunder? Were they ever proscribed? Were any of them +hung, merely for being Highlanders? No. What plea, +then, did the Highlanders set up, in justification of this +wholesale robbery?—“They believed, <i>from tradition</i>, that +the Lowlands, <i>in old times</i>, were the possessions of their ancestors.” +(<i>Skene.</i>) But that was no excuse for their plundering +each other.<a name="FNanchor280" id="FNanchor280"></a><a href="#Footnote280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a></p> + +<p>The Gipsy’s ordinary pilfering was confined to such petty +things as “hens and peats at pleasure,” “cutting a bit lamb’s +throat,” and “a mouthfu’ o’ grass and a pickle corn, for the +cuddy”—“things that a farmer body ne’er could miss.” But +your Highlanders did not content themselves with such +“needles and pins;” they must have “horned cattle.” If +the coast was clear, they would table their drawn dirks, +and commence their <i>spulzie</i>, by making their victims furnish +them with what was necessary to fill their bellies; upon the +strength of which, they would “lift” whatever they could +carry and drive, or take its equivalent in black-mail.</p> + +<p>What an effort is made by our McGregors, at the present +day, to scrape up kin with this or the other bandit McGregor; +and yet how apt the McGregor is to turn up his +nose—just as Punch, only, could make him turn it up—if a +Gipsy were to step out, and say, that he was a descendant, +and could speak the language, of Will Baillie, mentioned +under the head of Tweed-dale and Clydesdale Gipsies: a +Gipsy, described by my ancestor, (and he could judge,) to +have been “the handsomest, the best dressed, the best looking, +and the best bred, man he ever saw; and the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> +swordsman in Scotland, for, with his weapon in his hand, +and his back at a wall, he could set almost everything, saving +fire-arms, at defiance; a man who could act the gentleman, +the robber, the sorner, and the tinker, whenever it +answered his purpose.”<a name="FNanchor281" id="FNanchor281"></a><a href="#Footnote281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a> And yet, some of this man’s descendants +will doubtless be found among our medical doctors, +and even the clergy. I recollect our author pointing +out a clergyman of the Scottish Church, who, he was pretty +sure, was “one of them.” What name could have stood +lower, at one time, than McGregor? Both by legal and +social proscription, it was looked upon as vagabond; and +doubtless the clan brought it, primarily and principally, upon +themselves; but as for the rapine they practised upon their +neighbours, and the helpless southerners, they were, at first, +no worse, in that respect, than others of their nation. Are +the McGregors sure that there are no Gipsies among them? +There are plenty of Gipsies of, at least, the name of McGregor, +known to both the Scottish and English Gipsies. +What more likely than some of the McGregors, when “out,” +and leading their vagabond lives, getting mixed up with the +better kind of mixed Gipsies? They were both leading a +wild life, and it is not unlikely that some of the McGregors, +of even no small consequence, might have been led captive +by such Gipsy girls as the lady Baillies, of Tweed-dale. Let +a Gipsy once be grafted upon a native family, and she rises +with it; leavens the little circle of which she is the centre, +and leaves it, and its descendants, for all time coming, +Gipsies.</p> + +<p>I now come to ask, what constitutes a Gipsy at the present +day? And common sense replies: the simple fact of knowing +from whom he is descended, that is, who he is, in connection +with having the Gipsy words and signs, although +these are not absolutely necessary. It requires no argument +to show that there is no tribe or nation but finds something +that leads it to cling to its origin and descent, and not despise +the blood that runs in its own veins, although it may +despise the condition or conduct of some of its members. +Where shall we find an exception to this rule? The Gipsy +race is no exception to it. Civilize a Gipsy, and you make +him a civilized Gipsy; educate him, and you make him an +educated Gipsy; bring him up to any profession you like,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> +Christianize him as much as you may, and he still remains a +Gipsy; because he is of the Gipsy race, and all the influences +of nature and revelation do not affect the questions +of blood, tribe, and nationality. Take all the Gipsies that +ever came out of the tent, or their descendants, including +those brought into the body through the male and female +line; and what are they now? Still Gipsies. They even +pass into the other world Gipsies. “But they will forget +that they are Gipsies,” say, perhaps, some of my readers. +Forget that they are Gipsies! Will we hear, some of these +days, that Scotch people, themselves, will get up of a morning, +toss about their night-caps, and forget that they are +Scotch? We may then see the same happen with the Gipsies. +What I have said, of the Gipsy always being a Gipsy, +is self-evident; but it has a wide difference of meaning +from that contained in the quotation given by Mr. Borrow, +in which it is said: “For that which is unclean by nature +thou canst entertain no hope; no washing will turn the +Gipsy white.”<a name="FNanchor282" id="FNanchor282"></a><a href="#Footnote282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a> But, taking the world all over, there will +doubtless be Gipsies, in larger or smaller numbers, who will +always be found following the original ways of their race.</p> + +<p>What were the Hungarians, at one time, and what are +they now? Pritchard says of them: “The Hungarians<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> +laid aside the habits of rude and savage hunters, far below +the condition of the nomadic hordes, for the manners of +civilized life. In the course of a thousand years, they have +become a handsome people, of fine stature, regular European +features, and have the complexion prevalent in that tract of +Europe where they dwell.” Now the Gipsies have been in +Scotland at least three hundred and fifty years; and what +with the mixture of native blood, (which, at least, helped to +remove the prejudice against the man’s appearance, and, consequently, +gave him a larger and freer scope of action;) the +hard laws of necessity, and the being tossed about by society, +like pebbles on the seashore; the influences of civilization, +education, and the grace of God itself; by such means as +these, some of the Scottish Gipsies have risen to a respectable, +even eminent, position in life. But some people may +say: “These are not Gipsies; they have little of the blood +in them.” That is nothing. Ask themselves what they are, +and, if they are at all candid, they will reply that they are +Gipsies. “No doubt,” they say, “we have fair, or red, or +black, hair, (as the case may be;) we know nothing about +that; but we know that we <i>are</i> Gipsies; that is all.” There +is as much difference between such a high-class Gipsy and a +poor Gipsian, as there is between a Scottish judge and the +judge’s fourth cousin, who makes his living by clipping dogs’ +ears. The principle of progression, the passing through one +phase of history into another, while the race maintains its +identity, holds good with the Gipsies, as well as with any +other people.</p> + +<p>Take a Gipsy in his original state, and we can find nothing +really <i>vulgar</i> about him. What is popularly understood +to be Gipsy life may be considered low life, by people who +do not overmuch discriminate in such matters; but view it +after its kind, and it is not really low; for a Gipsy is naturally +polite and well mannered. He does not consider himself +as belonging to the same race as the native, and would +rather be judged by a different standard. The life which +he leads is not that of the lowest class of the country in +which he dwells, but the primitive, original state of a people +of great antiquity, proscribed by law and society; himself +an enemy of, and an enemy to, all around him; with the +population so prejudiced against him, that attempts to change +his condition, consistently with his feelings as a man, are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span> +frequently rendered in vain: so that, on the ground of +strict morals, or even administrative justice, the man can be +said to be only half responsible. The subject, however, +assumes quite a different aspect, when we consider a Gipsy +of education and refinement, like the worthy clergyman +mentioned, between whose condition and that of his tented +ancestor an interval of, perhaps, two or three centuries has +elapsed. We should then put him on the footing of any +other race having a barbarous origin, and entertain no prejudice +against him on account of the race to which he belongs. +He is then to be judged as we judge Highland and +Border Scots, for the whole three were at one time robbers; +and all the three having welled up to respectable life together, +they ought to be judged on their merits, individually, +as men, and treated accordingly. And the Gipsy ought to +be the most leniently dealt with, on the principle that the +actions of his ancestors were far more excusable, and even +less heinous, than those of the others. And as regards antiquity +of descent, the Gipsy’s infinitely surpasses the others, +being probably no less than the shepherd kings, part of +whose blood left Egypt, in the train of the Jews. I would +place such a Gipsy on the footing of the Hungarian race; +with this difference, that the Hungarians entered Europe in +the ninth century, and became a people, occupying a territory; +while the Gipsies appeared in the fifteenth century, +and are now to be found, civilized and uncivilized, in almost +every corner of the known world.</p> + +<p>The admission of the good man alluded to casts a flood +of light upon the history of the Scottish Gipsy race, +shrouded as it is from the eye of the general population; +but the information given by him was apt to fall flat upon +the ear of the ordinary native, unless it was accompanied by +some such exposition of the subject as is given in this work. +Still, we can gather from it, where Gipsies are to be found, +what <i>a</i> Scottish Gipsy is, and what the race is capable of; +and what might be expected of it, if the prejudice of their +fellow-creatures was withdrawn from the race, as distinguished +from the various classes into which it may be divided, +or, I should rather say, the personal conduct of each Gipsy +individually. View the subject any way I may, I cannot +resist coming to the conclusion that, under more favourable +circumstances, it is difficult to say what the Gipsies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span> +might not attain to. But that would depend greatly upon +the country in which they are to be found. Scotland has +been peculiarly favourable for them, in some respects.</p> + +<p>As regards the Scottish Gipsy population, at the present +day, I can only adopt the language of the immortal Dominie +Sampson, and say, that it must be “prodigious.” If we consider +the number that appear to have settled in Scotland, +the length of time they have been in Scotland, the great +amount of white blood that has, by one means or other, been +brought into, and mixed up with, the body, and its great +natural encrease; the feelings that attach them to their descent—feelings +that originate, more properly, within themselves, +and feelings that press upon them from without—the +various occupations and positions in life in which they are +to be found; we cannot set any limit to their number. +Gipsies are just like other people; they have their own sets +or circles of associates, out of which, as a thing that is +almost invariable, they will hide, if not deny, themselves to +others of their race, for reasons which have already been +given. So almost invariable is this, at the present day, +amongst Gipsies that are not tented Gipsies, that, should an +English Gipsy come across a settlement of them in America—German +Gipsies, for example—and cast his sign, and address +them in their own speech, they will pretend not to +know what he means, although he sees the Gipsy in their +faces and about their dwellings. But should he meet with +them away from their homes, and where they are not known, +they would answer, and be cheek-by-jowl with him, in a moment. +I have found, by personal experience, that the same +holds with the French and other continental Gipsies in +America.<a name="FNanchor283" id="FNanchor283"></a><a href="#Footnote283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> It is particularly so with the Scottish Gipsies.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> +For these reasons, it seems to be beyond question that the +number at which our author estimates them in Scotland, viz., +5,000, must be vastly below the real number. If I were to +say 100,000, I do not think I would over-estimate them. +The opinion of the Gipsies whom our author questioned +was a guess, so far as it referred to the class to which they +belonged, or with which they were acquainted; so that, if +we take all kinds of Gipsies into account, it would be a very +moderate estimate to set the Scottish Gipsies down at +100,000; and those in all the British Isles at 300,000. The +number might be double what I have stated. The intelligent +English Gipsies say that, in England, they are not only +“dreadfully mixed,” but extremely numerous. There is not +a race of men on the face of the earth more prolific than +tented Gipsies; in a word, tented Gipsydom, if I may hazard +such an expression, is, comparatively speaking, like a rabbit +warren. The rough and uncouth kind of settled Gipsies are +likewise very prolific; but the higher classes, as a rule, are +by no means so much so. To set down any specific number +of Gipsies to be found in the British Isles, would be a thing +too arbitrary to serve any purpose; I think sufficient data +have been given to enable the intelligent reader to form an +opinion for himself.<a name="FNanchor284" id="FNanchor284"></a><a href="#Footnote284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span>That many Gipsies were banished to America, in colonial +times, from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, sometimes +for merely being “by habit and repute Gipsies,” is +beyond dispute. “Your Welsh and Irish,” said an English +Gipsy, in the United States, “were so mean, when they +banished a Gipsy to the Plantations, as to make him find +his own passage; but the English always paid the Gipsy’s +passage for him.” The Scotch seem also to have made the +Gipsy find his own passage, and failing that, to have hanged +him. It greatly interests the English Gipsies arriving in +America, to know about the native American Gipsies. I +have been frequently in the company of an English Gipsy, +in America, whose great-grandfather was so banished; but +he did not relish the subject being spoken of. Gipsies may +be said to have been in America almost from the time of its +settlement. We have already seen how many of them found +their way there, during the Revolution, by being impressed +as soldiers, and taken as volunteers, for the benefit of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> +bounty and passage; and how they deserted on landing. +Tented Gipsies have been seen about Baltimore for the last +seventy years. In New England, a colony is known which +has existed for about a hundred years, and has always been +looked upon with a singular feeling of distrust and mystery +by the inhabitants, who are the descendants of the early +emigrants, and who did not suspect their origin till lately. +These Gipsies have never associated, in the common sense +of the word, with the other settlers, and, judging from their +exterior, seem poor and miserable, whatever their circumstances +may be. They follow pretty much the employment +and modes of life of the same class in Europe; the most +striking feature being, that the bulk of them leave the homestead +for a length of time, scatter in different directions, +and reunite, periodically, at their quarters, which are left +in charge of some of the feeble members of the band.</p> + +<p>It is not likely that many of the colonial Gipsies would +take to the tent; for, arriving, for the most part, as individuals, +separated from family relations, they were more apt +to follow settled, semi-settled, or general itinerant occupations; +and the more so, as the face of the country, and the +thin and scattered settlements, would hardly admit of it. +They were apt to squat on wild or unoccupied lands, in the +neighbourhood of towns and settlements, like their brethren +in Europe, when they took up their quarters on the borders +of well-settled districts, with a wild country to fall back on, +in times of danger or prosecution by the lawful authorities. +Besides disposing of themselves, to some little extent, +in this way, many of the Gipsies, banished, or going to the +colonies of their own accord, would betake themselves to the +various occupations common to the ordinary emigrants; the +more especially as, when they arrived, they would find a field<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> +in which they were not known to be Gipsies; which would +give them greater scope and confidence, and enable them to +go anywhere, or enter upon any employment, where, not +being known to be Gipsies, they would meet with no prejudice +to contend with. Indeed, a new country, in which the +people had, more or less, to be, in a sense, tinkers, that is, +jacks-of-all-trades, and masters of none, was just the sphere +of a handy Gipsy, who could “do a’ most of things.” They +would turn to the tinkering, peddling, horse-dealing, tavern-keeping, +and almost all the ordinary mechanical trades, and, +among others, broom-making. Perhaps the foundation of +the American broom manufacture was laid by the British +Gipsies, by whom it may be partly carried on at the present +day; a business they pretty much monopolize, in a rough +way, in Great Britain. We will doubtless find, among the +fraternity, some of those whittling, meddling Sam Slick peddlers, +so often described: I have seen some of those itinerant +venders of knife-sharpeners, and such “Yankee notions,” +with dark, glistening eyes, that would “pass for the article.” +Some of them would live by less legitimate business. I entertain +no doubt, what from the general fitness of things, +and the appearance of some of the men, that we will find +some of the descendants of the old British mixed Gipsies +members of the various establishments of Messrs. Peter +Funks and Company,<a name="FNanchor285" id="FNanchor285"></a><a href="#Footnote285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a> of the city of New York, as well as +elsewhere. And I entertain as little doubt that many of +those American women who tell fortunes, and engage in +those many curious bits of business that so often come up +at trials, are descendants of the British plantation stock of +Gipsies. But there are doubtless many of these Gipsies in +respectable spheres of life. It would be extremely unreasonable +to say that the descendants of the colonial Gipsies +do not still exist as Gipsies, like their brethren in Great +Britain, and other parts of the Old World. The English +Gipsies in America entertain no doubt of it; the more especially +as they have encountered such Gipsies, of at least +two descents. I have myself met with such a Gipsy, following +a decidedly respectable calling, whom I found as much +one of the tribe, barring the original habits, as perhaps any +one in Europe.</p> + +<p>There are many Hungarian and German Gipsies in America;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> +some of them long settled in Pennsylvania and Maryland, +where they own farms. Some of them leave their +farms in charge of hired hands, during the summer, and proceed +South with their tents. In the State of Pennsylvania, +there is a settlement of them, on the J—— river, a little +way above H——, where they have saw-mills. About the +Alleghany Mountains, there are many of the tribe, following +somewhat the original ways of the race. In the United +States generally, there are many Gipsy peddlers, British as +well as continental. There are a good many Gipsies in +New York—English, Irish, and continental—some of whom +keep tin, crockery, and basket stores; but these are all +mixed Gipsies, and many of them of fair complexion. The +tin-ware which they make is generally of a plain, coarse +kind; so much so, that a Gipsy tin store is easily known. +They frequently exhibit their tin-ware and baskets on the +streets, and carry them about the city. Almost all, if not +all, of those itinerant cutlers and tinkers, to be met with in +New York, and other American cities, are Gipsies, principally +German, Hungarian, and French. There are a good +many Gipsy musicians in America. “What!” said I, to an +English Gipsy, “those organ-grinders?” “Nothing so low as +that. Gipsies don’t <i>grind</i> their music, sir; they <i>make</i> it.” +But I found in his house, when occupied by other Gipsies, a +<i>hurdy-gurdy</i> and tambourine; so that Gipsies sometimes +<i>grind</i> music, as well as <i>make</i> it. I know of a Hungarian +Gipsy who is leader of a Negro musical band, in the city of +New York; his brother drives one of the Avenue cars. +There are a number of Gipsy musicians in Baltimore, who +play at parties, and on other occasions. Some of the fortune-telling +Gipsy women about New York will make as +much as forty dollars a week in that line of business. They +generally live a little way out of the city, into which they +ride, in the morning, to their places of business. I know of +one, who resides in New Jersey, opposite New York, and +who has a place in the city, to which ladies, that is, females +of the highest classes, address their cards, for her to call +upon them. When she gets a chance of a young fellow with +his female friend, she “puts the screws on;” for she knows +well that he dare not “back out;” so she frequently manages +to squeeze five dollars out of him.</p> + +<p>Many hundred, perhaps several thousand, of English<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> +tented, and partly tented Gipsies, have arrived in America +within the last ten years. They, for the most part, travel, +and have travelled every State in the Union, east of the +Rocky Mountains, as well as the British Provinces, as horse-dealers, +peddlers, doctors, exhibitors, fortune-tellers, and +<i>tramps</i> generally. Such English Gipsies, above all men in +America, may, with the greatest propriety, say,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“No pent-up Utica contracts our powers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the whole boundless continent is ours.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The fortune-tellers, every time they set out on their peregrinations, +choose a new route; for they say it is more difficult +to go over the same ground in America, than it is in England. +The horse-dealers say that Jonathan is a good judge +of a horse; that sometimes they get the advantage of him, +and sometimes he of them; but that his demand for a warranty +sometimes bothers them a deal. “What then?” I asked. +“Well, we give him a warranty; and should the beast <i>happen</i> +to turn out wrong, let him catch us if he can!” It is +really astonishing how sensibly these English Gipsies talk +of American affairs generally; they are very discriminating +in their remarks, and wonderfully observant of places and +localities. They do not like the Negroes. In their society +they drop the name of king, and adopt that of president. +“Cunning fellows,” said I, “to eschew the name of king, +and look down upon Negroes. That will do, in +America!”</p> + +<p>I have found the above kind of Gipsies, in America, to be +generally pretty well off; they all seem to flourish, and +have plenty of money about them. The fortune-telling, horse-dealing, +and peddling branches of them have a fine field for +following their respective businesses. America, indeed, is a +“great country” for the Gipsies; for it contains “no end” +of chickens, to say nothing of ducks, geese, and turkeys, +many of which are carried off by <i>varmint</i>, anyhow. There, +they will find, for some time, many opportunities of gathering +rich harvests, among what has been termed the shrewdest, +but, in some things, the most gullible, of mortals, as an +instance may illustrate. A Gipsy woman, known as such, +drags, into the meshes of her necromancy, ‘cute Jonathan; +who, with an infinite reliance on his own smartness, to “try +the skill of the critter,” by her directions, ties up, in gold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> +and paper, something like a thousand dollars, and, after she +has passed her hands over it, and muttered a few cabalistic +words, deposits it in his strong box. She sets a day, on +which she calls, handles the “dimes,” while muttering some +more expressions, rather accidentally drops them, then returns +them to the box, and sets another day when she will +call, and add much to his wealth. She does not appear, +however, on the day mentioned. Our simpleton gets first +anxious, then excited, then suspicious, then examines his +“pile,” and finds it transformed into a lot of copper and old +paper! For, in dropping the parcel, Meg does it adroitly +about the folds of her dress, quickly substitutes another, exactly +alike, and makes off with the fruits of her labour. +Then come the hue and cry, telegraphing, and dispatching +of warrants everywhere. But why need he trouble himself? +So, after a harder day’s work than, perhaps, he ever underwent +in his life, he returns home: but knowing the sympathy +he will find there, he puts on his best face, and, to +have the first word of it, (for he is not to be laughed at,) +wipes his forehead, twitches his mouth, winks his eyes, and +remarks: “Waal, I reckon I’ve been most darnedly sold, anyhow!” +Such occurrences are very common among almost +all classes of rural Americans. Sometimes it is to discover +treasure on the individual’s lands, or in the neighbourhood; +sometimes a mine, and sometimes an Indian, a trapper, a +pirate, or a revolutionary deposit. When the Gipsy escapes +with her spoil, she frequently makes for her home, but +where that is, no one knows. On being molested, while there, +she produces friends, in fair standing, who <i>prove</i> an alibi; +and, with the further assistance of a well-feed lawyer, defies +all the requisitions, made by the governors of neighbouring +States, for her delivery. At other times, she will <i>divide</i> +with the inferior authorities, or surrender the whole of the +plunder; for, to go to jail she will not, if she can help it.<a name="FNanchor286" id="FNanchor286"></a><a href="#Footnote286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span>In Virginia, the more original kind of Gipsies are very +frequently to be met with. It is in the Slave States they +are more apt to flourish in the olden form. The planters +need not trouble themselves about their tampering with the +Negroes, for they have no sympathy with them. Were it +otherwise, they would soon be <i>mum</i>, on finding what the results +would be to them. I have given some of them some +useful hints on that score. The general disposition of the +people, the want of <i>learning</i> among so many of them, the distances +between dwellings, the small villages, the handy mechanical +services of the Gipsies, the uncultivated tracts of +land, the game of various kinds, and the climate, seem to +point out some of the Slave States as an elysium for the Gipsies; +unless the wealthier part of the inhabitants should use +the poorer class as tools to drive them out of the country.<a name="FNanchor287" id="FNanchor287"></a><a href="#Footnote287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a></p> + +<p>There are a good many very respectable Scottish Gipsies +in the United States; but I do not wish to be too minute in +describing them. In Canada, I know of a doctor, a lawyer, +and an editor, Scottish Gipsies. The fact of the matter is, +that, owing to the mixture of the blood, the improvement, +and perpetuation, and secrecy, of the race, there may be +many, very many, Gipsies, in almost every place in the +world, and other people not know of it: and it is not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span> +likely that, at the present time, they will say that they are +Gipsies. Indeed, the intelligent English travelling Gipsies +say that there are an immense number of Gipsies, of all countries, +colours, and occupations, in America.</p> + +<p>There is even some resemblance between the formation of +Gipsydom and that of the United States. The children of +emigrants, it is well known, frequently prove the most ultra +Americans. Instead of the original colonists, at the Declaration +of Independence, imagine the commencement of Gipsydom +as proceeding from the original stock of Gipsies. +The addition to their number, from without, differs from +that which takes place among Americans, in this way: that +all such additions to Gipsydom are made in such a manner, +that the new blood gets innoculated, as it were, with the +old, or part of the old; so that it may be said of the whole +body,</p> + +<p class="blockquot fsize80"><i>One drop of blood makes all Gipsydom akin.</i></p> + +<p>The simple fact of a person having Gipsy blood in his veins, +in addition to the rearing of a Gipsy parent, acts upon him +like a shock of electricity; it makes him spring to his feet, +and—“snap his teeth at other dogs!” A very important +circumstance contributing to this state of things is the antipathy +which mankind have for the very name of Gipsy, +which, as I have already said, they all take to themselves; +insomuch that the better class will not face it. They imagine +that, socially speaking, they are among the damned, and they +naturally cast their lot with the damned. Still, the antagonistic +spirit which would naturally arise towards society, +in the minds of such Gipsies, remains, in a measure, latent; +for they feel confident in their incognito, while moving +among their fellow-creatures; which circumstance robs it of +its sting.</p> + +<p>Let a Lowlander, in times that are past, but have cast up +a Highlander’s blood to him, and what would have been the +consequences? “Her ainsel would have drawn her dirk, or +whipped out her toasting-iron, and seen which <i>was</i> the prettiest +man.” Let the same have been done to a Scottish +Gipsy, in comparatively recent times, and he would have +taken his own peculiar revenge. See how the Baillies, as +mentioned under the chapter of <a href="#Page_185">Tweed-dale and Clydesdale +Gipsies</a>, mounted on horseback, and with drawn swords in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span> +their hands, threatened death to all who opposed them, for +an affront offered to their mother. Twit a respectable +Gipsy with his blood, at the present day, and he would suffer +in silence; for, by getting into a passion, he would let +himself out. For this reason, it would be unmanly to hint +it to him, in any tone of disparagement. The difference of +feeling between the two races, at the present day, proceeds +from positive ignorance on the part of the native towards +the other; an ignorance in which the Gipsy would rather +allow him to remain; for, let him turn himself in whatever +direction he may, he imagines he sees, and perhaps does see, +nothing but a dark mountain of prejudice existing between +him and every other of his fellow-creatures. He would +rather retain his incognito, and allow his race to go down +to posterity shrouded in its present mystery. The history +of the Gipsy race in Scotland, more, perhaps, than in any +other country, shows, to the eye of the world, as few traces +of its existence as would a fox, in passing over a ploughed +field. The farmer might see the foot-prints of reynard, but +how is he to find reynard himself? He must bring out the +dogs and have a hunt for him. As an Indian of the prairie, +while on the “war path,” cunningly arranges the long grass +into its natural position, as he passes through it, to prevent +his enemy following him, so has the Scottish Gipsy, as he +entered upon a settled life, destroyed, to the eye of the ordinary +native, every trace of his being a Gipsy. Still, I +cannot doubt but that he has misgivings that, some day, he +will be called up to judgment, and that all about him will +be exposed to the world.</p> + +<p>What is it that troubles the educated Gipsies? Nothing +but the word Gipsy; a word which, however sweet when +used among themselves, conveys an ugly, blackguard, and +vagabond meaning to other people. The poet asks, What is +there in a name? and I reply, Everything, as regards the name +Gipsy. For a respectable Scottish Gipsy to say to the public, +that “his mother is a Gipsy,” or, that “his wife is a Gipsy,” or, +that “he is a Gipsy;” such a Gipsy simply could not do it. +These Gipsies will hardly ever use the word among themselves, +except in very select circles; but they will say “he’s one of +us;” “he’s from Yetholm;” “he’s from the metropolis,” +(Yetholm being the metropolis of Scottish Gipsydom;) or, “he’s +a traveller.” If the company is not over classical, they will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> +say “he’s from the black quarry,” or, “he’s been with the cuddies.” +Imagine a select party of educated Scottish Gipsies, +all closely related. They will then chatter Gipsy over their +tea; but if a person should drop in, one of the party, who is +not acquainted with him, will nudge and whisper to another, +“Is he one of the tribe?” or, “Is he one of us?” The better +class of Scottish Gipsies are very exclusive in matters of +this kind.</p> + +<p>All things considered, in what other position could the +Gipsy race, in Scotland especially, be, at the present day, +than that described? How can we imagine a race of people +to act otherwise than hide themselves, if they could, from +the odium that attaches to the name of Gipsy? And what +estimate should we place on that charity which would lead +a person to denounce a Gipsy, should he deny himself to be +a Gipsy?<a name="FNanchor288" id="FNanchor288"></a><a href="#Footnote288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> As a race, what can they offer to society at +large to receive them within its circle? They can offer little, +as a race; but, if we consider them as individuals, we +will find many of them whose eduction, character, and position +in life, would warrant their admission into any ordinary +society, and some of them into any society. Notwithstanding +all that, none will answer up to the name of Gipsy. +It necessarily follows, that the race must remain shrouded +in its present mystery, unless some one, not of the race, +should become acquainted with its history, and speak for +it. In Scotland, the prejudice towards the name of Gipsy +might be safely allowed to drop, were it only for this reason: +that the race has got so much mixed up with the native +blood, and even with good families of the country, as to +be, in plain language, a jumble—a pretty kettle of fish, indeed. +One’s uncle, in seeking for a wife, might have +stumbled over an Egyptian woman, and, either known or +unknown to himself, had his children brought up bitter +Gipsies; so that one’s cousins may be Gipsies, for anything +one knows. A man may have a colony of Gipsies in +his own house, and know nothing about it! The Gipsies +<i>died</i> out? Oh, no. They commenced in Scotland by wringing +the necks of one’s <i>chickens</i>, and now they sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> +. . . . . . ! But what is Gipsydom, after all, but a +“working in among other people?”</p> + +<p>In seeking for Gipsies among Scotch people, I know where +to begin, but it puzzles me where to leave off. I would pay +no regard to colour of hair or eyes, character, employment, +position, or, indeed, any outward thing. The reader may say: +“It must be a difficult matter to detect such mixed and educated +Gipsies as those spoken of.” It is not only difficult, +but outwardly impossible. Such Gipsies cannot even tell +each other, from their personal appearance; but they have +signs, which they can use, if the others choose to respond to +them. If I go into a company which I have reason to believe +is a Gipsy one, and it know nothing of me, so far as +my pursuit is concerned, I will bring the subject of the Gipsies +up, in a very roundabout way, and mark the effect which +the conversation makes, or the turn it takes. What I know +of the subject, and of the ignorance of mankind generally in +regard to it, enables me to say, in almost every instance, +who they are, let them make any remark they like, look as +they like, pretend what they like, wriggle about as they like, +or keep dead silent. As I gradually glide into the subject, +and expatiate upon the “greatness of the society,” one remarks, +“I know it;” upon the “respectability of some of its +members,” and another emphatically exclaims, “That’s a +fact;” and upon “its universality,” and another bawls out, +“That’s so.” Indeed, by finding the Gipsies, under such +circumstances, completely off their guard, (for they do not +doubt their secret being confined to themselves,) I can generally +draw forth, in one way or other, as much moral certainty, +barring their direct admission, as to their being Gipsies, +as a dog, by putting his nose into a hole, can tell +whether a rat is there, or not.</p> + +<p>The principle of the transmutation of Gipsy blood into +white, in appearance, is illustrated, in the ninth chapter of Mr. +Borrow’s “Bible in Spain,” by its changing into almost pure +black. A Gipsy soldier, in the Spanish army, killed his +sergeant, for “calling him <i>calo</i>, (Gipsy,) and cursing him,” and +made his escape. His wife remained in the army, as a sutler, +selling wine. Two years thereafter, a strange man came +to her wine shop. “He was dressed like a Moor, (<i>corahano</i>,) +and yet he did not look like one; he looked more like a +black, and yet he was not a black, either, though he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> +almost black. And, as I looked upon him, I thought he +looked something like the Errate, (Gipsies,) and he said to +me, ‘<i>Zincali, chachipé</i>,’ (the Gipsy salutation.) And then +he whispered to me, in queer language, which I could scarcely +understand,’Your husband is waiting; come with me, my +little sister, and I will take you to him.’ About a league +from the town, beneath a hill, we found four people, men +and women, all very black, like the strange man; and we +joined ourselves with them, and they all saluted me, and +called me ‘little sister.’ And away we marched, for many +days, amidst deserts and small villages. The men would +cheat with mules and asses, and the women told baji. I +often asked him (her husband) about the black men, and he +told me that he believed them to be of the Errate.” Her +husband, then a soldier in the Moorish army, having been +killed, this Gipsy woman married the black man, with whom +she followed real Gipsy life. She said to him: “Sure I am +amongst the Errate; . . . . and I often said that they +were of the Errate; and then they would laugh, and say +that it might be so; and that they were not Moors, (<i>corahai</i>,) +but they could give no account of themselves.” From this +it would seem that, while preserving their identity, wherever +they go, there are Gipsies who may not be known to the +world, or to the tribe, in other continents, by the same +name.<a name="FNanchor289" id="FNanchor289"></a><a href="#Footnote289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span>A word upon the universality of the Gipsies. English +Gipsies, on arriving in America, feel quite taken aback, on +coming across a tent or wigwam of Indians. “Didn’t you +feel,” said I to some of them, “very like a dog when he +comes across another dog, a stranger to him?” And, with +a laugh, they said, “Exactly so.” After looking awhile at +the Indians, they will approach them, and “cast their sign, +and salute them in Gipsy;” and if no response is made, they +will pass on. They then come to learn who the Indians are. +The same curiosity is excited among the Gipsies on meeting +with the American farmer, on the banks of the Mississippi +or Missouri; who, in travelling to market, in the summer, +will, to save expenses, unyoke his horses, at mid-day or evening, +at the edge of the forest, light his fire, and prepare his +meal. What with the “kettle and tented wagon,” the tall, +lank, bony, and swarthy appearance of the farmer, the Gipsy +will approach him, as he did the Indian; and pass on, when +no response is made to his sign and salutation. Under such +circumstances, the Gipsy would cast his sign, and give his +salutation, whether on the banks of the Mississippi or the +Ganges. Nay, a very respectable Scottish Gipsy boasted to +me, that, by his signs alone, he could push his way to the +wall of China, and even through China itself. And there +are doubtless Gipsies in China. Mr. Borrow says, that when +he visited the tribe at Moscow, they supposed him to be one +of their brothers, who, they said, were wandering about in +Turkey, <i>China</i>, and other parts. It is very likely that Russian +Gipsies have visited China, by the route taken by +Russian traders, and met with Gipsies there.<a name="FNanchor290" id="FNanchor290"></a><a href="#Footnote290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> But it tickles +the Gipsy most, when it is insinuated, that if Sir John Franklin +had been fortunate in his expedition, he would have +found a Gipsy tinkering a kettle at the North Pole.</p> + +<p>The particulars of a meeting between English and American<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span> +Gipsies are interesting. Some English Gipsies were +endeavouring to sell some horses, in Annapolis, in the State +of Maryland, to what had the appearance of being respectable +American farmers; who, however, spoke to each other +in the Gipsy language, dropping a word now and then, such +as “this is a good one,” and so on. The English Gipsies +felt amazed, and at last said: “What is that you are saying? +Why, you are Gipsies!” Upon this, the Americans +wheeled about, and left the spot as fast as they could. Had +the English Gipsies taken after the Gipsy in their appearance, +they would not have caused such a consternation to +their American brethren, who showed much of “the blood” +in their countenances; but as, from their blood being much +mixed, they did not look like Gipsies, they gave the others a +terrible fright, on their being found out. The English Gipsies +said they felt disgusted at the others not owning themselves +up. But I told them they ought rather to have felt +proud of the Americans speaking Gipsy, as it was the prejudice +of the world that led them to hide their nationality. +On making enquiry in the neighbourhood, they found that +these American Gipsies had been settled there since, at +least, the time of their grandfather, and that they bore an +English name.</p> + +<p>There are Scottish Gipsies in the United States, following +respectable callings, who speak excellent Gipsy, according +to the judgment of intelligent English Gipsies. The English +Gipsies say the same of the Gipsy families in Scotland, +with whom they are acquainted; but that some of their +words vary from those spoken in England. There is, however, +a rivalry between the English and Scottish Gipsies, as +to whose pronunciation of the words is the correct one: +in that respect, they somewhat resemble the English and +Scottish Latinists. One intelligent Gipsy gave it as his +opinion, that the word great, <i>baurie</i>, in Scotland, was softer +than <i>boro</i>, in England, and preferable, indeed, the right pronunciation +of the word. The German Gipsies are said, by +their English brethren, to speak Gipsy backwards; from +which I would conclude, that it follows the construction of +the German language, which differs so materially, in that +respect, from the English.<a name="FNanchor291" id="FNanchor291"></a><a href="#Footnote291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> It is a thing well-nigh impossible,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> +to get a respectable Scottish Gipsy to own up to +even a word of the Gipsy language. On meeting with a respectable—Scotchman, +I will call him—in a company, lately, +I was asked by him: “Are ye a’ Tinklers?” “We’re travellers,” +I replied. “But who is he?” he continued, pointing +to my acquaintance. Going up to him, I whispered +“His <i>dade</i> is a <i>baurie grye-femler</i>,” (his father is a great +horse-dealer;) and he made for the door, as if a bee had +got into his ear. But he came back; oh, yes, he came +back. There was a mysterious whispering of “pistols and +coffee,” at another time.</p> + +<p>It is beyond doubt that the Gipsy language in Great Britain +is broken, but not so broken as to consist of words only; +it consists, rather, of expressions, or pieces, which are tacked +together by native words—generally small words—which +are lost to the ordinary ear, when used in conversation. In +that respect, the use of Gipsy may be compared to the revolutions +of a wheel: we know that the wheel has spokes, but, +in its velocity, we cannot distinguish the colour or material +of each individual spoke; it is only when it stands still that +that can be done. In the same manner, when we come to +examine into the British Gipsy language, we perceive its +broken nature. But it still serves the purpose of a speech. +Let any one sit among English Gipsies, in America, and +hear them converse, and he cannot pick up an idea, and +hardly a word which they say. “I have always thought +Dutch bad enough,” said an Irishman, who has often heard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> +English Gipsies, in the State of New Jersey, speak among +themselves; “but Gipsy is perfect gibble-gabble, like ducks +and geese, for anything I can make of it.” Some Gipsies +can, of course, speak Gipsy much better than others. It is +most unlikely that the Scottish Gipsies, with the head, the +pride, and the tenacity of native Scotch, would be the first +to forget the Gipsy language. The sentiments of the people +themselves are very emphatic on that head. “It will never +be forgotten, sir; it is in our hearts, and, as long as a single +Tinkler exists, it will be remembered,” (<a href="#Page_297">page 297</a>.) “So +long as there existed two Gipsies in Scotland, it would never +be lost,” (<a href="#Page_316">page 316</a>.) The English Gipsies admit that the +language is more easily preserved in a settled life, but more +useful to travelling and out-door Gipsies; and that it is +carefully kept up by both classes of Gipsies. This information +agrees with our author’s, in regard to the settled Scottish +Gipsies. There is one very strong motive, among many, +for the Gipsies keeping up their language, and that is, as I +have already said, their self-respect. The best of them believe +that it is altogether problematical how they would be +received in society, were they to make an avowal of their +being Gipsies, and lay bare the history of their race to the +world. The prejudice that exists against the race, and +against them, they imagine, were they known to be Gipsies, +drives them back on that language which belongs exclusively +to themselves; to say nothing of the dazzling hold which it +takes of their imagination, as they arrive at years of reflection, +and consider that the people speaking it have been +transplanted from some other clime. The more intelligent +the Gipsy, the more he thinks of his speech, and the more +care he takes of it.</p> + +<p>People often reprobate the dislike, I may say the hatred, +which the more original Gipsy entertains for society; forgetting +that society itself has had the greatest share in the +origin of it. When the race entered Europe, they are not +presumed to have had any hatred towards their fellow-creatures.<a name="FNanchor292" id="FNanchor292"></a><a href="#Footnote292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a> +That hatred, doubtless, sprang from the severe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> +reception, and universal persecution, which, owing to the +singularity of their race and habits, they everywhere met +with. The race then became born into that state of things. +What would subsequent generations know of the origin of +the feud? All that they knew was, that the law made +them outlaws and outcasts; that they were subject, as Gipsies, +to be hung, before they were born. Such a Gipsy +might be compared to Pascal’s man springing up out of an +island: casting his eyes around him, he finds nothing but a +legal and social proscription hanging over his head, in whatever +direction he may turn. Whatever might be assumed +to have been the original, innate disposition of a Gipsy, the +circumstances attending him, from his birth to his death, were +certainly not calculated to improve him, but to make him +much worse than he might otherwise have been. The worst +that can be said of the Scottish Gipsies, in times past, has +been stated by our author. With all their faults, we find a +vein of genuine nobility of character running through all +their actions, which is the more worthy of notice, considering +that they were at war with society, and society at war +with them. Not the least important feature is that of gratitude +for kind and hospitable treatment. In that respect, +a true Scottish Gipsy has always been as true as steel; and +that is saying a great deal in his favour. The instance +given by our author, (<a href="#Page_361">pages 361</a>-<a href="#Page_363">363</a>,) is very touching, and +to the point. I do not know how it may be, at the present +day, in Scotland, where are to be found so many Irish +Gipsies, of whom the Scottish and English Gipsies have not +much good to say, notwithstanding the assistance they render +each other when they meet, (<a href="#Page_324">page 324</a>.) If the English +farmers are questioned, I doubt not that a somewhat similar +testimony will be borne to the English Gipsies, to this extent, +at least, that, when civilly and hospitably treated, and personally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> +acquainted, they will respect the farmers’ property, +and even keep others off it. Indeed, both Scottish and +English Gipsies call this “Gipsy law.” It is certainly not +the Scottish Gipsies, or, I may venture to say, the English +Gipsies, to whom Mr. Borrow’s words may be applied, when +he says: “I have not expatiated on their gratitude towards +good people, who treat them kindly, and take an interest in +their welfare; for I believe, that, of all beings in the world, +they are the least susceptible of such a feeling.” Such a +character may apply to the Spanish Gipsies for anything I +know to the contrary; and the causes to which it may be +attributed must be the influences which the Spanish character, +and general deportment towards the tribe, have exercised +over them. In speaking of the bloody and wolfish +disposition which especially characterizes the Gitanos, Mr. +Borrow says: “The cause to which this must be attributed, +must be their residence in a country, unsound in every +branch of its civil polity, where right has ever been in less +esteem, and wrong in less disrepute, than in any other part of +the world.” Grellmann bears as poor testimony to the +character of the Hungarian Gipsies, in the matter of gratitude, +as Mr. Borrow does to the Spanish Gipsies, to whom I +apprehend his remarks are intended to apply. But both of +these authors give an opinion, unaccompanied by facts. +Their opinion may be correct, however, so far as it is applicable +to the class of Gipsies, or the individuals, to whom they +refer. Gratitude is even a characteristic of the lower animals. +“For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, +and of things in the sea, is tamed and hath been +tamed of mankind,” saith St. James; the means of attaining +to which is frequently kindness. I doubt not that the same +can be said of Gipsies anywhere; for surely we can expect +to find as much gratitude in them as can be called forth +from things that creep, fly, or swim in the sea. It is unreasonable, +however, to look for much gratitude from such +Gipsies as the two authors in question have evidently alluded +to; for this reason: that it is a virtue rarely to be met with +from those “to whom much has been given;” and, consequently, +very little should be required of those to whom +<i>nothing</i> has been given, in the estimation of their fellow-creatures. +In doing a good turn to a Gipsy, it is not the +act itself that calls forth, or perhaps merits, a return in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> +gratitude; but it is the way in which it is done: for, while +he is doubtless being benefited, he is, frequently if not generally, +as little sympathized with, personally, as if he were +some loathsome creature to which something had been +thrown.</p> + +<p>As regards the improvement of the Gipsies, I would make +the following suggestions: The facts and principles of the +present work should be thoroughly canvassed and imprinted +upon the public mind, and an effort made to bring, if possible, +our high-class Gipsies to own themselves up to be +Gipsies. The fact of these Gipsies being received into society, +and respected, as Gipsies, (as it is with them, at present, +as men,) could not fail to have a wonderful effect upon many +of the humble, ignorant, or wild ones. They would perceive, +at once, that the objections which the community had to +them, proceeded, not from their being Gipsies, but from +their habits, only. What is the feeling which Gipsies, who +are known to be Gipsies, have for the public at large? +The white race, as a race, is simply odious to them, for they +know well the dreadful prejudice which it bears towards +them. But let some of their own race, however mixed the +blood might be, be respected as Gipsies, and it would, in a +great measure, break down, at least in feeling, the wall of +caste that separates them from the community at large. This +is the first, the most important, step to be taken to improve +the Gipsies, whatever may be the class to which they belong. +Let the prejudice be removed, and it is impossible to say +what might not follow. Before attempting to reform the +Gipsies, we ought to reform, or, at least, inform, mankind in +regard to them; and endeavour to reconcile the world to +them, before we attempt to reconcile them to the world; and +treat them as men, before we try to make them Christians. +The <i>poor</i> Gipsies know well that there are many of their race +occupying respectable positions in life; perhaps they do not +know many, or even any, of them, personally, but they believe +in it thoroughly. Still, they will deny it, at least hide it from +strangers, for this reason, among others, that it is a state to +which their children, or even they themselves, look forward, +as ultimately awaiting them, in which they will manage to +escape from the odium of their fellow-creatures, which clings +to them in their present condition. The fact of the poor +travelling Gipsies knowing of such respectable settled Gipsies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +gives them a certain degree of respect in their own +eyes, which leads them to repel any advance from the other +race, let it come in almost whatever shape it may. The +white race, as I have already said, is perfectly odious to +them. This is exactly the position of the question. The +more original kind of Gipsies feel that the prejudice which +exists against the race to which they belong is such, that an +intercourse cannot be maintained between them and the +other inhabitants; or, if it does exist, it is of so clandestine a +nature, that their appearance, and, it may be, their general +habits, do not allow or lead them to indulge in it. I will +make a few more remarks on this subject further on in this +treatise.</p> + +<p>What are the respectable, well-disposed Scottish Gipsies +but Scotch people, after all? They are to be met with in +almost every, if not every, sphere in which the ordinary Scot +is to be found. The only difference between the two is, +that, however mixed the blood of these Gipsies may be, +their associations of descent and tribe go back to those +black, mysterious heroes who entered Scotland, upwards of +three hundred and fifty years ago; and that, with this descent, +they have the words and signs of Gipsies. The possession +of all these, with the knowledge of the feelings +which the ordinary natives have for the very name of Gipsy, +makes the only distinction between them and other Scotchmen. +I do not say that the world would have any prejudice +against these Gipsies, as Gipsies, still, they are morbidly sensitive +that it would have such a feeling. The light of reason, +of civilization, of religion, and the genius of Britons, forbid +such an idea. What object more worthy of civilization, and +of the age in which we live, than that such Gipsies would come +forward, and, by their positions in society, their talents and +characters, dispel the mystery and gloom that hang over the +history of the Gipsy race!</p> + +<p>But will these Gipsies do that? I have my misgivings. +They may not do it now, but I am sanguine enough to think +that it is an event that may take place at some future time. +The subject must, in the meantime, be thoroughly investigated, +and the mind of the public fully prepared for such a +movement. The Gipsies themselves, to commence with, +should furnish the public with information, anonymously, so +far as they are personally concerned, or confidentially,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span> +through a person of standing, who can guarantee the trustworthiness +of the Gipsy himself. I do not expect that they +would give us any of the language; but they can furnish us +with some idea of the position which the Gipsies occupy in +the world, and throw a great deal of light upon the history +of the race in Scotland, in, at least, comparatively recent +times. In anticipation of such an occurrence, I would make +this suggestion to them: that they must be very careful +what they say, on account of the “court holding them interested +witnesses;” and, whatever they may do, to deny +nothing connected with the Gipsies. They certainly have +kept their secret well; indeed, they have considered the +subject, so far as the public is concerned, as dead and buried +long ago. It is of no use, however, Gipsies; “murder will +out;” the game is up; it is played out. I may say to you +what the hunter said to the ‘coon, or rather what the ‘coon +said to the hunter: “You may just as well come down the +tree.” Yes! come down the tree; you have been too long +up; come down, and let us know all about you.<a name="FNanchor293" id="FNanchor293"></a><a href="#Footnote293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a></p> + +<p>Scottish Gipsies! I now appeal to you as men. Am I not +right, in asserting, that there is nothing you hold more dear +than your Egyptian descent, signs, and language? And +nothing you more dread than such becoming known to your +fellow-men around you? Do you not read, with the greatest +interest, any and everything printed, which comes in your +way, about the Gipsies, and say, that you thank God all that +is a thousand miles away from you? Whence this inconsistency?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span> +Ah! I understand it well. Shall the prejudice of +mankind towards the name of Gipsy drive you from the +position which you occupy? Can it drive you from it? No, +it cannot. The Gipsies, you know, are a people; a “mixed +multitude,” no doubt, but still a people. You know you are +Gipsies, for your parents before you were Gipsies, and, consequently, +that you cannot be anything but Gipsies. What +effect, then, has the prejudice against the race upon you? +Does it not sometimes appear to you as if, figuratively speaking, +it would put a dagger into your hands against the rest +of your species, should they discover that you belonged to +the tribe? Or that it would lead you to immediately “take +to your beds,” or depart, bed and baggage, to parts unknown? +But then, Gipsies, what can you do? The thought of it +makes you feel as if you were sheep. Some of you may be +bold enough to face a lion in the flesh; but who so bold as +to own to the world that he is a Gipsy? There is just one of +the higher class that I know of, and he was a noble specimen +of a man, a credit to human nature itself. Although +<i>you</i> might shrink from such a step, would you not like, and +cannot you induce, <i>some one</i> to take it? Take my word for +it, respectable Scottish Gipsies, the thing that frightens you +is, after all, a bug-bear—a scare-crow. But, failing some of +you “coming out,” would you not rather that the world +should now know that much of the history of the Gipsy race, +as to show that it was no necessary disparagement in any +of you to be a Gipsy? Would you not rather that a Gipsy +<i>might</i> pass, anywhere, for a <i>gentleman</i>, as he <i>does</i> now, everywhere, +for a <i>vagabond</i>; and that you and your children +might, if they liked, show their true colours, than, as at present, +go everywhere <i>incog</i>, and carry within them that +secret which they are as afraid of being divulged to the +world, as if you and all your kin were conspirators and murderers? +The secret being out, the incognito of your race +goes for nothing. Come then, Scottish Gipsy, make a clean +breast of it, like a man. Which of you will exclaim,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Thus from the grave I’ll rise, and save my love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Draw all your swords, and quick as lightning move!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I rush on, sure none will dare to stay;<br /></span> +<span class="i00">‘Tis love commands, and glory leads the way!”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Will none of you move? Ah! Gipsies, you are “great +hens,” and no wonder.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span>American Gipsies, descendants of the real old British +stock! I make the same appeal to you. Let the world +know how you are getting on, in this land of “liberty and +equality;” and whether any of your race are senators, congressmen, +and what not. I have heard of a Gipsy, a sheriff +in the State of Pennsylvania; and I know of a Scottish +Gipsy, who was lately returned a member of the Legislature +of the State of New York.</p> + +<p>The reader may ask: Is it possible that there is a race of +men, residing in the British Isles, to be counted by its hundreds +of thousands, occupying such a position as that described? +And I reply, Alas! it is too true. Exeter Hall +may hobnob with Negroes, Hottentots, and Bosjesmen—always +with something or other from a distance; but what +has it ever done for the Gipsies? Nothing! It will rail +at the American prejudice towards the Negro, and entirely +pass over a much superior race at its own door! The +prejudice against the Negro proceeds from two causes—his +appearance and the servitude in which he is, or has been, +held. But there can be no prejudice against the Gipsy, on +such grounds. It will not do to say that the prejudice is +against the tented Gipsies, only; it is against the race, root +and branch, as far as it is known. What is it but that +which compels the Gipsy, on entering upon a settled life, to +hide himself from the unearthly prejudice of his fellow-creatures? +The Englishman, the Scotchman, and the Irishman +may rail at the American for his peculiar prejudices; +but the latter, if he can but capitalize the idea, has, in all +conscience, much to throw back upon society in the mother +country. Instead of a class of the British public spending +so much of their time in an agitation against an institution +thousands of miles away from home, and over which they +have, and can expect to have, no control, they might direct +their attention to an evil laying at their own doors—that +social prejudice which is so much calculated to have a blasting +influence upon the condition of so many of their fellow-subjects. +It is beyond doubt that there cannot be less than +a quarter of a million of Gipsies in the British Isles, who +are living under a grinding despotism of caste; a despotism +so absolute and odious, that the people upon whom it bears +cannot, as in Scotland, were it almost to save their lives, +even say who they are! Let the time and talents spent on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span> +the agitation in question be transferred, for a time, into +some such channel as would be implied in a “British Anti-Gipsy-prejudice +Association,” and a great moral evil may +disappear from the face of British society. In such a movement, +there would be none of that direct or indirect interest +to be encountered, which lies on the very threshold of slavery, +in whatever part of the world it exists; nor would there +be any occasion to appeal to people’s pockets.<a name="FNanchor294" id="FNanchor294"></a><a href="#Footnote294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a> After the +work mentioned has been accomplished, the British public +might turn their attention to wrongs perpetrated in other +climes. Americans, however, must not attempt to seek, in +the British Gipsy-prejudice, an excuse for their excessive +antipathy towards Negroes. I freely admit that the dislike +of white men, generally, for the Negro, lies in something that +is irremovable—something that is irrespective of character, +or present or previous social condition. But it is not so with +the Gipsy, for his race is, physically, among the finest that +are to be found on the face of the earth. Americans ought +also to consider that there are plenty of Gipsies among +themselves, towards whom, however, there are none of those +prejudices that spring from local tradition or association, +but only such as proceed from literature, and that towards +the tented Gipsy.</p> + +<p>What is to be the future of the Gipsy race? A reply to +this question will be found in the history of it during the +past, as described; for it resolves itself into two very simple +matters of fact. In the first place, we have a foreign race, +deemed, by itself, to be, as indeed it is, universal, introduced +into Scotland, for example, taken root there, spread, and +flourished; a race that rests upon a basis the strongest +imaginable. On the other hand, there is the prejudice of +caste towards the name, which those bearing it escape, only, +by assuming an incognito among their fellow-creatures. +These two principles, acting upon beings possessing the feelings +of men, will, of themselves, produce that state of things +which will constitute the history of the Gipsies during all +time coming, whatever may be the changes that may come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> +over their character and condition. They may, in course +of time, lose their language, as some of them, to a great extent, +have done already; but they will always retain a consciousness +of being Gipsies. The language may be lost, but +their signs will remain, as well as so much of their speech +as will serve the purpose of pass-words. “There is something +there,” said an English Gipsy of intelligence, smiting +his breast, “There is something there which a Gipsy cannot +explain.” And, said a Scottish Gipsy: “It will never be +forgotten; as long as the world lasts, the Gipsies will be +Gipsies.” What idea can be more preposterous than that +of saying, that a change of residence or occupation, or a +little more or less of education or wealth, or a change of +character or creed, can eradicate such feeling from the heart +of a Gipsy; or that these circumstances can, by any human +possibility, change his descent, his tribe, or the blood that is +in his body? How can we imagine this race, arriving in +Europe so lately as the fifteenth century, and in Scotland the +century following, with an origin so distinct from the rest +of the world, and so treated by the world, can possibly have +lost a consciousness of nationality in its descent, in so short +a time after arrival; or, that that can happen in the future, +when there are so many circumstances surrounding it to +keep alive a sense of its origin, and so much within it to +preserve its identity in the history of the human family? +Let the future history of the world be what it may, Gipsydom +is immortal.<a name="FNanchor295" id="FNanchor295"></a><a href="#Footnote295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a></p> + +<p>In considering the question of the Gipsies being openly +admitted, as a race, into the society of mankind, I ask, what +possible reason could a British subject advance against such +taking place with, at least, the better kind of Scottish Gipsies? +Society, generally, would not be over-ready to lessen +the distance between itself and the tented Gipsies, or those +who live by means really objectionable; but it should have +that much sense of justice, as to confine its peculiar feelings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> +to the ways of life of these individuals, and not keep them +up against their children, when they follow different habits. +If, for example, I should have made the acquaintance of +some Scottish Gipsies, associated with them, and acquired a +respect for them, (as has happened with me,) how could I +take exceptions to them, on account of it afterwards leaking +out that they were Gipsies? A sense of ordinary justice +would forbid me doing so. I can see nothing objectionable +in their conduct, as distinguished from that of other people; +and as for their appearance, any person, on being asked to +point out the Gipsy, would, so far as colour of hair and eyes +goes, pitch upon many a common native, in preference to +them. A sense of ordinary justice, as I have said, would +disarm me of any prejudice against them; nay, it would urge +me to think the more of them, on account of their being +Gipsies. To the ordinary eye, they are nothing but Scotch +people, and pass, everywhere, for such. There is a Scottish +Gipsy in the United States, with whom I am acquainted—a +liberal-minded man, and good company—who carries +on a wholesale trade, in a respectable article of merchandise, +and he said to me: “I will not deny it, nor am I ashamed +to say it—<i>I come from Yetholm</i>.” And I replied: “Why +should you be ashamed of it?”</p> + +<p>It is this hereditary prejudice of centuries towards the +name, that constitutes the main difficulty in the way of recognition +of these Gipsies by the world generally. How long +it may be since they or their ancestors left the tent, is a +thing of no importance; personal character, education, and +position in life, are the only things that should be considered. +The Gipsies to whom I allude do not require to be reformed, +unless in that sense in which all men stand in need of reformation: +what is wanted is, that the world should raise up +the name of Gipsy. And why should not that be done by +the people of Great Britain, and Scotland especially, in +whose mouths are continually these words: “God hath made +of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face +of the earth?” Will the British public spend its hundreds +of thousands, annually, on every other creature under heaven, +and refuse to countenance the Gipsy race? Will it +squander its tens of thousands to convert, perhaps, on an +average, one Jew, and refuse a kind word, nay, grudge a +smile, towards that body, a member of which may be an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> +official of that Missionary Society, or, it may be, the very +chairman of it? I can conceive no liberal-minded Scotchman, +possessing a feeling of true self-respect, entertaining a +prejudice against such Gipsies. The only people in Scotland +in whose mind such a prejudice might be supposed to exist, +are those miserable old women around the neighbourhood of +Stirling, who, under the influence of the old Highland feud, +will look with the greatest contempt upon a person, if he but +come from the north of the Ochils. I would class, with such +old women, all of our Scotch people who would object to the +Gipsies to whom I have alluded. A Scotchman should even +have that much love of country, as to take hold of his own +Gipsies, and “back them up” against those of other countries: +and particularly should he do that, when the “Gipsies” +might be his cousins, nay, his own children, for anything +that he might know to the contrary. Scotch people +should consider that the “Tinklers,” whom they see going +about, at the present day, are, if not the very lowest kind of +Gipsies, at least those who follow the original ways of their +race; and are greatly inferior, not only relatively, but actually, +to many of those who have gone before them. They +should also consider that Gipsies are a race, however mixed +the blood may be; subject, as a race, to be governed, in their +descent, by those laws which regulate the descent of all +races; and that a Gipsy is as much a Gipsy in a house as in +a tent, in a “but and a ben” as in a palace.</p> + +<p>Wherever a Gipsy goes, he carries his inherent peculiarities +with him; and the objection to him he considers to be +to something inseparable from himself—that which he cannot +escape; but the confidence which he has in his incognito +neutralizes, as I have already said, the feelings which such a +circumstance would naturally produce. But, to disarm him +altogether of this feeling, all that is necessary is to state his +case, and have it admitted by the “honourable of the earth;” +so that his mind may be set at perfect rest on that point. +He would, doubtless, still hide the fact of his being a Gipsy, +but he would enjoy, in his retreat, that inward self-respect, +among his fellow-creatures, which such an admission would +give him; and which is so much calculated to raise the people, +generally, in every moral attribute. It is, indeed, a melancholy +thing, to contemplate this cloud which hangs over +such a man, as he mixes with other people, in his daily calling;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span> +but to dispel it altogether, the Gipsy himself must, in +the manner described, give us some information about his +race. Apart from the sense of justice which is implied in +admitting these Gipsies, as Gipsies, to a social equality with +others, a motive of policy should lead us to take such a step; +for it can augur no good to society to have the Gipsy race +residing in its midst, under the cloud that hangs over it. +Let us, by a liberal and enlightened policy, at least blunt +the edge of that antipathy which many of the Gipsy race +have, and most naturally have, to society at large.</p> + +<p>In receiving a Gipsy, as a Gipsy, into society, there should +be no kind of officious sympathy shown him, for he is too proud +to submit to be made the object of it. Should he say that he is +a Gipsy, the remark ought to be received as a mere matter +of course, and little notice taken of it; just as if it made no +difference to the other party whether he was a Gipsy or not. +A little surprise would be allowable; but anything like condolence +would be out of the question. And let the Gipsy +himself, rather, talk upon the subject, than a desire be shown +to ask him questions, unless his remarks should allow them, +in a natural way, to be put to him. As to the course to be +pursued by the Gipsy, should he feel disposed to own himself +up, I would advise him to do it in an off-handed, hearty +manner; to show not the least appearance that he had any +misgivings about any one taking exceptions to him on that +account. Should he act otherwise, that is, hesitate, and +take to himself shamefacedness, in making the admission, it +would, perhaps, have been better for him not to have committed +himself at all: for, in such a matter, it may be said, +that “he that doubteth is damned.” The simple fact of a +man, in Scotland, saying, after the appearance of this work +there, that he is a Gipsy, if he is conscious of having the +esteem of his neighbours, would probably add to his popularity +among them; especially if they were men of good +sense, and had before their eyes the expression of good-will +of the organs of society towards the Gipsy race. Such an +admission, on the part of a Gipsy, would presumptively +prove, that he was a really candid and upright person; for +few Scottish Gipsies, beyond those about Yetholm, would +make such a confession. Having mentioned the subject, the +Gipsy should allude to it, on every appropriate occasion, +and boast of being in possession of those words and signs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span> +which the other is entirely ignorant of. He could well say: +“What was Borrow to him, or he to Borrow; that, for his +part, he could traverse the world over, and, in the centre of +any continent, be received and feasted, by Gipsies, as a king.” +If but one respectable Scottish Gipsy could be prevailed +upon to act in this way, what an effect might it not have +upon raising up the name of this singular race! But there +is a very serious difficulty to be encountered in the outset of +such a proceeding, and it is this, that if a Gipsy owns himself +up, he necessarily “lets out,” perhaps, all his kith and +kin; a regard for whom would, in all probability, keep him +back. But there would be no such difficulty to be met with +in the way of the Gipsy giving us information by writing. +Let us, then, Gipsy, have some writing upon the Gipsies. It +will serve no good purpose to keep such information back; +the keeping of it back will not cast a doubt upon the facts +and principles of the present work; for rest assured, Gipsy, +that, upon its own merits, your secret is exploded. I would +say this to you, young Scottish Gipsy; pay no regard to what +that old Gipsy says, when he tells you, that “he is too old +a bird to be caught with chaff in that way.”</p> + +<p>The history of the Gipsies is the history of a people +(mixed, in point of blood, as it is,) which exists; not the history +of a people, like the Aborigines of North America, +which has ceased to exist, or is daily ceasing to exist.<a name="FNanchor296" id="FNanchor296"></a><a href="#Footnote296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> It +is the history of a people within a people, with whom we +come in contact daily, although we may not be aware of it. +Any person of ordinary intelligence can have little difficulty +in comprehending the subject, shrouded as it is from the eye +of the world. But should he have any such difficulty, it will +be dispelled by his coming in contact with a Gipsy who has +the courage to own himself up to be a Gipsy. It is no argument +to maintain that the Gipsy race is not a race, because +its blood is mixed with other people. That can be +said of all the races of Western Europe, the English more +especially; and, in a much greater degree, of that of the +United States of America. Every Gipsy has part of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> +Gipsy blood, and more or less of the words and signs; which, +taken in connection with the rearing of Gipsies, act upon +his mind in such a manner, that he is penetrated with the +simple idea that he is a Gipsy; and create that distinct feeling +of nationality which the matters of territory, and sometimes +dialect, government, and laws, do with most of other +races. Take a Gipsy from any country in the world you +may, and the feeling of his being a Gipsy comes as naturally +to him as does the nationality of a Jew to a Jew; although +we will naturally give him a more definite name, to distinguish +him; such as an English, Welsh, Scotch, or Irish +Gipsy, or by whatever country of which the Gipsy happens +to be a native.</p> + +<p>But I am afraid that what has been said is not sufficiently +explanatory to enable some people to understand this subject. +These people know what a Gipsy, in the popular sense, +means; they have either seen him, and observed his general +mode of life, or had the same described to them in books. +This idea of a Gipsy has been impressed upon their minds +almost from infancy. But it puzzles most people to form any +idea of a Gipsy of a higher order; such a Gipsy, for example, +as preaches the gospel, or argues the law: that seems, +hitherto, to have been almost incomprehensible to them. +They know intuitively what is meant by any particular people +who occupy a territory—any country, tract of land, or +isle. They also know what is meant by the existence of the +Jews. For the subject is familiar to them from infancy; +it is wrapt up in their early reading; it is associated with +the knowledge and practice of their religion, and the attendance, +on the part of the Jews, at a place of worship. They +have likewise seen and conversed with the Jews, or others +who have done either or both; or they are acquainted with +them by the current remarks of the world. But a people +resembling, in so many respects, the Jews, without having +any territory, or form of creed, peculiar to itself, or any history, +or any peculiar outward associations or residences, or +any material difference in appearance, character, or occupation, +is something that the general mind of mankind +would seem never to have dreamt of, or to be almost capable +of realizing to itself. We have already seen how a +writer in Blackwood’s Magazine gravely asserts, that, although +“Billy Marshall left descendants numberless, the race,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span> +of which he was one, was in danger of becoming extinct;” +when, in fact, it had only passed from its first stage of existence—the +tent, into its second—tramping, without the +tent; and after that, into its ultimate stage—a settled life. +We have likewise seen how Sir Walter Scott imagines that +the Scottish Gipsies have decreased, since the time of +Fletcher, of Saltoun, about the year 1680, from 100,000 to +500, by “the progress of time, and encrease of the means of +life, and the power of the laws.” Mr. Borrow has not gone +one step ahead of these writers; and, although I naturally +enough excuse them, I am not inclined to let him go scot-free, +since he has set himself forward so prominently as an +authority on the Gipsy question.<a name="FNanchor297" id="FNanchor297"></a><a href="#Footnote297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a></p> + +<p>In explaining this subject, it is by no means necessary to +“crack an egg” for the occasion. There is doubtless a +“hitch,” but it is a hitch so close under our very noses, that +it has escaped the observation of the world. Still, the point +can be readily enough realized by any one. Take, for example, +the Walker family. Walker knows well enough who +his father, grandfather, and so forth were; and holds himself +to be a Walker. Is it not so with the Gipsies? What +is it but a question of “folk?” A question more familiar +to Scotch people than any other people. If one’s ancestors +were all Walkers, is not the present Walker still a Walker? +If such or such a family was originally of the Gipsy race, is +it not so still? How did Billy Marshall happen to be a +Gipsy? Was he a Gipsy because he lived in a tent? or, +did he live in a tent, like a Gipsy of the old stock? If Billy +was a Gipsy, surely Billy’s children must also have been +Gipsies!</p> + +<p>The error committed by writers, with reference to the so-called +“dying-out” of the Gipsy race, arises from their not +distinguishing between the questions of race, blood, descent, +and language, and a style of life, or character, or mode of +making a living. Suppose that a native Scottish cobbler +should leave his last, and take to peddling, as a packman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span> +and ultimately settle again in a town, as a respectable tradesman. +On quitting “the roads,” he would cease to be a +packman; nor could his children after him be called packmen, +because the whole family were native Scotch from the +first; following the pack having been only the occupation of +the father, during part of his life. Should a company of +American youths and maidens take to the swamp, cranberrying +and gipsying, for a time, it could not be said that they +had become Gipsies; for they were nothing but ordinary +Americans. Should the society of Quakers dissolve into its +original elements, it would just be English blood quakerized, +returning to English blood before it was quakerized. +But it is astonishing that intelligent men should conceive, +and others retail, the ideas that have been expressed in regard +to the destiny of the Gipsy race. What avails the lessons +of history, or the daily experience of every family of +the land, the common sense of mankind, or the instinct of a +Hottentot, if no other idea of the fate of the Gipsy race can +be given than that referred to? Upon the principle of the +Gipsies “dying out,” by settling, and changing their habits, +it would appear that, when at home, in the winter, they were +not Gipsies; but that they were Gipsies, when they resumed +their habits, in the spring! On the same principle, it would +appear, that, if every Gipsy in the world were to disappear +from the roads and the fields, and drop his original habits, +there would be no Gipsies in the world, at all! What idea +can possibly be more ridiculous?<a name="FNanchor298" id="FNanchor298"></a><a href="#Footnote298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a></p> + +<p>It is better, however, to compare the Gipsy tribe in Scotland, +at the present day, to an ordinary clan in the olden +time; although the comparison falls far short of the idea.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span> +We know perfectly well what it was to have been a member +of this or that clan. Sir Walter Scott knew well that +he was one of the Buccleuch clan, and a descendant of <i>Auld +Beardie</i>; so that he could readily say that he was a Scott. +Wherein, then, consists the difficulty in understanding what +a Scottish Gipsy is? Is it not simply that he is “one of +them;” a descendant of that foreign race of which we have +such notice in the treaty of 1540, between James V. and +John Faw, the then head of the Scottish Gipsy tribe? A +Scottish Gipsy has the blood, the words, and the signs, of +these men, and as naturally holds himself to be “one of +them,” as a native Scotchman holds himself to be one of his +father’s children. How, then, can a “change of habits” +prevent a man from being his father’s son? How could a +“change of habits” make a McGregor anything but a McGregor? +How could the effects of any just and liberal law +towards the McGregors lead to the decrease, and final extinction, +of the McGregors? Every man, every family, +every clan, and every people, are continually “changing +their habits,” but still remain the same people. It would be +a treat to have a treatise from Mr. Borrow upon the Gipsy +race “dying out,” by “changing its habits,” or by the acts +of any government, or by ideas of “gentility.”</p> + +<p>I have already alluded to a resemblance between the position +of the Gipsy race, at the present day, and that of the +English and American races. Does any one say that the +English race is not a race? Or that the American is not a +race? And yet the latter is a compost of everything that +migrates from the Old World. But take some families, and +we will find that they are almost pure English, in descent, +and hold themselves to be actually such. But ask them if +they are English, and they will readily answer: “<i>English?</i> +No, siree!” The same principle holds still more with the +Gipsy race. It is not a question of country against country, +or government against government, separated by an ocean; +but the difference proceeds from a prejudice, as broad and +deep as the ocean, that exists between two races—the native, +and that of such recent introduction—dwelling in the same +community.</p> + +<p>I have explained the effect which the mixing of native +blood with Gipsy has upon the Gipsy race, showing that it +only modifies its appearance, and facilitates its passing into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> +settled and respectable life. I will now substantiate the +principle from what is daily observed among the native race +itself. Take any native family—one of the Scotts, for example. +Let us commence with a family, tracing its origin +to a Scott, in the year 1600, and imagine that, in its descent, +every representative of the name married a wife of +another family, or clan, having no Scotts’ blood in her veins. +In the seventh descent, there would be only one one-hundred +and twenty-eighth part of the original Scott in the last representative +of the family. Would not the last Scott be a +Scott? The world recognizes him to be a Scott; he holds +himself to be a Scott—“every inch a Scott;” and doubtless +he is a Scott, as much as his ancestor who existed in the year +1600. What difficulty can there, therefore, be, in understanding +how a man can be a Gipsy, whose blood is mixed, +even “dreadfully mixed,” as the English Gipsies express it? +Gipsies are Gipsies, let their blood be mixed as much as it +may; whether the introduction of the native blood may +have come into the family through the male or the female +line.</p> + +<p>In the descent of a native family, in the instance given, +the issue follows the name of the family. But, with the +Gipsy race, the thing to be transmitted is not merely a question +of family, but a race distinct from any particular family. +If a Gipsy woman marries into a native family, the issue +retains the family name of the husband, but passes into the +Gipsy tribe; if a Gipsy man marries into a native family, +the issue retains his name, in the general order of society, +and likewise passes into the Gipsy tribe; so that such +intermarriages, which almost invariably take place unknown +to the native race, always leave the issue Gipsy. +For the Gipsy element of society is like a troubled +spirit, which has been despised, persecuted, and damned; +cross it out, to appearance, as much as you may, it still +retains its Gipsy identity. It then assumes the form of +a disembodied spirit, that will enter into any kind of +tabernacle, in the manner described, dispel every other +kind of spirit, clean or unclean, as the case may be, and +come up, under any garb, colour, character, occupation, or creed—Gipsy. +It is perfectly possible, but not very probable, to +find a Gipsy a Jew, in creed, and, for the most part, in point +of blood, in the event of a Jew marrying a mixed Gipsy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span> +He might follow the creed of the Jewish parent, and be admitted +into the synagogue; but, although outwardly recognised +as a Jew, and having Jewish features, he would still +be a <i>chabo</i>; for there are Gipsies of all creeds, and, like +other people in the world, of no creed at all. But it is extremely +disagreeable to a Gipsy to have such a subject mentioned +in his hearing; for he heartily dislikes a Jew, and +says that no one has any “chance” in dealing with him. A +Gipsy likewise says, that the two races ought not to be mentioned +in the same breath, or put on the same footing, which +is very true; for reason tells us, that, strip the Gipsy of +every idea connected with “taking bits o’ things,” and leading +a wild life, and there should be no points of enmity +between him and the ordinary native; certainly not that of +creed, which exists between the Jew and the rest of the +world, to which question I will by and by refer.</p> + +<p>The subject of the Gipsies has hitherto been treated as a +question of natural history, only, in the same manner as we +would treat ant-bears. Writers have sat down beside them, +and looked at them—little more than looked at them—described +some of their habits, and reported their <i>chaff</i>. To +get to the bottom of the subject, it is necessary to sound the +mind of the Gipsy, lay open and dissect his heart, identify +one’s self with his feelings, and the bearings of his ideas, +and construct, out of these, a system of mental science, based +upon the mind of the Gipsy, and human nature generally. +For it is the mind of the Gipsy that constitutes the Gipsy; +that which, in reference to its singular origin and history, +is, in itself, indestructible, imperishable and immortal.</p> + +<p>Consider, then, this race, which is of such recent introduction +upon the stage of the European world, of such a singular +origin and history, and of such universal existence, +with such a prejudice existing against it, and the merest +impulse of reflection, apart from the facts of the case, will +lead us to conclude, that, as it has settled, it has remained +true to itself, in the various associations of life. In whatever +position, or under whatever circumstances, it is to be +found, it may be compared, in reference to its past history, +to a chain, and the early Gipsies, to those who have charged +it with electricity. However mixed, or however polished, +the metal of the links may have since become, they have always +served to convey the Gipsy fluid to every generation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span> +of the race. It is even unnecessary to enquire, particularly, +how that has been accomplished, for it is self-evident that +the process which has linked other races to their ancestry, +has doubly linked the Gipsy race to theirs. Indeed, the +idea of being Gipsies never can leave the Gipsy race. A +Gipsy’s life is like a continual conspiracy towards the rest +of the world; he has always a secret upon his mind, and, +from his childhood to his old age, he is so placed as if he +were, in a negative sense, engaged in some gunpowder plot, +or as if he had committed a crime, let his character be as +good as it possibly may. Into whatever company he may +enter, he naturally remarks to himself: “I wonder if there +are any of us here.” That is the position which the mixed +and better kind of Gipsy occupies, generally and passively. +Of course, there are some of the race who are always +actually hatching some plot or other against the rest of the +world. Take a Gipsy of the popular kind, who appears as +such to the world, and there are two ideas constantly before +him—that of the <i>Gorgio</i> and <i>Chabo</i>: they may slumber +while he is in his house, or in his tent, or when he is asleep, +or his mind is positively occupied with something; but let +any one come near him, or him meet or accost any one, and +he naturally remarks, to himself, that the person “is <i>not</i> one +of us,” or that he “<i>is</i> one of us.” He knows well what the +native may be thinking or saying of him, and he as naturally +responds in his own mind. This circumstance of itself, this +frightful prejudice against the individual, makes, or at least +keeps, the Gipsy wild; it calls forth the passion of resentment, +and produces a feeling of reckless abandon, that might +otherwise leave him. To that is to be added the feeling, in +the Gipsy’s mind, of his race having been persecuted, for he +knows little of the circumstances attending the origin of the +laws passed against his tribe, and attributes them to persecution +alone. He considers that he has a right to travel; +that he has been deprived of rights to travel, which were +granted to his tribe by the monarchs of past ages; and, +moreover, that his ancestors—the “ancient wandering Egyptians”—always +travelled. He feels perfectly independent of, +and snaps his fingers at, everybody; and entertains a profound +suspicion of any one who may approach him, inasmuch +as he imagines that the stranger, however fair he may speak +to him, has that feeling for him, as if he considered it pollution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span> +to touch him. But he is very civil and plausible when +he is at home.</p> + +<p>It is from such material that all kinds of settled Gipsies, +at one time or other, have sprung. Such is the prejudice +against the race, that, if they did not hide the fact of their +being Gipsies from the ordinary natives, they would hardly +have the “life of a dog” among them, because of their having +sprung from a race which, in its original state, has been +persecuted, and so much despised. By settling in life, and +conforming with the ways of the rest of the community, they +“cease to be Gipsies,” in the estimation of the world; for +the world imagines that, when the Gipsy conforms to its +ways, there is an end of his being a Gipsy. Barring the +“habits,” such a Gipsy is as much a Gipsy as before, although +he is one <i>incog</i>. The wonder is not that he and his +descendants should be Gipsies; but the real wonder is, that +they should not be Gipsies. Neither he nor his descendants +have any choice in the matter. Does the settled Gipsy keep +a crockery or tin establishment, or an inn, or follow any +other occupation? Then his children cannot all follow the +same calling; they must betake themselves to the various +employments open to the community at large, and, their +blood being mixed, they become lost to the general eye, +amid the rest of the population. While this process is +gradually going on, the Gipsy population which always remains +in the tent—the hive from which the tribe swarms—attracts +the attention of the public, and prevents it from +thinking anything about the matter. In England, alone, we +may safely assume that the tented Gipsy population, about +the commencement of this century, must have encreased at +least four-fold by this time, while, to the eye of the public, it +would appear that “the Gipsies are gradually decreasing, so +that, by and by, they will become extinct.”</p> + +<p>The world, generally, has never even thought about this +subject. When I have spoken to people promiscuously in +regard to it, they have replied: “We suppose that the Gipsies, +as they have settled in life, have got lost among the +general population:” than which nothing can be more unfounded, +as a matter of fact, or ridiculous, as a matter of +theory. Imagine a German family settling in Scotland. +The feeling of being Germans becomes lost in the first generation, +who do not, perhaps, speak a word of German.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span> +There is no prejudice entertained for the family, but, on the +contrary, much good-will and respect are shown it by its +neighbours. The parents identify themselves with those +surrounding them; the children, born in the country, become, +or rather are, Scotch altogether; so that all that remains +is the sense of a German extraction, which, but for +the name of the family, would very soon be lost, or become +a mere matter of tradition. In every other respect, the family, +sooner or later, becomes lost amid the general population. +In America, we daily see Germans getting mixed with, and +lost among, Americans; but where is the evidence of such +a process going on, or ever having taken place, in Great +Britain, between the Gipsy and the native races? The +prejudice which the ordinary natives have for the very name +of Gipsy is sufficient proof that the Gipsy tribe has not been +lost in any such manner. Still, it has not only got mixed, +but “dreadfully mixed,” with the native blood; but it +has worked up the additional blood within itself, having +thoroughly gipsyfied it. The original Gipsy blood may be +compared to liquid in a vessel, into which native liquid has +been put: the mixture has, as a natural consequence, lost, +in a very great measure, its original colour; but, inasmuch +as the most important element in the amalgamation has been +<i>mind</i>, the result is, that, in its descent, it has remained, as +before, Gipsy. Instead, therefore, of the Gipsies having +become lost among the native population, a certain part of +the native blood has been lost among them, greatly adding +to the number of the body.</p> + +<p>We cannot institute any comparison between the introduction +of the Gipsies and the Huguenots, the last body of +foreigners that entered Great Britain, relative to the destiny +of the respective foreign elements. For the Huguenots were +not a race, as distinguished from every other creature in the +world, but a religious party, taking refuge among a people +of cognate blood and language, and congenial religious feelings +and faith; and were, to say the least of it, on a par, in +every respect, with the ordinary natives, with nothing connected +with them to prevent an amalgamation with the +other inhabitants; but, on the contrary, having this characteristic, +in common with the nations of Europe, that the +place of birth constitutes the fact, and, taken in connection +with the residence, creates the feelings of nationality and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span> +race. Many of my readers are, doubtless, conversant with +the history of the Huguenots. Even in some parts of +America, nothing is more common than for people to say +that they are Huguenots, that is, of Huguenot descent, +which is very commonly made the foundation of the connections +and intimate associations of life. The peculiarity +is frequently shown in the appearance of the individuals, and +in such mental traits as spring from the contemplation of +the Huguenots as an historical and religious party, even +when the individual now follows the Catholic faith. But +these people differ in no essential respect from the other +inhabitants.</p> + +<p>But how different is the position always occupied by the +Gipsies! Well may they consider themselves “strangers +in the land;” for by whom have they ever been acknowledged? +They entered Scotland, for example, and have +encreased, progressed, and developed, with so great a prejudice +against them, and so separated in their feelings from +others around them, as if none had almost existed in the +country but themselves, while they were “dwelling in the +midst of their brethren;” the native blood that has been +incorporated with them having the appearance as if it had +come from abroad. They, a people distinct from any other +in the world, have sprung from the most primitive stage of +human existence—the tent, and their knowledge of their +race goes no further back than when it existed in other +parts of the world, in the same condition, more or less, as +themselves. They have been a migratory tribe, wherever +they have appeared or settled, and have never ceased to be +the same peculiar race, notwithstanding the changes which +they have undergone; and have been at home wherever they +have found themselves placed. The mere place of birth, or +the circumstance under which the individual has been +reared, has had no effect upon their special nationality, +although, as citizens of particular countries, they have assimilated, +in their general ideas, with others around them. +And not only have they had a language peculiar to themselves, +but signs as exclusively theirs as are those of Freemasons. +For Gipsies stand to Gipsies as Freemasons to +Freemasons; with this difference—that Masons are bound to +respond to and help each other, while such associations, +among the Gipsies, are optional with the individual, who,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span> +however, is persuaded that the same people, with these exclusive +peculiarities, are to be met with in every part of the +world. A Gipsy is, in his way, a Mason born, and, from his +infancy, is taught to hide everything connected with his race, +from those around him. He is his own <i>tyler</i>, and <i>tyles</i> his +lips continually. Imagine, then, a person taught, from his +infancy, to understand that he is a Gipsy; that his blood, (at +least part of it,) is Gipsy; that he has been instructed in the +language, and initiated in all the mysteries, of the Gipsies; +that his relations and acquaintances in the tribe have undergone +the same experience; that the utmost reserve towards +those who are not Gipsies has been continually inculcated +upon him, and as often practised before his eyes; and what +must be the leading idea, in that person’s mind, but that he +is a Gipsy? His pedigree is Gipsy, his mind has been cast +in a Gipsy mould, and he can no more “cease to be a Gipsy” +than perform any other impossibility in nature. Thus it is +that Gipsydom is not a work of man’s hand, nor a creed, +that is “revealed from faith to faith;” but a work which has +been written by the hand of God upon the heart of a family +of mankind, and is reflected from the mind of one generation +to that of another. It enters into the feelings of the very +existence of the man, and such is the prejudice against his +race, on the part of the ordinary natives, that the better +kind of Scottish Gipsy feels that he, and more particularly +she, would almost be “torn in pieces,” if the public really +knew all about them.</p> + +<p>These facts will sufficiently illustrate how a people, “resembling, +in so many respects, the Jews, without having any +territory, or form of creed, peculiar to itself, or any history, +or any peculiar outward associations or residences, or any +material difference in appearance, character, or occupation,” +can be a people, living among other people, and yet be distinct +from those among whom they live. The distinction +consists in this people having <i>blood</i>, <i>language</i>, a <i>cast of mind</i>, +and <i>signs</i>, peculiar to itself; the three first being the only +elements which distinguish races; for religion is a secondary +consideration; one religion being common to many distinct +races. This principle, which is more commonly applied to +people occupying different countries, is equally applicable to +races, clans, families, or individuals, living within the +boundary of a particular country, or dwelling in the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span> +community. We can easily understand how two individuals +can be two distinct individuals, notwithstanding their being +members of the same family, and professing the same religion. +We can still more easily understand the same of two families, +and still more so of two septs or clans of the same general +race. And, surely, there can be no difficulty in understanding +that the Gipsy tribe, whatever may be its habits, is +something different from any native tribe: for it has never +yet found rest for the sole of its foot among the native race, +although it has secured a shelter clandestinely; and of the +extent, and especially of the nature, of its existence, the +world may be said to be entirely ignorant. The position +which the Gipsy race occupies in Scotland is that which it +substantially occupies in every other country—unacknowledged, +and, in a sense, damned, everywhere. There is, therefore, +no wonder that it should remain a distinct family +among mankind, cemented by its language and signs, and +the knowledge of its universality. The phenomenon rests +upon purely natural causes, and differs considerably from +that of the existence of the Jews. For the Jews are, everywhere, +acknowledged by the world, after a sort; they have +neither language nor, as far as I know, signs peculiar to +themselves, (although there are secret orders among them,) +but possess the most ancient history, an original country, to +which they, more or less, believe they will be restored, and +a religion of divine origin, but utterly superseded by a +new and better dispensation. Notwithstanding all that, the +following remark, relative to the existence of the Jews, since +the dispersion, may very safely be recalled: “The philosophical +historian confesses that he has no place for it in all +his generalizations, and refers it to the mysteries of Providence.” +For the history of the Gipsies bears a very great +resemblance to it; and, inasmuch as that is not altogether +“the device of men’s hands,” it must, also, be referred to +Providence, for Providence has a hand in everything.</p> + +<p>It is very true that the “philosophical historian has no +place, in all his generalizations, for the phenomenon of the +existence of the Jews, since the dispersion,” for he has never +investigated the subject inductively, and on its own merits. +It is poor logic to assert that, because the American Indians +are, to a great extent, and will soon be, extinct, therefore +the existence of the Jews, to-day, is a miracle. And it would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span> +be nearly as poor logic to maintain the same of the Jews in +connection with any of the ancient and extinct nations. +There is no analogy between the history of the Jews, since +the dispersion, and that of any other people, (excepting the +Gipsies;) and, consequently, no comparison can be instituted +between them.<a name="FNanchor299" id="FNanchor299"></a><a href="#Footnote299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a> Before asking how it is that the Jews exist +to-day, it would be well to enquire by what possible process +they could cease to be Jews. And by what human means +the Jews, as a people, or even as individuals, will receive +Christ as their Messiah, and thereby become Christian +Jews. This idea of the Jews existing by a miracle has +been carried to a very great length, as the following quotation, +from an excellent writer, on the Evidences of Christianity, +will show: “What is this,” says he, “but a miracle? +connected with the prophecy which it fulfills, it is a double +miracle. Whether testimony can ever establish the credibility +of a miracle is of no importance here. This one is +obvious to every man’s senses. All nations are its eye-witnesses. . . . . +The laws of nature have been suspended +in their case.” This writer, in a spirit of gambling, stakes +the whole question of revelation upon his own dogma; and, +according to his hypothesis, loses it. The laws of nature +would, indeed, have been suspended, in their case, and a +miracle would, indeed, have been wrought, if the Jews had +ceased to be Jews, or had become anything else than what +they are to-day. Writers on the Christian Evidences should +content themselves with maintaining that the Jews have +fulfilled the prophecies, and will yet fulfill them, and assert +nothing further of them.</p> + +<p>The writer alluded to compares the history of the Jews, +since the dispersion, to the following phenomenon: “A +mighty river, having plunged, from a mountain height, into +the depths of the ocean, and been separated into its component +drops, and thus scattered to the ends of the world, +and blown about, by all winds, during almost eighteen centuries, +is still capable of being disunited from the waters of +the ocean; its minutest drops, never having been assimilated +to any other, are still distinct, unchanged, and ready to be +gathered.” Such language cannot be applied to the Jews; +for the philosophy of their existence, to-day, is so very simple +in its nature, as to have escaped the observation of mankind.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span> +I will give it further on in this <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a>. The +language in question is somewhat applicable to the Gipsies, +for they have become <i>worked into</i> all other nations, in regard +to blood and language, and are “still distinct and +unchanged,” as to their being Gipsies, whatever their habits +may be; and, although there is no occasion for them to be +“gathered,” they would yet, outwardly or inwardly, heartily +respond to any call addressed to them.<a name="FNanchor300" id="FNanchor300"></a><a href="#Footnote300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a></p> + +<p>There is, as I have already said, no real outward difference +between many settled and educated Scottish Gipsies and +ordinary natives; for such Gipsies are as likely to have fair +hair and blue eyes, as black. Their characters and occupations +may be the same; they may have intimate associations +together; may be engaged in business as partners; may +even be cousins, nay, half-brothers. But let them, on +separate occasions, enter a company of Gipsies, and the reception +shown to them will mark the difference in the two +individuals. The difference between two such Scotchmen, +(for they really are both Scotch,) the reader may remark, +makes the Gipsy only a Gipsy nominally, which, outwardly, +he is; but he is still a Gipsy, although, in point of colour, +character, or condition, not one of the old stock; for he has +“the blood,” and has been reared and instructed as a Gipsy. +But such a Gipsy is not fond of entering a company of Gipsies, +strangers to him, unless introduced by a friend in whom +he has confidence, for he is afraid of being known to be a +Gipsy. He is more apt to visit some of the more original +kind of the race, where he is not known. On sitting down +beside them, with a friendly air, they will be sure to treat +him kindly, not knowing but that they may be entertaining +a Gipsy unawares; for such original Gipsies, believing that +“the blood” is to be found well up in life, feel very curious +when they meet with such a person. If he “lets out” an +idea in regard to the race, and expresses a kindly feeling +towards “the blood,” the suspicions of his friends are at +once excited, so that, if he, in an equivocal manner, remarks +that he is “<i>not</i> one of them,” hesitates, stammers, and protests +that he really is not one of them, they will as readily +swear that he <i>is</i> one of them; for well does the blackguard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span> +Gipsy, (as the world calls him,) know the delicacy of such +settled and educated Gipsies in owning the blood. There +is less suspicion shown, on such occasions, when the settled +Gipsy is Scotch, and the <i>bush</i> Gipsy English; and particularly +so should the occasion be in America; for, when they meet in +America, away from the peculiar relations under which they +have been reared, and where they can “breathe,” as they express +it, the respective classes are not so suspicious of each other.</p> + +<p>Besides the difference just drawn between the Gipsy and +ordinary native—that of recognizing and being recognized +by another Gipsy—I may mention the following general +distinction between them. The ordinary Scot knows that +he is a Scot, and nothing more, unless it be something about +his ancestors of two or three generations. But the Gipsy’s +idea of Scotland goes back to a certain time, indefinite to +him, as it may be, beyond which his race had no existence +in the country. Where his ancestors sojourned, immediately, +or at any time, before they entered Scotland, he cannot tell; +but this much he knows of them, that they are neither Scottish +nor European, but that they came from the East. The +fact of his blood being mixed exercises little or no influence +over his feelings relative to his tribe, for, mixed as it may +be, he knows that he is one of the tribe, and that the origin +of his tribe is his origin. In a word, he knows that he has +sprung from the tent. Substitute the word Scotch for Moor, +as related of the black African Gipsies, at <a href="#Page_429">page 429</a>, and he +may say of himself and tribe: “We are not Scotch, but can +give no account of ourselves.” It is a little different, if the +mixture of his blood is of such recent date as to connect him +with native families; in that case, he has “various bloods” +to contend for, should they be assailed; but his Gipsy blood, +as a matter of course, takes precedence. By marrying into +the tribe, the connection with such native families gradually +drops out of the memory of his descendants, and leaves the +sensation of tribe exclusively Gipsy. Imagine, then, that +the Gipsy has been reared a Gipsy, in the way so frequently +described, and that he “knows all about the Gipsies,” while +the ordinary native knows really nothing about them; and +we have a general idea of what a Scottish Gipsy is, as distinguished +from an ordinary Scotchman. If we admit that +every native Scot knows who he is, we may readily assume +that every Scottish Gipsy knows who <i>he</i> is. But, to place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span> +the point of difference in a more striking light, it may be +remarked, that the native Scot will instinctively exclaim, +that “the present work has no earthly relation either to +him or his folk;” while the Scottish Gipsy will as instinctively +exclaim: “It’s us, there’s no mistake about it;” and +will doubtless accept it, in the main, with a high degree of +satisfaction, as the history of his race, and give it to his +children as such.</p> + +<p>A respectable, indeed, any kind of, Scottish Gipsy does +not contemplate his ancestors—the “Pilgrim Fathers,” and +“Pilgrim Mothers,” too—as robbers, although he could do +that with as much grace as any Highland or Border Scot, +but as a singular people, who doubtless came from the Pyramids; +and their language, as something about which he +really does not know what to think; whether it is Egyptian, +Sanscrit, or what it is. Still, he has part of it; he loves it; +and no human power can tear it out of his heart. He knows +that every intelligent being sticks to his own, and clings to +his descent; and he considers it his highest pride to be an +Egyptian—a descendant of those swarthy kings and queens, +princes and princesses, priests and priestesses, and, of course, +thieves and thievesses, that, like an apparition, found their +way into, and, after wandering about, settled down in, Scotland. +Indeed, he never knew anything else than that he +was an Egyptian; for it is in his blood; and, what is more, +it is in his heart, so that he cannot forget it, unless he should +lose his faculties and become an idiot; and then he would +be an Egyptian idiot. How like a Gipsy it was for Mrs. +Fall, of Dunbar, to “work in tapestry the principal events +in the life of the founder of her family, from the day the +Gipsy child came to Dunbar, in its mother’s creel, until the +same Gipsy child had become, by its own honourable exertions, +the head of the first mercantile establishment then +existing in Scotland.”</p> + +<p>The Scottish Gipsies, when their appearance has been +modified by a mixture of the white blood, have possessed, in +common with the Highlanders, the faculty of “getting out” +of the original ways of their race, and becoming superior in +character, notwithstanding the excessive prejudice that +exists against the nation of which they hold themselves +members. Except his strong partiality for his blood and +tribe, language, and signs, such a Gipsy becomes, in his general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span> +disposition and ways, like any ordinary native. It is +impossible that it should be otherwise. Whenever a Gipsy, +then, forsakes his original habits, and conforms with the +ways of the other inhabitants, he becomes, for all practical +purposes, an ordinary citizen of the Gipsy clan. If he is a +man of good natural abilities, the original wild ambition of +his race acquires a new turn; and his capacity fits him for +any occupation. Priding himself on being an Egyptian, a +member of this world-wide community, he acquires, as he +gains information, a spirit of liberality of sentiment; he +reads history, and perceives that every family of mankind +has not only been barbarous, but very barbarous, at one +time; and, from such reflections, he comes to consider his +own origin, and very readily becomes confirmed in his early, +but indistinct, ideas of his people, that they really are somebody. +Indeed, he considers himself not only as good, but +better than other people. His being forced to assume an +incognito, and “keep as quiet as pussy,” chafes his proud +spirit, but it does not render him gloomy, for his natural +disposition is too buoyant for that. How, then, does such a +Scottish Gipsy feel in regard to his ancestors? He feels +exactly as Highlanders do, in regard to theirs, or, as the +Scottish Borderers do, with reference to the “Border Ruffians,” +as I have heard a Gipsy term them. Indeed, the gallows +of Perth and Stirling, Carlisle and Jedburgh, could tell +some fine tales of many respectable Scottish people, in times +that are past.</p> + +<p>The children of such a Gipsy differ very much from those +of the same race in their natural state, although they may +have the same amount of blood, and the same eye. The eye +of the former is subdued, for his passions, in regard to his +race, have never been called forth; while the eye of the latter +rolls about, as if he were conscious that every one he +meets with is remarking of him, “There goes a vagabond of +a Gipsy.” Two fine specimens of the former kind of Gipsies +attended the High School of Edinburgh, when I was at that institution. +Hearing the family frequently spoken of at home, my +attention was often taken up with the boys, without understanding +what a Gipsy of <i>that</i> kind could mean; although I +had a pretty good idea of the common Gipsy, or Tinkler, as +he is generally called in Scotland. These two young Gipsies +were what might be called sweet youths; modest and shy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span> +among the other boys, as young tamed wild turkeys; very +dark in colour, with an eye that could be caught in whatever +way I might look at them. They now occupy very +honourable positions in life. There were other Gipsies at the +High School, at this time, but they were of the “brown sort.” +I have met, in the United States, with a Scottish Gipsy, +taking greatly after the Gipsy, in his appearance; a man +very gentlemanly in his manner and bearing, and as +neat and trim as if he had “come out of a box.” It is natural, +indeed, to suppose that there must be a great difference, +in many respects, between a wild, original Gipsy, +and one of the tame and educated kind, whose descent +is several, perhaps many, generations from the tent. In +the houses of the former, things are generally found lying +about, here-away, there-away, as if they were just going +to be taken out and placed in the waggon, or on the ass’s +back.</p> + +<p>It is certainly a singular position which is occupied, from +generation to generation, and century to century, by our settled +Scottish, as well as other, Gipsies, who are not known +to the world as such, yet maintain a daily intercourse with +others not of their own tribe. It resembles a state of semi-damnation, +with a drawn sword hanging over their heads, +ready to fall upon them at any moment. But the matter +cannot be mended. They are Gipsies, by every physical and +mental necessity, and they accommodate themselves to their +circumstances as they best may. This much is certain, that +they have the utmost confidence in their incognito, as regards +their descent, personal feelings, and exclusively private associations. +The word “Gipsy,” to be applied to them by +strangers, frightens them, in contemplation, far more than +it does the children of the ordinary natives; for they imagine +it a dreadful thing to be known to their neighbours as Gipsies. +Still, they have never occupied any other position; +they have been born in it, and reared in it; it has even +been the nature of the race, from the very first, always to +“work in the dark.” In all probability, it has never occurred +to them to imagine that it will ever be otherwise: +nor do they evidently wish it; for they can see no possible +way to have themselves acknowledged, by the world, as +Gipsies. The very idea horrifies them. So far from letting +the world know anything of them, as Gipsies, their constant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span> +care is to keep it in perpetual darkness on the subject. Of +all men, these Gipsies may say:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“ <span class="padl1">.</span><span class="padl1">.</span><span class="padl1">.</span><span class="padl1">.</span><span class="padl1">.</span><span class="padl1">.</span> rather bear those ills we have,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than fly to others we know not of.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Indeed, the only thing that worries such a Gipsy is the +idea that the public should know all about <i>him</i>; otherwise, +he feels a supreme satisfaction in being a Gipsy; as well as +in having such a history of his race as I have informed him +I proposed publishing, provided I do not in any way mix <i>him</i> +up with it, or “let <i>him</i> out.” By bringing up the body in the +manner done in this work, by making a sweep of the whole +tribe, the responsibility becomes spread over a large number +of people; so that, should the Gipsy become, by any means, +known, personally, to the world, he would have the satisfaction +of knowing that he had others to keep him company; +men occupying respectable positions in life, and respected, by +the world at large, as individuals.</p> + +<p>Here, then, we have one of the principal reasons for +everything connected with the Gipsies being hidden from +the rest of mankind. They have always been looked upon +as arrant vagabonds, while they have looked upon their ancestors +as illustrious and immortal heroes. How, then, are +we to bridge over this gulf that separates them, in feeling, +from the rest of the world? The natural reply is, that +we should judge them, not by their condition and character +in times that are past, but by what they are to-day.</p> + +<p>That the Gipsies were a barbarous race when they entered +Europe, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, is just what +could have been expected of any Asiatic, migratory, tented +horde, at a time when the inhabitants of Europe were little +better than barbarous, themselves, and many of them absolutely +so. To speak of the Highland clans, at that time, as +being better than barbarous, would be out of the question; +as to the Irish people, it would be difficult to say what they +really were, at the same time. Even the Lowland Scotch, a +hundred years after the arrival of the Gipsies in Europe, +were, with some exceptions, divided into two classes—“beggars +and rascals,” as history tells us. Is it, therefore, unreasonable +to say, that, in treating of the Gipsies of to-day, +we should apply to them the same principles of judgment +that have been applied to the ordinary natives? If we refer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span> +to the treaty between John Faw and James V., in 1540, we +will very readily conclude that, three centuries ago, the +leaders of the Gipsies were very superior men, in their way; +cunning, astute, and slippery Oriental barbarians, with the +experience of upwards of a century in European society +generally; well up to the ways of the world, and the general +ways of Church and State; and, in a sense, at home with +kings, popes, cardinals, nobility, and gentry. That was the +character of a superior Gipsy, in 1540. In 1840, we find +the race represented by as fine a man as ever graced the +Church of Scotland. “Grand was the repose of his lofty +brow, dark eye, and aspect of soft and melancholy meaning. +It was a face from which every evil and earthly passion +seemed purged. A deep gravity lay upon his countenance, +which had the solemnity, without the sternness, of one of +our old reformers. You could almost fancy a halo completing +its apostolic character.” Some of the Scottish Gipsies +of to-day could very readily exclaim:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“And, if thou said’st I am not peer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To any <i>one</i> in Scotland here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Highland or Lowland, far or near,<br /></span> +<span class="i2"><i>Oh, Donald</i>, thou hast lied!”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But it is impossible for any one to give an account of the +Gipsies in Scotland, from the year 1506, down to the present +time. This much, however, can be said of them, that they +are as much Gipsies now as ever they were; that is, the +Gipsies of to-day are the representatives of the race as it appeared +in Scotland three centuries and a half ago, and hold +themselves to be Gipsies now, as, indeed, they always will do.</p> + +<p>Ever since the race entered Scotland, we may reasonably +assume that it has been dropping out of the tent into settled +life, in one form or other, and sometimes to a greater extent +at one time than another. It never has been a nomadic race, +in the proper sense of the word; for a nomad is one who +possesses flocks and herds, with which he moves about from +pasturage to pasturage, as he does in Asia to-day. Mr. +Borrow says that there are Gipsies who follow this kind of +life, in Russia; but that, doubtless, arises from the circumstances +in which they have found themselves placed.<a name="FNanchor301" id="FNanchor301"></a><a href="#Footnote301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> “I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span> +think,” said an English Gipsy to me, “that we must take +partly of the ancient Egyptians, and partly of the Arabs; +from the Egyptians, owing to our settled ways, and from the +Arabs, owing to our wandering habits.” Upon entering +Europe, they must have wandered about promiscuously, for +some short time, before pitching upon territories, which they +would divide among themselves, under their kings and chieftains. +Here we find the proper sphere of the Gipsy, in his +original state. In 1506, Anthonius Gawino is represented, by +James IV., to his uncle, the king of Denmark, as having +“sojourned in Scotland in peaceable and catholic manner:” +and John Faw, by James V., in 1540, during his “pilgrimage,” +as “doing a lawful business;” which evidently had +some meaning, as we find that seven pounds were paid to the +Egyptians by the king’s chamberlain. In 1496, the Gipsies +made musket-balls for the king of Hungary; and, in 1565, +cannon-balls for the Turks. In short, they were travelling +smiths, or what has since been called tinkers, with a turn for +any kind of ordinary mechanical employment, and particularly +as regards working in metals; dealers in animals, petty +traders, musicians, and fortune-tellers, with a wonderful +knack for “transferring money from other people’s pockets +into their own;” living representatively, but apparently not +wholly, in tents, and “helping themselves” to whatever they +stood in need of.<a name="FNanchor302" id="FNanchor302"></a><a href="#Footnote302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a></p> + +<p>Speaking of the Gipsy chiefs mentioned in the act of James +V., our author, as we have seen, very justly remarks: “It +cannot be supposed that the ministers of three or four succeeding +monarchs would have suffered their sovereigns to +be so much imposed on, as to allow them to put their names<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span> +to public documents styling poor and miserable wretches, as +we at the present day imagine them to have been, ‘Lords +and Earls of Little Egypt.’. . . . . I am disposed +to believe that Anthonius Gawino, in 1506, and John Faw, in +1540, would personally, as individuals, that is, as Gipsy +rajahs, have a very respectable and imposing appearance, in +the eyes of the officers of the crown.” (<a href="#Page_108">Page 108</a>.)<a name="FNanchor303" id="FNanchor303"></a><a href="#Footnote303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a> We +have likewise seen how many laws were passed, by the Scots +parliament, against “great numbers of his majesty’s subjects, +of whom some outwardly pretend to be famous and unspotted +gentlemen,” for encouraging and supporting the Gipsies; +and, in the case of William Auchterlony, of Cayrine, for receiving +into their houses, and feasting them, their wives, +children, <i>servants</i>, and companies. All this took place +more than a hundred years after the arrival of the Gipsies in +Scotland, and seventy-six years after the date of the treaty +between James V. and John Faw. We can very readily +believe that the sagacity displayed by this chief and his +folk, to evade the demand made upon them to leave the +country, was likewise employed to secure their perpetual +existence in it; for, from the first, their intention was evidently +to possess it. Hence their original story of being +pilgrims, which would prevent the authorities from disturbing +them, but which had no effect upon Henry VIII., whom, +of all the monarchs of Europe, they did not hoax. Grellmann +mentions their having obtained passports from the +Emperor Sigismund, and other princes, as well as from the +king of France, and the Pope.</p> + +<p>Entering Scotland with the firm determination to “possess” +the country, the Gipsies would, from the very first, +direct their attention towards its occupation, and draw into +their body much of the native blood, in the way which I +have already described. And there was certainly a large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span> +floating population in the country, from which to draw it. +It would little consist with the feelings of Highland or Lowland +outlaws to exist without female society; nor was that +female society easily to be found, apart from some kind of +settled life; hence, in seeking for a home, which is inseparable +from the society of a female, our native outlaw would +very naturally and readily “haul up” with the Gipsy woman; +for, being herself quite “at home,” in her tent, she would +present just the desideratum which the other was in quest +of. For, although “Gipsies marry with Gipsies,” it is only +as a rule, the exceptions being many, and, in all probability, +much more common, in the early stage of their European +history. The present “dreadfully mixed” state of Gipsydom +is a sufficient proof of this fact. The aversion, on the +part of the Gipsy, to intermarry with the ordinary natives, +proceeds, in the first place, from the feelings which the natives +entertain for her race. Remove those feelings, and the +Gipsies, as a body, would still marry among themselves; for +their pride in their peculiar sept, and a natural jealousy of +those outside of their mystic circle, would, alone, keep the +world from penetrating their secrets, without its being extended +to him who, by intermarriage, became “one of them.” +There is no other obstacle in the way of marriages between +the two races, excepting the general one, on the part of the +Gipsies, and which is inherent in them, to preserve themselves +as a branch of a people to be found in every country. +Admitting the general aversion, on the part of the Gipsies, +to <i>marry</i> with natives, and we at once see the unlikelihood +of their women <i>playing the wanton</i> with them. Still, it is +very probable that they, in some instances, bore children to +some of the “unspotted gentlemen,” mentioned, by act of +parliament, as having so greatly protected and entertained +the tribe. Such illegitimate children would be put to good +service by the Gipsy chiefs. By one means or other, there +is no doubt but the Gipsies made a dead-set upon certain +native families of influence. The capacity that could devise +such a scheme for remaining in the country, as is contained +in the act of 1540, and influence the courts of the regency, +and of Queen Mary, to reinstate them in their old position, +after the severe order of 1541, proclaiming banishment +within thirty days, and death thereafter, even when the +“lords understood, perfectly, the great thefts and <i>skaiths</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span> +(damages,) done by the said Egyptians,” could easily execute +plans to secure a hold upon private families. If to all this +we add the very nature of Gipsydom; how it always remains +true to itself, as it gets mixed with the native blood; how it +works its way up in the world; and how its members “stick +to each other;” we can readily understand how the tribe +acquired important and influential friends in high places. +Do not speak of the attachment of the Jewess to her people: +that of the Gipsy is greater. A Jewess passes current, anywhere, +as a Jewess; but the Gipsy, as she gets connected +with a native circle, and moves about in the world, does so +clandestinely, for, as a Gipsy, she is <i>incog.</i>; so that her attachment +remains, at heart, with her tribe, and is all the +stronger, from the feelings that are peculiar to her singularly +wild descent. I am very much inclined to think that Mrs. +Baillie, of Lamington, mentioned under the head of Tweed-dale +and Clydesdale Gipsies, was a Gipsy; and the more so, +from having learned, from two different sources, that the +present Baillie, of ——, is a Gipsy. Considering that +courts of justice have always stretched a point, to convict, +and <i>execute</i>, Gipsies, it looks like something very singular, that +William Baillie, a Gipsy, who was condemned to death, in +1714, should have had his sentence commuted to banishment, +<i>and been allowed to go at large</i>, while others, condemned with +him, were executed. And three times did he escape in that +manner, till, at last, he was slain by one of his tribe. It +also seems very singular, that James Baillie, another Gipsy, +in 1772, should have been condemned for the murder of his +wife, and, also, had his sentence commuted to banishment, +and been allowed to go at large: and that twice, at least. +Well might McLaurin remark: “Few cases have occurred +in which there has been such an expenditure of mercy.” +And tradition states that “the then Mistress Baillie, of +Lamington, and her family, used all their interest in obtaining +these pardons for James Baillie.” No doubt of it. But +the reason for all this was, doubtless, different from that of +“James Baillie, like his fathers before him, <i>pretending</i> that +he was a bastard relative of the family of Lamington.”</p> + +<p>A somewhat similar case of pardoning Gipsies is related +by a writer in Blackwood’s Magazine, as having occurred +towards the end of last century; the individual procuring +the pardon being the excitable Duchess of Gordon, the same,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span> +I presume, whom Burns’ genius “fairly lifted off her feet.” +The following are the circumstances, as given by this writer: +A Berwickshire farmer had been missing sheep, and lay in +wait, one night, with a servant, for the depredators. They +seized upon Tam Gordon, the captain of the Spittal Gipsies, +and his son-in-law, Ananias Faa, in the very act of stealing +the sheep; when the captain drew a knife, to defend himself. +They were convicted and condemned for the crime; +“but afterwards, to the great surprise of their Berwickshire +neighbours, obtained a pardon, a piece of unmerited and ill-bestowed +clemency, for which, it was generally understood, +they were indebted to the interest of a noble northern family, +of their own name. We recollect hearing a sort of ballad +upon Tam’s exploits, and his deliverance from the gallows, +through the intercession of a celebrated duchess, but do not +recollect any of the words.”<a name="FNanchor304" id="FNanchor304"></a><a href="#Footnote304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a></p> + +<p>A transaction like this must strike the reader as something +very remarkable. Sheep-stealing, at the time mentioned, +was a capital offence, for which there was almost no +pardon; and more especially in the case of people who were +of notorious “habit and repute Gipsies,” caught in the very +act, which was aggravated by their drawing an “invasive +weapon.” Not only were they condemned, but we may +readily assume that the “country-side” were crying, “Hang +and bury the vagabonds;” and death seemed certain; when +in steps the duchess, and snatches them both from the very +teeth of the gallows. What guarantee have we that the +duchess was not a Gipsy? It certainly was not likely that +a Gipsy woman would step out of her tent, and seize a +coronet; but what cannot we imagine to have taken place, +in “the blood” working its way up, during the previous 250 +years? What guarantee have we that Professor Wilson +was not “taking a look at the old thing,” when rambling +with the Gipsies, in his youth? There are Gipsy families in +Edinburgh, to-day, of as respectable standing, and of as good +descent, as could be said of him, or many others who have +distinguished themselves in the world.</p> + +<p>We must not forget that, when the Gipsies entered Scotland, +it was for better or for worse, just for what was +to “turn up.” Very soon after their arrival, the country<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span> +would become their country, as much as that of the ordinary +natives; so that Scotland became their home, as much as if +it had always been that of their race, except their retaining +a tradition of their recent arrival from some part of the +East, and a singular sense of being part and parcel of “the +Egyptians that were scattered over the face of the earth;” +neither of which the odious prejudice against “the blood” +allowed them to forget; assuming that they were willing, +and, moreover, that the cast of their minds allowed +them, to do either. The idea which has been expressed by +the world, generally, of the Gipsy tribe gradually assimilating +with the native race, and ultimately “getting lost +among it,” applies to the principle at issue; for, as I have +already said, it <i>has</i> got greatly lost, in point of appearance, +and general deportment, among the ordinary natives, but has +remained, heart and soul, Gipsy, as before. Even with the +native race, we will find that the blood of the lowly is always +getting mixed with that in the higher circles of life. We +have the case of a girl going to service with a London brewer, +then becoming his wife, then his widow, then employing a +lawyer to manage her affairs, and afterwards marrying him, +who, in his turn, became Earl of Clarendon, and father, by +her, of the queen of James II. Towards the end of last, or +beginning of the present, century, we hear of a poor actress, +who commenced life in a provincial theatre, marrying one +of the Coutts, the bankers, and dying Duchess of St. Albans. +Such events have been of much more common occurrence in +less elevated spheres of life; and the Gipsy race has had its +share of them. For this reason, it is really impossible to +say, who, among the Scotch, are, and who are not, of the +Gipsy tribe; such a thorough mess has the “mixing of the +blood” made of the Scottish population. Notwithstanding +all that, there is a certain definite number of “Gipsies” in +Scotland, known to God only; while each Gipsy is known +in his or her conscience to belong to the tribe. This +much is certain, that we need not consult the census returns +for the number of the tribe in Scotland. However easy, or +however difficult, it may be, to define what a Gipsy, in regard +to external or internal circumstances, is, this much is +certain, that the feeling in his mind as to his being a Gipsy, +is as genuine and emphatic as is the feeling in the mind of +a Jew being a Jew.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span>The circumstances connected with the perpetuation of the +Gipsy and Jewish races greatly resemble each other. Both +races are scattered over the face of the earth. The Jew has +had a home; he has a strong attachment to it, and looks +forward to enter it at some future day. The Gipsy may be +said never to have had a home, but is at home everywhere. +“What part of England did you come from?” said I to an +English semi-tented Gipsy, in America. “What <i>part</i> of +England did I come from, did you say? I come from <i>all +over England!</i>” The Scottish race, as a race, is confined to +people born in Scotland; for the children of expatriated +Scots are not Scotchmen. And so it is with people of other +countries. The mere birth upon the soil constitutes their +race or nationality, although subsequent events, in early life, +may modify the feelings, or draw them into a new channel, +by a change of domicile, in infancy. But the Jew’s nationality +is everywhere; ‘tis in his family, and his associations +with others of his race. Make the acquaintance of the +Jews, and you will find that each generation of them tell +<i>their</i> “wonderful story” to the following generation, and +the story is repeated to the following, and the following. +The children of Jews are taught to know they are Jews, before +they can even lisp. Soon do they know that much of +the phenomenon of their race, as regards its origin, its history, +and its universality, to draw the distinction between +them and those around them who are not Jews. Soon do +they learn how their race has been despised and persecuted, +and imbibe the love which their parents have for it, and the +resentment of the odium cast upon it by others. It has been +so from the beginning of their history out of Palestine, and +even while there. Were it only religion, considered in itself, +that has kept the Jews together as a people, they might +have got lost among the rest of mankind; for among the +Jews there are to be found the rankest of infidels; even +Jewish priests will say that, “it signifies not what a man’s +religion may be, if he is only sincere in it.” Is it a feeling, +or a knowledge, of religion that leads a Jewish child, almost +the moment it can speak, to say that it is a Jew? It is +simply the workings of the phenomena of race that account +for this; the religion peculiar to Jews having been introduced +among them centuries after their existence as a +people. Being exclusively theirs in its very nature, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span> +naturally follow it, as other people do theirs; but, although, +from the nature of its origin, it presents infinitely greater +claims upon their intelligent belief and obedience, they have +yielded no greater submission to its spirit and morals, or +even to its forms, than many other people have done to their +religion, made up, as that has been, of the most fabulous +superstition, on the principle, doubtless, that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“The zealous crowds in ignorance adore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still, the less they know, they fear the more.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The Jews being a people before they received the religion +by which they are distinguished, it follows that the religion, +in itself, occupies a position of secondary importance, although +the profession of it acts and reacts upon the people, +in keeping them separate from others. The most, then, that +can be said of the religion of the Jews is, that, following in +the wake of their history as a people, it is only one of the pillars +by which the building is supported.<a name="FNanchor305" id="FNanchor305"></a><a href="#Footnote305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> If enquiry is made +of Jewish converts to Christianity, we will find that, notwithstanding +their having separated from their brethren, +on points of creed, they hold themselves as much Jews as +before. But the conversions of Jews are,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“Like angels’ visits, few and far between.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the case of individuals forsaking the Jewish, and joining +the Christian, Church, that is, believing in the Messiah +having come, instead of to come, it is natural, I may say +inevitable, for them to hold themselves Jews. They have +feelings which the world cannot understand. But beyond +the nationality, physiognomy, and feelings of Jews, there +are no points of difference, and there ought to be no +grounds of offense, between them and the ordinary inhabitants.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span> +While the points of antipathy between the Jew +and Christian rest, not upon race, considered in itself, but +mainly upon religion, and the relations proceeding from it, +it has to be seen what is to be the feeling, on the part of +the world, towards the Gipsy race; such part of it, at least, +whose habits are unexceptionable. This is one of the questions +which it is the object of this <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> to bring to +an issue.</p> + +<p>Substitute the language and signs of the Gipsies for the +religion of the Jews, and we find that the rearing of the +Gipsies is almost identical with that of the Jews; and in +the same manner do they hold themselves to be Gipsies. +But the one can be Gipsies, though ignorant of their language +and signs, and the other, Jews, though ignorant of +their religion; the mere sense of tribe and community being +sufficient to constitute them members of their respective +nationalities. The origin of the Gipsies is as distinct from +that of the rest of the world, in three continents, at least, +as is that of the Jews; and, laying aside the matter of religion, +their history, so far as it is known to the world, is as +different. If they have no religion peculiar to themselves, +to assist in holding them together, like the Jews, they have +that which is exclusively theirs—language and signs; about +which there are no such occasions to quarrel, as in the affair +of a religious creed. Indeed, the Gipsy race stands towards +religions, as the Christian religion does towards races.</p> + +<p>People are very apt to speak of the blood of the Jews +being “purity itself;” than which nothing is more unfounded. +If a person were asked, What is a pure Jew? he would feel +puzzled to give an intelligent answer to the question. We +know that Abraham and Sarah were the original parents of +the Jewish race, but that much blood has been added to it, +from other sources, ever since. Even four of the patriarchs, +the third in descent from Abraham, were the sons of concubines, +who were, doubtless, bought with money, from the +stranger, (Gen. xvii. 12 and 13,) or the descendants of such, +and were, in all probability, of as different a race from their +mistresses, Leah and Rachel, as was the bondmaid, Hagar, +the Egyptian, from her mistress, Sarah. Joseph married a +daughter of the Egyptian priest of On, and Moses, a daughter +of an Ethiopian priest of Midian. From a circumstance +mentioned in the Exodus, it would appear that Egyptian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span> +blood, perhaps much of it, had been incorporated with that +of the Jews, while in Egypt.<a name="FNanchor306" id="FNanchor306"></a><a href="#Footnote306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> And much foreign blood +seems to have been added to the body, between the Exodus +and the Babylonian captivity, through the means of proselytes +and captives, strange women and bondmaids, concubines +and harlots. We read of Rahab, of Jericho, an innkeeper, +or harlot, or both, marrying Salmon, one of the chief +men in the tribe of Judah, and becoming the mother of +Boaz, who married Ruth, a Moabitish woman, the daughter-in-law +of Naomi, and grandmother of David, from whom +Christ was lineally descended. Indeed, the Jews have always +been receiving foreign blood into their body. We +read of Timothy having been a Greek by the father’s side, +and a Jew by the mother’s; and of his having been brought +up a Jew. Such events are of frequent occurrence. There +is no real bar to marriages between Jews and Christians, +although circumstances render them difficult. The children +of such marriages sometimes resemble the Jew, and sometimes +the Christian; sometimes they cast their lot with +the Jews, in the matter of religion, and sometimes with the +Christians; but they generally follow the mother in that +matter. Such, however, is the conceit which the Jew displays +in regard to his race, that he is very reserved in +speaking about this “mixing of the blood.” I once addressed +a string of questions to a Christian-Jew preacher, +on this subject, but he declined answering them. I am intimate +with a family the parents of which are half-blood +Jews, all of whom belong to the Jewish connexion, and I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span> +find that, notwithstanding the mixture of the blood, there is +as little mental difference between them and the other Jews, +as there is between Americans of six descents, by both sides +of the house, and Americans whose descent, through one +parent, goes as far back, while, through the other parent, it +is from abroad. Purity of blood, as applicable to almost +any race, and, among others, to the Jewish, is a figment. +There are many Jews in the United States, and, doubtless, +in other countries, who are not known to other people as +Jews, either by their appearance or their attendance at the +synagogue. As a general principle, no Jew will tell the +world that he belongs to the race; he leaves that to be +found out by other people. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson says +that the Jews of the East, to this day, often have red hair +and blue eyes, and are quite unlike their brethren in Europe. +He found the large nose at Jerusalem an invariable proof +of mixture with a Western family. It is singular, however, +how easy it is to detect the generality of Jews; the nose, +the eyes, or the features, tell who they are, but not always +so. What may be termed a “pure Jew,” is when the person +has no knowledge of any other blood being in his veins +than Jewish blood; or when his feelings are entirely Jewish +as to nationality, although his creed may not be very +strongly Jewish.</p> + +<p>I will now consider the relative positions which the Jews +and Gipsies occupy towards the rest of mankind. I readily +admit that, in their original and wild state, the Gipsies have +not been of any use to the world, but, on the contrary, a +great annoyance. Still, that cannot be said altogether; for +the handy turn of the Gipsies in some of the primitive mechanical +arts, and their dealing in various wares, have been, +in a measure, useful to a certain part of the rural population; +and themselves the sources of considerable amusement; but, +taking everything into account, they have been decidedly +annoying to the world generally. In their wild state, they +have never been charged by any one with an outward contempt +for religion, whatever their inward feelings may have +been for it; but, on the contrary, as always having shown +an apparent respect for it. No one has ever complained of +the Gipsy scoffing at religion, or even for not yielding to its +general truths; what has been said of him is, that he is, at +heart, so heedless and volatile in his disposition, that everything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span> +in regard to religion passes in at the one ear, and goes +out at the other. There are, doubtless, Gipsies who will be +“unco godly,” when they can make gain by it; but it more +frequently happens that they will assume such an air, in the +presence of a person of respectable appearance, to show him +that they are really not the “horrible vagabonds” which, +they never doubt, he holds them to be. They are then sure +to overdo their part. As a general thing, they wish people +to believe that “they are not savages, but have feelings like +other people,” as “Terrible” expressed it. This much is certain, +that whenever the Gipsy settles, and acquires an incognito, +we hear of little or nothing of the canting in question. +As regards the question of religion, it is very fortunate +for the Gipsy race that they brought no particular one +with them; for, objectionable as they have been held to be, +the feeling towards them would have been worse, if they had +had a system of priestcraft and heathen idolatry among +them. But this circumstance greatly worries a respectable +Gipsy; he would much rather have it said that his ancestors +had some sort of religion, than that they none. It is +generally understood that the Gipsies did not bring any particular +religion with them; still, the ceremony of sacrificing +horses at divorces, and, at one time, at marriages, has a +strange and unaccountable significance.</p> + +<p>Then, as regards the general ways of the Gipsies. If we +consider them as those of a people who have emerged, or +are emerging, from a state of barbarism, how trifling, how +venial do they appear! Scotch people have suffered, in +times past, far more at the hands of each other, than ever +they knowingly did at the hands of the Gipsies. What was +the nature of that system of black-mail which was levied by +Highland gentlemen upon Southerners? Was it anything +but robbery? So common, so unavoidable was the payment +of black-mail, that the law had to wink at it, nay, regulate +it. But after all, it was nothing but compounding for that +which would otherwise have been stolen. It gave peace +and security to the farmer, and a revenue to the Highland +gentleman, whom it placed in the position of a nominal protector, +but actually prevented from being a robber, in law or +morals; for, let the payment of the black-mail but have been +refused, and, perhaps the next day, the Southerner would +have been ruined; so that the Highland gentleman would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span> +have obtained his rights, under any circumstances. For +Highland people, by a process of reasoning peculiar to a +people in a barbarous state, held, as we have seen, that they +had a right to rob the Lowlanders, whenever it was in their +power, and that two hundred years after the Gipsies entered +Scotland.</p> + +<p>Scottish Gipsies are British subjects, as much as either +Highland or Lowland Scots; their being of foreign origin +does not alter the case; and they are entitled to have that +justice meted out to them that has been accorded to the ordinary +natives. They are not a heaven-born race, but they +certainly found their way into the country, as if they had +dropped into it out of the clouds. As a race, they have that +much mystery, originality, and antiquity about them, and +that inextinguishable sensation of being a branch of the +same tribe everywhere, that ought to cover a multitude of +failings connected with their past history. Indeed, what we +do know of their earliest history is not nearly so barbarous +as that of our own; for we must contemplate our own ancestors, +at one time, as painted and skin-clad barbarians. +What we do know, for certainty, of the earliest history of +the Scottish Gipsies, is contained, more particularly, in the +Act of 1540; and we would naturally say, that, for a people +in a barbarous state, such is the dignity and majesty, with +all the roguishness, displayed in the conduct of the Gipsies +of that period, one could hardly have a better, certainly not +a more romantic, descent; provided the person whose descent +it is is to be found amid the ranks of Scots, with +talents, a character, and a position equal to those of others +around him. For this reason, it must be said of the race, +that whenever it shakes itself clear of objectionable habits, +and follows any kind of ordinary industry, the cause of every +prejudice against it is gone, or ought to disappear; for then, +as I have already said, the Gipsies became ordinary citizens, +of the Gipsy clan. It then follows, that in passing a fair +judgment upon the Gipsy race, we ought to establish a principle +of progression, and set our minds upon the best specimens +of it, as well as the worst, and not judge of it, solely, +from the poorest, the most ignorant, or the most barbarous +part of it.<a name="FNanchor307" id="FNanchor307"></a><a href="#Footnote307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span>What shall we say further of the relative positions which +the Jews and Gipsies occupy towards the rest of the world? +In the first place, the Jews entered Europe a civilized, and +the Gipsies a barbarous, people; so that, in instituting any +comparison between them, we should select Gipsies occupying +positions in life similar to those of the Jews. The settled +Scottish Gipsy, we find, appears to the eye of the world as +a Scotchman, and nothing more. It is the weak position +which the Gipsy race occupies in the world, as it enters upon +a settled life, and engages in steady pursuits, that compels it +to assume an incognito; for it has nothing to appeal to, as +regards the past; no history, except it be acts of legislation +passed against the race. In looking into a Dictionary or a +Cyclopædia, the Gipsy finds his race described as vagabonds, +always as vagabonds; and he may be said never to have +heard a good word spoken of it, during the whole of his life. +Hence he and his descendants “keep as quiet as pussy,” and +pass from the observation of the world. Besides this, there +is no prominent feature connected with his race, to bring it +before the world, such as there is with the Jewish, viz., history, +church, or literature. A history, the Gipsy, as we see, +doubtless has; but anything connected with him, pertaining +to the church or literature, he holds as a member of ordinary +society. Still, it would not be incorrect to speak of Gipsy +literature, as the work of a Gipsy, acquired from the sources +common to other men; as we would say of the Jews, relative +to the literature which they produce under similar circumstances.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span> +As to the Gipsy to whom I have alluded, it may +be said that it is none of our business whether he is a Gipsy +or not; there is certainly no prejudice against him as an +individual, and there can be none as a Gipsy, except such as +people may of their own accord conceive for him. Many of +the Scottish Gipsies whom I have met with are civil enough, +sensible enough, decent enough, and liberal and honourable +enough in their conduct; decidedly well bred for their positions +in life, and rather foolish and reckless with their +means, than misers; and, generally speaking, what are called +“good fellows.” It is no business of mine to ask them, how +long it is since their ancestors left the tent, or, indeed, if +they even know when that occurred; and still less, if they +know when any of them ever did anything that was contrary +to law. Still, one feels a little irksome in such a Gipsy’s +company, until the Gipsy question has been fairly brought +before the world, and the point settled, that a Gipsy may be +a gentleman, and that no disparagement is necessarily connected +with the name, considered in itself. Such Scottish +Gipsies as I have mentioned are decidedly smart, and, Yankee-like, +more adaptable in turning their hands to various +employments, than the common natives; and are a fair credit +to the country they come from, and absolutely a greater than +many of the native Scotch that are to be met with in the +New World. Let the name of Gipsy be as much respected, +in Scotland, as it is now despised, and the community would +stare to see the civilized Gipsies make their appearance; +they would come buzzing out, like bees, emerging even from +places where a person, not in the secret, never would have +dreamt of.</p> + +<p>If we consider, in a fair and philosophical manner, the +origin of these people, we will find many excuses for the +position which their ancestors have occupied. They were a +tribe of men wandering upon the face of the earth, over +which they have spread, as one wave follows and urges on +another. Those that appeared in Europe seem to have been +impelled, in their migration, by the same irresistible impulse; +to say nothing of the circumstances connected with +their coming in contact with the people whose territories +they had invaded. No one generation could be responsible +for the position in which it found itself placed. In the case +of John Faw and his company, we find that, being on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span> +face of the earth, they had to go somewhere, and invent +some sort of excuse, to secure a toleration; and the world +was bound to yield them a subsistence, of some kind, and in +some way obtained. As a wandering, barbarous, tented +tribe, with habits peculiar to itself, and inseparable from its +very nature, great allowance ought to be made for the time +necessary for its gradual absorption into settled society. +That could only be the result of generations, even if the race +had not been treated so harshly as it has been, or had such +a prejudice displayed against it. The difficulties which a +Gipsy has to encounter in leaving the tent are great, for he +has been born in that state, and been reared in it. To +leave his tent forever, and settle in a town, is a greater +trial to the innate feelings of his nature, than would be the +change from highly polished metropolitan life to a state +of solitude, in a society away from everything that had +hitherto made existence bearable. But the Gipsy will very +readily leave his tent, temporarily, to visit a town, if it is to +make money. It is astonishing how strong the circumstances +are which bind him to his tent; even his pride and +prejudices in being a “wandering Egyptian,” will, if it is +possible to live by the tent, bind him to it. Then, there is +the prejudice of the world—the objection to receive him into +any community, and his children into any school—that commonly +prevails, and which compels him to <i>steal</i> into settled +life. It has always been so with the Gipsy race. Gipsies +brought up in the tent have the same difficulties to encounter +in leaving it to-day, that others had centuries ago. But, +notwithstanding all that, they are always keeping moving +out of the tent, and becoming settled and civilized.</p> + +<p>Tented Gipsies will naturally “take bits o’ things;” many +of them would think one simple if he thought they would +not do it; some of them would even be insulted if he said +they did not do it. After they leave the tent, and commence +“tramping,” they (I do not say all of them) will still +“take bits o’ things.” From this stage of their history, they +keep gradually dropping into unexceptionable habits; and +particularly so if they receive education. But we can very +readily believe that, independent of every circumstance, there +will be Gipsies who, in a great measure, always will be +rogues. The law of necessity exercises a great influence +over the destiny of the Gipsy race; their natural encrease<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span> +is such, that, as they progress and develop, they are always +pushing others out of the sphere which those further advanced +occupy; so that it would not pay for all Gipsies to +be rogues. There is, therefore, no alternative left to the +Gipsy but to earn his bread like other men. If every Gipsy +actually “helped himself” to whatever he stood in need of, +it could hardly be said that the ordinary inhabitants would +have anything that they could really call their own. Notwithstanding +the manner how the Gipsies progress, or the +origin from which they spring, it is quite sufficient for me to +hold the race in respect, when I find them personally worthy +of it.</p> + +<p>As a Scotchman, as a citizen of the world, whether should +my sympathies lay more with the Gipsies than with the +Jews? With the Gipsies, unquestionably. For, a race, +emerging from a state of barbarism, and struggling upwards +to civilization, surrounded by so many difficulties, as is the +Gipsy, is entitled to a world of charity and encouragement. +Of the Jews, who, though blessed with the most exalted +privileges, yet allowed themselves to be reduced to their +present fallen and degraded estate, it may be said: +“Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone.” The +Gipsies are, and have always been, a rising people, although +the world may be said to have known little of them hitherto. +The Gipsy, as he emerges from his wild state, makes ample +amends for his original offensiveness, by hiding everything +relative to his being a Gipsy from his neighbours around +him. In approaching one of this class, we should be careful +not to express that prejudice for him as a Gipsy, which we +might have for him as a man; for it is natural enough to +feel a dislike for many people whom we meet with, and +which, if the people were Gipsies, we might insensibly allow +to fall upon them, on account of tribe alone; so difficult is +it to shake one’s self clear of the prejudice of caste towards +the Gipsy name. The Gipsy has naturally a happy disposition, +which circumstances cannot destroy, however much +they may be calculated to sour it. In their original state, +they are, what Grellmann says of them, “always merry and +blithe;” not apt to be surly dogs, unless made such; and +are capable of considerable attachment, when treated civilly +and kindly, without any attempt being made to commiserate +them, and after an acquaintance has been fairly established<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span> +with them. But, what are properly called their affections +must, in the position which they occupy, always remain with +their tribe. As for the other part of the race—those whose +habits are unexceptionable—it is for us to convince them +that no prejudice is entertained for them on account of their +being Gipsies; but that it would rather be pleasing and interesting +for us to know something of them as Gipsies, that +is, about their feelings as Gipsies, and hear them talk some +of this language which they have, or are supposed to have.</p> + +<p>But how different is the position which the Jews occupy +towards the rest of the world! They are, certainly, quiet +and inoffensive enough as individuals, or as a community; +whence, then, arises the dislike which most people have for +them? The Gipsies may be said to be, in a sense, strangers +amongst us, because they have never been acknowledged by +us; but the Jews are, to a certain extent, strangers under +any circumstances, and, more or less, look to entering Palestine +at some day, it may be this year, or the following. If +a Christian asks: “Who are the Jews, and what do they +here?” the reply is very plain: “They are rebels against +the Majesty of Heaven, and outcasts from His presence.” +They are certainly entitled to every privilege, social and +political, which other citizens enjoy; they have a perfect +right to follow their own religion; but other people have +an equal right to express their opinion in regard to it and +them.</p> + +<p>The Jew is an enigma to the world, unless looked at +through the light of the Old and New Testaments. In +studying the history of the Jews, we will find very little +about them, as a nation, that is interesting, to the extent of +securing our affections, whatever may be said of some of the +members of it. What appears attractive, and, I may say, +of personal importance, to the Christian, in their history, is, +not what they have been or done, but what has been done +for them by God. “What more could I have done for my +vine than I have done?” And “Which of the prophets have +they not persecuted?” “Wherefore, behold! I send unto +you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them +ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge +in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city.” And +thus it always was. “Elias saith of them, Lord, they have +killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars, and I am<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span> +left alone, and they seek my life.” Indeed, the whole history +of the Jews has given to infidels such occasion to rail +at revelation, as has caused no little annoyance to Christians. +What concerns the Christian in the Jewish history +is more particularly that which refers to the ways of God, +in preserving to Himself, in every generation, a seed who +did not bow the knee to Baal, till the appearance of Him in +whom all the nations of mankind were to be blessed. Beyond +this, we find that the Jews, as a nation, have been the +most rebellious, stiff-necked, perverse, ungrateful, and factious, +of any recorded in history. How different from what +might have been expected of them! Viewing the history +of the Jews in this aspect, the mind even finds a relief in +turning to profane history; but viewing their writings as +the records of the dispensations of God to mankind, and +they are worthy of universal reverence; although the +most interesting part of them is, perhaps, that which reaches +to the settlement of the race in Palestine. And to sum up, +to complete, and crown the history of this singularly privileged +people, previous to the destruction of their city and +temple, and their dispersion among the nations, we find that +the prophet whom Moses foretold them would be raised up +to them, they wickedly crucified and slew; “delivering up +and denying him in the presence of Pilate, when he was +determined to let him go. But they denied the Holy One +and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto +them; and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised +from the dead.” And Pilate “washed his hands before the +multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just +person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and +said, His blood be on us and on our children.” And his blood +is on their children at the present day; for while he is +acknowledged by three hundred millions of mankind as +their Lord and Master, the Jew teaches his children to +regard him as an impostor, and spit at the very mention of +his name. How great must be the infatuation of the poor +Jew, how dark the mind, how thick the veil that hangs +over his heart, how terrible the curse that rests upon his +head! But the Jew is to be pitied, not distressed; he +should be personally treated, in ordinary life, as his conduct +merits.</p> + +<p>The manner in which the Jew treats the claims of Jesus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span> +Christ disqualifies him for receiving the respect of the +Christian. He knows well that Christianity is no production +of any Gentile, but an emanation from people of his +own nation. And so conceited is the Jew in this respect, +that he will say: “Jesus Christ and his apostles were Jews: +see what Jews have done!” He regards the existence +of his race as a miracle, yet looks with indifference upon +the history and results of Christianity. People have often +wondered that Jews, as Jews, have written so little on the +inspiration of the Old Testament; but what else could have +been expected of them? How could they throw themselves +prominently forward, in urging the claims of Moses, who +was “faithful in all his house as a servant,” and totally +ignore those of Christ, who was “a son over his own +house?” So far from even entertaining the claims of the +latter, the Jew proper has the most bitter hatred for the +very mention of his name; he would almost, if he dared, +tear out part of his Scriptures, in which the Messiah is +alluded to. Does he take the trouble to give the claims of +Christianity the slightest consideration? He will spit at +it, but it is into his handkerchief; so much does he feel tied +up in the position which he occupies in the world. He +cannot say that he respects, or can respect, Christianity, +whatever he may think of its morals; for, as a Jew, he +must, and does, regard it as an imposture, and blindly so +regards it. But all Jews are not of this description; for +there are many of them who believe little in Moses or any +other, or give themselves the least trouble about such matters.</p> + +<p>The position which Jews occupy among Christians is +that which they occupy among people of a different faith. +They become obnoxious to people everywhere; for that +which is so foreign in its origin, so exclusive in its habits +and relations, and so conceited and antagonistic in its +creed, will always be so, go where it may. Besides, they +will not even eat what others have slain; and hold other +people as impure. The very conservative nature of their +creed is, to a certain extent, against them; were it aggressive, +like the Christian’s, with a genius to embrace <i>all</i> +within its fold, it would not stir up, or permanently retain, +the same ill-will toward the people who profess it; for +being of that nature which retires into the corner of selfish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span> +exclusiveness, people will naturally take a greater objection +to them. Then, the keen, money-making, and accumulating +habits of the Jews, make them appear selfish to those around +them; while the greediness, and utter want of principle, +that characterize some of them, have given a bad reputation +to the whole body, however unjustly it is applied to them +as a race.</p> + +<p>The circumstances attending the Jews’ entry into any +country, to-day, are substantially what they were before the +advent of Christ; centuries before which era, they were +scattered, in great numbers, over most part of the world; +having synagogues, and visiting, or looking to, Jerusalem, +as their home, as Catholics, in the matter of religion, have +looked to Rome. In going abroad, Jews would as little +contemplate forsaking their own religion, and worshipping +the gods of the heathen, as do Christians, to-day, in +Oriental countries; for they were as thoroughly persuaded +that their religion was divine, and all others the inventions +of man, as are Christians of theirs. Then, it was a religion +exclusively Jewish, that is, the people following it were, +with rare exceptions, exclusively Jews by nation. The +ill-will which all these circumstances, and the very appearance +of the people themselves, have raised against the Jews, +and the persecutions, of various kinds, which have universally +followed, have widened the separation between them +and other people, which the genius of their religion made so +imperative, and their feelings of nationality—nay, <i>family</i>—so +exclusive. Before the dispersion, Palestine was their +home; after the dispersion, the position and circumstances +of those abroad at the time underwent no change; they +would merely contemplate their nation in a new aspect—that +of exiles, and consider themselves, for the time being, +at home wherever they happened to be. Those that were +scattered abroad, by the destruction of Jerusalem, would, +in their persons, confirm the convictions of the others, and +reconcile them to the idea that the Jewish nation, as such, +was abroad on the face of the earth; and each generation +of the race would entertain the same sentiments. After this, +as before it, it can scarcely be said that the Jews have ever +been tolerated; if not actually persecuted, they have, at +least, always been disliked, or despised. The whole nation +having been scattered abroad, with everything pertaining<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span> +to them as a nation, excepting the temple, the high-priesthood, +and the sacrifices, with such an ancient history, and +so unequivocally divine a religion, so distinct from, and obnoxious +to, those of other nations, it is no wonder that they, +the common descendants of Abraham and Sarah, should +have ever since remained a distinct people in the world; as +all the circumstances surrounding them have universally +remained the same till to-day.</p> + +<p>A Jew of to-day has a much greater aversion to forsake +the Jewish community than any other man has to renounce +his country; and his associations of nationality are manifested +wherever a Jewish society is to be found, or wherever +he can meet with another Jew. This is the view which he +takes of his race, as something distinct from his religion; +for he contemplates himself as being of that people—of the +same blood, features, and feelings, all children of Abraham +and Sarah—that are to be found everywhere; that part of it +to which he has an aversion being only such as apostatize +from his religion, and more particularly such as embrace +the Christian faith. In speaking of Jews, we are too apt +to confine our ideas exclusively to a creed, forgetting that +Jews are a race; and that Christian Jews are Jews as well +as Jewish Jews. Were it possible to bring about a reformation +among the Jews, by which synagogues would embrace +the Christian faith, we would see Jewish Christian +churches; the only difference being, that they would believe +in Him whom their fathers pierced, and lay aside only such +of the ceremonies of Moses as the Gospel had abrogated. +If a movement of that kind were once fairly afoot, by which +was presented to the Jew, his people as a community, however +small it might be, there would be a great chance of +his becoming a Christian, in one sense or other: he could +then assume the position of a protesting Jew, holding the +rest of his countrymen in error; and his own Christian-Jewish +community as representing his race, as it ought to +exist.</p> + +<p>At present, the few Christian Jews find no others of their +race with whom to form associations as a community; so +that, to all intents and purposes, they feel as if they were a +sort of outcasts, despised and hated by those of their own +race, and separated from the other inhabitants by a natural +law, over which neither have any control, however much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></span> +they may associate with, and respect, each other. It requires +a very powerful moral influence to constrain a Jew in +embracing the Christian faith—almost nothing short of +divine grace; and sometimes a very powerful immoral one +in professing it—that which peculiarly characterizes Jews—the +love of money. Were a community of Christian Jews +firmly established, among whom were observed every tittle +of the Jewish ceremonial, excepting such as the dispensation +of Christ had positively abolished; or even observing most +of that, (circumcision, for example,) as merely characteristic +of a people, without attaching to it the meaning of a service +recommending themselves, in any way, to the mercy of God; +and many Jews would doubtless join such a society. They +could believe in Christ as their Messiah—as their prophet, +priest, and king; receive baptism in His name; and depend +on Him for a place of happiness in a future state of existence. +To such, the injunction, as declared by St. Paul, is: “If +thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt +believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the +dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans x. 9.) And when they +contemplate death, they might lay their heads down in +peace, with the further assurance, as also declared by St. +Paul: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, +even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with +him.” (I Thess. iv. 14.) This is the kind of Messiah which +the Jew should contemplate, and seek after. He will find +his conception and birth more particularly recorded in the +two first, and his death, resurrection, and ascension, more +fully detailed in the two last, chapters of the Gospel according +to St. Luke. A person would naturally think that a +Jew would have the natural curiosity to read this wonderful +book called the “New Testament;” since, at its very lowest +estimate, it is, with the exception of the writings of St. +Luke, altogether a production of people of his own nation. +Among the Jews, there are not a few who believe in Christ, +yet, more or less, appear at the synagogue. They have no +objections to become “spectacles to angels;” but they are +not willing to make themselves such to men, by placing +themselves in that isolated position which a public profession +of Christianity would necessarily lead to. But, all +things considered, one is rather apt to fall into Utopian +ideas in speaking of the conversion of Jews, as a body, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span> +even as individuals, unless the grace of God, in an especial +degree, accompanies the means to that end.</p> + +<p>It is no elevated regard for the laws of Moses, or any +exalted sense of the principles contained in the Old Testament, +that leads a Jew to lend a deaf ear to the claims of +Christianity; for his respect for them has always been indifferent, +even contemptible, enough. Indeed, the Talmud, +which is the Jew’s gospel, may be characterized as being, in +a very great part, a tissue of that which is silly and puerile, +obscene and blasphemous. It is with the Jew now, as it was +at the advent of Christ. “They have paid tithe of mint, +and anise, and cummin, and omitted the weightier matters +of the law—judgment, mercy, and faith.” “Laying aside +the commandment of God, they have held the tradition of +men, as the washing of pots and cups, and many other such-like +things;” “making the word of God of none effect +through their traditions which they have delivered.” “Full +well have they rejected the commandments of God, that they +might keep their own traditions.” “In vain do they worship +me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” +The main prop of a Jew for remaining a Jew, in regard to +religion, rests much more upon the wonderful phenomena +connected with the history of his nation—its antiquity, its +associations, its universality, and the length of time which it +has existed, since its dispersion, distinct from the rest of the +world, and so unique, (as he imagines,) that he at once concludes +it must have the special approbation of God for the +position which it occupies; which is very true, although it +proceeds from a different motive than that which the Jew so +vainly imagines. The Jew imagines that God approves of +his conduct, in his stubborn rebellion to the claims of +Christianity, because he finds his race existing so distinct +from the rest of the world; whereas, if he studies his own +Scriptures, he will see that the condition of his race is the +punishment due to its rebellion. Who knows but that the +mark which is to be found upon the Jew answers, in a sense, +the purpose of that which every one found upon Cain? Did +not his ancestors call a solemn imprecation upon his head, +when they compelled Pilate to crucify the “just person,” +when he was determined to let him go; with no other excuse +than, “His blood be on us, and on our children?” Will +any genuine Jew repudiate the conduct of his ancestors, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span> +say that Christ was not an impostor, that he was not a +blasphemer, and that, consequently, he did not deserve, by +the law of his nation, to be put to death?</p> + +<p>The history of the Jews acts as a spell upon the unfortunate +Jew, and proves the greatest bar to his conversion +to Christianity. He vainly imagines that his race stands +out from among all the races of mankind, by a miracle, +wrought for that purpose, and with the special approbation +of God upon it, for adhering to its religion; and that, therefore, +Christianity is a delusion. But we must break this +spell that enchants the Jew, and “provoke him to jealousy +by them that are no people.” And who are this people? +The Gipsies? Yes, the Gipsies! For they are numerous, +though not as numerous, and ancient, though not as ancient, as +the Jews.<a name="FNanchor308" id="FNanchor308"></a><a href="#Footnote308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a></p> + +<p>As to the Gipsy population, scattered over the world, I +think that the intelligent reader will agree with me, after +all that has been said, in estimating it as very large. There +seems no reason for thinking that the Gipsies suffered so +greatly, by the laws passed against them, as people have +imagined; for the cunning of the Gipsy, and the wild, or +partly uncultivated, face of all the countries of Europe +would afford him many facilities to evade the laws passed +against him. We have already seen what continental +writers have said of the race, relative to the laws passed +against it: “But, instead of passing the boundaries, they +only slunk into hiding places, and, shortly after, appeared in +as great numbers as before.” And this seems to have been +invariably the case over the whole of Europe. Mr. Borrow, +as we have already seen, speaks of every Spanish monarch, +on succeeding to the crown, passing laws against the Gipsies. +If former laws were put in force, there would be no occasion +for making so many new ones; the very fact of so many +laws having been passed against the Gipsy race, in Spain, is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span> +sufficient proof of each individual law never having been +put to much execution, but rather, as has already been said, +(<a href="#Page_394">page 394</a>,) of its having been customary for every king of +Spain to issue such against them. It does not appear that +any force was employed to hunt the Gipsies out of the +country, but that matters were left to the ordinary local +authorities, whom the tribe would, in many instances, manage +to render passive, or beyond whose jurisdiction they would +remove for the time being. The laws passed against the +nobility and commonalty of Spain, for protecting the Gipsies, +(<a href="#Page_114">page 114</a>,) is a very instructive commentary on +those for the extermination of the body itself. But the case +most in point is in the Scottish laws passed against the +Gipsies. Upon the passing of the Act of James VI., in +1609, we find that the Gipsies “dispersed themselves in +certain secret and obscure places of the country”; and that, +when the storm was blown over, they “began to take new +breath and courage, and unite themselves in infamous companies +and societies, under commanders” (<a href="#Page_114">page 114</a>). The +extreme bitterness displayed in Scots acts of parliament +against the best classes of the population, for protecting +and entertaining the tribe, and, consequently, rendering the +other acts nugatory, has a very important bearing upon the +subject. We find that the Gipsies wandered up and down +France for a hundred years, unmolested; and that, so +numerous had they become, that, in 1545, the King of +France entertained the idea of embodying four thousand +of them, to act as pioneers in taking Boulogne, then in possession +of England. The last notice which we have of the +French Gipsies was that made by Grellmann, when he says: +“In France, before the Revolution, there were but few, for +the obvious reason, that every Gipsy who could be apprehended, +fell a sacrifice to the police.” Grellmann, however, +had not studied the subject sufficiently deep to account for +the destiny of the race. If they were so very numerous in +France, in 1545, the natural encrease, in whatever position +in life it might be, must have been very great during the +following 235 years. I have learned, from the best of +authority, that there are many Gipsies in Flanders.<a name="FNanchor309" id="FNanchor309"></a><a href="#Footnote309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a> If the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span> +Gipsies in England were estimated at above ten thousand, +during the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, how +many may they not be now, including those of every kind of +mixture of blood, character, and position in life? If there +is one Gipsy in the British Isles, there cannot be less than a +quarter of a million, and, possibly, as many as six hundred +thousand; and, instead of there being sixty thousand in +Spain, and constantly <i>decreasing</i>, (<i>disappearing</i> is the right +word,) we may safely estimate them at three hundred thousand. +The reader has already been informed of what becomes +of all the Gipsies. As a case in point, I may ask, +who would have imagined that there was such a thing in +Edinburgh as a factory, filled, not merely with Gipsies, but +with <i>Irish</i> Gipsies? The owner of the establishment was +doubtless a Gipsy; for how did so many Gipsies come to +work in it, or how did he happen to know that his workmen +were <i>all</i> Gipsies, or that even <i>one</i> of them was a Gipsy?</p> + +<p>Even to take Grellmann’s estimate of the Gipsies in Europe, +at from 700,000 to 800,000, and the race must be very +numerous to-day. Since his time, the Negroes in the United +States have encreased from 500,000 to 4,000,000, and this +much is certain, that Gipsies are, to say the least of it, as +prolific as Negroes. The encrease in both includes much +white blood added to the respective bodies. Some of the +Gipsies have, doubtless, been hanged; but, on the other +hand, many of the Negroes have been worked to death. +There is a great difference, however, between the wild, independent +Gipsy race and the Negroes in the New World. +I should not suppose that the Gipsy race in Europe and +America can be less than 4,000,000. It embraces, for certainty, +as in Scotland, men ranging in character and position +from a pillar of the Church down to a common tinker.<a name="FNanchor310" id="FNanchor310"></a><a href="#Footnote310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a></p> + +<p>Christians not only flatter but delude the Jew, when they +say that his race is “purity itself;” they greatly flatter and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></span> +delude him, when they say that the phenomenon of its existence, +since the dispersion, is miraculous. There is nothing +miraculous about it. There is nothing miraculous about the +perpetuation of Quakerdom; yet Quakerdom has existed for +two centuries. Although Quakerdom is but an artificial +thing, that proceeded out from among common English people, +it has somewhat the appearance of being a distinct race, +among those surrounding it. As such, it appears, at first +sight, to inexperienced youth, or people who have never seen, +or perhaps heard, much of Quakers. But how much greater +is the difference between Jews and Christians, than between +Quakers and ordinary Englishmen, and Americans! And +how much greater the certainty that Jews will keep themselves +distinct from Christians, and all others in the world! +It must be self-evident to the most unreflecting person, that +the natural causes which keep Jews separated from other +people, during one generation, continue to keep them distinct +during every other generation. A miracle, indeed! We +must look into the Old and New Testaments for miracles. +A Jew will naturally delude himself about the existence of +his race, since the dispersion, being a miracle; yet not believe +upon a person, if he were even to rise from the dead! +A little consideration of the philosophy of the Jewish question +will teach us that, perhaps, the best way for Providence +to preserve the Jews, as they have existed since their dispersion, +would have been merely to leave them alone—leave +them to their impenitence and unbelief—and take that much +care of them that is taken of ravens.</p> + +<p>The subject of the Gipsies is a mine which Christians +should work, so as to countermine and explode the conceit +of the Jew in the history of his people; for that, as I have +already said, is the greatest bar to his conversion to Christianity. +Still, it is possible that some people may oppose +the idea that the Gipsies are the “mixed multitude” of the +Exodus, from some such motive as that which induces others +not merely to disbelieve, but revile, and even rave at some +of the clear points of revelation.<a name="FNanchor311" id="FNanchor311"></a><a href="#Footnote311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a> What objection could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></span> +any one advance against the Gipsies being the people that +left Egypt, in the train of the Jews? Not, certainly, an objection +as to race; for there must have been many captive +people, or tribes, introduced into Egypt, from the many +countries surrounding it. Pharaoh was a czar in his day, +transplanting people at his pleasure. Of one of his cities it +was said,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“That spreads her conquests o’er a thousand states,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pours her heroes through a hundred gates:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two hundred horsemen, and two hundred cars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From each wide portal, issuing to the wars.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That the “mixed multitude” travelled into India, acquired +the language of that part of Asia, and, perhaps, modified its +appearance there, and became the origin of the Gipsy race, +we may very safely assume. This much is certain, that they +are not Sudras, but a very ancient tribe, distinct from every +other in the world. With the exception of the Jews, we +have no certainty of the origin of any people; in every +other case it is conjecture; even the Hungarians know nothing +of their origin; and it is not wonderful that it should +be the same with the Gipsies. Everything harmonizes so +beautifully with the idea that the Gipsies are the “mixed +multitude” of the Exodus, that it may be admitted by the +world. Even in the matter of religion, we could imagine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span> +Egyptian captives losing a knowledge of their religion, as +has happened with the Africans in the New World, and, not +having had another taught them, leaving Egypt under Moses, +without any religion at all.<a name="FNanchor312" id="FNanchor312"></a><a href="#Footnote312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a> After entering India, they +would, in all probability, become a wandering people, and, +for a certainty, live aloof from all others.</p> + +<p>While the history of the Jews, since the dispersion, greatly +illustrates that of the Gipsies, so does the history of the Gipsies +greatly illustrate that of the Jews. They greatly resemble +each other. Jews shuffle, when they say that the +only difference between an Englishman and an English Jew, +is in the matter of creed; for there is a great difference between +the two, whatever they may have in common, as men +born and reared on the same soil. The very appearance of +the two is palpable proof that they are not of the same race. +The Jew invariably, and unavoidably, holds his “nation” to +mean the Jewish people, scattered over the world; and is +reared in the idea that he is, not only in creed, but in blood, +distinct from other men; and that, in blood and creed, he +is not to amalgamate with them, let him live where he may. +Indeed, what England is to an Englishman, this universally +scattered people is to the Jew; what the history of England +is to an Englishman, the Bible is to the Jew; his nation being +nowhere in particular, but everywhere, while its ultimate +destiny he, more or less, believes to be Palestine. Now, an +Englishman has not only been born an Englishman, but his +mind has been cast in a mould that makes him an Englishman; +so that, to persecute him, on the ground of his being +an Englishman, is to persecute him for that which can never +be changed. It is precisely so with the Jew. His creed +does not amount to much, for it is only part of the history +of his race, or the law of his nation, traced to, and emanating +from, one God, and Him the true God, as distinguished +from the gods and lords many of other nations: such is the +nature of the Jewish theocracy. To persecute a Gipsy, for +being a Gipsy, would likewise be to persecute him for that +which he could not help; for to prevent a person being a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></span> +Gipsy, in the most important sense of the word, it would be +necessary to take him, when an infant, and rear him entirely +apart from his own race, so that he should never hear the +“wonderful story,” nor have his mind filled with the Gipsy +electric fluid. An English Gipsy went abroad, very young, +as a soldier, and was many years from home, without having +had a Gipsy companion, so that he had almost forgotten +that he was a Gipsy; but, on his returning home, other Gipsies +applied their magnetic battery to him, and gipsyfied +him over again. A town Gipsy will occasionally send a +child to a Gipsy hedge-schoolmaster, for the purpose of being +extra gipsyfied.</p> + +<p>The being a Gipsy, or a Jew, or a Gentile, consists in birth +and rearing. The three may be born and brought up under +one general roof, members of their respective nationalities, +yet all good Christians. But the Jew, by becoming a Christian, +necessarily cuts himself off from associations with the +representative part of his nation; for Jews do not tolerate +those who forsake the synagogue, and believe in Christ, as +the Messiah having come; however much they may respect +their children, who, though born into the Christian Church, +and believing in its doctrines, yet maintain the inherent affection +for the associations connected with the race, and +more especially if they also occupy distinguished positions +in life. So intolerant, indeed, are Jews of each other, in +the matter of each choosing his own religion, extending +sometimes to assassination in some countries, and invariably +to the crudest persecutions in families, that they are hardly +justified in asking, and scarcely merit, toleration for themselves, +as a people, from the nations among whom they live. +The present Disraeli doubtless holds himself to be a Jew, +let his creed or Christianity be what it may; if he looks at +himself in his mirror, he cannot deny it. We have an instance +in the Cappadoce family becoming, and remaining for +several generations, Christians, then returning to the synagogue, +and, in another generation, joining the Christian +church. The same vicissitude may attend future generations +of this family. There should be no great obstacle in the +way of it being allowed to pass current in the world, like +any other fact, that a person can be a Jew and, at the same +time, a Christian; as we say that a man can be an Englishman +and a Christian, a McGregor and a Christian, a Gipsy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span> +and a Christian, or a Jew and a Christian, even should he +not know when his ancestors attended the synagogue. +Christianity was not intended, nor is it capable, to destroy +the nationality of Jews, as individuals, or as a nation, any +more than that of other people. We may even assume that +a person, having a Jew for one parent, and a Christian for +another, and professing the Christian faith, and having the +influences of the Jew exercised over him from his infancy, +cannot fail, with his blood and, it may be, physiognomy, to +have feelings peculiar to the Jews; although he may believe +them as blind, in the matter of religion, as do other Christians. +But separate him, after the death of the Jewish +parent, from all associations with Jews, and he may gradually +lose those peculiarly Jewish feelings that are inseparable +from a Jewish community, however small it may be. There +are, then, no circumstances, out of and independent of himself +and the other members of his family, to constitute him a +Jew; and still less can it be so with his children, when they +marry with ordinary Christians, and never come in intimate +contact with Jews. The Jewish feeling may be ultimately +crossed out in this way; I say ultimately, for it does not +take place in the first descent, (and that is as far as my personal +knowledge goes,) even although the mother is an ordinary +Christian, and the children have been brought up exclusively +to follow her religion.</p> + +<p>Gipsydom, however, goes with the individual, and keeps +itself alive in the family, and the private associations of life, +let its creed be what it may; the original cast of mind, +words, and signs, always remaining with itself. In this respect, +the Gipsy differs from every other man. He cannot +but know who he is to start life with, nor can he forget it; +he has those words and signs within himself which, as he +moves about in the world, he finds occasion to use. A Jew +may boast of the peculiar cast of countenance by which his +race is generally characterized, and how his nation is kept +together by a common blood, history, and creed. But the +phenomenon connected with the history of the Gipsy race is +more wonderful than that which is connected with the Jewish; +inasmuch as, let the blood of the Gipsy become as much +mixed as it may, it always preserves its Gipsy identity; although +it may not have the least outward resemblance to an +original Gipsy. You cannot crush or cross out the Gipsy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span> +race; so thoroughly subtle, so thoroughly adaptable, so +thoroughly capable, is it to evade every weapon that can be +forged against it. The Gipsy soul, in whatever condition it +may be found, or whatever may be the tabernacle which it +may inhabit, is as independent, now, of those laws which +regulate the disappearance of certain races among others, +as when it existed in its wild state, roaming over the heath. +The Gipsy race, in short, absorbs, but cannot be absorbed by, +other races.</p> + +<p>In my associations with Gipsies and Jews, I find that both +races rest upon the same basis, viz.: a question of people. +The response of the one, as to who he is, is that he is a Gipsy; +and of the other, that he is a Jew. Each of them has a +peculiarly original soul, that is perfectly different from each +other, and others around them; a soul that passes as naturally +and unavoidably into each succeeding generation of +the respective races, as does the soul of the English or any +other race into each succeeding generation. For each considers +his nation as abroad upon the face of the earth; +which circumstance will preserve its existence amid all the +revolutions to which ordinary nations are subject. As they +now exist within, and independent of, the nations among +whom they live, so will they endure, if these nations were +to disappear under the subjection of other nations, or become +incorporated with them under new names. Many of the +Gipsies and Jews might perish amid such convulsions, but +those that survived would constitute the stock of their respective +nations; while others might migrate from other +countries, and contribute to their numbers. In the case of +the Gipsy nation, as it gets crossed with common blood, the +issue shows the same result as does the shaking of the needle +on the card—it always turns to the pole: that pole, among +the Gipsies, being a sense of its blood, and a sympathy with +the same people in every part of the world. For this reason, +the Gipsy race, like the Jewish, may, with regard to its +future, be said to be even eternal.</p> + +<p>The Gipsy soul is fresh and original, not only from its +recent appearance in Europe, without any traditional knowledge +of its existence anywhere else, but from having sprung +from so singular an origin as a tent; so that the mystery +that attaches to it, from those causes, and the contemplation +of the Gipsy, in his original state, to-day, present to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span> +Gipsy that fascination for his own history which the Jew +finds in the antiquity of his race, and the exalted privileges +with which it was at one time visited. The civilized Gipsy +looks upon his ancestors, as they appeared in Europe generally, +and Scotland especially, as great men, as heroes who +scorned the company of anything below a gentleman. And +he is not much out of the way; for John Faw, and Towla +Bailyow, and the others mentioned in the act of 1540, were +unquestionably heroes of the first water. He pictures to +himself these men as so many swarthy, slashing heroes, +dressed in scarlet and green, armed with pistols and broad-swords, +mounted on blood-horses, with hawks and hounds in +their train. True to nature, every Gipsy is delighted with +his descent, no matter what other people, in their ignorance +of the subject, may think of it, or what their prejudices may +be in regard to it. One of the principal differences to be +drawn between the history of the Gipsies and that of the +Jews, is, as I have already stated, that the Jews left Palestine +a civilized people, while the Gipsies entered Europe, in +the beginning of the fifteenth century, in a barbarous state. +But the difference is only of a relative nature; for when +the Gipsies emerge from their original condition, they occupy +as good positions in the world as the Jews; while they +have about them none of those outward peculiarities of the +Jews, that make them, in a manner, offensive to other people. +In every sense but that of belonging to the Gipsy tribe, +they are ordinary natives; for the circumstances that have +formed the characters of the ordinary natives have formed +theirs. Besides this, there is a degree of dignity about the +general bearing of such people, rough as it sometimes is, +that plainly shows that they are no common fellows, at least +that they do not hold themselves to be such. For it is to be +remarked, that such people do not directly apply to themselves +the prejudice which exists towards what the world +understands to be Gipsies; however much they may infer +that such would be directed against them, should the world +discover that they belonged to the tribe. In this respect, +they differ from Jews, all of whom apply to themselves the +prejudice of the rest of their species; which exercises so +depressing an influence upon the character of a people. Indeed, +one will naturally look for certain general superior +points of character in a man who has fairly emerged from a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span> +wild and barbarous state, which he will not be so apt to find +in another who has fallen from a higher position in the scale +of nations, which the Jew has unquestionably done. A Jew, +no matter what he thinks of the long-gone-by history of his +race, looks upon it, now, as a fallen people; while the Gipsy +has that subdued but, at heart, consequential, extravagance +of ideas, springing from the wild independence and vanity +of his ancestors, which frequently finds a vent in a lavish +and foolish expenditure, so as not to be behind others in his +liberality. A very good idea of such a cast of character +may be formed from that of the superior class of Gipsies +mentioned by our author, when the descendants of such +have been brought up under more favourable circumstances, +and enjoyed all the advantages of the ordinary natives of +the country.</p> + +<p>In considering the phenomenon of the existence of the +Jews since the dispersion, I am not inclined to place it on +any other basis than I would that of the Gipsies; for, with +both, it is substantially a question of people. They are a +people, scattered over the world, like the Gipsies, and have +a history—the Bible, which contains both their history +and their laws; and these two contain their religion. It +would, perhaps, be more correct to say, that the religion +of the Jews is to be found in the Talmud, and the other +human compositions, for which the race have such a superstitious +reverence; and even these are taken as interpreted +by the Rabbis. A Jew has, properly speaking, little of a +creed. He believes in the existence of God, and in Moses, +his prophet, and observes certain parts of the ceremonial +law, and some holidays, commemorative of events in the +history of his people. He is a Jew, in the first place, as a +simple matter of fact, and, as he grows up, he is made acquainted +with the history of his race, to which he becomes +strongly attached. He then holds himself to be one of the +“first-born of the Lord,” one of the “chosen of the Eternal,” +one of the “Lord’s aristocracy;” expressions of amazing +import, in his worldly mind, that will lead him to almost +die for his <i>faith</i>; while his <i>religion</i> is of a very low natural +order, “standing only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, +and carnal ordinances,” suitable for a people in a state +of pupilage. The Jewish mind, in the matter of religion, is, +in some respects, preëminently gross and material in its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span> +nature; its idea of a Messiah rising no higher than a conqueror +of its own race, who will bring the whole world +under his sway, and parcel out, among his fellow-Jews, a +lion’s share of the spoils, consisting of such things as the +inferior part of human nature so much craves for. And his +ideas of how this Messiah is to be connected with the original +tribes, as mentioned in the prophecies, are childish +and superstitious in the extreme. Writers do, therefore, +greatly err, when they say, that it is only a thin partition +that separates Judaism from Christianity. There is almost +as great a difference between the two, as there is between +that which is material, and that which is spiritual. A Jew +is so thoroughly bound, heart and soul, by the spell which +the phenomena of his race exert upon him, that, humanly +speaking, it is impossible to make anything of him in the +matter of Christianity. And herein, in his own way of thinking, +consists his peculiar glory. Such being the case with +Christianity, it is not to be supposed that the Jew would +forsake his own religion, and, of course, his own people, and +believe in any religion having an origin in the spontaneous +and gradual growth of superstition and imposture, modified, +systematized, adorned, or expanded, by ambitious and +superior minds, or almost wholly in the conceptions of +these minds; having, for a foundation, an instinct—an +intellectual and emotional want—as common to man, as +instinct is to the brute creation, for the ends which it has +to serve. We cannot separate the questions of race and +belief, when we consider the Jews as a people, however it +might be with individuals among them. It was as unreasonable +to persecute a Jew, for not giving up his feelings +as a Jew, and his religion, for the superstitions and impostures +of Rome, as it was to persecute a Gipsy, for not giving +up his feelings of nationality, and his language, as was specially +attempted by Charles III., of Spain: for such are inherent +in the respective races. The worst that can be said +of any Gipsy, in the matter of religion, is, when we meet +with one who admits that all that he really cares for is, +“to get a good belly-full, and to feel comfortable o’ nights.” +Here, we have an original soil to be cultivated; a soil that +can be cultivated, if we only go the right way about doing it. +Out of such a man, there is no other spirit to be cast, but +that of “the world, the flesh, and the devil,” before another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span> +can take up its habitation in his mind. Bigoted as is the +Jew against even entertaining the claims of Christ, as the +Messiah, he is very indifferent to the practice, or even the +knowledge, of his own religion, where he is tolerated and +well-treated, as in the United States of America. Of the +growing-up, or even the grown-up, Jews in that country, +the ultra-Jewish organ, the “Jewish Messenger,” of New +York, under date the 19th October, 1860, says that, “with +the exception of a very few, who are really taught their religion, +the great majority, we regret to state, know no more +of their faith than the veriest heathen:” and, I might add, +practise less of it; for, as a people, they pay very little +regard to it, in general, or to the Sabbath, in particular, +but are characterized as worldly beyond measure; having +more to answer for than the Gipsy, whose sole care is “a +good meal, and a comfortable crib at night.”<a name="FNanchor313" id="FNanchor313"></a><a href="#Footnote313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a></p> + +<p>Amid all the obloquy and contempt cast upon his race, +amid all the persecutions to which it has been exposed, the +Jew, with his inherent conceit in having Abraham for his +father, falls back upon the history of his nation, with the +utmost contempt for everything else that is human; forgetting +that there is such a thing as the “first being last.” He +boasts that his race, and his only, is eternal, and that all +other men get everything from <i>him</i>! He vainly imagines +that the Majesty of Heaven should have made his dispensations +to mankind conditional upon anything so unworthy as +his race has so frequently shown itself to be. If he has been +so favoured by God, what can he point to as the fruits of so +much loving-kindness shown him? What is his nation +now, however numerous it may be, but a ruin, and its members, +but spectres that haunt it? And what has brought it +to its present condition? “Its sins.” Doubtless, its sins; +but what particular sins? And how are these sins to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span> +put away, seeing that the temple, the high-priesthood, and +the sacrifices no longer exist? Or what effort, by such +means as offer, has ever been made to mitigate the wrath +of God, and prevail upon Him to restore the people to their +exalted privileges? Or what could they even propose +doing, to bring about that event? Questions like these involve +the Jewish mind in a labyrinth of difficulties, from +which it cannot extricate itself. The dispersion was not +only foretold, but the cause of it given. The Scriptures +declare that the Messiah was to have appeared before the +destruction of the temple; and the time of his expected advent, +according to Jewish traditions, coincided with that +event. It is eighteen centuries since the destruction of the +temple, before which the Messiah was to have come; and +the Jew still “hopes against hope,” and, if it is left to himself, +will do so till the day of judgment, for such a Messiah as +his earthly mind seems to be only capable of contemplating. +Has he never read the New Testament, and reflected on +the sufferings of him who was meek and lowly, or on those +of his disciples, inflicted by his ancestors, for generations, +when he has come complaining of the sufferings to which +his race has been exposed? He is entitled to sympathy, +for all the cruelties with which his race has been visited; +but he could ask it with infinitely greater grace, were he to +offer any for the sufferings of the early Christians and their +divine master, or were he, even, to tolerate any of his race +following him to-day.</p> + +<p>What has the Jew got to say to all this? He cannot +now say that his main comfort and support, in his unbelief, +consists in his contemplating what he vainly calls a miracle, +wrapt up in the history of his people, since the dispersion. +That prop and comfort are gone. No, O Jew! the true +miracle, if miracle there is, is your impenitent unbelief. +No one asks you to disbelieve in Moses, but, in addition to +believing in Moses, to believe in him of whom Moses wrote. +Do you really believe in Moses? You, doubtless, believe +after a sort; you believe in Moses, as any other person believes +in the history of his own country and people; but +your belief in Moses goes little further. You glory in the +antiquity of your race, and imagine that every other has +perished. No, O Jew! the “mixed multitude” which left +Egypt, under Moses, separated from him, and passed into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span> +India, has come up, in these latter times, again to vex you. +Even it is entering, it may be, pressing, into the Kingdom +of God, and leaving you out of it. Yes! the people from +the “hedges and by-ways” are submitting to the authority +of the true Messiah; while you, in your infatuated blindness, +are denying him.</p> + +<p>What may be termed the philosophy of the Gipsies, is +very simple in itself, when we have before us its main points, +its principles, its bearings, its genius; and fully appreciated +the circumstances with which the people are surrounded. +The most remarkable thing about the subject is, that people +never should have dreamt of its nature, but, on the contrary, +believed that “the Gipsies are gradually disappearing, +and will soon become extinct.” The Gipsies have always +been disappearing, but where do they go to? Look at +any tent of Gipsies, when the family are all together, and +see how prolific they are. What, then, becomes of this encrease? +The present work answers the question. It is a +subject, however, which I have found some difficulty in getting +people to understand. One cannot see how a person +can be a Gipsy, “because his father was a respectable man;” +another, “because his father was an old soldier;” and +another cannot see “how it necessarily follows that a person +is a Gipsy, for the reason that his parents were Gipsies.” +The idea, as disconnected from the use of a tent, or following +a certain kind of life, may be said to be strange to the +world; and, on that account, is not very easily impressed on +the human mind. It would be singular, however, if a Scotchman, +after all that has been said, should not be able to +understand what is meant by the Scottish Gipsy tribe, or +that it should ever cease to be that tribe as it progresses in +life. In considering the subject, he need not cast about for +much to look at, for he should exercise his mind, rather than +his eyes, when he approaches it. It is, principally, a mental +phenomenon, and should, therefore, be judged of by the +faculties of the mind: for a Gipsy may not differ a whit +from an ordinary native, in external appearance or character, +while, in his mind, he may be as thorough a Gipsy as +one could well imagine.</p> + +<p>In contemplating the subject of the Gipsies, we should +have a regard for the facts of the question, and not be led +by what we might, or might not, imagine of it; for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span> +latter course would be characteristic of people having the +moral and intellectual traits of children. The race might, +to a certain extent, be judged analogously, by what we know +of other races; but that which is pre-eminently necessary, +is to judge of it by facts: for facts, in a matter like this, +take precedence of everything. Even in regard to the +Gipsy language, broken as it is, people are very apt to say +that it <i>cannot</i> exist at the present day; yet the least reflection +will convince us, that the language which the Gipsies +use is the remains of that which they brought with them +into Europe, and not a make-up, to serve their purposes. +The very genius peculiar to them, as an Oriental people, +is a sufficient guarantee of this fact; and the more so from +their having been so thoroughly separated, by the prejudice +of caste, from others around them; which would so naturally +lead them to use, and retain, their peculiar speech. But +the use of the Gipsy language is not the only, not even the +principal, means of maintaining a knowledge of being Gipsies; +perhaps it is altogether unnecessary; for the mere +consciousness of the fact of being Gipsies, transmitted from +generation to generation, and made the basis of marriages, +and the intimate associations of life, is, in itself, perfectly +sufficient. The subject of two distinct races, existing upon +the same soil, is not very familiar to the mind of a British +subject. To acquire a knowledge of such a phenomenon, +he should visit certain parts of Europe, or Asia, or Africa, +or the New World. Since all (I may say all) Gipsies hide +the knowledge of their being Gipsies from the other inhabitants, +as they leave the tent, it cannot be said that any +of them really deny themselves, even should they hide themselves +from those of their own race. The ultimate test of a +person being a Gipsy would be for another to catch the internal +response of his mind to the question put to him as to +the fact; or observe the workings of his heart in his contemplations +of himself. It can hardly be said that any +Gipsy denies, at heart, the fact of his being a Gipsy, +(which, indeed, is a contradiction in terms,) let him disguise +it from others as much as he may. If I could find such +a man, he would be the only one of his race whom I +would feel inclined to despise as such.</p> + +<p>From all that has been said, the reader can have no difficulty +in believing, with me, as a question beyond doubt, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span> +the immortal John Bunyan was a Gipsy of mixed blood. +He was a tinker. And who were the tinkers? Were there +any itinerant tinkers in England, before the Gipsies settled +there? It is doubtful. In all likelihood, articles requiring +to be tinkered were carried to the nearest smithy. The +Gipsies are all tinkers, either literally, figuratively, or representatively. +Ask any English Gipsy, of a certain class, +what he can do, and, after enumerating several occupations, +he will add: “I can tinker, of course,” although he may +know little or nothing about it. Tinkering, or travelling-smith +work, is the Gipsy’s representative business, which he +brought with him into Europe. Even the intelligent and +respectable Scottish Gipsies speak of themselves as belonging +to the “tinker tribe.” The Gipsies in England, as in +Scotland, divided the country among themselves, under +representative chiefs, and did not allow any other Gipsies +to enter upon their walks or beats. Considering that the +Gipsies in England were estimated at above ten thousand +during the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, we +can readily believe that they were much more numerous +during the time of Bunyan. Was there, therefore, a pot or +a kettle, in the rural parts of England, to be mended, for +which there was not a Gipsy ready to attend to it? If a Gipsy +would not tolerate any of his own race entering upon his +district, was he likely to allow any native? If there were +native tinkers in England before the Gipsies settled there, +how soon would the latter, with their organization, drive +every one from the trade by sheer force! What thing more +like a Gipsy? Among the Scotch, we find, at a comparatively +recent time, that the Gipsies actually murdered a +native, for infringing upon what they considered one of +their prerogatives—that of gathering rags through the +country.</p> + +<p>Lord Macaulay says, with reference to Bunyan: “The +tinkers then formed a hereditary caste, which was held in +no high estimation. They were generally vagrants and pilferers, +and were often confounded with the Gipsies, whom, +in truth, they nearly resembled.” I would like to know on +what authority his lordship makes such an assertion; what +he knows about the origin of this “<i>hereditary</i> tinker caste,” +and if it still exists; and whether he holds to the purity-of-Gipsy-blood +idea, advanced by the Edinburgh Review and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span> +Blackwood’s Magazine, but especially the former. How +would he account for the existence of a hereditary caste of +any kind, in England, and that just one—the “tinker caste”? +There was no calling at that time hereditary in England, +that I know of; and yet Bunyan was born a tinker. In +Scotland, the collier and salter castes were hereditary, for +they were in a state of slavery to the owners of these +works.<a name="FNanchor314" id="FNanchor314"></a><a href="#Footnote314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a> But who ever heard of any native occupation, so +free as tinkering, being hereditary in England, in the seventeenth +century? Was not this “tinker caste,” at that time, +exactly the same that it is now? If it was then hereditary, +is it not so still? If not, by what means has it ceased to +be hereditary? The tinkers existed in England, at that time, +exactly as they do now. And who are they now but mixed +Gipsies? It is questionable, very questionable indeed, if we +will find, in all England, a tinker who is not a Gipsy. The +class will deny it; the purer and more original kind of Gipsies +will also deny it; still, they are Gipsies. They are all +<i>chabos</i>, <i>calos</i>, or <i>chals</i>; but they will play upon the word Gipsy +in its ideal, purity-of-blood sense, and deny that they are +Gipsies. We will find in Lavengro two such Gipsies—the +Flaming Tinman, and Jack Slingsby; the first, a half-blood, +(which did not necessarily imply that either parent was +white;) and the other, apparently, a very much mixed Gipsy. +The tinman termed Slingsby a “mumping villain.” Now, +“mumper,” among the English Gipsies, is an expression for +a Gipsy whose blood is very much mixed. When Mr. Borrow +used the word <i>Petulengro</i>,<a name="FNanchor315" id="FNanchor315"></a><a href="#Footnote315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a> Slingsby started, and exclaimed: +“Young man, you know a thing or two.” I have +used the same word with English Gipsies, causing the same +surprise; on one occasion, I was told: “You must be a +Scotch Gipsy yourself.” “Well,” I replied, “I may be as +good a Gipsy as any of you, for anything you may know.” +“That may be so,” was the answer I got. Then Slingsby +was very careful to mention to Lavengro that his <i>wife</i> was +a white, or Christian, woman; a thing not necessarily true +because he asserted it, but it implied that <i>he</i> was different. +These are but instances of, I might say, all the English tinkers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span> +Almost every old countrywoman about the Scottish +Border knows that the Scottish tinkers are Gipsies.<a name="FNanchor316" id="FNanchor316"></a><a href="#Footnote316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span>The prejudice against the name of Gipsy was apparently +as great in Bunyan’s time as in our own; and there was, +evidently, as great a timidity, on the part of mixed, fair-haired +Gipsies, to own the blood then, as now; and great +danger, for then it was hangable to be a Gipsy, by the law +of Queen Elizabeth, and “felony without benefit of clergy,” +for “any person, being fourteen years, whether natural born +subject or stranger, who had been seen in the fellowship of +such persons, or disguised like them, and remained with them +one month, at once, or at several times.” When the name +of Gipsy, and every association connected with it, were so +severely proscribed by law, what other name would the +tribe go under but that of tinkers—their own proper occupation? +Those only would be called Gipsies whose appearance +indicated the pure, or nearly pure, Gipsy. Although +there was no necessity, under any circumstances, for Bunyan +to say that he was a Gipsy, and still less in the face of the +law proscribing, so absolutely, the race, and every one countenancing +it, he evidently wished the fact to be understood, +or, I should rather say, took it for granted, that part of the +public knew of it, when he said: “For my descent, it was, +as is well known to many, of a low and inconsiderable generation; +my father’s house being of that rank that is meanest +and most despised of all the families of the land.” Of whom +does Bunyan speak here, if not of the Gipsies? He says, of +<i>all</i> the families of the land. And he adds: “After I had +been thus for some considerable time, another thought came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span> +into my mind, and that was, whether we, (his family and relatives,) +were of the Israelites or no? For, finding in the +Scriptures, that they were once the peculiar people of God, +thought I, if I were one of this race, (how significant is the +expression!) my soul must needs be happy. Now, again, I +found within me a great longing to be resolved about this +question, but could not tell how I should; at last, I +asked my father of it, who told me, No, we, (his father included,) +were not.”<a name="FNanchor317" id="FNanchor317"></a><a href="#Footnote317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a> I have heard the same question put +by Gipsy lads to their parent, (a very much mixed Gipsy,) +and it was answered thus: “We must have been among the +Jews, for some of our ceremonies are like theirs.” The best +commentary that can be passed on the above extracts +from Bunyan’s autobiography, will be found in our author’s +account of his visit to the old Gipsy chief, whose acquaintance +he made at St. Boswell’s fair, and to which the reader +is referred, (<a href="#Page_309">pages 309</a>-<a href="#Page_318">318</a>.) When did we ever hear of an +<i>ordinary Englishman</i> taking so much trouble to ascertain +whether he was a <i>Jew</i>, or not? No Englishman, it may be +safely asserted, ever does that, or has ever done it; and no +one in England could have done it, during Bunyan’s time, +but a Gipsy. Bunyan seems to have been more or less acquainted +with the history of the Jews, and how they were +scattered over the world, though not publicly known to be +in England, from which country they had been for centuries +banished. About the time in question, the re-admission of +the Jews was much canvassed in ecclesiastical as well as +political circles, and ultimately carried, by the exertions of +Manasseh Ben Israel, of Amsterdam. Under these circumstances, +it was very natural for Bunyan to ask himself whether +he belonged to the Jewish race, since he had evidently +never seen a Jew; and that the more especially, as the +Scottish Gipsies have even believed themselves to be Ethiopians. +Such a question is entertained, by the Gipsies, even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span> +at the present day; for they naturally think of the Jews, +and wonder whether, after all, their race may not, at some +time, have been connected with them. How trifling it is for +any one to assert, that Bunyan—a common native of England—while +in a state of spiritual excitement, imagined that he +was a Jew, and that he should, at a mature age, have put +anything so absurd in his autobiography, and in so grave a +manner as he did!</p> + +<p>Southey, in his life of Bunyan, writes: “Wherefore this +(tinkering) should have been so mean and despised a calling, +is not, however, apparent, when it was not followed as a +vagabond employment, but, as in this case, exercised by one +who had a settled habitation, and who, mean as his condition +was, was nevertheless able to put his son to school, in an +age when very few of the poor were taught to read and +write.” The fact is, that Bunyan’s father had, apparently, +a town beat, which would give him a settled residence, prevent +him using a tent, and lead him to conform with the +ways of the ordinary inhabitants; but, doubtless, he had his +pass from the chief of the Gipsies for the district. The +same may be said of John Bunyan himself.</p> + +<p>How little does a late writer in the Dublin University +Magazine know of the feelings of a mixed Gipsy, like +Bunyan, when he says: “Did he belong to the Gipsies, we +have little doubt that he would have dwelt on it, with a sort +of spiritual exultation; and that of his having been called +out of Egypt would have been to him one of the proofs of +Divine favour. We cannot imagine him suppressing the +fact, or disguising it.” Where is the point in the reviewer’s +remarks? His remarks have no point. How could the fact +of a man being a Gipsy be made the grounds of any kind of +spiritual exultation? And how could the fact of the tribe +originating in Egypt be a proof of Divine favour towards +the individual? What occasion had Bunyan to mention he +was a Gipsy? What purpose would it have served? How +would it have advanced his mission as a minister? Considering +the prejudice that has always existed against that +unfortunate word Gipsy, it would have created a sensation +among all parties, if Bunyan had said that he was a Gipsy. +“What!” the people would have asked, “a <i>Gipsy</i> turned +priest? We’ll have the devil turning priest next!” Considering +the many enemies which the tinker-bishop had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span> +contend with, some of whom even sought his life, he would +have given them a pretty occasion of revenging themselves +upon him, had he said he was a Gipsy. They would have +put the law in force, and stretched his neck for him.<a name="FNanchor318" id="FNanchor318"></a><a href="#Footnote318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a> The +same writer goes on to say: “In one passage at least—and +we think there are more in Bunyan’s works—the Gipsies +are spoken of in such a way as would be most unlikely if +Bunyan thought he belonged to that class of vagabonds.” I +am not aware as to what the reviewer alludes; but, should +Bunyan even have denounced the conduct of the Gipsies, in +the strongest terms imaginable, would that have been otherwise +than what he did with sinners generally? Should a +clergyman denounce the ways and morals of every man of +his parish, does that make him think less of being a native +of the parish himself? Should a man even denounce his +children as vagabonds, does that prevent him being their +father? This writer illustrates what I have said of people +generally—that they are almost incapable of forming an +opinion on the Gipsy question, unaided by facts, and the +bearings of facts, laid before them; so thoroughly is the +philosophy of race, as it progresses and develops, unknown +to the public mind, and so absolute is the prejudice of caste +against the Gipsy race.<a name="FNanchor319" id="FNanchor319"></a><a href="#Footnote319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span>I need hardly say anything further to show that Bunyan +was a Gipsy. The only circumstance that is wanting to +complete the evidence, would be for him to have added to his +account of his descent: “In other words, I am a Gipsy.” +But I have given reasons for such verbal admission being, in +a measure, impossible. I do not ask for an argument in +favour of Bunyan not being a Gipsy, but a common Englishman; +for an argument of that kind, beyond such remarks as +I have commented on, is impracticable; but what I ask for is, +an exposition of the animus of the man who does not wish +that he should have been a Gipsy; assuming that a man can +be met with, who will so far forget what is due to the dignity +of human nature, as to commit himself in any such way. +That Bunyan was a Gipsy is beyond a doubt. That he is a +Gipsy, now, in Abraham’s bosom, the Christian may readily +believe. To the genius of a Gipsy and the grace of God +combined, the world is indebted for the noblest production +that ever proceeded from an uninspired man. Impugn it +whoso list.</p> + +<p>Of the Pilgrim’s Progress, Lord Macaulay, in his happy +manner, writes: “For magnificence, for pathos, for vehement +exhortation, for subtle disquisition, for every purpose +of the poet, the orator, and the divine, this homely dialect—the +dialect of plain working men—was perfectly sufficient. +There is no book in our literature on which we would so +readily stake the fame of the old, unpolluted, English language,” +as the Pilgrim’s Progress; “no book which shows, +so well, how rich that language is in its own proper wealth, +and how little it has been improved by all that it has borrowed.” +“Though there were many clever men in England, +during the latter half of the seventeenth century, there were +only two great creative minds. One of these minds produced +the Paradise Lost; the other, the Pilgrim’s Progress”—the +work of an English tinkering Gipsy.</p> + +<p>It is very singular that religious writers should strive to +make out that Bunyan was not a Gipsy. If these writers +really have the glory of God at heart, they should rather +attempt to prove that he was a member of this race, which +has been so much despised. For, thereby, the grace of God +would surely be the more magnified. Have they never +heard that Jesus Christ came into the world to preach the +Gospel to the poor, to break the chains of the oppressed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span> +and raise up the bowed-down? Have they never heard that +the poor publican who, standing afar off, would not so much +as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast, and exclaimed: +“God be merciful to me, a sinner,” went down +justified rather than him who gave thanks for his not being +like other men, or even as that publican? Have they never +heard that God hath chosen the foolish things of the world +to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to +confound the things which are mighty; and things which +are despised, yea, and things which are not, to bring to +naught things that are: that no flesh should glory in his +presence? I shall wait, with considerable curiosity, to see +whether the next editor, or biographer, of this illustrious +Gipsy will take any notice of the present work; or whether +he will dispose of it somewhat in this strain: “One of +Bunyan’s modern reviewers, by a strange mistake, construes +his self-disparaging admissions to mean that he was the offspring +of Gipsies!”</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott admits that Bunyan was most probably +a “Gipsy reclaimed;” and Mr. Offor, that “his father must +have been a Gipsy.”<a name="FNanchor320" id="FNanchor320"></a><a href="#Footnote320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a> But, with these exceptions, I know +not if any writer upon Bunyan has more than hinted at +the possibility of even a connexion between him and the Gipsies. +It is very easy to account for all this, by the ignorance +of the world in regard to the Gipsy tribe, but, above all, by +the extreme prejudice of caste which is entertained against +it. Does caste exist nowhere but in India? Does an Englishman +feel curious to know what caste can mean? In few +parts of the world does caste reign so supreme, as it does in +Great Britain, towards the Gipsy nation. What is it but +the prejudice of caste that has prevented the world from +acknowledging Bunyan to have been a Gipsy? The evidence +of the fact of his having been a Gipsy is positive enough. +Will any one say that he does not believe that Bunyan +meant to convey to the world a knowledge of the fact of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[516]</a></span> +his being a Gipsy? Or that he does not believe that the +tinkers are Gipsies? Has any writer on Bunyan ever taken +the trouble to ascertain who the tinkers really are; and +that, in consequence of his investigations, he has come to +the conclusion that they are <i>not</i> Gipsies? If no writer on +the subject of the illustrious dreamer has ever taken that +trouble, to what must we attribute the fact but the prejudice +of caste? It is caste, and nothing but caste. What is it +but the prejudice of caste that has led Lord Macaulay to +invent his story about the tinkers? For what he says of the +tinkers is a pure invention, or, at best, a delusion, on his part. +What is it but the prejudice of caste that has prevented +others from saying, plainly, that Bunyan was a Gipsy? It +would be more manly if they were to leave Bunyan alone, +than receive his works, and damn the man, that is, his blood. +It places them on the level of boors, when they allow themselves +to be swayed by the prejudices that govern boors. +When they speak of, or write about, Bunyan, let them exercise +common honesty, and receive both the man and the +man’s works: let them not be guilty of petit larceny, or +rather, great robbery, in the matter.</p> + +<p>Southey, in his life of Bunyan, writes: “John Bunyan has +faithfully recorded his own spiritual history. Had he +dreamed of being ‘forever known,’ and taking his place +among those who may be called the immortals of the earth, +he would probably have introduced more details of his temporal +circumstances, and the events of his life. But, glorious +dreamer as he was, this never entered into his imagination.<a name="FNanchor321" id="FNanchor321"></a><a href="#Footnote321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a> +Less concerning him than might have been expected +has been preserved by those of his own sect; and it is not +likely that anything more should be recovered from oblivion.” +Remarks like these come with a singular grace from +a man with so many prejudices as Southey. John Bunyan has +told us as much of his history <i>as he dared to do</i>. It was a +subject upon which, in some respects, he doubtless maintained +a great reserve; for it cannot be supposed that a +man occupying so prominent and popular a position, as a +preacher and writer, and of so singular an origin, should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span> +have had no investigations made into his history, and that +of his family; if not by his friends, at least, by his enemies, +who seemed to have been capable of doing anything to injure +and discredit him. But, very probably, his being a tinker +was, with friends and enemies, a circumstance so altogether +discreditable, as to render any investigation of the kind perfectly +superfluous. In mentioning that much of himself +which he did, Bunyan doubtless imagined that the world +understood, or would have understood, what he meant, and +would, sooner or later, acknowledge the race to which he +belonged. And yet it has remained in this unacknowledged +state for two centuries since his time. How unreasonable +it is to imagine that Bunyan should have said, in as many +words, that he was a Gipsy, when the world generally is so +apt to become fired with indignation, should we <i>now</i> say that +he was one of the race. How applicable are the words of +his wife, to Sir Matthew Hale, to the people of the present +day: “Because he is a tinker, and a poor man, he is despised, +and cannot have justice.”</p> + +<p>Had Southey exercised that common sense which is the +inheritance of most of Englishmen, and divested himself of +this prejudice of caste, which is likewise their inheritance, he +never could have had any difficulty in forming a proper idea +of Bunyan, and everything concerning him. And the same +may be said of any person at the present day. John Bunyan +was simply a Gipsy of mixed blood, who must have +spoken the Gipsy language in great purity; for, considering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span> +the extent to which it is spoken in England, to-day, we can +well believe that it was very pure two centuries ago, and +that Bunyan might have written works even in that language. +But such is the childish prejudice against the name +of Gipsy, such the silly incredulity towards the subject, that, +in Great Britain, and, I am sorry to say, with some people +in America, one has nearly as much difficulty in persuading +others to believe in it, as St. Paul had in inducing the +Greeks to believe in the resurrection of the dead. Why +seemeth it unto thee incredible that Bunyan was a Gipsy? +or that Bunyan’s race should now be found in every town, +in every village, and, perhaps, in every hamlet, in Scotland, +and in every sphere of life?<a name="FNanchor322" id="FNanchor322"></a><a href="#Footnote322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a></p> + +<p>To a candid and unprejudiced person, it should afford a +relief, in thinking of the immortal dreamer, that he should +have been a member of this singular race, emerging from a +state of comparative barbarism, and struggling upwards, +amid so many difficulties, rather than he should have been +of the very lowest of our own race; for in that case, there is +an originality and dignity connected with him personally, +that could not well attach to him, in the event of his having +belonged to the dregs of the common natives. Beyond being +a Gipsy, it is impossible to say what his pedigree really +was. His grandfather might have been an ordinary native, +even of fair birth, who, in a thoughtless moment, might +have “gone off with the Gipsies;” or his ancestor, on the +native side of the house, might have been one of the “many +English loiterers” who joined the Gipsies on their arrival +in England, when they were “esteemed and held in great +admiration;” or he might have been a kidnapped infant; or +such a “foreign tinker” as is alluded to in the Spanish +Gipsy edicts, and in the Act of Queen Elizabeth, in which +mention is made of “strangers,” as distinguished from natural<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[519]</a></span> +born subjects, being with the Gipsies. The last is most +probable, as the name, <i>Bunyan</i>, would seem to be of foreign +origin. It is, therefore, very likely, that there was not a +drop of common English blood in Bunyan’s veins. John +Bunyan belongs to the world at large, and England is only +entitled to the credit of the formation of his character. Be +all that as it may, Bunyan’s father seems to have been a superior, +and therefore important, man in the tribe, from the +feet, as Southey says, of his having “put his son to school in +an age when very few of the poor were taught to read and +write.”</p> + +<p>The world never can do justice to Bunyan, unless it takes +him up as a Gipsy; nor can the Christian, unless he considers +him as being a Gipsy, in Abraham’s bosom. His +biographers have not, even in one instance, done justice to +him; for, while it is altogether out of the question to call +him the “wicked tinker,” the “depraved Bunyan,” it is unreasonable +to style him a “blackguard,” as Southey has done. +He might have been a blackguard in that sense in which a +youth, in a village, is termed a “young blackguard,” for +being the ringleader among the boys; or on account of his +wearing a ragged coat, and carrying a hairy wallet on his +shoulder, which, in a conventional sense, constitute any +man, in Great Britain, a blackguard. Bunyan’s sins were +confined to swearing, cursing, blaspheming, and lying; and +were rather intensely manifested by the impetuosity of his +character, or vividly described by the sincerity of his piety, +and the liveliness of his genius, than deeply rooted in +his nature; for he shook off the habit of swearing, (and, +doubtless, that of lying,) on being severely reproved for +it, by a loose and ungodly woman. Three of the kindred +vices mentioned, (and, we might add the fourth, lying,) more +frequently proceed from the influence of bad example and +habit, than from anything inherently vicious, in a youth +with so many of the good points which characterized Bunyan. +His youth was even marked by a tender conscience, and a +strong moral feeling; for thus he speaks of himself in +“Grace Abounding:” “But this I well remember, that +though I could myself sin, with the greatest delight and +ease, and also take pleasure in the vileness of my companions, +yet, even then, if I had, at any time, seen wicked +things in those who professed goodness, it would make my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[520]</a></span> +spirit tremble. As, once above all the rest, when I was +in the height of vanity, yet hearing one swear that +was reckoned for a religious man, it had so great a +stroke upon my spirit, that it made my heart ache.” He +was the subject of these experiences before he was ten +years of age. It is unnecessary to speak of his dancing, +ringing bells, and playing at tip-cat and hockey. Now, let +us see what was Bunyan’s <i>moral</i> character. He was not a +drunkard; and he says: “I know not whether there be +such a thing as a woman breathing, under the copes of +heaven, but by their apparel, their children, or by common +fame, except my wife.” And he continues: “Had not a +miracle of precious grace prevented, I had laid myself open +even to the stroke of those laws which bring some to disgrace +and open shame, before the face of the world.” The +meaning of this is, evidently, that he never stole anything; +but that it was “by a miracle of precious grace” he was prevented +from doing it. In what sense, then, was Bunyan a +blackguard? There was never such occasion for him to say +of himself, what John Newton said of himself, as a criminal +passed him, on the way to the gallows: “There goes John +Bunyan, but for the grace of God.” But such was the +depth of Bunyan’s piety, that hardly any one thought and +spoke more disparagingly of himself than he did; although +he would defend himself, with indignation, against unjust +charges brought against him; for, however peaceable and +humble he might be, he would turn most manfully upon his +enemies, when they baited or badgered him. “It began, +therefore, to be rumoured, up and down among the people, +that I was a witch, a Jesuit, a highwayman, and the like. . . . . I +also call those fools and knaves that have +thus made it anything of their business to affirm any of +these things aforesaid of me, namely, that I have been +naught with other women, or the like. . . . My foes +have missed their mark in this their shooting at me. I am +not the man. I wish that they themselves be guiltless. If +all the fornicators and adulterers in England were hanged +up by the neck till they be dead, John Bunyan, <i>the object of +their envy</i>, would be still alive and well.” The style of his +language even indicated the Gipsy; for English Gipsies, as +Mr. Borrow justly remarks, speak the English language +much better than the natives of the lower classes; for this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[521]</a></span> +apparent reason, that they have not the dialect of any particular +part of England, which would be, were they always +to have resided in a particular place. It must have been +more so before the middle of the seventeenth century, upwards +of a hundred years after the arrival of the Gipsies in +England; for, in acquiring the English language, they would +keep clear of many of the rude dialects that so commonly +prevail in that country. But Bunyan’s language was, doubtless, +drawn principally from the Scriptures.</p> + +<p>The illustrious pilgrim had many indignities cast upon +him, by the lower and unthinking classes of the population, +and by Quakers and strict Baptists. ‘Twas a man like +John Owen who knew how to appreciate and respect him; +for, said he to Charles II.: “I would readily part with all +my learning, could I but preach like the tinker.” And +what was it that supported Bunyan, amid all the abuse and +obloquy to which he was exposed, as he obeyed the call +of God, and preached the gospel, in season and out of season, +to every creature around him? When they sneered at his +origin, and the occupation from which he had risen, he +said: “Such insults I freely bind unto me, as an ornament, +among the rest of my reproaches, till the Lord shall wipe +them off at his coming.” And again: “The poor Christian +hath something to answer them that reproach him for his +ignoble pedigree, and shortness of the glory of the wisdom +of this world. I fear God. This is the highest and most +noble; he hath the honour, the life, and glory that is lasting.”<a name="FNanchor323" id="FNanchor323"></a><a href="#Footnote323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a></p> + +<p>In Great Britain, the off-scourings of the earth can say +who they are, and no prejudices are entertained against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[522]</a></span> +them. Half-caste Hindoos, Malays, Hottentots, and Negroes, +are “sent home,” to be educated, and made pets of, and +have the choice of white women given to them for wives; +but the children of a Scottish Christian Gipsy gentleman, +or of a Scottish Christian Gipsy gentlewoman, dare not say +who they are, were it almost to save their lives. Scottish +people will wonder at what caste in India can mean, deplore +its existence, and pray to God to remove it, that “the +gospel may have free course and be glorified;” yet scowl—silently +and sullenly scowl—at the bare mention of John Bunyan +having been a Gipsy! Scottish religious journals will not +tolerate the idea to appear in their columns! To such people +I would say, Offer up no more prayers to Almighty God, to +remove caste from India, until they themselves have removed +from the land this prejudice of caste, that hangs like an +incubus upon so many of their fellow-subjects at home. It +is quite time enough to carry such petitions to the Deity, +when every Scottish Gipsy can make a return of himself in +the census, or proclaim himself a Gipsy at the cross, or from +the house-top, if need be; or, at least, after steps have been +taken by the public to that end. But some of my countrymen +may say: “What are we to do, under the circumstances?” +And I reply: “Endeavour to be yourselves, and +judge of this subject as it ought to be judged. You can, at +least, try to guard against your children acquiring your +own prejudices.” To the rising town generation, I would +look with more hope to see a better feeling entertained for +the name of Gipsy. But I look with more confidence to +the English than Scottish people; for this question of “folk” +is very apt to rankle and fester in the Scottish mind. I +wish, then, that the British, and more especially the +Scottish, public should consider itself as cited before the +bar of the world, and not only the bar of the world, but +the bar of posterity, to plead on the Gipsy question, that it +may be seen if this is the only instance in which justice is +not to be done to a part of the British population. With +the evidence furnished in the present work, I submit the +name of Bunyan, as a case in point, to test the principle +at issue. Let British people beware how they approach +this subject, for there are great principles involved in it. +The social emancipation of the Gipsies is a question which +British people have to consider for the future.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[523]</a></span>The day is gone by when it cannot be said who John +Bunyan was. In Cowper’s time, his <i>name</i> dare not be mentioned, +“lest it should move a sneer.” Let us hope that we +are living in happier times. Tinkering was Bunyan’s <i>occupation</i>; +his <i>race</i> the Gipsy—a fact that cannot be questioned. +His having been a Gipsy adds, by contrast, a lustre to his +name, and reflects an immortality upon his character; and +he stands out, from among all the men of the latter half of +the seventeenth century, in all his solitary grandeur, a monument +of the grace of God, and a prodigy of genius. Let +us, then, enroll John Bunyan as the first (that is known to +the world) of eminent Gipsies, the prince of allegorists, and +one of the most remarkable of men and Christians. What +others of this race there may be who have distinguished +themselves among mankind, are known to God and, it may +be, some of the Gipsies. The saintly Doctor to whom I have +alluded was one of this singular people; and one beyond +question, for his admission of the fact cannot be denied by +any one. Any life of John Bunyan, or any edition of his +works, that does not contain a record of the fact of his +having been a Gipsy, lacks the most important feature connected +with the man that makes everything relating to him +personally interesting to mankind. It should even contain +a short dissertation on the Gipsies, and have, as a frontispiece, +a Gipsy’s camp, with all its appurtenances. The +reader may believe that such a thing may be seen, and that, +perhaps, not before long.</p> + +<p>It strikes me as something very singular, that Mr. Borrow, +“whose acquaintance with the Gipsy race, in general, dates +from a very early period of his life;” who “has lived more +with Gipsies than Scotchmen;” and than whom “no one +ever enjoyed better opportunities for a close scrutiny of their +ways and habits,” should have told us so little about the +Gipsies. In all his writings on the Gipsies, he alludes to +two mixed Gipsies only—the Spanish half-pay captain, and +the English flaming tinman—in a way as if these were the +merest of accidents, and meant nothing. He has told us +nothing of the Gipsies but what was known before, with +the exception, as far as my memory serves me, of the custom +of the Spanish Gipsy, dressing her daughter in such a way +as to protect her virginity; the existence of the tribe, in a +civilized state, in Moscow; and the habit of the members of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[524]</a></span> +the race possessing two names; all of which are, doubtless, +interesting pieces of information. The Spanish Gipsy marriage +ceremony was described, long before him, by Dr. +Bright; and Twiss, as far back as 1723, bears testimony to +the virtue of Gipsy females, inasmuch as they were not to +be procured in any way. Twiss also bears very positive +testimony on a point to which Mr. Borrow has not alluded, +viz.: the honesty of Spanish Gipsy innkeepers, in one respect, +at least, that, although he frequently left his linen, +spoons, &c., at their mercy, he never lost an article belonging +to him. He alludes, in his travels, to the subject of the +Gipsies incidentally; and his testimony is, therefore, worthy +of every credit, on the points on which he speaks. In Mr. +Borrow’s writings upon the Gipsies, we find only sketches +of certain individuals of the race, whom he seems to have +fallen in with, and not a proper account of the nation. These +writings have done more injury to the tribe than, perhaps, +anything that ever appeared on the subject. I have met +with Gipsies—respectable young men—who complained bitterly +of Mr. Borrow’s account of their race; and they did +that with good reason; for his attempt at generalization on +the subject of the people, is as great a curiosity as ever I set +my eyes upon. How unsatisfactory are Mr. Borrow’s opinions +on the Gipsy question, when he speaks of the “decadence” +of the race, when it is only passing from its first stage +of existence—the tent. This he does in his Appendix to the +Romany Rye; and it is nearly all that can be drawn from +his writings on the Gipsies, in regard to their future history.</p> + +<p>I do not expect to meet among American people, generally, +with the prejudice against the name of Gipsy that prevails +in Europe; for, in Europe, the prejudice is traditional—a +question of the nursery—while, in America, it is derived, +for the most part, from novels. American people will, of +course, form their own opinion upon the tented or any other +kind of Gipsies, as their behaviour warrants; but what +prejudice can they have for the Gipsy race as such? As a +race, it is, physically, as fine a one as ever came out of Asia; +although, at the present day, it is so much mixed with the +white blood, as hardly to be observable in many, and absolutely +not so in others, who follow the ordinary vocations of +other men. What prejudice can Americans have against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[525]</a></span> +Gipsy blood as such? What prejudice can they have to the +Maryland farmers who have been settled, for at least two generations, +near Annapolis, merely because they are Gipsies and +speak Gipsy? If there is any people in the world who might +be expected to view the subject of the Gipsies dispassionately, +it ought to be the people of America; for surely they have +prejudices enough in regard to race; prejudices, the object +of which is independent of character or condition—something +that stares them in the face, and cannot be got rid of. +If they have the practical sagacity to perceive the bearings +of the Gipsy question, they should at once take it up, and +treat it in the manner which the age demands. They have +certainly an opportunity of stealing a march upon English +people in this matter.</p> + +<p>Part of what I have said in reference to Bunyan, I was desirous +of having inserted in a respectable American religious +journal, but I did not succeed in it. “It would take up +too much room in the paper, and give rise to more discussion +than they could afford to print.”—“Perhaps you would +not wish it to be said that John Bunyan was a Gipsy?”—“Oh, +not at all,” replied the editor, colouring up a little. I found +that several of these papers devoted a pretty fair portion +of their space to such articles as funny monkey stories, and +descriptions of rat-trap and cow-tail-holder patents; but for +anything of so very little importance as that which referred +to John Bunyan, they could afford no room whatever. Who +cared to know who John Bunyan was? What purpose could +it serve? Who would be benefited by it? But funny monkey +stories are pleasant reading; every housewife should +know how to keep down her rats; and every farmer should +be taught how to keep his cows’ tails from whisking their +milk in his face, while it is being drawn into the pail. Not +succeeding with the religious papers, I found expression to +my sentiments in one of the “ungodly weeklies,” which devote +their columns to rats, monkeys, and cows, and a little +to mankind; and there I found a feeling of sympathy for +Bunyan. Let it not be said, in after times, that the descendants +of the Puritans allowed themselves to be frightened by +a scare-crow, or put to flight by the shake of a rag.</p> + +<p>I am afraid that the native-born quarrelsomeness of disposition +about “folk,” and things in general, which characterizes +Scottish people, will prove a bar to the Gipsies owning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[526]</a></span> +themselves up in Scotland. Go into any Scottish village +you like, and ascertain the feelings which the inhabitants +entertain for each other, and you will find that such a one +is a “poor grocer body;” that another belongs to a “shoemaker +pack,” another to a “tailor pack,” another to a “cadger +pack,” another to a “collier pack,” and another to a “low +Tinkler pack;” another to a “bad nest,” and another to a +“very bad nest.” And it is pretty much the same with the +better classes. Now, how could the Gipsy tribe live amid +such elements, if it did not keep everything connected with +itself hidden from all the other “packs” surrounding it? +And is it consonant with reason to say, that a Scotchman +should be rated as standing at the bottom of all the various +“packs” and “nests,” simply because he has Gipsy blood +in his veins? Yet, I meet with Scotchmen in the New +World, who express such a feeling towards the Gipsies. +This quarrelling about “folk” reigns supreme in Scotland; +and, what is worse, it is brought with the people to America. +It is inherent in them to be personal and intolerant, +among themselves, and to talk of, and sneer at, each other, +and “cast up things.” In that respect, a community of +Scotch people presents a peculiarity of mental feeling that +is hardly to be found in one of any other people. When +they come together, in social intercourse, there is frequently, +if not generally, a hearty, if not a boisterous, flow of feeling, +and, if the bottle contributes to the entertainment, a foam +upon the surface; but the under-tow and ground-swell are +frequently long in subsiding. Even in America, where they +are reputed to have the clanishness of Jews, we will find +within their respective circles, more heart-burnings, jealousies, +envyings, and quarrellings, (but little or no Irish fighting, +for they are rather given to “taking care of their +characters,”) than is to be found among almost any other +people. At the best, there may be said to be an armed +truce always to be found existing among them. Still, all +that is not known to people outside of these circles; for +those within them are animated by a common national +sentiment, which leads them to conceal such feelings from +others, so as to “uphold the credit of their country,” wherever +they go. It will be a difficult matter to get the Gipsies +heartily acknowledged among such elements as equals; +for it makes many a native Scot wild, to tell him that there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[527]</a></span> +are Scottish Gipsies as good, if not better, men than he is, +or any kith or kin that belongs to him.</p> + +<p>And yet, it is not the Scottish gentleman—the gentleman +by birth, rearing, education, mind, or manners—who will be +backward to assist in raising up, and dignifying, the name of +Gipsy. No; it will be the low-minded and ignorant Scots; +people who are always either fawning upon, or sneering at, +those above them, or trampling, or attempting to trample, +upon those below them. It is very apt to be that class +which Lord Jeffrey describes as “having a double allowance +of selfishness, with a top-dressing of pedantry and conceit,” +and some of the “but and ben” gentry, who will sneer +most at the word Gipsy. It is the flunkey, who lives and +brings up his family upon the cast-off clothes and broken +victuals of others, and out for whom such things would find +their way to the rag-basket and the pigs; ‘tis he and his +children who are too often the most difficult to please in the +matter of descent, and the most likely to perpetuate the +prejudice against the Gipsy tribe.</p> + +<p>I have taken some trouble to ascertain the feelings of +Scotchmen in America towards the Scottish Gipsies, such as +they are represented in these pages; and I find that, among +the really educated and liberally brought up classes, there +are not to be discovered those prejudices against them, that +are expressed by the lower classes, and especially those from +country places. It is natural for the former kind of people +to take the most liberal view of a question like the present; +for they are, in a measure, satisfied with their position in +life; while, with the lower classes, it is a feeling of restless +discontentment that leads them to strive to get some one +under them. No one would seem to like to be at the bottom +of any society; and nowhere less so than in Scotland. A +good education and up-bringing, and a knowledge of the +world, likewise give a person a more liberal cast of mind, +wherewith to form an opinion upon the subject of the Gipsies; +and it is upon such that I would mainly rely in an +attempt to raise up the name of Gipsy. Among the lower +classes of my own countrymen, I find individuals all that +could be desired in the matter of esteeming the Gipsies, according +to the characters they bear, and the positions they +occupy in life; but they are exceptions to the classes to +which they belong. Here is a specimen of the kind of Scot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[528]</a></span> +the most difficult to break in to entertaining a proper feeling +upon the subject of the Gipsies:</p> + +<p>By birth, he is a child of that dependent class that gets a +due share of the broken victuals and cast-off clothes of other +people. His parents are decent and honest enough people, +but very conceited and self-sufficient. Any person in the +shape of a mechanic, a labourer, or a peasant, appears as +nobody to them; although, in independence, and even circumstances, +they are not to be compared to many a peasant. +The “oldest bairn” takes his departure for the New World, +“with the firm determination to show to the world that he is +a man,” and “teach the Yankees something.” The first +thing he does to “show the world that he is a man,” is to +sneer, behave rudely, and attempt to pick quarrels with a +better class of his own countrymen, when he comes in contact +with them. Providence has not been over-indulgent +with him in the matters of perceptors or reflectors; for, what +little he knows, he has acquired in the manner that chickens +pick up their food, when it is placed before them. But he has +been gifted with a wonderful amount of self-conceit, which +nothing can break down in him, however much it may be +abashed for the moment. No one boasts more of his “family,” +to those who do not know who his family are, although +his family were brought up in a cage, and so small a cage, +that some of them must have roosted on the spars overhead +at night. No one is more independent, none more patriotic; +no one boasts more of Wallace and Bruce, Burns and Scott, +and all the worthies; to him there is no place in the world +like “auld Scotland yet;” no one glories more in “the noble +qualities of the Scot;” and none’s face burns with more importance +in upholding, unchallenged, what he claims to be +his character; yet the individual is a compound of conceit +and selfishness, meanness and sordidness, and is estimated, +wherever he goes, as a “perfect sweep.” Although no one +is more given to toasting, “Brithers a’ the world o’er,” and, +“A man’s a man for a’ that,” yet speak of the Gipsies to him, +and he exclaims: “Thank God! there’s no a drap o’ +Gipsy blood in me; no one drap o’t!” Not only is he unable +to comprehend the subject, but he is unwilling to hear +the word Gipsy mentioned. In short, he turns up his nose +at the subject, and howls like a dog.<a name="FNanchor324" id="FNanchor324"></a><a href="#Footnote324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[529]</a></span>It is the better kind of Scottish people, in whatever sphere +of life they are to be found, on whom the greatest reliance +is to be placed in raising up and dignifying the word Gipsy. +This peculiar family of mankind has been fully three centuries +and a half in the country, and it is high time that it +should be acknowledged, in some form or other; high time, +certainly, that we should know something about it. To an +intelligent people it must appear utterly ridiculous that a +prejudice is to be entertained against any Scotchman, without +knowing who that Scotchman is, merely on account of +his blood. Nor will any intelligent Scotchman, after the +appearance of this work, be apt to say that he does not understand +the subject of the Gipsies; or that they cease to +be Gipsies by leaving the tent, or by a change of character +or habits, or by their blood getting mixed. It will not do +for any one to snap at the heels of this question: he must +look at it steadily, and approach it with a clear head, a firm +hand, and a Christian heart, and remove this stigma that has +been allowed to attach to his country. No one in particular +can be blamed for the position which the Gipsies occupy +in the country: let by-gones be by-gones; let us look to the +future for that expression of opinion which the subject calls +for. This much I feel satisfied of, that if the Gipsy subject +is properly handled, it would result in the name becoming as +much an object of respect and attachment in many of the +race, as it is now considered a reproach in others. There +is much that is interesting in the name, and nothing necessarily +low or vulgar associated with it; although there is +much that is wild and barbarous connected with the descent, +which is peculiar to the descent of all original tribes. It is +unnecessary to say, that in a part of the race, we still find +much that is wild, and barbarous, and roguish.</p> + +<p>The latter part of the Gipsy nation, whether settled or +itinerant, must be reached indirectly, for reasons which have +already been given; for it does not serve much purpose to +interfere too directly with them, as Gipsies. We should +bring a reflective influence to bear upon them, by holding +up to their observation, some of their own race in respectable +positions in life, and respected by the world, as men,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[530]</a></span> +though not known to be Gipsies. I could propose no better +plan to be adopted, with some of these people, than to give +them a copy of the present work, along with the Pilgrim’s +Progress, containing a short account of the Gipsies, and a +Gipsy’s encampment for a frontispiece. The world may +well believe that the Gipsies would read both of them, and +be greatly benefited by the Pilgrim’s Progress; for, as a +race, they are exceedingly vain about anything connected +with themselves. Said I to some English Gipsies: “You +are the vainest people in the world; you think a vast deal +of yourselves.” “There is good reason for that,” they replied; +“if we do not think something of ourselves, there +are no others to do it for us.” Now since John Bunyan has +become so famous throughout the world, and so honoured by +all sects and parties, what an inimitable instrument Providence +has placed in our hands wherewith to raise up the +name of Gipsy! Through him we can touch the heart of +Christendom! I am well aware that the Church of Scotland +has, or at least had, a mission among the itinerant +Scottish Gipsies. In addition to the means adopted by this +mission, to improve these Gipsies, it would be well to take +such steps as I have suggested, so as to raise up the name of +Gipsy. For, in this way, the Gipsies, of all classes, would +see that they are not outcasts; but that the prejudices which +people entertain for them are applicable to their ways of +life, only, and not to their blood or descent, tribe or language. +Their hearts would then become more easily touched, their +affections more readily secured; and the attempt made to +improve them would have a much better chance of being +successful. A little judgment is necessary in conducting an +intercourse with the wild Gipsy, or, indeed, any kind of +Gipsy; it is very advisable to speak well of “the blood,” +and never to confound the race with the conduct of part of +it. There is hardly anything that can give a poor Gipsy +greater pleasure than to tell him something about his people, +and particularly should they be in a respectable position in +life, and be attached to their nation. It serves no great +purpose to appear too serious with such a person, for that +soon tires him. It is much better to keep him a little buoyant +and cheerful, with anecdotes and stories, for that is his +natural character; and to take advantage of occasional opportunities, +to slip in advices that are to be of use to him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[531]</a></span> +What is called long-facedness is entirely thrown away upon +a Gipsy of this kind.</p> + +<p>I am very much inclined to believe that a Gipsy, well up +in the scale of Scottish society, experiences, in one respect, +nearly the same feelings in coming in contact with a wild +Gipsy, that are peculiar to any other person. These are of +a very singular nature. At first, we feel as if we were going +into the lair of a wild animal, or putting our finger into +a snake’s mouth; such is the result of the prejudice in which +we have been reared from infancy; but these feelings become +greatly modified as we get accustomed to the people. +The world has never had the opportunity of fairly contemplating +any other kind of Gipsy; hence the extreme prejudice +against the name. But when we get accustomed to +meet with other kinds of Gipsies, and have associations +with them, the feeling of prejudice changes to that of decided +interest and attachment. I have met with various +Scottish Gipsies of the female sex, in America, and, among +others, one who could sit any day for an ideal likeness of the +mother of Burns. She takes little of the Gipsy in her appearance. +There is another, taking greatly after the Gipsy, +born in Scotland, and reared in America; a very fine motherly +person, indeed. I cannot, at the present stage of matters, +mention the word Gipsy to her, but I know very well +that she is a Gipsy. It takes some time for the feeling of +prejudice for the word Gipsy to wear off, when contemplating +even a passable kind of Gipsy. That object would be +much more easily attained, were the people to own “the +blood,” unreservedly and cheerfully; for the very reserve, +to a great extent, creates, at least keeps alive, the prejudice. +But that cannot well take place till the word “Gipsy” bears +the signification of gentleman, in some of the race, as it does +of vagabond, in others.</p> + +<p>Some of my readers may still ask: “What is a Gipsy, +after all that has been said upon the subject? Since it is +not necessarily a question of colour of face, or hair, or eyes, +or of creed, or character, or of any outward thing by which +a human being can be distinguished; what is it that constitutes +a Gipsy?” And I reply: “Let them read this work +through, and thoroughly digest all its principles, and they +can <i>feel</i> what a Gipsy is, should they stumble upon one, it +may be, in their own sphere of life, and hear him, or her,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[532]</a></span> +admit the fact, and speak unreservedly of it. They will then +feel their minds rubbing against the Gipsy mind, their spirits +communing with the Gipsy spirit, and experience a peculiar +mental galvanic shock, which they never felt before.”<a name="FNanchor325" id="FNanchor325"></a><a href="#Footnote325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a> +It is impossible to say where the Gipsy soul may not exist +at the present day, for there is this peculiarity about the +tribe, as I have said before, that it always remains Gipsy, +cross it out to the last drop of the original blood; for where +that drop goes, the Gipsy soul accompanies it.<a name="FNanchor326" id="FNanchor326"></a><a href="#Footnote326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a></p> + +<p>It is the Christian who should be the most ready to take +up and do justice to this subject; for he will find in it a +very singular work of Providence—the most striking phenomenon +in the history of man. In Europe, the race has existed, +in an unacknowledged state, for a greater length of +time than the Jews dwelt in Egypt. And it is time that it +should be introduced to the family of mankind, in its aspect +of historical development; embracing, as in Scotland, members +ranging from what are popularly understood to be Gipsies, +to those filling the first positions in Christian and social<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[533]</a></span> +society. After perusing the present work, the reader will +naturally pass on to reconsider the subject of the Jews; and +he will perceive that, instead of its being a miracle by which +the Jews have existed since the dispersion, it would have +been a miracle had they been lost among the families of mankind. +It is quite sufficient for the Christian to know that +the Jews now exist, and that they have fulfilled, and will +yet fulfill, the prophecies that have been delivered in regard +to them, without holding that any miracle has been wrought +for that end. A Christian ought to be more considerate in +his estimate of what a miracle is: he ought to know that a +miracle is something that is contrary to natural laws; and +that the existence of the Jews, since the dispersion, is in +exact harmony with every natural law. He should not maintain +that it is a miracle, for nothing having the decent +appearance of an argument can be advanced in support +of any such theory; and far less should he, with his eyes +open, do what the writer on the Christian Evidences, alluded +to, (<a href="#Page_459">page 459</a>,) did, with his shut—gamble away +both law and gospel.<a name="FNanchor327" id="FNanchor327"></a><a href="#Footnote327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a> He might give his attention, +however, to a prophecy of Moses, quoted by St. Paul, in +Rom. x. 19, from Deut. xxxii. 21, wherein it is said of the +Jews: “I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are +no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you;” and +lend his assistance towards its fulfillment.<a name="FNanchor328" id="FNanchor328"></a><a href="#Footnote328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a> The subject<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[534]</a></span> +of the Gipsies is certainly calculated to do all that the +prophet said would happen to the Jews; if Christians will +only do their duty to them, and, by playing them off against +the Jews, <i>provoke</i> and <i>anger</i> Israel beyond measure. That +the Jews have existed, since the dispersion, by the Providence +of God, is what can be said of any other people, and +more especially of the Gipsies for the last four centuries +and a half in Europe. It is as natural for the Gipsies to +exist in their scattered state, as for other nations by the laws +that preserve their identity; and although their history may +be termed remarkable, it is in no sense of the word miraculous, +notwithstanding the superstitious ideas held by many +of the Gipsies on that head, in common with the Jews regarding +their history. A thousand years hence the Gipsies +will be found existing in the world; for, as a people, they +cannot die out; and the very want of a religion peculiar to +themselves is one of the means that will contribute to that +end.<a name="FNanchor329" id="FNanchor329"></a><a href="#Footnote329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a> It is the Christian who should endeavour to have +the prejudice against the name of Gipsy removed, so that +every one of the race should freely own his blood to the +other, and make it the basis of a kindly feeling, and a bond +of brotherhood, all around the world.</p> + +<p>I may be allowed to say a word or two to the Gipsies, +and more especially the Scottish Gipsies. I wish them to +believe, (what they, indeed, believe already,) that their blood +and descent are good enough; and that Providence may +reasonably be assumed to look upon both with as much complacency +and satisfaction, as He does on any other blood and +descent. All that they have to do is to “behave themselves;” +for, after all, it is behaviour that makes the man. +By all means “stick to the ship,” but sail her as an honourable +merchantman. They need not be afraid at being discovered +to be Gipsies; they should feel as much assured +on the subject now, as before the publication of this work, +and never entertain the least misgiving on that score. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[535]</a></span> +will have an occasion to cultivate a proper degree of confidence +in respect to themselves, and be so prepared as never +to commit themselves, if they wish not to be known as Gipsies. +I know there are few people who have nerve enough +so to deport themselves, as to prevent moral detection, who +have committed murder, when they are confronted with the +objects of it; but if the individuals are perfectly satisfied +of there being no evidence against them, they may confidently +assume an appearance of innocence. It is so with +the Gipsies in settled life, as to their being Gipsies. Generally +speaking, their blood is so much mixed as almost to +defy detection; although, for the future, some of them will +be very apt to look at themselves in their mirrors, to see +whether there is much of the “black deil” in their faces. +But it rests with themselves to escape detection, and particularly +so as regards the fair, brown, and red Gipsies.</p> + +<p>I may also be allowed to say a word or two to the Church, +and people generally. It says little for them, that, although +two centuries have elapsed since Bunyan’s time, no one has +acknowledged him. It surely might have occurred to them +to ask, <i>1stly</i>: What was that particular family, or tribe, of +which Bunyan said he was a member? <i>2ndly</i>: Who are +the tinkers? <i>3dly</i>: What was the meaning of Bunyan entertaining +so much solicitude, and undergoing so much +trouble, to ascertain whether he, (a <i>common Englishman</i>, +forsooth!) was a Jew, or not? <i>4thly</i>: Was John Bunyan +a Gipsy? Let my reader reply to these questions, like a +man of honour. Aye or nay, was John Bunyan a Gipsy? +“He <i>was</i> a Gipsy.”</p> + +<p>In modern times people will preach the gospel “around +about Illyricum,” compass sea and land, and penetrate +every continent, to bring home Christian trophies; while in +Bunyan they have a trophy—a real case of “grace abounding;” +and yet no one has acknowledged him, although his +fame will be as lasting as the pyramids. John Bunyan was +evidently a man who was raised up by God for some great +purposes. One of these purposes he has served, and will +yet serve; and it becomes us to enquire what further purpose +he is destined to serve. It is showing a poor respect +for Bunyan’s memory, to deny him his nationality, to rob +him of his birth-right, and attempt to make him out to have +been that which he positively was not. To gratify their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[536]</a></span> +own prejudices, people would degrade the illustrious dreamer, +from being this great original, into being the off-scourings +of all England. People imagine that they would degrade +Bunyan by saying that he was a Gipsy. They degrade +themselves who do not believe he was a Gipsy; they doubly +degrade themselves who deny it. Jews may well taunt +Christians in the matter of evidences, and that on a simple +matter of fact, affecting no one’s interests, temporal or eternal, +and as clear as the sun at mid-day; for by Bunyan’s +own showing he was a Gipsy; but if any further evidence +was wanted, how easily could it not have been collected, any +time during the last two hundred years!</p> + +<p>I have hitherto got the “cold shoulder” from the organs +of most of the religious denominations on this subject: time +will show whether it is always to be so. The Church should +know what is its mission: it rests on evidence itself, and it +should be the first to follow out its own principles. It +should fight its own battles, and give the enemy no occasion +to speak reproachfully of it. In approaching this subject, it +would be well to do it cheerfully, and gracefully, and manfully, +and not as if the person were dragged to it, with a +rope around his neck. No one need imagine that by keeping +quiet, this matter will blow over. For the Gipsy race +cannot die out; nor is this work likely to die out soon; for +unless it is superseded by some other, it will come up centuries +hence, to judge the present generation on the Gipsy +question. May such as have written on the great dreamer +never lift up their heads, may his works turn to hot coals in +their fingers, may their memories be outlawed, if they allow +this unchristian, this unmanly, this silly, this childish, prejudice +of caste to prevent them from doing justice to their +hero. Nor need any one utter a murmur at the prospect of +seeing the Pilgrim’s Progress prefaced by a dissertation on +the Gipsies, with a Gipsy’s camp for a frontispiece. Such a feeling +may be expressed by boors, snobs, and counterfeit religionists; +but better things are to be expected from other people.</p> + +<p>Let the reader now pause, and reflect upon the prejudice +of caste that exists against the name of Gipsy, and he will +fully realize how it is that we should know so little about +the Gipsies, and why it is that the Gipsies, as they leave +the tent, should hide their nationality from the rest of the +world, and “stick to each other.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[537]</a></span>In bringing this <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies to a close, I +may be allowed to say a word or two to some of the critics. +In the first place, I may venture to assert, that the <i>subject</i> is +worthy of a criticism the most disinterested and profound. +I am well aware that the publication of the work places me +in a position antagonistic alike to authors and critics who +have written on the subject, as well as to the prejudices of +mankind generally. If critics call in question any of the +facts contained in the production, they must give their +authorities; if they controvert any of the principles, they +must give their reasons. It will not do to play the ostrich +instead of the critic. For as the ostrich is said to hide its +head in the sand, or in a bush, or, it may be, under its wing, +and imagine that because it sees no one, so no one sees it; +so there are people, sometimes to be met with, who will not +only imagine, but assert, that because they know nothing of +a thing, or because they do not understand it, therefore, the +thing itself does not exist. This was the way in which +Bruce’s travels in Africa were received. But we are not +living in those times. Procedure such as that described, is +playing the ostrich, not the critic. I refer more particularly, +however, to what is contained in this <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a>. Taking +the work all through, I think there are sufficient materials +contained in it, to enable the critics to settle the various +questions among themselves.</p> + +<p>To place myself in a position a little independent of publishers, +(for I have had great difficulty in finding a publisher,) +I had the <a href="#Page_55">Introduction</a>, (<a href="#Page_55">pages 55</a>-<a href="#Page_67">67</a>), printed, and circulated +among some acquaintances in Canada, for subscribers.<a name="FNanchor330" id="FNanchor330"></a><a href="#Footnote330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a> A +copy of it fell into the hands of an intelligent Scottish +newspaper editor, in a small community, where every one +knows every other’s business nearly as well as his own, and +where all about the Prospectus was explained to those to +whom it was given. It seems to have frightened and enraged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[538]</a></span> +the editor to such an extent, that I entertain little +doubt he did not sleep comfortably, for nights in succession, +on finding that subject brought to light at his own door, +which has been considered, by some, as well-nigh dead and +buried long ago. He imagines the circulation of the Prospectus +to be confined pretty much to his own neighbourhood; +and so he must crush the horrible thing out. But what can +he say about it? How put it down? A capital idea occurs +to him; he will father it upon Barnum! Let the reader +glance again at the <a href="#Page_55">Introduction</a>, and imagine how a Scotchman, +well posted up on Scotch affairs, past and present, +should credit Barnum with the production. He heads his +criticism, “The science of humbug,” and, in some long and +bitter paragraphs, pitches into what he calls American literary +quackery; the substance of which is, that the work +represented by the Prospectus, is a rare tit-bit of genuine, +Barnumized, American humbug!</p> + +<p>He finds, however, that he has gone much too far in his +description of the Prospectus; so he comes tumbling down +a long way from the high position which he took at the start, +and continues: “Now, we do not, at present, venture the +assertion that the forthcoming ‘Scottish Gipsies’ is a Yankee +get-up, a mere American humbug; but we say the Prospectus +savours strongly of the Barnum school; and our reasons +for so saying are the following: <i>Firstly</i>: It would be nothing +less than a literary miracle, that a Scottish work of sufficient +merit to command the highest commendations of Sir +Walter Scott, and Blackwood’s Magazine, should be published, +first of all in America, thirty years afterwards—published, +by subscription, at one dollar, in a book of 400 pages. +We assert, positively, that of such a work William Blackwood, +alone, could have disposed of five thousand copies, at +double the proposed price. [He is well acquainted with the +prices of books in the two countries.] <i>Secondly</i>: There is +no evidence to connect Sir Walter Scott’s note to Quentin +Durward with Walter Simson, or any other particular individual; +and the same may be said of the <i>jingle</i> of Professor +Wilson, and the other allusions in Blackwood’s Magazine. +<i>Thirdly</i>: There is neither danger nor difficulty in writing +anything you please, and telling the public it is an extract +of a private letter you had from some particular man of +eminence, thirty years ago, provided your eminent friend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[539]</a></span> +has been many years in his grave. Such a fraud is not easily +detected. And <i>Fourthly</i>: The reason assigned for publishing +the ‘Scottish Gipsies’ . . . . . is totally upset by +the simple fact, that <i>there are no such people in existence, in +so far as Scotland is concerned</i>. [What an audacity he displays +here! What a liberty he takes with the Scotch settlers +in his neighbourhood! He is evidently afraid that he +has gone too far; so he qualifies what he has said, by adding:] +There are, it is true, a few families of itinerant tinkers, +or <i>Tinklers</i>, according to our peculiar vernacular, who +stroll the country, and subsist by making horn-spoons and +sauce-pans, which they barter with the rural peasantry, for +potatoes and other eatables. They are generally wild, reckless, +and dishonest, and are a terror to children and old +women. In nineteen cases out of twenty, they are natives +of Ireland; and were any person idle enough to trace their +genealogy, he would discover that their ancestors, not more +than three generations back, were honest brogue-makers, +pig-drovers, or, it may be, members of some more elevated +occupation. [He has been ‘idle enough’ to give us a very +odd account of the descent, in two senses of the word, of +the Irish tinkering Gipsies now in Scotland.] The writer +of these remarks is well acquainted with almost the whole +Lowlands, and a portion of the West Highlands. He has +been familiar with the shires of Fife and Linlithgow, with +Annandale, the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, and the other +fabulously reputed haunts of the Gipsies [he seems to +have done a little <i>tramping</i> in his time]; and he never saw +twenty Scottish <i>Tinklers</i> in his whole life, nor <i>one single individual</i> +corresponding to the description we have received +of the Gipsies. [He has told us who the <i>Irish Tinklers</i> in +Scotland were originally, but does not venture to say anything +of the <i>Scottish</i> ones. He will not admit that there +is a <i>Gipsy</i> in Scotland, or ever has been; and virtually +denies that there are Gipsies in England; for he continues:] +The nearest approach to the character is the hawkers from +the Staffordshire potteries, who are found living in tents by +the way-side, throughout the North Riding of Yorkshire, and +the five northern counties of England. These are a kind of +savages, who live in families, strolling the country, in large +caravans, consisting frequently of half a dozen canvas-covered +wagons and twice that number of horses. . . . . .<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[540]</a></span> +These characters often cross the Border, at Langholm and +Gretna Green, and infest Annandale, Roxburghshire, Dumfries-shire, +and the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. [He will +not allude to the <i>tented Gipsies</i> in England.]</p> + +<p>“These two classes of foreign vagrants [why does he call +them <i>foreign</i> vagrants? why not say <i>Gipsies</i>?] which we +mention, are to be found, occasionally, in certain localities of +Scotland, [still nothing said of the <i>Scottish Tinklers</i>,] and +are to be found as a dreaded, dangerous nuisance. But the +idea of a race of Scottish Tinklers, or Scottish Gipsies, existing +as a distinct and separate people, possessing a native, +independent language, and peculiar habits, rites, and ceremonies, +and bearing, in many features of their barbarous customs, +and outcast destiny, a resemblance to the vagabond +Jews; such an idea, we say, has as little foundation in fact, +as has Swift’s story of the Lilliputians, or the romance of +Guy Mannering itself! [It is astonishing what he would +not attempt to palm upon the public. Still, he is evidently +afraid that the subject will, somehow or other, bite him; and, +after all that he has said, he concludes:] Still, we do not, +<i>at present</i>, assert that the Prospectus we have received is +another ‘cute move of American humbug; but we do say, +if there is a James Simson in existence, who possesses such +a manuscript, and such commendations of it as are set forth +in this Prospectus, he has already erred sufficiently far to ensure +his identification with Yankee quackery. He has been +Barnumized into an egregious blunder.” [He is bound to +discredit the whole affair, under any circumstances, even at +the expense of the plainest consistency.]</p> + +<p>Well might a brother editor reply to the foregoing, thus: +“The bile of our excellent friend has just been agitated after +a pestilent fashion. . . . . . The announcement [of +the intended publication] hath all the ungenial effects upon +our gossip that the exhibition of a pair of scarlet decencies +produces upon a cranky bull. . . . . . Now, just listen +to us quietly for a little. More than two years ago, the +manuscript of the above-mentioned treatise on the Scoto-Egyptians +came under our ken. We perused the affair with +special appetite, and were decidedly of opinion that its publication +would be a grateful and important boon to the republic +of letters. Mr. Simson is neither a myth nor a disciple +of Barnum.” Upon the back of this, the first editor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[541]</a></span> +writes: “We are pleased to be informed that the work is a +<i>bona fide</i> production, and that Mr. Simson is no Yankee +fiction. [As if he did not know that from the first.] And +albeit he, [the other editor,] furnisheth neither facts nor +arguments to satisfy us that our notions of the Gipsies of +Scotland are heretical, we willingly accept his recommend +that the ‘Scottish Gipsies’ will be, at least, an entertaining +book, and reserve all further remarks till we see it.”[!]</p> + +<p>The foregoing is a very curious criticism; and although I +could say a great deal more about it, I refrain from doing so.</p> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote258" id="Footnote258"></a><a href="#FNanchor258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> This Spanish Gipsy is reported by Mr. Borrow to have said: “She, however, +remembered her blood, and hated my father, and taught me to hate +him likewise. When a boy, I used to stroll about the plain, that I might +not see my father; and my father would follow me, and beg me to look +upon him, and would ask me what I wanted; and I would reply, ‘Father, +the only thing I want is to see you dead!’”</p> + +<p>This is certainly an extreme instance of the result of the prejudice against +the Gipsy race; and no opinion can be formed upon it, without knowing +some of the circumstances connected with the feelings of the father, or his +relations, toward the mother and the Gipsy race generally. This Gipsy +woman seems to have been well brought up by her protector and husband; +for she <i>taught her child Gipsy from a MS.</i>, and procured a teacher to +instruct him in Latin. There are many reflections to be drawn from the +circumstances connected with this Spanish Gipsy family, but they do not +seem to have occurred to Mr. Borrow.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote259" id="Footnote259"></a><a href="#FNanchor259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> It is claimed, by some Scottish Gipsies, that there are full-blood Gipsies +at Yetholm, but I do not believe it. This, I may venture to say, that there +can be no certainty, but, on the contrary, great doubt, on the subject. But, +after all, what is a pure Gipsy? Was the race pure when it entered Scotland, +or even Europe? The idea is perfectly arbitrary.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote260" id="Footnote260"></a><a href="#FNanchor260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> It would be interesting to know where these writers got such ideas about +the purity of the Gipsy blood. It certainly was not from Mr. Borrow’s +account of the Gipsies in Spain, whatever they may have inferred from +that work.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote261" id="Footnote261"></a><a href="#FNanchor261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> An instance of this kind of shuffling is given by Mr. Borrow, in the +tenth chapter of the “Romany Rye,” in the person of Ursula, a full or +nearly full-blood Gipsy. She confines the crossing of the blood to such instances +as when a Gipsy dies and leaves his children to be provided for by +“<i>gorgios</i>, trampers, and basket-makers, who live in caravans;” but she +says, “I hate to talk of the matter.” When Mr. Borrow asked her, if a +Gipsy woman, unless compelled by hard necessity, would have anything to +do with a <i>gorgio</i>, she replied, “We are not over-fond of <i>gorgios</i>, and we +hate basket-makers and folks that live in caravans.” Here she makes a +very important distinction between <i>gorgios</i>, (native English,) and <i>basket-makers +and folks that live in caravans</i>, (mixed Gipsies.) She does not deny +that a Gipsy woman will intermarry with a native under certain circumstances. +A pretty-pure Gipsy, when angry, will very readily call a mixed +Gipsy a <i>gorgio</i>, or, indeed, by any other name.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote262" id="Footnote262"></a><a href="#FNanchor262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> Grellmann evidently alludes to Gipsies of mixed blood, when he writes +in the following manner: “Experience shows that the dark colour of the +Gipsies, which is continued from generation to generation, is more the effect +of education and manner of life than descent. Among those who profess +music in Hungary, or serve in the imperial army, where they have learned +to pay more attention to order and cleanliness, there are many to be found +whose extraction is not at all discernible in their colour.” For my part, I +cannot say that such language is applicable to full-blood Gipsies. Still, the +change from tented to settled and tidy Gipsydom is apt to show its effects +in modifying the complexion of such Gipsies, and to a much greater degree +in their descendants.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote263" id="Footnote263"></a><a href="#FNanchor263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> Mr. Offor, editor of a late edition of Bunyan’s works, writes, in “Notes +and Queries,” thus: “I have avoided much intercourse with this class, fearing +the fate of Mr. Hoyland, who, being a Quaker, was shot by one of +Cupid’s darts from a black-eyed Gipsy girl; and <i>J. S. may do well to be cautious</i>.” +Mr. Offor is not far wrong. A Gipsy girl can sometimes fascinate +a “white fellow,” as a snake can a bird—make him flutter, and particularly +so, should the “little Gipsy” be met with in some such dress as black silks +and a white polka. This much can be said of Gipsy women, which cannot +be said of all women, that they know their places, and are not apt to <i>usurp</i> +the rights of the <i>rajahs</i>; they will even “work the nails off their fingers” +to make them feel comfortable.</p> + +<p>I should conclude, from what Mr. Offor says, that the Quaker married +the Gipsy girl. If children were born of the union, they will be Gipsy-Quakers, +or Quaker-Gipsies, whichever expression we choose to adopt.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote264" id="Footnote264"></a><a href="#FNanchor264"><span class="label">[264]</span></a> I have picked up quite a number of Scottish Gipsies of respectable +character, from their having gone in their youth, to look at the “old thing.” +It is the most natural thing in the world for them to do. What is it to +look back to the time of James V., in 1540, when John Faw was lord-paramount +over the Gipsies in Scotland? Imagine, then, the natural curiosity +of a young Gipsy, brought up in a town, to look at something like the original +condition of his ancestors. Such a Gipsy will leave Edinburgh, for +example, and travel over the south of Scotland, “casting his sign,” as he +passes through the villages, in every one of which he will find Gipsies. +Some of these villages are almost entirely occupied by Gipsies. James +Hogg is reported, in Blackwood’s Magazine, to say, that Lochmaben is +“stocked” with them.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote265" id="Footnote265"></a><a href="#FNanchor265"><span class="label">[265]</span></a> Among the English Gipsies, fair-haired ones are looked upon by the +purer sort, or even by those taking after the Gipsy, as “small potatoes.” +The consequence is they have to make up for their want of blood, by smartness, +knowledge of the language, or something that will go to balance the +deficiency of blood. They generally lay claim to the <i>intellect</i>, while they +yield the <i>blood</i> to the others. A full or nearly full-blood young English Gipsy +looks upon herself with all the pride of a little duchess, while in the company +of young male mixed Gipsies. A mixed Gipsy may reasonably be +assumed to be more intelligent than one of the old stock, were it only for +this reason, that the mixture softens down the natural conceit and bigotry +of the Gipsy; while, as regards his personal appearance, it puts him in a +more improvable position. Still, a full-blood Gipsy looks up to a mixed +Gipsy, if he is anything of a superior man, and freely acknowledges the +blood. Indeed, the two kinds will readily marry, if circumstances bring +them together. To a couple of such Gipsies I said: “What difference does +it make, if the person <i>has the blood, and has his heart in the right place</i>?” +“That’s the idea; that’s exactly the idea,” they both replied.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote266" id="Footnote266"></a><a href="#FNanchor266"><span class="label">[266]</span></a> To thoroughly understand how a Gipsy, with fair hair and blue eyes, +can be as much a Gipsy as one with black, may be termed “passing the +<i>pons assinorum</i> of the Gipsy question.” Once over the bridge, and there +are no difficulties to be encountered on the journey, unless it be to understand +that a Gipsy can be a Gipsy without living in a tent or being a rogue.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote267" id="Footnote267"></a><a href="#FNanchor267"><span class="label">[267]</span></a> There is a considerable resemblance between Gipsyism, in its harmless +aspect, and Freemasonry; with this difference, that the former is a general, +while the latter is a special, society; that is to say, the Gipsies have the +language, or some of the words, and the signs, peculiar to the whole race, +which each individual or class will use for different purposes. The race +does not necessarily, and does not in fact, have intercourse with every +other member of it; in that respect, they resemble any ordinary community +of men. Masonry, as my reader may be aware, is a society of what +may be termed “a mixed multitude of good fellows, who are all pledged to +befriend and help each other.” The radical elements of Masonry may be +termed a “rope of sand,” which the vows of the Order work into the most +closely and strongly formed coil of any to be found in the world. But it +is altogether of an artificial nature; while Gipsyism is natural—something +that, when separated from objectionable habits, one might almost call divine; +for it is founded upon a question of race—a question of blood. The cement +of a creed is weak, in comparison with that which binds the Gipsies together; +for a people, like an individual, may have one creed to-day, and another +to-morrow; it may be continually travelling round the circle of every form +of faith; but blood, under certain circumstances, is absolute and immutable.</p> + +<p>There are many Gipsies Freemasons; indeed, they are the very people +to push their way into a Mason’s lodge; for they have secrets of their own, +and are naturally anxious to pry into those of others, by which they may +be benefited. I was told of a Gipsy who died lately, the Master of a Masons’ +Lodge. A friend, a Mason, told me, the other day, of his having entered a +house in Yetholm, where were five Gipsies, all of whom responded to his +Masonic signs. Masons should therefore interest themselves in, and befriend, +the Gipsies.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote268" id="Footnote268"></a><a href="#FNanchor268"><span class="label">[268]</span></a> The principle, or rather fact, here involved, simple as it is in itself, is +evidently very difficult of comprehension by the native Scottish mind. +Any person understands perfectly well how a Highlander, at the present +day, is still a Highlander, notwithstanding the great change that has come +over the character of his race. But our Scottish <i>literati</i> seem to have been +altogether at sea, in comprehending the same principle as applicable to the +Gipsies. They might naturally have asked themselves, whether <i>Gipsies</i> +could have procreated <i>Jews</i>; and, if not Jews, how they could have procreated +<i>gorgios</i>, (as English Gipsies term natives.) A writer in Blackwood’s +Magazine says, in reference to Billy Marshall, a Gipsy chief, to whom +allusion has already been made: “Who were his descendants I cannot +tell; I am sure he could not do it himself, if he were living. It is known +that they were prodigiously numerous; I dare say numberless.” And yet +this writer gravely says that “the <i>race</i> is in some risk of becoming extinct(!)” +Another writer in Blackwood says: “Their numbers may perhaps +have since been diminished, in particular States, by <i>the progress of +civilization(!)</i>” We would naturally pronounce any person crazy who +would maintain that there were no Highlanders in Scotland, owing to their +having “changed their habits.” We could, with as much reason, say the +same of those who will maintain this opinion in regard to the Gipsies. +There has been a great deal of what is called genius expended upon the +Gipsies, but wonderfully little common sense.</p> + +<p>As the Jews, during their pilgrimage in the Wilderness, were protected +from their enemies by a cloud, so have the Gipsies, in their encrease and +development, been shielded from theirs, by a mist of ignorance, which, it +would seem, requires no little trouble to dispel.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote269" id="Footnote269"></a><a href="#FNanchor269"><span class="label">[269]</span></a> In Olmstead’s “Journey in the Seaboard Slave States” it is stated, that +in Alexandria, Louisiana, when under the Spanish rule, there were “French +and Spanish, <i>Egyptians</i> and Indians, Mulattoes and Negroes.” This author +reports a conversation which he had with a planter, by which it appears +that these Egyptians came from “some of the Northern Islands;” that they +spoke a language among themselves, but could talk French and Spanish +too; that they were black, but not very black, and as good citizens as any, +and passed for white folk. The planter believed they married mostly with +mulattoes, and that a good many of the mulattoes had Egyptian blood in +them too. He believed these Egyptians had disappeared since the State +became part of the Union. Mr. Olmstead remarks: “The Egyptians were +probably Spanish Gipsies, though I have never heard of any of them being +in America in any other way.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote270" id="Footnote270"></a><a href="#FNanchor270"><span class="label">[270]</span></a> Mr. Borrow surely cannot mean that a Gipsy ceases to be a Gipsy, +when he settles down, and “turns over a new leaf;” and that this “change +of habits” changes his descent, blood, appearance, language and nationality! +What, then, does he mean, when he says that the Spanish Gipsies have decreased +by “a partial change of habits?”</p> + +<p>And does an infusion of Spanish blood, implied in a “freer intercourse +with the Spanish population,” lead to the Gipsy element being wiped out; +or does it lead to the Spanish feeling being lost in Gipsydom? Which is +the element to be operated upon—the Spanish or the Gipsy? Which is the +<i>leaven</i>? The Spanish element is the <i>passive</i>, the Gipsy the <i>active</i>. As a +question of philosophy, the most simple of comprehension, and, above all, +as a matter of fact, the foreign element introduced, <i>in detail</i>, into the <i>body</i> +of Gipsydom, goes with that body, and, in feeling, becomes incorporated +with it, although, in physical appearance, it changes the Gipsy race, so +that it becomes “confounded with the residue of the population,” but remains +Gipsy, as before. A Spanish Gipsy is a Spaniard as he stands, and +it would be hard to say what we should ask him to do, to become more a +Spaniard than he is already.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote271" id="Footnote271"></a><a href="#FNanchor271"><span class="label">[271]</span></a> Mr. Borrow mentions, in the twenty-second chapter of the “Bible in +Spain,” having met several cavalry soldiers from Granada, Gipsies <i>incog.</i> +who were surprised at being discovered to be Gipsies. They had been impressed, +but carried on a trade in horses, in league with the captain of their +company. They said: “We have been to the wars, but not to fight; we left +that to the Busné. We have kept together, and like true Caloré, have stood +back to back. We have made money in the wars.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote272" id="Footnote272"></a><a href="#FNanchor272"><span class="label">[272]</span></a> It would seem that the law in Spain, in regard to the Gipsies, stands +pretty much where it did—that is, the people are, in a sense, tolerated, but +that the use of their language is prohibited, as may be gathered from an +incident mentioned in the ninth chapter of the “Bible in Spain,” by Mr. +Borrow.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote273" id="Footnote273"></a><a href="#FNanchor273"><span class="label">[273]</span></a> Paget says these tinkers leave their women and children at home when +on their travels. That is not customary with the tribe, although it may +be their habit in the Austrian dominions.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote274" id="Footnote274"></a><a href="#FNanchor274"><span class="label">[274]</span></a> “I was one of these verminous ones, one of these great sin-breeders; +I infected all the youth of the town where I was born with all manner of +youthful vanities. The neighbours counted me so; my practice proved me +so: wherefore Christ Jesus took me first, and taking me first, the contagion +was much allayed all the town over.”—<i>Bunyan.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote275" id="Footnote275"></a><a href="#FNanchor275"><span class="label">[275]</span></a> “Grand was the repose of his lofty brow, dark eye, and aspect of soft +and melancholy meaning. It was a face from which every evil and earthly +passion seemed purged. A deep gravity lay upon his countenance, which +had the solemnity, without the sternness, of one of our old reformers. You +could almost fancy a halo completing its apostolic character.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote276" id="Footnote276"></a><a href="#FNanchor276"><span class="label">[276]</span></a> Burns alludes to this family, thus: “Passed through the most glorious +corn country I ever saw, till I reached Dunbar, a neat little town. Dine +with Provost Fall, an eminent merchant, and most respectable character, +but indescribable, as he exhibits no marked traits. Mrs. Fall, a genius in +painting; fully more clever in the fine arts and sciences than my friend +Lady Wauchope, without her consummate assurance of her own abilities.”—<i>Life +of Burns, by Robert Chambers.</i></p> + +<p>The crest of the Falls, of Dunbar, was <i>three</i> boars’ heads, couped; that of +Baillie, of Lamington, is <i>one</i> boar’s head, couped. In the Statistical Account +of Scotland, (1835,) appears the following notice of this family: “A family, +of the name of Fall, established themselves at Dunbar, and became, during +the last century, the most extensive merchants in Scotland. They were +long the chief magistrates of the burgh, and preferred the public good to +their own profit. They have left no one to bear their name, <i>not even a +stone to tell where they lie</i>; but they will long be remembered for their enterprise +and public spirit.” There is apparently a reason for “not even a +stone being left to tell where they lie;” for in Hoyland’s “Survey of the +Gipsies” appeared the account of Baillie Smith, in which it is said: “The +descendants of Faa now take the name of Fall, from the Messrs. Fall, of +Dunbar, who, they pride themselves in saying, <i>are of the same stock and +lineage</i>;” which seems to have frightened their connexions at being known +to be Gipsies.</p> + +<p>Let all that has been said of the Falls be considered as their monument +and epitaph; so that their memories may be preserved as long as this +work exists.</p> + +<p>It would be interesting to know who the Captain Fall was, who visited +Dunbar, with an American ship-of-war, during the time of Paul Jones. He +might have been a descendant of a Gipsy, sent to the plantations, in the +olden times. There are, as I have said before, a great many scions of Gipsy +Faas, under one name or other, scattered over the world.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote277" id="Footnote277"></a><a href="#FNanchor277"><span class="label">[277]</span></a> <i>Whipping the cat</i>: Tailoring from house to house. The <i>cat</i> is <i>whipped</i> +by females, as well as males, in America, in some parts of which the expression +is current.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote278" id="Footnote278"></a><a href="#FNanchor278"><span class="label">[278]</span></a> Of the Gipsies at Moscow, the following is the substance of what Mr. +Borrow says: “Those who have been accustomed to consider the Gipsy as +a wandering outcast . . . . . . will be surprised to learn that, +amongst the Gipsies of Moscow, there are not a few who inhabit stately +houses, go abroad in elegant equipages, and are behind the higher order of +Russians neither in appearance nor mental acquirements. . . . . The +sums obtained by the Gipsy females, by the exercise of their art (singing +in the choirs of Moscow,) enable them to support their relatives in affluence +and luxury. Some are married to Russians; and no one who has +visited Russia can but be aware that a lovely and accomplished countess, +of the noble and numerous family of Tolstoy is, by birth, a Zigana, and was +originally one of the principal attractions of a Romany choir at Moscow.”</p> + +<p>This short notice appears unsatisfactory, considering, as Mr. Borrow +says, that one of his principal motives for visiting Moscow was to hold +communication with the Gipsies. It might have occurred to him to enquire +what relation the children of such marriages would bear to Gipsydom +generally; that is, would they be initiated in the mysteries, and taught the +language, and hold themselves to be Gipsies? It is evident, however, that +the Gipsy-drilling process is going on among the Russian nobility.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote279" id="Footnote279"></a><a href="#FNanchor279"><span class="label">[279]</span></a> On his return with his gallant prey, he passed a very large hay-stack. +It occurred to the provident laird that this would be extremely convenient +to fodder his new stock of cattle; but, as no means of transporting it were +obvious, he was fain to take leave of it, with the apostrophe, now become +proverbial, “<i>By my saul, had ye but four feet, ye should not stand lang there.</i>” +In short, as Froissart says of a similar class of feudal robbers. “Nothing +came amiss to them that was not <i>too heavy</i> or <i>too hot</i>.” Sir Walter Scott +speaks, in the most jocular manner, of an ancestress who had a <i>curious +hand at pickling the beef which her husband stole</i>; and that there was not a +stain upon his escutcheon, barring Border theft and high treason.—<i>Lockhart’s +Life of Sir Walter Scott.</i></p> + +<p>We should never forget that a “hawk’s a hawk,” whether it is a falcon +or a mosquito hawk, which is the smallest of all hawks.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote280" id="Footnote280"></a><a href="#FNanchor280"><span class="label">[280]</span></a> Sir Walter Scott makes Fitz-James, in the “Lady of the Lake,” say to +Roderick Dhu:</p> + +<div class="poem" style="font-size: 90%;"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“But then, thy chieftain’s robber life!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Winning mean prey by causeless strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrenching from ruined Lowland swain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His herds and harvests reared in vain—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Methinks a soul like thine should scorn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spoils from such foul foray borne.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> <br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gael beheld him, grim the while,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And answered with disdainful smile,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span class="padl4">•</span><span class="padl4">•</span><span class="padl4">•</span><span class="padl4">•</span><span class="padl4">•</span><span class="padl4">•</span><span class="padl4">•</span><br /></span> +<span class="i00">‘Where live the mountain chiefs, who hold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That plundering Lowland field and fold<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is aught but retribution true?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seek other cause ‘gainst Roderick Dhu!’”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote281" id="Footnote281"></a><a href="#FNanchor281"><span class="label">[281]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_202">page 202</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote282" id="Footnote282"></a><a href="#FNanchor282"><span class="label">[282]</span></a> In expatiating on the subject of the Gipsy race always being the Gipsy +race, I have had it remarked to me: “Suppose Gipsies should not mention +to their children the fact of their being Gipsies.” In that case, I replied, +the children, especially if, for the most part, of white blood, would simply +not be Gipsies; they would, of course, have some of “the blood,” but they +would not be Gipsies if they had no knowledge of the fact. But to suppose +that Gipsies should not learn that they are Gipsies, on account of +their parents not telling them of it, is to presume that they had no other +relatives. Their being Gipsies is constantly talked of among themselves; +so that, if Gipsy children should not hear their “wonderful story” from +their parents, they would readily enough hear it from their other relatives. +This is assuming, however, that the Gipsy mind can act otherwise than the +Gipsy mind; which it cannot.</p> + +<p>It sometimes happens, as the Gipsies separate into classes, like all other +races or communities of men, that a great deal of jealousy is stirred up in +the minds of the poorer members of the tribe, on account of their being +shunned by the wealthier kind. They are then apt to say that the exclusive +members have <i>left</i> the tribe; which, with them, is an undefined and +confused idea, at the best, principally on account of their limited powers of +reflection, and the subject never being alluded to by the others. This +jealousy sometimes leads them to dog these straggling sheep, so that, as far +as lies in their power, they will not allow them to leave, as they imagine, +the Gipsy fold. [See <a href="#Footnote326">second note</a> at page 532.]</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote283" id="Footnote283"></a><a href="#FNanchor283"><span class="label">[283]</span></a> I very abruptly addressed a French Gipsy, in the streets of New York, +thus: “Vous êtes un <i>Romany chiel</i>.” “Oui, monsieur,” was the reply +which he, as abruptly, gave me. But, ever afterwards, he got cross, when +I alluded to the subject. On one occasion, I gave him the sign, which he +repeated, while he asked, with much tartness of manner, “What is that—what +does it mean?” This was a roguish Gipsy, and was afterwards lodged +in jail.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, I met with a German cutler, in a place of business, in +New York. I felt sure he was a Gipsy, although the world would not have +taken him for one. Catching his eye, I commenced to look around the room, +from those present to himself, as if there was to be something confidential +between us, and then whispered to him, “<i>Callo chabo</i>,” (Gipsy, or black fellow;) +and the effect was instantaneous. I afterwards visited his family, on +a Sabbath evening, and took tea with them. They were from Wurtemberg, +and appeared very decent people. The mother, a tall, swarthy, fine looking +intelligent young woman, said grace, which was repeated by the children, +whom I found learning their Sabbath-school lessons. The family +regularly attend church. A fair-haired German called, and went to church +with the Gipsy himself. What with the appearance of everything about +the house, and the fine, clean, and neatly-dressed family of children, I felt +very much pleased with my visit.</p> + +<p>French and German Gipsies are very shy, owing to the severity of the +laws against their race.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote284" id="Footnote284"></a><a href="#FNanchor284"><span class="label">[284]</span></a> Fletcher, of Saltoun, speaks of there being constantly a hundred thousand +people in Scotland, leading the life (as Sir Walter Scott describes it,) +of “Gipsies, Jockies, or Cairds.” Between the time alluded to and the date +of John Faw’s league with James V., a period of 140 years had elapsed; +and 174 years from the date of arrival of the race in the country: so that, +from the natural encrease of the body, and the large amount of white blood +introduced into it, the greater part, if not the whole, of the people mentioned, +were doubtless Gipsies. But these Gipsies, according to Sir Walter’s +opinion, “died out by a change of habits.” How strange it is that +the very first class Scottish minds should have so little understood the +philosophy of origin, blood, and descent, and especially as they applied to +the Gipsies! For Sir Walter says: “The progress of time, and encrease +both of the means of life and the power of the laws, gradually reduced +this dreadful evil within more narrow bounds. . . . . Their numbers are +so greatly diminished, that, instead of one hundred thousand, as calculated +by Fletcher, it would now, perhaps, be impossible to collect above five hundred +throughout all Scotland(!)” It is perfectly evident that Sir Walter +Scott, in common with many others, never realized the idea, in all its bearings, +of what a Gipsy was; or he never could have imagined that those, +only, were of the Gipsy race, who followed the tent.</p> + +<p>It is very doubtful if Anthonius Gawino, and his tribe, departed with +their letter of introduction from James IV. to his uncle, the king of Denmark, +in 1506. Having secured the favour of the king of Scots, by this +recommendatory notice, he was more apt, by delaying his departure, to secure +his position in the country. The circumstances attending the league +with his successor, John Faw, show that the tribe had been long in the +country; doubtless from as far back as 1506. From 1506 till 1579, with +the exception of about one year, during the reign of James V., the tribe, as +I have already said, (<a href="#Page_109">page 109</a>,) must have encreased prodigiously. The +persecutions against the body extended over the reign of James VI., and +part of that of Charles I.; for, according to Baron Hume, such was the +terror which the executions inspired in the tribe, that, “for the space of more +than 50 years from that time, (1624,) there is no trial of an Egyptian;” +although our author shows that an execution of a band of them took place +in 1636. But “towards the end of that century,” continues Baron Hume, +“the nuisance seems to have again become troublesome;” in other words, +that from the reign of Charles I. to the accession of William and Mary, +the time to which Fletcher’s remark applies, the attention of all being taken +up with the troubles of the times, the Gipsies had things pretty much their +own way; but when peace was restored, they would be called to strict +account.</p> + +<p>For all these reasons, it may be said that the 100,000 people spoken of +were doubtless Gipsies of various mixtures of blood; so that, at the present +day, there ought to be a very large number of the tribe in Scotland. I +admit that many of the Scottish Gipsies have been hanged, and many banished +to the Plantations; but these would be in a small ratio to their number, +and a still smaller to the natural encrease of the body. Suppose that +such and such Gipsies were either hanged or banished; so young did they +all marry, that, when they were hanged or banished, they might leave behind +them families ranging from five to ten children. We may say, of the +Scottish Gipsies generally, in days that are past, what a writer in Blackwood’s +Magazine, already alluded to, said of Billy Marshall: “Their descendants +were prodigiously numerous; I dare say, numberless.” Many +of the Scottish Gipsies have migrated to England, as well as elsewhere. +In Liverpool, there are many of them, following various mechanical occupations.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote285" id="Footnote285"></a><a href="#FNanchor285"><span class="label">[285]</span></a> <i>Peter Funks & Co.</i>: Mock auctioneers of mock jewelry, &c., &c.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote286" id="Footnote286"></a><a href="#FNanchor286"><span class="label">[286]</span></a> If the real characters of those “lady fortune-tellers,” who flourish so +much in the large cities, and publicly profess to reveal all matters in “love +and law, health and wealth, losses and crosses,” were to be ascertained, +many of them would, in all probability, be found to belong to a superior +class of Gipsies. And this may much more be said of the more humble +ones, who trust to the gossipping of a class—and that a respectable class of +females, for the advertising of their calling. For a certainty, those are +Gipsies who stroll about, telling fortunes for dimes, clothes, or old bottles. +The advertising members form a very small part of the fraternity. The +extent to which such business is patronized, by Americans, of both sexes, +and of almost all positions in society is such, that it is doubtful if the +English reader would credit it, if it were put on record.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote287" id="Footnote287"></a><a href="#FNanchor287"><span class="label">[287]</span></a> When travelling on the stage, towards Lake Huron, in Canada, I was +surprised at finding a Gipsy tent on the road-side, with a man sitting in +front of it, engaged in the mysteries of the tinker. I met a camp of Gipsies +on a vacant space, beside a clump of trees, in Hamilton, at the head of +Lake Ontario, but I deferred visiting them till the following morning. +When I returned to the spot, I found that the birds had flown. Feeling +disappointed, I began to question a man who kept a toll-bar, immediately +opposite to where their tents had been, as to their peculiarities generally; +when he said: “They seemed droll kind o’ folk—quite like ourselves—no +way foreign; yet I could not understand a word they were saying among +themselves.” Shortly after this, a company of them entered a shop, in the +same town, to buy tin, when I happened to be in it. I accosted one of the +mothers of the company, in an abrupt but bland tone. “You’re a’ Nawkens +(Gipsies) I see.”—“Ou ay, we’re Nawkens,” was her immediate reply, +accompanied by a smile on her weather-beaten countenance. “You’ll aye +speak the language?” I continued. “We’ll ne’er forget that,” she again replied. +This seemed to be a company of Gipsies from the Scottish Border; +for the woman spoke about the broadest Scotch I ever heard. They dressed +well, and bore a good reputation in the neighbourhood.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote288" id="Footnote288"></a><a href="#FNanchor288"><span class="label">[288]</span></a> Mixed Gipsies tell no lies, when they say that they are not Gipsies; +for, physiologically speaking, they are not Gipsies, but only partly Gipsies, +as regards blood. In every other way they are Gipsies, that is, <i>chabos</i>, +<i>calos</i>, or <i>chals</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote289" id="Footnote289"></a><a href="#FNanchor289"><span class="label">[289]</span></a> The people above-mentioned are doubtless Gipsies. According to Grellmann, +the race is even to be found in the centre of Africa. Mollien, in his +travels to the sources of the Senegal and Gambia, in 1818, says: “Scattered +among the Joloffs, we find a people not unlike our Gipsies, and known +by the name of Laaubés. Leading a roving life, and without fixed habitation, +their only employment is the manufacture of wooden vessels, mortars, +and bedsteads. They choose a well-wooded spot, fell some trees, form huts +with the branches, and work up the trunks. For this privilege, they must +pay a sort of tax to the prince in whose states they thus settle. In general, +they are both ugly and slovenly.</p> + +<p>“The women, notwithstanding their almost frightful faces, are covered +with amber and coral beads, presents heaped on them by the Joloffs, from +a notion that the favours, alone, of these women will be followed by those of +fortune. Ugly or handsome, all the young Laaubé females are in request +among the Negroes.</p> + +<p>“The Laaubés have nothing of their own but their money, their tools, +and their asses; the only animals on which they travel. In the woods, +they make fires with the dung of the flocks. Ranged round the fires, the +men and women pass their leisure time in smoking. The Laaubés have not +those characteristic features and high stature which mark the Joloffs, and +they seem to form a distinct race. They are exempted from all military +service. Each family has its chief, but, over all, there is a superior chief, +who commands a whole tribe or nation. He collects the tribute, and communicates +with such delegates of the king as receive the imposts: this +serves to protect them from all vexation. The Laaubés are idolaters, speak +the Poula language, and pretend to tell fortunes.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote290" id="Footnote290"></a><a href="#FNanchor290"><span class="label">[290]</span></a> Bell, in an account of his journey to Pekin, [1721.] says that upwards +of sixty Gipsies had arrived at Tobolsky, on their way to China, but were +stopped by the Vice-Governor, for want of passports. They had roamed, +during the summer season, from Poland, in small parties, subsisting by +selling trinkets, and telling fortunes.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote291" id="Footnote291"></a><a href="#FNanchor291"><span class="label">[291]</span></a> Mr. Borrow says, with reference to the Spanish Gipsy language: “Its +grammatical peculiarities have disappeared, the entire language having +been modified and subjected to the rules of Spanish grammar, with which +it now coincides in syntax, in the conjugation of verbs, and in the declension +of its nouns.” We might have naturally expected that of the Gipsy language, +in the course of four hundred years, from the people speaking it being +so much scattered over the country, and coming so much in contact +with the ordinary natives. But something different might be looked for, +where the Gipsies have not been persecuted, but allowed to live together +in a body, as in Hungary. Of the Hungarian Gipsy language, Mr. Borrow +says, that in no part of the world is the Gipsy language better preserved +than in Hungary; and that the roving bands of Gipsies from that country, +who visit France and Italy, speak the pure Gipsy, with all its grammatical +peculiarities. He estimates that the Spanish Gipsy language may consist +of four or five thousand words; a sufficient number, one might suppose, to +serve the purpose of everyday life. A late writer in the Dublin University +Magazine estimates that five thousand words would serve the same purpose +in the English language. Four thousand words is a very large language for +the Gipsies of Spain to possess, in addition to the ordinary one of the country.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote292" id="Footnote292"></a><a href="#FNanchor292"><span class="label">[292]</span></a> I cannot agree with Mr. Borrow, when he says, that the Gipsies +“travelled three thousand miles into Europe, <i>with hatred in their hearts +towards the people among whom they settled</i>.” In none of the earliest laws +passed against them, is anything said of their being other than thieves, +cheats, &c., &c. They seem to have been too politic to commit murder; +moreover, it appears to have been foreign to their disposition to do aught +but obtain a living in the most cunning manner they could. There is no +necessary connection between purloining one’s property and hating one’s +person. As long as the Gipsies were not hardly dealt with, they could, +naturally, have no actual hatred towards their fellow-creatures. Mr. Borrow +attributes none of the spite and hatred of the race towards the community +to the severity of the persecutions to which it was exposed, or to +that hard feeling with which society has regarded it. These, and the example +of the Spaniards, doubtless led the Gitanos to shed the blood of the +ordinary natives.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote293" id="Footnote293"></a><a href="#FNanchor293"><span class="label">[293]</span></a> I accidentally got into conversation with an Irishman, in the city of +New York, about secret societies, when he mentioned that he was a member +of a great many such, indeed, “all of them,” as he expressed it. I said +there was one society of which he was not a member, when he began to +enumerate them, and at last came to the Zincali. “What,” said I, “are you a +member of this society?” “Yes,” said he; “the Zincali, or Gipsy.” He then told +me that there are many members of this society in the city of New York; +not all members of it, under that name, but of its outposts, if I may so express +it. The principal or arch-Gipsy for the city, he said, was a merchant, +in —— street, who had in his possession a printed vocabulary, or +dictionary, of the language, which was open only to the most thoroughly +initiated. In the course of our conversation, it fell out that the native +American Gipsy referred to at <a href="#Page_420">page 420</a> was one of the thoroughly initiated; +which circumstance explained a question he had put to me, and which I +evaded, by saying that I was not in the habit of telling tales out of school.</p> + +<p>In Spain, as we have seen, a Gipsy taught her language to her son from +a MS. I doubt not there are MS. if not printed, vocabularies of the Gipsy +language among the tribe in Scotland, as well as in other countries.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote294" id="Footnote294"></a><a href="#FNanchor294"><span class="label">[294]</span></a> Among the various means by which the name of Gipsy can be raised +up, it may be mentioned, that beginning the word with a capital is one of +no little importance. The almost invariable custom with writers, in that +respect, has been as if they were describing rats and mice, instead of a race +of men.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote295" id="Footnote295"></a><a href="#FNanchor295"><span class="label">[295]</span></a> This sensation, in the minds of the Gipsies, of the perpetuity of their +race, creates, in a great measure, its immortality. Paradoxical as it may +appear, the way to preserve the existence of a people is to scatter it, provided, +however, that it is a race thoroughly distinct from others, to commence +with. When, by the force of circumstances, it has fairly settled +down into the idea that it is a people, those living in one country become +conscious of its existence in others; and hence arises the principal cause of +the perpetuity of its existence as a scattered people.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote296" id="Footnote296"></a><a href="#FNanchor296"><span class="label">[296]</span></a> The fact of these Indians, and the aboriginal races found in the countries +colonised by Europeans, disappearing so rapidly, prevents our regarding +them with any great degree of interest. This circumstance detracts +from that idea of dignity which the perpetuity and civilization of their race +would inspire in the minds of others.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote297" id="Footnote297"></a><a href="#FNanchor297"><span class="label">[297]</span></a> A writer in the Penny Cyclopædia illustrates this absurd idea, in very +plain terms, when he says: “In England, the Gipsies have much diminished, +of late years, in consequence of the enclosure of lands, and the laws +against vagrants.” Sir Walter Scott’s idea of the Gipsies has been followed +in a pictorial history of Scotland, lately issued from the Scottish +press.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote298" id="Footnote298"></a><a href="#FNanchor298"><span class="label">[298]</span></a> The following singular remarks appeared in a very late number of +Chambers’ Journal, on the subject of the Gipsies of the Danube: “As the +wild cat, the otter, and the wolf, generally disappear before the advance of +civilization, the wild races of mankind are, in like manner and degree, gradually +coming to an end, and from the same causes(!) The waste lands get +enclosed, the woods are cut down, the police becomes yearly more efficient, +and the Pariahs vanish with their means of subsistence. [Where do they +go to?] In England, there are, at most, 1,500 Gipsies(!) Before the end +of the present century, they will probably be extinct over Western Europe(!)”</p> + +<p>It is perfectly evident that the world, outside of Gipsydom, has to be +initiated in the subject of the Gipsies, as in the first principles of a science, +or as a child is instructed in its alphabet. And yet, the above-mentioned +writer takes upon himself to chide Mr. Borrow, in the matter of the Gipsies.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote299" id="Footnote299"></a><a href="#FNanchor299"><span class="label">[299]</span></a> I leave out of view various scattered nations in Asia.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote300" id="Footnote300"></a><a href="#FNanchor300"><span class="label">[300]</span></a> It is interesting to hear the Gipsies speak of their race “taking of” +this or the other race. Said an English Gipsy, to me, with reference to some +Gipsies of whom we were speaking: “They take of the Arabians.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote301" id="Footnote301"></a><a href="#FNanchor301"><span class="label">[301]</span></a> There is scarce a part of the habitable world where they are not to be +found; their tents are alike pitched on the heaths of Brazil and the ridges +of the Himalayan hills; and their language is heard at Moscow and Madrid, +in the streets of London and Stamboul. They are found in all parts of +Russia, with the exception of the Government of St. Petersburg, from which +they have been banished. In most of the provincial towns, they are to be +found in a state of half civilization, supporting themselves by trafficking in +horses, or by curing the disorders incidental to those animals. But the vast +majority reject this manner of life, and traverse the country in bands, like +the ancient Hamaxobioi; the immense grassy plains of Russia affording +pasturage for their herds of cattle, on which, and the produce of the chase, +they chiefly depend for subsistence.—<i>Borrow.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote302" id="Footnote302"></a><a href="#FNanchor302"><span class="label">[302]</span></a> Considering what is popularly understood to be the natural disposition +and capacity of the Gipsies, we would readily conclude that to turn innkeepers +would be the most unlikely of all their employments; yet that is +very common. Mahommed said, “If the mountain will not come to us, we +will go to the mountain.” The Gipsies say, “If we do not go to the people, +the people must come to us;” and so they open their houses of entertainment.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote303" id="Footnote303"></a><a href="#FNanchor303"><span class="label">[303]</span></a> The following is a description of a superior Spanish Gipsy, in 1584, as +quoted by Mr. Borrow, from the memoirs of a Spaniard, who had seen +him: “At this time, they had a count, a fellow who spoke the Castilian +idiom with as much purity as if he had been a native of Toledo. He was +acquainted with all the ports of Spain, and all the difficult and broken +ground of the provinces. He knew the exact strength of every city, and +who were the principal people in each, and the exact amount of their +property; there was nothing relative to the state, however secret, that he +was not acquainted with; nor did he make a mystery of his knowledge, but +publicly boasted of it.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote304" id="Footnote304"></a><a href="#FNanchor304"><span class="label">[304]</span></a> I should suppose that this was Captain Gordon who behaved himself +like a prince, at the North Queensferry. <i>See <a href="#Page_172">page 172</a>.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote305" id="Footnote305"></a><a href="#FNanchor305"><span class="label">[305]</span></a> The only part of the religion of the Jews having an origin prior to the +establishment of the Mosaic law was circumcision, which was termed the +covenant made by God with Abraham and his seed. (Gen. xvii. 10-14.) +The abolition of idols, and the worship of God alone, are presumed, although +not expressed. The Jews lapsed into gross idolatry while in Egypt, but +were not likely to neglect circumcision, as that was necessary to maintain +a physical uniformity among the race, but did not enter into the wants, +and hopes, and fears, inherent in the human breast, and stimulated by the +daily exhibition of the phenomena of its existence. The second table of +the moral law was, of course, written upon the hearts of the Jews, in common +with those of the Gentiles. (Rom. ii. 14, 15.)</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote306" id="Footnote306"></a><a href="#FNanchor306"><span class="label">[306]</span></a> It is an unnecessary stretch upon the belief in the Scriptures, to ask +consent to the abstract proposition that the Jews, while in Egypt, encreased +from seventy souls to “about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, +besides children,” at the time of the Exodus. Following a pastoral life, in +a healthy and fertile country, and inspired with the prophecy delivered to +Abraham, as to his numberless descendants, the whole bent of the mind of +the Jews was to multiply their numbers; and polygamy and concubinage +being characteristic of the people, there is no reason to doubt that the +Jews encreased to the number stated. The original emigrants, doubtless, +took with them large establishments of bondmen and bondwomen, and +purchased others while in Egypt; and these being circumcised, according +to the covenant made with Abraham, would sooner or later become, on +that account alone, part of the nation; and much more so by such amalgamation +as is set forth by Rachel and Leah giving their maids to Jacob +to have children by them. Abraham was, at best, the representative head +of the Jewish nation, composed, as that was originally, of elements drawn +from the idolatrous tribes surrounding him and his descendants.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote307" id="Footnote307"></a><a href="#FNanchor307"><span class="label">[307]</span></a> Tacitus gives the following glowing account of the destruction of the +Druids, in the island of Anglesey: “On the opposite shore stood the Britons, +closely embodied, and prepared for action. Women were seen rushing +through the ranks in wild disorder; their apparel funereal; their hair +loose to the wind, in their hands flaming torches, and their whole appearance +resembling the frantic rage of the Furies. The Druids were ranged +in order, with hands uplifted, invoking the gods, and pouring forth horrible +imprecations. The novelty of the sight struck the Romans with awe and +terror. They stood in stupid amazement, as if their limbs were benumbed, +riveted to one spot, a mark for the enemy. The exhortation of the general +diffused new vigour through the ranks, and the men, by mutual reproaches, +inflamed each other to deeds of valour. They felt the disgrace of yielding +to a troop of women, and a band of fanatic priests; they advanced their +standards, and rushed on to the attack with impetuous fury. The Britons +perished in the flames which they themselves had kindled. The island +fell, and a garrison was established to retain it in subjection. <i>The religious +groves, dedicated to superstition and barbarous rites, were levelled to the ground. +In those recesses, the natives imbrued their altars with the blood of their prisoners, +and, in the entrails of men, explored the will of the gods.</i>“—<i>Murphy’s +Translation.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote308" id="Footnote308"></a><a href="#FNanchor308"><span class="label">[308]</span></a> It would almost seem that the Gipsies are the people mentioned in Deut. +xxxii. 21, and Rom. x. 19, where it is said: “I will provoke you, (the +Jews,) to jealousy, by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I +will anger you.” For the history of the Gipsy nation thoroughly burlesques +that of the Jews. But the Jews will be very apt to ignore the existence +of the present work, should the rest of the world allow them to do +it. Yet, excepting the Gipsies themselves, none are so capable of understanding +this subject as the Jews, there being so much in it that is applicable +to themselves.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote309" id="Footnote309"></a><a href="#FNanchor309"><span class="label">[309]</span></a> This information I obtained from some English Gipsies. Thereafter, +the title of the following work came under my notice: “Historical Researches +Respecting the Sojourn of the Heathens, or Egyptians, in the +Northern Netherlands. By J. Dirks. Edited by the Provincial Utrecht +Society of Arts and Sciences. Utrecht: 1850. pp. viii. and 160.”</p> + +<p>Indeed, the Gipsies are scattered all over Europe, and are to be found in +the condition described in the present work.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote310" id="Footnote310"></a><a href="#FNanchor310"><span class="label">[310]</span></a> There are, probably, 12,000,000 of Jews in the world. I have seen +them estimated at from ten to twelve millions. It is impossible to obtain +anything like a correct number of the Jews, in almost <i>any</i> country, leaving +out of view the immense numbers scattered over the world, and living even +in parts unexplored by Europeans.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote311" id="Footnote311"></a><a href="#FNanchor311"><span class="label">[311]</span></a> It is astonishing how superficially some passages of Scripture are interpreted. +There is, for instance, the conduct of Gamaliel, before the Jewish +council. (Acts v. 17-40.) The advice given by him, as a Pharisee, was +nothing but a piece of specious party clap-trap, to discomfit a Sadducee. +St. Paul, who was brought up at the feet of this Pharisee, and, doubtless, +well versed in the factious tactics of his party, gives a beautiful commentary +on the action of his old master, when, on being brought before the same +tribunal, and perceiving that his enemies embraced both parties, he set +them by the ears, by proclaiming himself a Pharisee, and raising the question, +(the “hope and resurrection of the dead,”) on which they so bitterly +disagreed. (Acts xxiii. 6-10.) There was much adroitness displayed by +the Apostle, in so turning the wrath of his enemies against themselves, after +having inadvertently reviled the high priest, in their presence, and within +one of the holy places, in such language as the following: “God shall smite +thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest +me to be smitten, contrary to the law.” As it was, he was only +saved from being “pulled in pieces” by his blood-thirsty persecutors—the +one sect attacking, and the other defending him—by a company of Roman +soldiers, dispatched to take him by force from among them. Nothing could +be more specious than Gamaliel’s reasoning, for it could apply to almost +anything, and was well suited to the feelings of a divided and excited assembly; +or have less foundation, according to his theory, for the very steps +which he advised the people against adopting, for the suppression of Christians, +were used to destroy the false Messiahs to whom he referred. And +yet people quote this recorded clap-trap of an old Pharisee, as an inspiration, +for the guidance of private Christians, and Christian magistrates!</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote312" id="Footnote312"></a><a href="#FNanchor312"><span class="label">[312]</span></a> Tacitus makes Caius Cassius, in the time of Nero, say: “At present, +we have in our service whole nations of slaves, the scum of mankind, collected +from all quarters of the globe; a race of men who bring with them +foreign rites, and the religion of their country, <i>or, probably, no religion at +all</i>.”—<i>Murphy’s Translation.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote313" id="Footnote313"></a><a href="#FNanchor313"><span class="label">[313]</span></a> The following extract from “Leaves from the Diary of a Jewish Minister,” +published in the above-mentioned journal, on the 4th April, 1862, +may not be uninteresting to the Christian reader:</p> + +<p>“In our day, the conscience of Israel is seldom troubled; it is of so elastic +a character, that, like gutta percha, it stretches and is compressed, according +to the desire of its owner. We seldom hear of a troubled conscience. . . . . Not +that we would assert that our people are without a conscience; +we merely state that we seldom hear of its troubles. It is more +than probable, that when the latent feeling is aroused on matters of religion, +and for a moment they have an idea that ‘their soul is not well,’ they take +a homœopathic dose of spiritual medicine, and then feel quite convalescent.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote314" id="Footnote314"></a><a href="#FNanchor314"><span class="label">[314]</span></a> See <a href="#Page_111">pages 111</a> and <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote315" id="Footnote315"></a><a href="#FNanchor315"><span class="label">[315]</span></a> <i>Petul</i>, according to Mr. Borrow, means a horse-shoe; and <i>Petulengro</i>, +a lord of the horse-shoe. It is evidently a very high catch-word among +the English Gipsies.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote316" id="Footnote316"></a><a href="#FNanchor316"><span class="label">[316]</span></a> Various of the characters mentioned in Mr. Borrow’s “Lavengro,” +and “Romany Rye,” are, beyond doubt, Gipsies. Old Fulcher is termed, +in a derisive manner, by Ursula, “a <i>gorgio</i> and basket-maker.” She is one +of the Hernes; a family which <i>gorgio</i> and basket-maker Gipsies describe +as “an ignorant, conceited set, who think nothing of other Gipsies, owing +to the quality and quantity of their own blood.” This is the manner in +which the more original and pure and the other kind of English Gipsies +frequently talk of each other. The latter will deny that they are Gipsies, +at least hide it from the world; and, like the same kind of Scottish Gipsies, +speak of the others, exclusively, as Gipsies. I am acquainted with a fair-haired +English Gipsy, whose wife, now dead, was a half-breed. “But I +am not a Gipsy,” said he to me, very abruptly, before I had said anything +that could have induced him to think that I took him for one. He spoke +Gipsy, like the others. I soon caught him tripping; for, in speaking of +the size of Gipsy families, he slipped his foot, and said: “For example, +there is our family; there were (so many) of us.” There is another Gipsy, +a neighbour, who passes his wife off to the public as an Irish woman, while +she is a fair-haired Irish Gipsy. Both, in short, played upon the word +Gipsy; for, as regards fullness of blood, they really were not Gipsies.</p> + +<p>The dialogue between the Romany Rye and the Horncastle jockey clearly +shows the Gipsy in the latter, when his attention is directed to the figure +of the Hungarian. The Romany Rye makes indirect reference to the Gipsies, +and the jockey abruptly asks: “Who be they? Come, don’t be +ashamed. I have occasionally kept queerish company myself.” “Romany +<i>chals</i>! Whew! I begin to smell a rat.” The remainder of the dialogue, +and the <i>spree</i> which follows, are perfectly Gipsy throughout, on the part of +the jockey; but, like so many of his race, he is evidently ashamed to own +himself up to be “one of them.” He says, in a way as if he were a +stranger to the language: “And what a singular language they have got!” +“Do you know anything of it?” said the Romany Rye. “Only a very few +words; they were always chary in teaching me any.” He said he was +brought up with the <i>gorgio</i> and basket-maker Fulcher, who followed the +caravan. He is described as dressed in a coat of green, (a favourite Gipsy +colour,) and as having curly brown or black hair; and he says of Mary +Fulcher, whom he married: “She had a fair complexion, and nice red hair, +both of which I liked, being a bit of a black myself.” How much this is in +keeping with the Gipsies, who so frequently speak of each other, in a +jocular way, as “brown and black rascals!”</p> + +<p>I likewise claim Isopel Berners, in Lavengro, to be a <i>thumping</i> Gipsy +lass, who travelled the country with her donkey-cart, taking her own part, +and <i>wapping</i> this one, and <i>wapping</i> that one. It signifies not what her appearance +was. I have frequently taken tea, at her house, with a young, +blue-eyed, English Gipsy widow, perfectly English in her appearance, who +spoke Gipsy freely enough. It did not signify what Isopel said of herself, +or her relations. How did she come to speak Gipsy? Do Gipsies <i>teach</i> +their language to <i>strangers</i>, and, more especially, to strange women? Assuredly +not. Suppose that Isopel was not a Gipsy, but had married a +Gipsy, then I could understand how she might have known Gipsy, and yet +not have been a Gipsy, except by initiation. But it is utterly improbable +that she, a strange woman, should have been taught a word of it.</p> + +<p>In England are to be found Gipsies of many occupations; horse-dealers, +livery stable-keepers, public-house keepers, sometimes grocers and linen-drapers; +indeed, almost every occupation from these downwards. I can +readily enough believe an English Gipsy, when he tells me, that he knows +of an English squire a Gipsy. To have an English squire a Gipsy, might +have come about even in this way: Imagine a rollicking or eccentric English +squire taking up with, and marrying, say, a pretty mixed Gipsy bar or +lady’s maid, and the children would be brought up Gipsies, for certainty.</p> + +<p>There are two Gipsies, of the name of B——, farmers upon the estate +of Lord Lister, near Massingham, in the county of Norfolk. They are described +as good-sized, handsome men, and swarthy, with long black hair, +combed over their shoulders. They dress in the old Gipsy stylish fashion, +with a green cut-away, or Newmarket, coat, yellow leather breeches, buttoned +to the knee, and top boots, with a Gipsy hat, ruffled breast, and +turned-down collar. They occupy the position of any natives in society; +attend church, take an interest in parish matters, dine with his lordship’s +other tenants, and compete for prizes at the agricultural shows. They are +proud of being Gipsies. I have also been told that there are Gipsies in the +county of Kent, who have hop farms and dairies.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote317" id="Footnote317"></a><a href="#FNanchor317"><span class="label">[317]</span></a> Bunyan adds: “But, notwithstanding the meanness and inconsiderableness +of my parents, it pleased God to put it into their hearts to put me to +school, to learn me both to read and write; the which I also attained, according +to the rate of other poor men’s children.”</p> + +<p>He does not say, “According to the rate of poor men’s children,” but of +“<i>other</i> poor men’s children:” a form of expression always used by the Gipsies +when speaking of themselves, as distinguished from others. The language +used by Bunyan, in speaking of his family, was in harmony with +that of the population at large; but he, doubtless, had the feelings peculiar +to all the tribe, with reference to their origin and race.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote318" id="Footnote318"></a><a href="#FNanchor318"><span class="label">[318]</span></a> Justice Keeling threatened Bunyan with this fate, even for preaching; +for said he: “If you do not submit to go to hear divine service, and leave +your preaching, you must be banished the realm: And if, after such a day +as shall be appointed you to be gone, you shall be found in this realm, or +be found to come over again, without special license from the king, you +must stretch by the neck for it. I tell you plainly.”</p> + +<p>Sir Matthew Hale tells us that, on one occasion, at the Suffolk assizes, no +less than thirteen Gipsies were executed, under the old Gipsy statutes, a +few years before the Restoration.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote319" id="Footnote319"></a><a href="#FNanchor319"><span class="label">[319]</span></a> Perhaps the following passage is the one alluded to by this writer: “I +often, when these temptations had been with force upon me, did compare +myself to the case of such a child, whom some Gipsy hath by force took +up in her arms, and is carrying from friend and country.” <i>Grace abounding.</i> +The use of a simile like this confirms the fact that Bunyan belonged +to the tribe, rather than that he did not; unless we can imagine that Gipsies, +when candid, do not what every other race has done—admit the peculiarities +of theirs, while in a previous and barbarous state of existence. His +admission confirms a fact generally believed, but sometimes denied, as in +the case of the writer in Blackwood’s Magazine, mentioned at <a href="#Page_375">page 375</a>.</p> + +<p>Bunyan, doubtless, “dwelt on it with a sort of spiritual exultation,” that +he should have been “called”—not “out of Egypt,” but—“out of the +tribe,” when, possibly, no others of it, to his knowledge, had been so privileged; +but it was, certainly, “most unlikely” he would say that “he +belonged to that class of vagabonds.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote320" id="Footnote320"></a><a href="#FNanchor320"><span class="label">[320]</span></a> It is interesting to notice what these two writers say. If Bunyan’s +father was a Gipsy, we may reasonably assume that his mother was one +likewise; and, consequently, that Bunyan was one himself, or as Sir Walter +Scott expresses it—a “Gipsy reclaimed.” A Gipsy being a question of +race, and not a matter of habits, it should be received as one of the simplest +of elementary truths, that once a Gipsy, always a Gipsy. We naturally +ask, Why has not the fact of Bunyan having been a Gipsy stood on record, +for the last two centuries? and, echo answers, Why?</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote321" id="Footnote321"></a><a href="#FNanchor321"><span class="label">[321]</span></a> Although Bunyan probably never anticipated being held in high estimation +by what are termed the “great ones” of the earth, yet what Southey +has said cannot be predicated of him, if we consider the singularity of his +origin and history, and the popularity which he enjoyed, as author of the +Pilgrim’s Progress; a work affecting the mind of man in every age of the +world. Of this work Bunyan writes:</p> + +<div class="poem" style="font-size: 90%;"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i00">“My Pilgrim’s book has travelled sea and land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet could I never come to understand<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That it was slighted, or turned out of door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By any kingdom, were they rich or poor.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In France and Flanders, where men kill each other,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My Pilgrim is esteemed a friend, a brother.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Holland, too, ‘tis said, as I am told,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My Pilgrim is, with some, worth more than gold.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Highlanders and Wild Irish can agree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My Pilgrim should familiar with them be.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">‘Tis in New England under such advance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Receives there so much loving countenance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As to be trimmed, new clothed, and decked with gems,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That it may show its features, and its limbs.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet more, so public doth my Pilgrim walk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That of him thousands daily sing and talk.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Footnote322" id="Footnote322"></a><a href="#FNanchor322"><span class="label">[322]</span></a> Bunsen writes: “Sound judgment is displayed rather in an aptness +for believing what is historical, than in a readiness at denying it. . . . . . +Shallow minds have a decided propensity to fall into the latter error. Incapability +of believing on evidence is the last form of the intellectual imbecility +of an enervated age.”</p> + +<p>A writer who contributes frequently to “Notes and Queries,” after stating +that he has read the works of Grellmann and Hoyland on the Gipsies, +adds: “My conclusion is that the tribes have no more right to nationality, +race, blood, or language, than the London thieves have—with their slang, +some words of which may have their origin in the Hebrew, from their +dealings with the lowest order of Jews.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote323" id="Footnote323"></a><a href="#FNanchor323"><span class="label">[323]</span></a> That the rabble, or “fellows of the baser sort,” should have pelted +Bunyan with all sorts of offensive articles, when he commenced to preach +the gospel, is what could naturally have been expected; but it sounds +strange to read what he has put on record of the abuse heaped upon him, +by people professing to be the servants of Him “in whom there is neither +Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female.” See with what Christian +humility he alludes to such treatment, as contrasted with the manly indignation +which he displayed in repelling slanders. He speaks of “the Lord +wiping off such insults at his coming;” when his enemies, with the utmost +familiarity and assurance, may approach the judgment-seat, and demand +their crowns. “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in +thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful +works?” And it may be answered unto them: “I never knew you; depart +from me, ye that work iniquity.”</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote324" id="Footnote324"></a><a href="#FNanchor324"><span class="label">[324]</span></a> It is interesting to compare this feeling with that of the lowest order +of Spaniards, as described by Mr. Borrow. “The outcast of the prison and +the <i>presidio</i>, who calls himself Spaniard, would feel insulted by being termed +Gitano, and would thank God that he is not.” <i><a href="#Page_386">Page 386</a>.</i></p> + +<p><a name="Footnote325" id="Footnote325"></a><a href="#FNanchor325"><span class="label">[325]</span></a> Let us suppose that a person, who has read all the works that have +hitherto appeared on the Gipsies, and noticed the utter absence, in them, +of everything of the nature of a philosophy of the subject, thoroughly +masters all that is set forth in the present work. The knowledge which he +<i>then</i> possesses puts him in such a position, that he approximates to being +one of the tribe, himself; that is, if all that is contained therein be known +to him and the tribe, only, it would enable him to pass current, in certain +circles of Gipsydom, as one of themselves.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote326" id="Footnote326"></a><a href="#FNanchor326"><span class="label">[326]</span></a> There is a point which I have not explained so fully as I might have +done, and it is this: “Is any of the blood <i>ever lost</i>? that is, does it <i>ever +cease to be Gipsy</i>, in knowledge and feeling?” That is a question not easily +answered in the affirmative, were it only for this reason: how can it ever +be ascertained that the knowledge and feeling of being Gipsies become +lost? Let us suppose that a couple of Gipsies leave England, and settle in +America, and that they never come in contact with any of their race, and +that their children never learn anything of the matter from any quarter. +(<a href="#Page_413">Page 413</a>.) In such an extreme, I may say, such an unnatural, case, +the children would not be Gipsies, but, if born in America, ordinary Americans. +The only way in which the Gipsy blood—that is, the Gipsy feeling—can +possibly be lost, is by a Gipsy, (a man especially,) marrying an ordinary +native, (<a href="#Page_381">page 381</a>,) and the children never learning of the circumstance. +But, as I have said before, how is that ever to be ascertained? +The question might be settled in this way: Let the relatives of the Gipsy +interrogate the issue, and if it answers, <i>truly,</i> that it knows nothing of the +Gipsy connexion, and never has its curiosity in the matter excited, it holds, +beyond dispute, that “the blood” has been lost to the tribe. For any loss +the tribe may sustain, in that way, it gains, in an ample degree, by drawing +upon the blood of the native race, and transmuting it into that of its +own fraternity.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote327" id="Footnote327"></a><a href="#FNanchor327"><span class="label">[327]</span></a> It was the nature of man, in ancient times, as it is with the heathen +to-day, to <i>worship</i> what could not be understood; while modern civilization +seems to attribute such phenomena to <i>miracles</i>. It is even presumptuous +to have recourse to such an alternative, for the enquirer may be deficient +in the intellect necessary to prosecute such investigations, or he may +not be in possession of sufficient data. If the European will, for example, +ask himself, 1stly: what is the idea which he has of a Gipsy? 2ndly: +what are the feelings which he entertains for him personally? And 3dly: +what must be the response of the Gipsy to the sentiments of the other? +he cannot avoid coming to the conclusion, that the race should “marry +among themselves,” and that, “let them be in whatever situation of life +they may, they all” should “stick to each other.” (<i><a href="#Page_369">Page 369</a>.</i>)</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote328" id="Footnote328"></a><a href="#FNanchor328"><span class="label">[328]</span></a> Viewing the Gipsies as they are described in this work, and contrasting +their history with that of the nations of the world in general, and the Jews +in particular, and considering that they have no religion peculiar to themselves, +yet are scattered among, and worked into, all nations, but not acknowledged +by, or even known to, others, we may, with the utmost +propriety, call them, in the language of the prophet, “no people,” and a “foolish +nation;” yet by no means a nation of fools, but rather more rogues than +fools. Of all the ways in which the Gipsies have hoaxed other people, the +manner in which they have managed to throw around themselves a sense +of their non-existence to the minds of others, is the most remarkable.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote329" id="Footnote329"></a><a href="#FNanchor329"><span class="label">[329]</span></a> The prejudice of their fellow-creatures is a sufficiently potent cause, +in itself, to preserve the identity of the Gipsy tribe in the world. It has +made it to resemble an essence, hermetically sealed. Keep it in that position, +and it retains its inherent qualities undiminished; but uncork the +vessel containing it, and it might (I do not say it <i>would</i>) evaporate among +the surrounding elements.</p> + +<p><a name="Footnote330" id="Footnote330"></a><a href="#FNanchor330"><span class="label">[330]</span></a> The MS. of this work has undergone many vicissitudes. Among others, +it may be mentioned that, in the state in which it was left by the author, +it was twice lost, and once stolen; on which last occasion it was recovered, +at an expense of one shilling! Then the original copy, in its present form, +was stolen, and never recovered. In both instances did that happen under +circumstances that such a fate was most unlikely to befall it. Then a copy +of it was sent to Scotland, and never acknowledged, although I am in hopes +it is now on its return, after a lapse of nearly three years; in which +case, I will be more fortunate than the author, who gave the MS. to an +individual and never got, and never could get, it back.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<p class="pagenum"><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542"></a><br /><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[543]</a></p> + +<h2>INDEX.</h2> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<ul class="index"> + +<li class="right fsize80">PAGE</li> + +<li class="level1">AFRICANS.</li> + +<li class="level2">Comparison between Africans, in America, and Gipsies generally<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How they lost their language and superstitions in America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The prejudice against Africans in America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></li> + +<li class="level1">AFRICAN GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Footnote289"><i>n</i>429</a></li> + +<li class="level1">AMERICAN GIPSIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">Many arrived during the Revolution, as impressed soldiers, and volunteers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_345">345</a></li> + +<li class="level2">English Gipsies married to native Americans<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_377">377</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gitano has a cigar store in Virginia. Egyptians in Louisiana<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote269"><i>n</i>389</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><i>See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies</i><span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_418">418</a>-<a href="#Page_425">425</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Meeting between English and American Gipsies, in Maryland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_430">430</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Zincali Society in the city of New York, <a href="#Footnote293"><i>n</i>438</a>—Address to the American Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_440">440</a></li> + +<li class="level2">There should be no prejudices against Gipsies in America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_524">524</a></li> + +<li class="level1">AMERICAN INDIANS.</li> + +<li class="level2">Comparison between them and the Gipsies generally<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a></li> + +<li class="level1">AMERICAN READER, to the<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_524">524</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a></li> + +<li class="level1">AMUSEMENTS OF GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="level1">ANTIQUARIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">Prejudices of, against the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote3"><i>n</i>7</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The profession of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, zeal in the calling of<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote13"><i>n</i>57</a></li> + +<li class="level1">ARABS.</li> + +<li class="level2">English Gipsies say they are a cross between Arabs and Egyptians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_467">467</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How Arabs protect shipwrecked Christians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote133"><i>n</i>203</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They strip people of their clothes in the desert<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BAILLIES OF LAMINGTON.</li> + +<li class="level2">Their influence of great service to the Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The connexion between them and the Gipsy tribe of Baillie<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BAIRD, REV. JOHN.</li> + +<li class="level2">His report on the Gipsy mission to the Church of Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His collection of Gipsy words, collated with those of the author<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_334">334</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the absence of slang in the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote222"><i>n</i>338</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His plan for improving the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Footnote256"><i>n</i>369</a></li> + +<li class="level1"><a name="Secref2" id="Secref2"></a>BATTLES, GIPSY.</li> + +<li class="level2">At Stirling, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, Romanno, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, Hawick, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, Eskdale moor, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, Dumblane<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BIGGAR.</li> + +<li class="level2">The face of the country about Biggar<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy turbulence in Biggar fair<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BIRTH OF THE ORIGINAL KIND OF GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Footnote240"><i>n</i>357</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.</li> + +<li class="level2">The author’s articles in, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>—Poetical notice of them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Hints at a philosophical account of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Extracts of Scottish public records, taken from<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Unintentional attempt of a Gipsy to rob his own clergyman<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote88"><i>n</i>124</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Chase after John Young, a Gipsy, resembling a fox hunt<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote100"><i>n</i>144</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The unabashed hardihood of Gipsies under suspicion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote106"><i>n</i>155</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Old Will of Phaup’s five years’ warfare with the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote119"><i>n</i>179</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Assault of the Gipsies on Pennicuik House<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote130"><i>n</i>195</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The slaughter of William Baillie, a Gipsy chief<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[544]</a></span>How the Gipsies acquired a foothold in Yetholm<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote163"><i>n</i>252</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Will Faa’s twenty-four children, and pompous christenings<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote164"><i>n</i>252</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The language spoken by the Gipsies in the Highlands<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote223"><i>n</i>338</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Nuts or Bazegurs of India supposed to be the parent stock of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The purity of Gipsy blood, and child stealing—Mr. Borrow’s “Gipsies in Spain”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_375">375</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The numberless descendants of Billy Marshall, a Gipsy chief<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote268"><i>n</i>388</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Duchess of Gordon saves two Gipsies from the gallows<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_470">470</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BLACKWOOD, WILLIAM.</li> + +<li class="level2">His four letters to the author<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He originates the idea of a history of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote16"><i>n</i>59</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Letter to him, describing the escapes and execution of Peter Young, a Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His contribution on the Gipsies in Tweed-dale <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, on the Border<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BORDER GIPSIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">The district in which the Faas travelled<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The tribes of Faa and Baillie in a state of hostility<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_236">236</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Quarrel in an English Gipsy family, in America: “the Faas and Baillies over again”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote156"><i>n</i>237</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Henry Faa sits at the tables of people in public office, and receives blackmail from men of considerable fortune<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The mercantile house of Fall, of Dunbar, founded by Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Captain Fall a member of parliament—the family rule the political interests of Dunbar<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mrs. Fall works, in tapestry, a group of the founders of the family, with their asses, &c.<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Anecdotes of the Falls with reference to their tribe and origin<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote158"><i>n</i>238</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The extensive nature of the Fall firm, and the cause of its ruin<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Miss Fall marries Sir John Anstruther, of Elie, baronet<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The rabble insult her at an election, in which Sir John is a candidate<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The song of “Johnny Faa, the Gipsy Laddie”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Earl of Cassilis the husband of her who absconded with the “Gipsy Laddie”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Adventure of a relative of Sir Walter Scott among the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The original of Meg Merrilies, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>—The execution of her sons, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>—She is drowned by the rabble, at Carlisle, for being a jacobite<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The grandfather of Sir Walter Scott is feasted by the Gipsies, on Charterhouse moor<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Contribution of Baillie Smith, of Kelso, to Hoyland’s “Survey of the Gipsies”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Attachment of the Yetholm Gipsies to their mode of life, their independence, peculiar points of honour, honesty when trusted, the number of the tribe in the county, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>—Their employment given to hunting and fishing, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>—The nature of their leases, the late proprietor calls them his body-guard, his successor grants no more leases to the tribe, they stay at home during the winter months only, they seldom marry out of the tribe, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>—Their physical peculiarities, occasional migrations, burials, education, church attendance and baptism, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>—unsteadiness of disposition, they will pay their rents only when it suits themselves, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>—They resent an interference with the Debatable Lands, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>—Sir Walter Scott points out a Gipsy, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>—Will Faa, the Gipsy king, claims kin with the Messrs. Fall, merchants, of Dunbar, Will’s death and burial, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>—Report on the Gipsies by the sheriffs<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote162"><i>n</i>251</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Contribution from Mr. Blackwood, towards a history of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Yetholm first occupied by the Faas and the Youngs, tradition of their first settlement, <a href="#Footnote163"><i>n</i>252</a>—Will Faa and the Falls of Dunbar, Will thrice married, his twenty-four children, and pompous christenings, has charge of Marlfield house, the sheriff becomes his security, his corpse escorted by <a href="#Page_300">300</a> asses, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>—His son and successor,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[545]</a></span> his brother a lieutenant in the East India Company’s service, Gipsy fights, recovery of a stolen mare, quarrels among the tribe, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>—The Walker family, and civilized Gipsies about Yetholm, Gipsy connexions, education, no female Gipsy educated, the colony free of imputed crime for fifty years<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The author’s visit to Yetholm—Handling the cudgel<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A smuggling adventure of Will Faa—His appearance—A lament on his death<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His relations in New York—A great many of the tribe scattered over the world<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote167"><i>n</i>255</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BORROW, GEORGE.</li> + +<li class="level2">His publications on the Gipsies, since this work was written<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="level2">In error on the subject of Gipsies stealing children<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote5"><i>n</i>9</a>, <a href="#Footnote225"><i>n</i>342</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the Gipsy language, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Footnote189"><i>n</i>281</a>, <a href="#Footnote197"><i>n</i>298</a>, <a href="#Footnote224"><i>n</i>338</a>, <a href="#Footnote291"><i>n</i>431</a>—On Timour overrunning India<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li class="level2">In error in saying that the Gipsies obtained the name of Egyptians from others<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of English Gipsies, and the English dialect spoken by them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote48"><i>n</i>93</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Spanish Gipsy counts, <a href="#Footnote65"><i>n</i>107</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Footnote303"><i>n</i>468</a>—Act of Charles II. against Spaniards, for protecting the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote77"><i>n</i>114</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies poison swine, and eat their flesh<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote122"><i>n</i>186</a></li> + +<li class="level2">English Gipsy surnames—Travelling Gipsies have two names<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote145"><i>n</i>219</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Chastity among young Spanish Gipsy females, <a href="#Footnote168"><i>n</i>257</a>—Spanish Gipsy marriage ceremony<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote173"><i>n</i>262</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The character of Spanish Gipsy women<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote192"><i>n</i>285</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the Law of Charles III., ameliorating the condition of the Spanish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote205"><i>n</i>313</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Song of a female Gipsy, at Moscow, <a href="#Footnote211"><i>n</i>317</a>—On the Sclavonic in the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote224"><i>n</i>338</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He meets with a rich Gipsy in Spain, <a href="#Footnote230"><i>n</i>347</a>—How Gipsies resist cold weather<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote238"><i>n</i>354</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Meeting between a French and Spanish Gipsy, in the heat of a battle<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote246"><i>n</i>360</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the education of the Spanish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote250"><i>n</i>365</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Religion among the Moscow Gipsies—He preaches to the tribe in Spain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote252"><i>n</i>366</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A half-blood Spanish Gipsy captain, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Footnote258"><i>n</i>373</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>—Civilized Gipsies in Moscow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Footnote278"><i>n</i>408</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Shuffling of the Gipsies regarding marriage with ordinary natives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote261"><i>n</i>375</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Characters in Lavengro and the Romany Rye<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote261"><i>n</i>375</a>, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>, <a href="#Footnote316"><i>n</i>509</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Spanish Gipsies generally; <i>See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies</i><span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_385">385</a>-<a href="#Page_397">397</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The natural capacity of Gipsies—different classes in Spain, Turkey, and Russia<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_398">398</a></li> + +<li class="level2">No washing will turn the Gipsy white, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>—Moorish Gipsies in Africa<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_428">428</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He is taken for a Gipsy in Spain, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, and at Moscow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_430">430</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the grammatical peculiarities of the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote291"><i>n</i>431</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the hatred entertained by the Gipsies for other people<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote292"><i>n</i>433</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On Gipsy ingratitude—lawlessness in Spain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_435">435</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mr. Borrow as an authority on the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>, <a href="#Page_523">523</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the Russian Gipsies owning flocks and herds<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_466">466</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of a superior Spanish Gipsy, in 1584<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote303"><i>n</i>468</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BRIGHT, DR. (TRAVELS IN HUNGARY.)</li> + +<li class="level2">The phenomenon of the existence of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The existence of the Gipsy language little short of the miraculous<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He hopes to see a satisfactory account of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of Gipsy life in England<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of Gipsy dwellings, and their locations, in Hungary<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote98"><i>n</i>141</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Spanish Gipsy marriage ceremony, <a href="#Footnote173"><i>n</i>261</a>—Spanish Gipsy widows<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote185"><i>n</i>274</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The difficulties in acquiring the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote189"><i>n</i>281</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He suggests that the Gipsy language should be collated with vulgar Hindostanee<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[546]</a></span>An Hungarian nobleman’s opinion on the civilization of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_367">367</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BRUCE, JAMES, (TRAVELS IN AFRICA.)</li> + +<li class="level2">Account of the Arabs protecting shipwrecked Christians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote133"><i>n</i>203</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Method of selling cargoes, at Jedda, to the Turks<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote204"><i>n</i>312</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His discoveries discredited<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_537">537</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BUNSEN, CHEVALIER, ON SOUND JUDGMENT AND SHALLOW MINDS<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote322"><i>n</i>518</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BUNYAN, JOHN.</li> + +<li class="level2">He alludes to Gipsy women stealing children, <a href="#Footnote37"><i>n</i>80</a>—He is bred to the business of a brazier<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote138"><i>n</i>206</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His family history illustrated by the author’s visit to a Gipsy, met with at St. Boswell’s<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His wife before Judge Hale, <a href="#Footnote205"><i>n</i>313</a>, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>—His description of his early habits, or “youthful vanities”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote274"><i>n</i>402</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His nationality, and that of his tribe; <i>See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies.</i><span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_507">507</a>-<a href="#Page_523">523</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The name of Bunyan calculated to raise up that of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_530">530</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He is still unacknowledged, though his fame will be as lasting as the pyramids<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_535">535</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Some people imagine it would degrade Bunyan, to say he was a Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_536">536</a></li> + +<li class="level1">BURNS, ROBERT.</li> + +<li class="level2">His “Jolly Beggars;” “My bonny lass, I work in brass”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote229"><i>n</i>346</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He alludes to the Falls, of Dunbar, in his tour<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote276"><i>n</i>406</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CANADA.</li> + +<li class="level2">A Scottish Gipsy family in, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>—Gipsies in<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_424">424</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A criticism on this work, while in prospect, by a Scotch editor in<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_537">537</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CAPPADOCE FAMILY, VICISSITUDES IN THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_497">497</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CARLYLE, DR. ALEXANDER.</li> + +<li class="level2">Execution of Jock Johnstone, <a href="#Footnote132"><i>n</i>201</a>—Jenny Fall, afterwards Lady Anstruther<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote159"><i>n</i>239</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CASSILIS, THE COUNTESS OF.</li> + +<li class="level2">Elopes with John Faa, a Gipsy chief, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>—The song of “Johnny Faa, the Gipsy Laddie,” composed thereon<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CASTE.</li> + +<li class="level2">In India, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>—In Great Britain, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>—In America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CHAMBERS’ GAZETTEER.</li> + +<li class="level1">Description of Yetholm, <a href="#Footnote97"><i>n</i>141</a>—Gipsy scenes at St. Boswell’s fair<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote237"><i>n</i>353</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL—On the disappearance of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote298"><i>n</i>449</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CHAMBERS’ MISCELLANY—An account of Peter Young, a Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote101"><i>n</i>146</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CHILD STEALING BY THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Footnote37"><i>n</i>80</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.</li> + +<li class="level2">Mission among the Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Footnote256"><i>n</i>369</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy one of the committee of the missionary society<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies clergymen in the Scottish Church<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mission of enquiry to the Jews; the Gipsies of Wallachia<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote34"><i>n</i>73</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CHURCH, THE.</li> + +<li class="level2">Religious journals decline entertaining the question, “Was John Bunyan a Gipsy?”, <a href="#Page_522">522</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>—The Church should do its duty to the Gipsy race generally<span style="padding-right: 6em;"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_533">533</a>, <a href="#Page_535">535</a>, <a href="#Page_536">536</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CLARKE, DR., (TRAVELS IN RUSSIA, &c.)</li> + +<li class="level2">Characters or the Gipsies in Wallachia, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>—Gipsy dances in Moscow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> + +<li class="level1">COLLIERS, GIPSY—In the Lothians, <a href="#Footnote71"><i>n</i>111</a>—In the English mines<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_401">401</a></li> + +<li class="level1">COLLIERS, SCOTCH, SLAVES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote71"><i>n</i>111</a>, <a href="#Footnote85"><i>n</i>121</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CONSTABLES.</li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy constable murdered, another hanged, and a third banished<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_215">215</a>-<a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies formerly employed as county constables—Their peculiarities<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_343">343</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy constables at the present day<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_348">348</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A mixed Gipsy makes a good constable and thief-catcher<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote232"><i>n</i>348</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CONTINENTAL GIPSIES.</li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[547]</a></span>The times at which the tribe appeared in the different countries in Europe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The appellations given to them, in various countries<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Notice of the Gipsies, as they appeared at Paris, in 1427<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their original country unknown—At first, they receive passports as pilgrims<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Persecutions in Spain, France, and Italy, in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A general extermination never took place<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Theft and robbery, and “sorning,” or masterful begging, the causes of these persecutions<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The habits of the Gipsies everywhere the same, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>—They have no religion peculiar to themselves<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The condition and classes of the Gipsies in the Danubian Principalities<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Allusion to these Gipsies, in a mission of enquiry to the Jews, in 1839<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote34"><i>n</i>73</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Remarks on the slavery of these Gipsies—Gipsies as spies, in the late Russian war<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote34"><i>n</i>74</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies in the Turkish empire, in Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, and France<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Remarks on Grellmann’s alleged disappearance of the Gipsies from France<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote35"><i>n</i>76</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies in Spain, according to Dr. Bright<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies of Syria, the Crimea, Persia, and India<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The population of the Gipsies in Europe, and the world generally<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The imposing titles and equipage of the leaders of the Gipsies, on their arrival in Europe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The nature and form of government among the Continental Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An account of German Gipsy bands, translated by Sir Walter Scott, for Blackwood’s Magazine<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Baron Trenck, in his wanderings, falls in with a German Gipsy band<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies of the Pyrenees—Their resemblance to the inferior class of Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + +<li class="level1">COOKING AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li class="level1">COUNTERFEITING AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CRABB, REV. JAMES.</li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies, as they become civilized, avoid the barbarous part of the tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote190"><i>n</i>283</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Hindostanee and the Gipsy languages, <a href="#Footnote220"><i>n</i>334</a>—His plan for improving the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_368">368</a></li> + +<li class="level1">CRITICS.</li> + +<li class="level2">A word or two to—A criticism on this work, while in prospect, by a Scotch editor in Canada<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_537">537</a></li> + +<li class="level1">DANCING AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li class="level1">DEAD, THE BURIAL OF THE, AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote89"><i>n</i>128</a></li> + +<li class="level1">DISGUISES OF THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 15em;"><a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Footnote215"><i>n</i>323</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li> + +<li class="level1">DISQUISITION ON THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF GIPSYDOM.</li> + +<li class="level2">Points omitted by the author—The philosophy of the Gipsy subject<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_371">371</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsydom a <i>terra incognita</i>—Its origin, language, and habits strange to other people<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_371">371</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Natural perpetuation of the tribe—Mixed Gipsies hold by the connexion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_372">372</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The prejudice of caste—A half-blood Spanish Gipsy captain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_372">372</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An iron-master marries a Cinderella, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>—Civilized Gipsies in Moscow, and Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_374">374</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies mix their blood—No full-blood Gipsies in Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_374">374</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Edinburgh Review and Blackwood’s Magazine on the purity of Gipsy blood<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_374">374</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How Gipsies shuffle on the point—The case of Ursula, in the Romany Rye<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote261"><i>n</i>375</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The physical peculiarities of mixed Gipsies <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, and other mixed races<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_376">376</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[548]</a></span>Appearance of the half-blood captain—The Gipsies partial to fair hair<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_377">377</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mixed Gipsies common everywhere—Grellmann on the colour of Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote262"><i>n</i>377</a></li> + +<li class="level2">American mixed Gipsies, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>—The Gipsies receive males rather than females into their tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_378">378</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How female Gipsies “manage” natives, when they marry them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_378">378</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How Gipsies are brought up to adhere to their race<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_379">379</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Remarks of Mr. George Offor on young female Gipsies generally<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote263"><i>n</i>380</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Little difference if the father is a native—Town Gipsies visit the tent in their youth<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote264"><i>n</i>380</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fair-haired Gipsies, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>—They are superior to the others—the two kinds will readily marry<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote265"><i>n</i>382</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The peculiarities of black and fair Gipsies—The <i>pons assinorum</i> of the Gipsy question<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_383">383</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The destiny of European-like Gipsies, and of the tribe generally<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_383">383</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The philosophy of the mixture of Gipsy blood—The issue always Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_384">384</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mr. Borrow on the Spanish Gipsies generally.</li> + +<li class="level3">If no laws are passed against them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_385">385</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Their social position, intermarriages, the law of Charles III. on the prejudice against the tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_386">386</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Gipsyism like Freemasonry, <a href="#Footnote267"><i>n</i>387</a>—Mrs. Fall’s ancestral group of Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_387">387</a></li> + +<li class="level3">A Scotchman on the destiny of the Gipsies, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>—Nothing interferes with the question of tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_388">388</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Scottish <i>literati</i> on the destiny of the Gipsies—A cloud of ignorance protects the tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote268"><i>n</i>388</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Gipsies “declining,” according to Mr. Borrow, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>—His singular inconsistencies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_389">389</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Change in the habits of Gitanos—They are to be found in Cuba, Mexico, and the United States<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_389">389</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Mr. Borrow leaves the question of the Spanish Gipsies where he found it<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_390">390</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Gipsies “decreasing,” by changing their habits, and intermarriages<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_390">390</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Gipsies ashamed of the name before the world—Two kinds of Gipsies in Badajoz<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_391">391</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The law of Charles III., <a href="#Page_392">392</a>—Its real meaning—Causes of Spanish Gipsy civilization<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_393">393</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The law of Charles III. little more than nominal, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>—The Church did not annoy the Gitanos<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_395">395</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Mr. Borrow’s Spanish Gipsy authorities—The tribe the same in Spain as in Great Britain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_395">395</a></li> + +<li class="level3">“Strangers” among English Gipsies, “foreign tinkers” among those in Spain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_396">396</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Mixed Gipsies in Spain—Persecutions against the Spanish and Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_397">397</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The tinkers and Rothwelsh in the Austrian dominions<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_397">397</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The natural capacity of Gipsies—Opinions of Grellmann, Bischoff, Borrow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_398">398</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Various classes of Gipsies, according to Mr. Borrow, Spanish, Turkish, and Russian<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_399">399</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The original Scottish Gipsies, how they encreased, mixed their blood, and spread<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_399">399</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their internal polity and numbers, style of life, <a href="#Page_400">400</a>—How English Gipsies leave the tent<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_401">401</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The natural vicissitudes of an English Gipsy, after leaving the tent<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_401">401</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy ambition, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>—John Bunyan’s early habits as described by himself<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote274"><i>n</i>402</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The character of Scottish Gipsies, and their opinion of themselves and tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_402">402</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[549]</a></span>Phases of history through which the Scottish Gipsies have passed<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_402">402</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The vicissitudes in the history of a respectable Scottish Gipsy family, settling in a town<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_404">404</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies among the best Edinburgh families—An eminent Scottish Gipsy clergyman<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_405">405</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Falls, of Dunbar, Gipsies—Burns visits them, <a href="#Footnote276"><i>n</i>406</a>, they are noticed in the Statistical Account of Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote276"><i>n</i>406</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They divulge their tribe, over their cups—Will Faa their relative—The Scottish Gipsies claim them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_406">406</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Their ancestors Gipsy kings—The Gipsy language in the family<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_407">407</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Miss Fall, afterwards Lady Anstruther, her feelings—The other connexions of the Falls<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_408">408</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mr. Borrow’s visit to, and description of, the Gipsies of Moscow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote278"><i>n</i>408</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies proud of their ancestors, though thieves and robbers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_409">409</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Border and Highland thieves and robbers, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>—Sir Walter Scott’s ancestors<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote279"><i>n</i>410</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy and Highland thieving—The McGregors and the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_411">411</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fitz-James’ address to Roderick Dhu, in the “Lady of the Lake”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote280"><i>n</i>411</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy is a Gipsy, whether barbarous, civilized, educated, or Christianized<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_412">412</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Pritchard on the Hungarian race, past and present<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_413">413</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Civilized Scottish Gipsies—What they say of themselves<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_414">414</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies should be judged by a standard different from that applicable to ordinary natives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_414">414</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The circumstances attending a wild Gipsy make him only half responsible<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_414">414</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The race, in its development, should be more leniently treated than others<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The antiquity of the Gipsies, they are probably the descendants of the shepherd kings<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The confession of the Scotch clergyman unintelligible, unless fully explained<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></li> + +<li class="level2">What might be expected of the Gipsy tribe, the Scottish Gipsies especially<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Population of the Scottish Gipsies, and the British Gipsies generally<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_416">416</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies are afraid of strange Gipsies, when at home—A French and German Gipsy in New York<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote283"><i>n</i>416</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scottish vagabonds, noticed by Fletcher of Saltoun, in 1680, were doubtless Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote284"><i>n</i>417</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scottish Gipsy encrease, since 1506, Sir Walter Scott’s opinion on the destiny and number of the Scottish Gipsies, letter of James IV. to the king of Denmark in favour of Anthonius Gawino, Gipsy trials, Gipsies banished and hanged, the descendants of the Gipsies “prodigiously numerous”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote284"><i>n</i>418</a></li> + +<li class="level2">America, Gipsies banished to, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>—A Gipsy colony in New England—Colonial Gipsies would not likely take to the tent—Their occupations<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_419">419</a></li> + +<li class="level3">European Gipsies in America, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>—Arrival and modes of life of English Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_421">421</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Fortune-tellers: their mode of travelling, tricks, captures, and escapes<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_422">422</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Slave States naturally suitable to the Gipsies—Travelling Gipsies in Canada<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_424">424</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Scottish Gipsies in the United States and Canada—Gipsies everywhere<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_424">424</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Resemblance between the formation of Gipsydom and that of the United States<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_425">425</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The peculiar feelings of Gipsies—Highland and Lowland feuds—Gipsy resentment<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_425">425</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The prejudice against the Gipsies compels them to hide their nationality<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_426">426</a></li> + +<li class="level2">What is it that frightens the educated Gipsies? The word Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_426">426</a></li> + +<li class="level2">In what other than a hidden state could we expect to find the Gipsies?<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_427">427</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[550]</a></span>The difficulty in discovering who are, and who are not, Gipsies, at the present day<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_428">428</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy blood changed into almost pure black, in Africa, as well as white, in Europe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_428">428</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies found near the sources of the Senegal and Gambia<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote289"><i>n</i>429</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The universality of the Gipsies—Meeting between English and American Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_430">430</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Language of the Gipsies in England and Scotland—Rivalry in its pronunciation<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_431">431</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The construction of German and Spanish Gipsy, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>—The purity of Hungarian Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote291"><i>n</i>432</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Respectable Scottish Gipsies, and the Gipsy language: “Are ye a’ Tinklers?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_432">432</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Gipsy language in America—In Spain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote291"><i>n</i>432</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The number of words sufficient for every-day use in any language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote291"><i>n</i>432</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Gipsy language in Great Britain mixed, but still serves the purposes of a speech<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_432">432</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Scottish Gipsies the last to forget the language—The causes of its perpetuation<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_433">433</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Hatred of the Gipsies for other people—Mr. Borrow on that hatred<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote292"><i>n</i>433</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The treatment of the Gipsies made them worse than they might have been<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_434">434</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Gipsy gratitude, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>—Gipsy law—Borrow and Grellmann on Gipsy ingratitude<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_435">435</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Unreasonableness of expecting much gratitude from Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_435">435</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Gratitude among mankind generally—The nature of benefits conferred on Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_435">435</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Means of improving the Gipsies—The feeling between them and the ordinary natives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_436">436</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The name of Gipsy should be raised up, and the tribe respected according to merit<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_437">437</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Respectable Scottish Gipsies are Scotch people, and should come forward, and own themselves up<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_437">437</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Zincali society in the city of New York<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote293"><i>n</i>438</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An appeal to the Scottish Gipsies, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>, and to those in America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_440">440</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The prejudices of British people against Gipsies, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, and Americans against Negroes<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_441">441</a></li> + +<li class="level2">What is to be the future of the Gipsy race?—Gipsydom immortal<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_441">441</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The introduction of the Gipsies to the society of mankind, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>—The hereditary prejudice of centuries<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_443">443</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Missions among heathen and Jews, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>—The Gipsies should, at least, be countenanced<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_444">444</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies are Gipsies everywhere, and under all circumstances<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_444">444</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The way in which the Gipsies should be received into the society of other people<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_445">445</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies are a people that exist, and not such as disappear, like the American Indians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_446">446</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The popular idea of Gipsies and Jews—Gipsies that preach the gospel, and argue the law<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_447">447</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Erroneous ideas of writers generally as to the Gipsies—Mr. Borrow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_448">448</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies a question of people—Billy Marshall and his descendants<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_448">448</a></li> + +<li class="level2">No distinction has been made between race and habits, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>—Chambers’ Journal<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote298"><i>n</i>449</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies compared to a clan, in the olden time—The McGregor clan<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_449">449</a></li> + +<li class="level2">English, American, and Gipsy races mixed, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>—Mixed races illustrated by individual families,<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_451">451</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The mixture of Gipsy blood always leaves the issue Gipsy—Jewish Gipsies possible<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_451">451</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How the subject of the Gipsies has hitherto been treated—It is necessary to sound the mind of the Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_452">452</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[551]</a></span>The life of a superior Gipsy compared to a continual conspiracy against society<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_453">453</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The position occupied by the popular kind of Gipsy—His ideas on the persecutions of his race<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_453">453</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The condition from which all Gipsies have sprung—Popular prejudices and ideas<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_454">454</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The introduction of German blood into Great Britain and America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_454">454</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How the Gipsies have encreased and spread—Native blood has been lost among them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_455">455</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The introduction of Huguenot blood into Great Britain and America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_455">455</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies have hitherto been “strangers in the land,” unacknowledged by others<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_456">456</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The principles of Gipsy nationality—Gipsies like Free-masons<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_456">456</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsydom is not a creed, but a work stamped by Providence on the heart of the tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_457">457</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Blood, language, a cast of mind, and signs specially constitute the Gipsy nationality<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_457">457</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The possession of a special religion not necessary to constitute a people distinct from others<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_457">457</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The same principle illustrated in races, clans, families, or individuals, living in the same community<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_458">458</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The existence of the Gipsies is natural, it resembles that of the Jews; neither is miraculous<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_458">458</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Philosophical historians on the existence of the Jews since the dispersion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_458">458</a></li> + +<li class="level2">By what human means can Jews cease to be Jews, individually or nationally?<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_459">459</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A writer on the Christian Evidences, in describing the existence of the Jews, gambles away revelation<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_459">459</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His language on the subject of the Jews very applicable to the existence of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_459">459</a></li> + +<li class="level2">No outward difference between many Gipsy and native Scotch<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_460">460</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How Scottish Gipsies deport themselves on meeting—Civilised and <i>bush</i> Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_460">460</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The general difference between Gipsy and native Scotch people<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_461">461</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A mixed Gipsy has sometimes “various bloods” to contend for<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_461">461</a></li> + +<li class="level2">What Scottish Gipsies think of their ancestors and language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_462">462</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Scottish Gipsies, as they acquire education, become superior in character<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_462">462</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The children of civilised and barbarous Gipsies compared<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_463">463</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The singular position of the Gipsies, from generation to generation, and century to century<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_464">464</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How the gulf between the Gipsies and the native race is to be bridged<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_465">465</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies, on their arrival in Europe, were barbarous, like other races<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_465">465</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A superior Scottish Gipsy in 1540, and 1840<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_466">466</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies never were a nomadic race, in the ordinary sense of the word<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_466">466</a></li> + +<li class="level2">General description of the occupations and characters of the original Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_467">467</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The superior characters of the early Scottish Gipsy chiefs—Their treatment by the natives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_467">467</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The character of a superior Spanish Gipsy, in 1584,<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote303"><i>n</i>468</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mixture of “the blood” on arrival, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>—Intermarriages under certain circumstances<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_469">469</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The plans of the Gipsies to secure their position in the country—Illegitimate children<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_469">469</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The attachment of Jewesses and Gipsies to their respective races<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_470">470</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The protection of the Baillies, of Lamington, to the Gipsies of that name<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_470">470</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Two Gipsies pardoned through the intercession of the Duchess of Gordon<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_470">470</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[552]</a></span>Scotland became the home of the tribe, as much as that of the ordinary natives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_471">471</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Effects of the mixture of Gipsy blood—Intermarriages among natives of different ranks<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_472">472</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The census need not be consulted for the number of the Gipsy population<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_472">472</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How the Jewish race is perpetuated—Their religion of secondary importance<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_473">473</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Christian Jews—Their feelings of nationality—No prejudices against them, or civilized Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_474">474</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The rearing of Gipsies and Jews, in what respect they resemble each other<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_475">475</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies stand towards religions, as Christianity does towards races<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_475">475</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The purity of Jewish blood a figment, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>—What may be termed a “pure Jew”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_477">477</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The relative positions of Jews and Gipsies: Gipsies troublesome, but not scoffers at religion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_477">477</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The want of a religion among the Gipsies—Their feelings in regard thereto<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_478">478</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The ways of Scottish Gipsies and Highland Scotch<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_478">478</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scottish Gipsies are British subjects—Their romantic descent<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_479">479</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Tacitus’ account of the destruction of the Druids, in the island of Anglesey<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote307"><i>n</i>479</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The weak position of the Gipsies—Jewish and Gipsy literature<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_480">480</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The being a Gipsy, as distinguished from objectionable habits, immaterial to the world<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_481">481</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The probable result of the word Gipsy being as much respected as it is now despised<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_481">481</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies originally a wandering, tented tribe, with habits peculiar to itself<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_481">481</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The difficulties in the way of the tribe becoming settled and civilized<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_482">482</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The manner in which the Gipsies gradually acquire honest habits<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_482">482</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Public sympathy for the Gipsies, in preference to the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_483">483</a></li> + +<li class="level2">No prejudice should be entertained for well-behaved Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_484">484</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Jews are disliked, and are, to a certain extent, strangers everywhere<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_484">484</a></li> + +<li class="level3">They are rebels against Heaven—“Which of the prophets have they not persecuted?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_484">484</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The interest of the Christian in their history—Their crucifixion of the Messiah—How they treat his mission<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_485">485</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Their antagonistic position towards every people and religion, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>—Their personal characters<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_487">487</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The destruction of Jerusalem confirmed the Jews in the idea that theirs was a scattered people<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_487">487</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The existence of the Jews, since the dispersion, not in itself wonderful<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_488">488</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Jew’s nationality is everywhere—His aversion to forsake his own race or community<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_488">488</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Jews are a race—A Christian Jewish church possible—Its position and aspects<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_488">488</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The present position of Christian Jews, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>—The relation of a Christian Jewish Church to the Mosaic law<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_489">489</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The scriptural idea of a Messiah—Christian Jews <i>incog.</i>—The conversion of Jews generally<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_489">489</a></li> + +<li class="level3">It is no elevated regard for Moses that prevents Jews entertaining the claims of Jesus Christ<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_490">490</a></li> + +<li class="level3">But rather the phenomena connected with the history of their race<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_490">490</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Jews exist under a spell—The prophecy of Moses regarding the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote308"><i>n</i>491</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Jews are not apt to notice the present work<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote308"><i>n</i>491</a></li> + +<li class="level3"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[553]</a></span>The population of the Gipsies scattered over the world<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_491">491</a></li> + +<li class="level3">How the laws passed against the Gipsies were generally rendered nugatory<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_492">492</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Grellmann’s estimate—The probable number of Gipsies in Europe and America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_493">493</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The population of the Jews scattered over the world<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote310"><i>n</i>493</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Christians delude the Jews in regard to the existence of their race being a miracle<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_493">493</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Jew’s idea of the existence of his race is the greatest bar to his conversion to Christianity<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_494">494</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The “mixed multitude” of the Exodus was doubtless the origin of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_494">494</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The meaning of Gamaliel’s advice—St. Paul before the Jewish council<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote311"><i>n</i>494</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The history of the Gipsies and the Jews greatly illustrate each other<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_496">496</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The distinction between an Englishman and an English Jew<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_496">496</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Persecutions of races generally—How to prevent a Gipsy being a Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_496">496</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Tacitus on the religion of slaves<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote312"><i>n</i>496</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Birth and rearing constitute Jews, Gipsies, and Gentiles<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_497">497</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Christian Jews persecuted by their own race—The Disraeli and Cappadoce families<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_497">497</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Christianity was not intended, nor is it capable, to destroy the nationality of Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_498">498</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Jew may be crossed out by intermarriage—The Gipsy absorbs other races<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_498">498</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Gipsies and Jews have each a peculiarly original and distinct soul of nationality<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_499">499</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Each race maintains its identity in the world, and may be said to be even eternal<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_499">499</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Comparison and contrast between Gipsies and Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_499">499</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The existence of the Jews, like that of the Gipsies, rests upon a question of people<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_501">501</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The religion or the Jews, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>—Their idea of a Messiah<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_502">502</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Difference between Judaism and Christianity<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_502">502</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The position of Jews towards Christianity and other religions<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_502">502</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The persecutions of Jews and Gipsies—The extent of a Gipsy’s wants<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_502">502</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Jews show little regard for their religion, when tolerated and well treated<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_503">503</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The prejudice against Jews—Their ideas of their race, as distinguished from others<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_503">503</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The treatment of Christians by Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_504">504</a></li> + +<li class="level3">What has the Jew got to say to this subject generally?<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_504">504</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The philosophy of the Gipsies—Popular ideas in regard to them—A mental phenomenon<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_505">505</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A regard to facts—The Gipsy language—Two races living on the same soil<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_506">506</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies hide their race—The kind of them that should be despised<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_506">506</a></li> + +<li class="level2">John Bunyan a Gipsy, whose blood was mixed<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_507">507</a></li> + +<li class="level3">All the Gipsies tinkers, either literally, figuratively, or representatively<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_507">507</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Lord Macaulay on Bunyan: “the tinkers a hereditary caste”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_507">507</a></li> + +<li class="level3">In what respect are the tinkers a <i>native</i> “hereditary caste?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_507">507</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Characters in Mr. Borrow’s Lavengro and Romany Rye—English Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_508">508</a>, <a href="#Footnote316"><i>n</i>509</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Prejudice against Gipsies—The legal responsibility—the Act of Queen Elizabeth<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_510">510</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Bunyan’s tribe—His great desire to ascertain whether he was an Israelite<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_510">510</a></li> + +<li class="level3"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[554]</a></span>A Gipsy family (809-818) that illustrates that of Bunyan<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_511">511</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The reason why Bunyan imagined he was a Jew<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_511">511</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Jews not then tolerated in England—The curiosity of the Gipsies regarding the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_511">511</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Southey on tinkering and Bunyan’s education—Bunyan had doubtless a Gipsy pass<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_512">512</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The Dublin University Magazine on Bunyan’s nationality<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_512">512</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The philosophy of race, and the prejudice of caste against the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_513">513</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Justice Keeling threatens to have Bunyan hanged for preaching<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote318"><i>n</i>513</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Bunyan a Gipsy beyond question—Lord Macaulay on the Pilgrim’s Progress<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_514">514</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Religious writers averse to it being said that Bunyan was a Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_514">514</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Sir Walter Scott and Mr. George Offor on Bunyan’s tribe or nationality<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_515">515</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Bunyan’s nationality unacknowledged, owing to popular ignorance and prejudice<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_515">515</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Southey on Bunyan’s family and fame—The popularity of the Pilgrim’s Progress<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_516">516</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Bunyan’s reserve—His friends and enemies—He cannot get justice done to him<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_517">517</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Bunyan and the Gipsy language—He was perhaps capable of writing in it<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_517">517</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The prejudice of the present day—Bunsen on sound judgment and shallow minds<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote322"><i>n</i>518</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The world should feel relieved by it being shown that Bunyan was a Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_518">518</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Bunyan’s pedigree—He had very probably no English blood in his veins<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_518">518</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The world claims Bunyan as a man; England, the formation of his character<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_519">519</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Bunyan’s biographers unjust to his memory—His general as well as moral character<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_519">519</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Though pious and peaceable, he yet repelled slanders with indignation<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_520">520</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The style of Bunyan’s language indicates the Gipsy in some degree<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_520">520</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The indignities cast upon Bunyan—The way in which he treated them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_521">521</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Remarks upon Bunyan’s enemies, who professed themselves to be servants of Christ<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote323"><i>n</i>521</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The prejudice of caste in Great Britain exists against the Gipsies exclusively<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_521">521</a></li> + +<li class="level3">The day is gone by when it cannot be said who John Bunyan was<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_523">523</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scantiness of information in Mr. Borrow’s works on the subject of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_523">523</a></li> + +<li class="level2">American people are not expected to indulge in the popular prejudice against the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_524">524</a></li> + +<li class="level2">American religious journals decline to entertain the question: “Was John Bunyan a Gipsy?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_525">525</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The peculiarities of Scottish people unfavourable to the Gipsies owning themselves up in Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_525">525</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The nature of Scottish quarrelsomeness, <a href="#Page_526">526</a>—The classes favourable and unfavourable to the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_527">527</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A “model Scot,” after his kind, <a href="#Page_528">528</a>—No one in particular to blame for the position occupied by the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_529">529</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy subject interesting, and not necessarily low or vulgar, though more or less barbarous<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_529">529</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The wild Gipsies should be reached indirectly—Their high opinion of themselves<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_529">529</a></li> + +<li class="level2">John Bunyan’s celebrity—His name of great use in raising up that of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_530">530</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[555]</a></span>A little judgment is necessary in dealing with wild or any kind of Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_530">530</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The peculiar sensations felt in coming in contact with wild Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_531">531</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies are Gipsies to the last drop of the original blood<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_532">532</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The history of the Gipsies a singular work of Providence<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_532">532</a></li> + +<li class="level2">It would have been a miracle had the Jews been lost among mankind<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_533">533</a></li> + +<li class="level2">What a miracle is—The existence of the Jews is in exact harmony with every natural law<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_533">533</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A prophecy of Moses regarding a people who are to provoke and anger the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_533">533</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A thousand years hence the Gipsies will be found existing in the world<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_534">534</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A word or two to the Gipsies, and especially the Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_534">534</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A word or two to the Church, and people generally: “Was John Bunyan a Gipsy?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_535">535</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The reason why we know so little about the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_536">536</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A word or two to some of the critics<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_537">537</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A criticism on the present work, while in prospect<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_537">537</a></li> + +<li class="level1">DISRAELI, the present, a Jew, though a Christian<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_497">497</a></li> + +<li class="level1">DIVORCE CEREMONIES OF THE GIPSIES, AND SACRIFICE OF HORSES.</li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies not licentious in their personal morals—They are strict with their wives, in the matter of chastity<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_266">266</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Divorces among the Gipsies are attended with much grief and mourning<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Natural that the Gipsies should have as singular a form of divorce as that of marriage<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The nature of sacrifices—Their universality among mankind<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Why was the Gipsy sacrifice of the horse not known in Scotland before?<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies have a great affection for the horse—They will not eat of that animal<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote179"><i>n</i>268</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Writers have made no discovery, among the Gipsies, of a religious nature<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_268">268</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy sacrifice of the horse a proof that the people come from Hindostan<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_268">268</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The idea of Gipsies being Tartars strengthened by their sacrifice of the horse<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_269">269</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Other nations who have sacrificed horses—The Jews in the time of Josiah<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote181"><i>n</i>269</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Popular tradition, among the natives, that Gipsies separated over dead horses<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Instances accidentally and partially noticed by the natives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></li> + +<li class="level2">“Patricos” performed ceremonies over dead horses, in England, prior to 1674<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Preliminary remarks on the sacrifice of horses—“The sun must be at its height”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A description of the ceremony of sacrifice and divorce<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The horse considered in the place of the woman, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>—Sometimes both are sacrificed<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_273">273</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The woman dismissed, with a bill of divorce—The husband and his friends then eat the heart of the horse<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_274">274</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The husband may marry again, but the wife never<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_274">274</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Her fate, if she loses her bill of divorce, or passes herself off as never having been married<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_274">274</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Spanish Gipsy widows, according to Dr. Bright<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote185"><i>n</i>274</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy, in a passion, shoots his horse, and performs the ceremony of divorce, forthwith<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_274">274</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[556]</a></span>The sacrifice of the horse observed by the Gipsies in Russia<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They do it in the woods, under night, for fear of the police<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_275">275</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies, of Yetholm, knock down their asses, when they separate from their wives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The sacrifice of the horse in ancient India, known as the <i>Assummeed Jugg</i><span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The explanation of the mystic meaning contained in that sacrifice<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_277">277</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The very acme and enthusiasm of allegory in an Asiatic genius<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The ancient Hindoo sacrifice of the horse and the scape-goat of the Jews compared<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy and ancient Hindoo sacrifice of the horse compared<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Both offered to the sun—Travelling Gipsies change their names at noon<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Robert Southey and Colonel Tod on the sacrifice of the horse in India<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The sacrifice of the horse by the Gipsies, a proof that the people came from India<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> + +<li class="level1">DRESS OF THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 12em;"><a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="level1">DRUIDS, destruction of the, in the Island of Anglesey<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote307"><i>n</i>479</a></li> + +<li class="level1">DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.</li> + +<li class="level2">The number of words sufficient for every-day use, in any language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote291"><i>n</i>432</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Bunyan’s nationality: “Was John Bunyan a Gipsy?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_512">512</a></li> + +<li class="level1">EDINBURGH REVIEW, The, on the purity of Gipsy blood—Mr. Borrow’s “Gipsies in Spain”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_374">374</a></li> + +<li class="level1">EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION.</li> + +<li class="level2">The discovery and history of barbarous races illustrate the history of man, and natural and revealed religion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Barbarism within, and barbarism without, the circle of civilization<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies an anomaly in the history of civilization, and merit great consideration<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> + +<li class="level2">European civilization progressive, and homogeneous in its nature<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Asiatic civilization stationary and, in some countries, divided into castes<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The nature of caste in India<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The natives of certain parts of Oceanic Asia<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The condition of the most original kind of Gipsies, in Great Britain—Their secrecy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of Gipsy life in England, by Dr. Bright<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The first appearance of the Gipsies in Europe—Attempts at elucidating their history<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The political state of Europe at the beginning of the fifteenth century<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The great schism in the church—Three Popes reigning at one time<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The educational end social condition of Europe about that time<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The manner in which the Gipsies stole into Europe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The influx of the Greeks into Europe—The literary pursuits of the age, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>—English travellers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies not Sudras—Timour—The Gipsies at Samarcand previous to his invasion of India<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies did not obtain the name of Egyptians from others, as Mr. Borrow supposes<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies are not the Egyptians mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiel<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></li> + +<li class="level2">What misleads writers in their ideas that the Gipsies are not Egyptians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The relative position borne by the early Gipsies to the various classes of society<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The travelling Gipsies much fallen below those of the olden times<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The dread always entertained for the tribe, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>—Fire-raising and child-stealing<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies frighten children, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>—And act as police, or scare- crows, for farmers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The ferocity of Gipsy women, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>—Sir Walter Scott’s recollections of the original of Meg Merrilies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The intercourse between the tribe and the farmers, in pastoral districts<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[557]</a></span>The timidity of the Gipsies, when accosted under certain circumstances<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Comparison between Africans, in America, and the Gipsy race generally<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Some of the causes of the isolation of the Gipsies from the rest of the world<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The history of the Gipsies somewhat illustrated by that of the American Indians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The prejudice against Africans and Gipsies contrasted<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> + +<li class="level1">EDITOR’S PREFACE.</li> + +<li class="level2">When this work should have been published—It has been brought down to the present time<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Inducements to hazard a publication of it at one time<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sir Walter Scott’s judicious advice regarding the publication of the work<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The abuse of reviewers and the ire of wandering Egyptians deprecated<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mr. Borrow’s publications since this work was written<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scottish Church Gipsy mission—Scottish Gipsy clergyman of eminence<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies have encreased since the peace of 1815, but have retired from observation<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The reason for this work being published in America—Popular prejudice against the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scottish antiquaries—Their apathy and contempt for the subject of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote3"><i>n</i>7</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The present work illustrates the Gipsies everywhere—The subject hardly known to the world<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Tinkler the name generally applied to the Scottish Gipsies—tinker a Gipsy word<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote4"><i>n</i>7</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The subject interesting—Observation necessary to solve the problem<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Professor Wilson travels with the Gipsies—The author’s associations with them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The nomadic Gipsies only a part of the race, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>—The blood of the tribe much mixed—Causes thereof<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Persecutions—Children stolen and incorporated with the tribe—Mr. Borrow’s remarks thereon<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote5"><i>n</i>9</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Prejudices against the Gipsies—Their love of race and language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The primitive state of the tribe—Causes and manner of leaving the tent<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Associations after leaving the tent, and feelings towards the community<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their resentment of the popular prejudice—Their boast of ancestry<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Ideas and feelings of the natives, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>—The Gipsy’s love of language—His associations<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Speculations on the origin of the Gipsies, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>—They are the “mixed multitude” of the Exodus<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mode of escape from Egypt, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>—Entrance into India, and formation of their character as s people<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their present language acquired in India—Mr. Borrow’s remarks on its antiquity<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The philosophy of the preservation of the Gipsy language in Europe till now<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sir Walter Scott’s intended account of the Gipsies—The difficulty as to their language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He urges the publication of the present work—Its character as a history of the tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="level2">It is a contribution towards the filling up of a void in literature<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="level1">EDUCATION AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li> + +<li class="level1">EGYPT.</li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies originated in, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>—They are the “mixed multitude” of the Exodus<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a></li> + +<li class="level1"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[558]</a></span>ENGLISH GIPSIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">Their arrival about the year 1512—A description of them in a work, published in 1612<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Act of 22d Henry VIII.—Burnet’s allusion to English Gipsies, in 1549,<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Act of 27th Henry VIII.—A fine of forty pounds for every Gipsy imported<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Act of Queen Elizabeth—Felony for strangers to associate with the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Last of the executions under Charles II.—The Gipsies still liable under the Vagrant Act<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Number of Gipsies in England during the time of Queen Elizabeth<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Estimate of their present number, by Mr. Hoyland, and a member of parliament<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Author’s remarks, and editor’s comments thereon<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote47"><i>n</i>93</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mr. Borrow’s description of the English Gipsies, and the English dialect spoken by them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote48"><i>n</i>93</a></li> + +<li class="level2">English Gipsies travel in Scotland—A description of a camp of them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Adventure of a Scotchman among the Gipsies in England<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Crime among the English Gipsies—Report on the prisons in Northumberland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sketch of an English Gipsy family arriving in Scotland, by Sir Walter Scott<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> + +<li class="level1">EXECUTIONS AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_513">513</a></li> + +<li class="level1">FALLS, Merchants, of Dunbar, Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>-<a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Will Faa, the Gipsy king, claims them as his relatives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote158"><i>n</i>238</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="level1">FARMERS.</li> + +<li class="level2">Their property protected by the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How they sometimes treat the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 17em;"><a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Footnote119"><i>n</i>179</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></li> + +<li class="level1">FIFE AND STIRLINGSHIRE GIPSIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">The county of Fife contained, at one time, a great many nomadic Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The tribe, at one time, possessed a foundry near St. Andrews, called “Little Carron”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Lochgellie Gipsies more particularly described<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of Lochgellie and other places, illustrative of Gipsy quarters, in olden times<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of Falkland “scrapies”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote96"><i>n</i>140</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Principal names of Lochgellie Gipsies and their connexions<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The tribe feared all over the shires of Fife, Kinross, Perth, Angus, and Aberdeen<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Old Charles Graham—“The auld thing again, my lord, but nae proof”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His wife banished to Botany Bay—Marries a Gipsy there, and returns rich<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_142">142</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Young Charles Graham apprehended—His irritation at the crowd staring at him—He steals a farmer’s horse, sells it, steals it again, and returns it to the original owner, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>—Robs a factor, and gives the money to a needy widow—He is apparently penitent at the gallows, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>—But kicks off his shoes, and addresses the people<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Hugh Graham stabbed by John Young, who is hunted like a fox, before he is apprehended<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Jenny Graham leaves her protector, to follow the gang, and take care of its stolen articles<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Margaret Graham, a woman of uncommon bodily strength<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="level2">John Young, who stabbed Hugh Graham, although five feet ten inches in height, is called by his mother, “The dwarf o’ a’ my bairns”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Peter Young, a generous man—He breaks out of many prisons before he is hanged<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Old John Young, on being asked where his sons were, replied, “They are all hanged”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Charles Brown, killed in a Gipsy battle at Raploch, near Stirling<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[559]</a></span>Alexander Brown steals and carries off an ox in disguise<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Billy Marshall robs the Laird of Bargally, and saves an innocent man from the gallows<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote102"><i>n</i>148</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He is nearly frightened out of his wits, under very ludicrous circumstances<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote102"><i>n</i>148</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Alexander Brown’s capture and audacious escape—His style when in full dress, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>—His disguise as a mounted man of quality, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>—His capture by Highlanders, and desperate resistance, and execution<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Martha, mother of Alexander Brown, steals sheets while attending his execution<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + +<li class="level2">William Brown is run down by the military—His threatened rescue by the tribe—He sets fire to the jail, but is put in irons by a soldier—His execution<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Lizzie Brown, in a Gipsy fray—“In the middle o’ the meantime, where’s my nose?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The connexions of the Gipsies, and the ramifications of their society<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Charles Stewart—His royal blood, style of dress, and audacity of conduct<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Grellmann’s description of the attire of a Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote104"><i>n</i>154</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The unabashed hardihood of Gipsies in the face of suspicion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote106"><i>n</i>155</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Jamie Robertson, a great musician—He resents an imagined affront to an absent friend<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_155">155</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His wife sentenced to Botany Bay, but, owing to her advanced age, set at liberty<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Joyce Robertson’s daring robbery while in prison—His deliberate escape—He steals a watch, and has the crowd at his heels<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Charles Wilson, very respectable in his appearance and character, as a horse-dealer, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>—Received and vended stolen goods through the country—Was chief of his tribe, and, as such, issued passes, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>—He returns money stolen from a young countryman—Becomes reduced to poverty in his old age, and dies in full communion with the church<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Charles Wilson’s daughters—One of them kept by an Adjutant—Their disguises and pilferings—The Brae Laird of Kinross-shire<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Stirlingshire Gipsies contributed their full share to the gallows<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies a predatory tribe originally—Two kinds of them at the present day<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Other people robbers besides the Gipsies—Spartans, Abyssinians, Moors, East Indians, Coords, Kamtschadales, Scotch<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote113"><i>n</i>164</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Training of the Gipsies to theft by the women, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>—A Gipsy picks a countryman’s pocket with great dexterity<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Thieves formed into bands—Modes of operation, and division of the spoil<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Vidocq on the pilfering habits of the Continental Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote117"><i>n</i>169</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Male Gipsies cut purses with palms, the females with rings<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_170">170</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mode of thieving among the Gipsies in Hungary<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A magistrate, in the West of Fife, locks up the Gipsies during the fair<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Stylish habits of the Gipsies at the inn or the North Queensferry<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fashionable cavalcade of female Gipsies departing from the ferry<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Intimacy between the boatmen and their friends—“The lads that take the purses”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Trick of a gillie of a Gipsy horse-dealer, played upon an Highlander<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Counterfeiting—An audacious Gipsy counterfeiter<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies not murderers—They are accurate in their journeys and halting places<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Pursuit, capture, escape, and recapture of a Gipsy murderer<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Indecent trick of a Gipsy woman to obtain clothes from the natives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A handsomely dressed female Gipsy, from gratitude, saves a native from destruction<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Old Will of Phaup’s five years’ war with the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote119"><i>n</i>179</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[560]</a></span>Gipsy Dances—Charles Stewart, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>—George Drummond—Gipsy dance at Moscow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Afghan dance <a href="#Footnote120"><i>n</i>181</a>—George Drummond a singular Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> + +<li class="level2">James Robertson, his wife, and sisters dance like bacchanalians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Occupations, amusements, cock-fighting, dress, and generous habits of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies sometimes attend church, and baptize their own children<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their disputes with clergymen on points of morals—Government—division of property<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A landed gentleman went off with the Gipsies, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>—His daughters common Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> + +<li class="level1">FIGHTING AMONG THE GIPSIES—(<i>See also <a href="#Secref2">Battles</a>.</i>)<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 23em;"><a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Footnote128"><i>n</i>193</a>, <a href="#Footnote129"><i>n</i>195</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li> + +<li class="level1">FLETCHER OF SALTOUN on Scottish vagabonds, in 1680<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote72"><i>n</i>111</a>, <a href="#Footnote284"><i>n</i>417</a></li> + +<li class="level1">FORTUNE-TELLING.</li> + +<li class="level2">Fortune-telling women frighten the natives of the other sex<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><i>See <a href="#Secref3">Tweed-dale Gipsies</a></i><span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_228">228</a>-<a href="#Page_231">231</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fortune-telling in America—<i>See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies</i><span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_422">422</a></li> + +<li class="level1">FREEMASONRY AND THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Footnote246"><i>n</i>360</a>, <a href="#Footnote267"><i>n</i>387</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a></li> + +<li class="level1">GENTOO CODE OF LAWS IN ANCIENT INDIA.</li> + +<li class="level2">Division of plunder among thieves<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The elder married before the younger, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>—Sacrifice of the horse, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>—The scape-goat among the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> + +<li class="level1">GERMANS, how they become lost in the population of Great Britain and America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_454">454</a></li> + +<li class="level1">GERMANY, Gipsy bands in<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> + +<li class="level1">GITANO, modification of the term<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote77"><i>n</i>115</a></li> + +<li class="level1">GORDON, THE DUCHESS OF, saves two Gipsies from the gallows<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_470">470</a></li> + +<li class="level1">GOVERNMENT AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 18em;"><a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Footnote58"><i>n</i>103</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Footnote167"><i>n</i>256</a>, <a href="#Page_422">422</a></li> + +<li class="level1">GRATITUDE OF THE GIPSIES FOR OTHER PEOPLE<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 22em;"><a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_483">483</a></li> + +<li class="level1">GRELLMANN.</li> + +<li class="level2">Children frightened by the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote11"><i>n</i>46</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the destiny of the French Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He divides the Gipsies in Transylvania into four classes, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>—The population of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy government, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>—Attire, <a href="#Footnote104"><i>n</i>154</a>—Plundering, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>—Fighting<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote128"><i>n</i>193</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies under and after punishment<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote134"><i>n</i>204</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The habit of Gipsy women after childbirth<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote148"><i>n</i>227</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy working in iron—Gipsy smiths in Hungary<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote155"><i>n</i>234</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies will eat of any animal but a horse<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote180"><i>n</i>268</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The secrecy of the Gipsies in the matter of their language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote189"><i>n</i>281</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy language unintelligible to the common natives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote197"><i>n</i>298</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the education of Hungarian Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote200"><i>n</i>303</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The origin of the idea that the Gipsies came from India<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_329">329</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the variations in the Gipsy language in different countries<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote224"><i>n</i>339</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How the Gipsies resist the extremes of the weather<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote238"><i>n</i>354</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The circumstances under which Gipsy women are confined<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote240"><i>n</i>357</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The physical properties of the Gipsy race<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote243"><i>n</i>358</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies as soldiers, <a href="#Footnote245"><i>n</i>359</a>—As spies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote246"><i>n</i>360</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The religion of the Gipsies, <a href="#Footnote252"><i>n</i>366</a>—Their civilization<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote255"><i>n</i>367</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the colour and appearance of Gipsies who change their habits<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote262"><i>n</i>377</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The natural capacity of Gipsies, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>—Gipsy ingratitude<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_435">435</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies “always merry and blithe”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_483">483</a></li> + +<li class="level1">HALE, SIR MATTHEW.</li> + +<li class="level2">His touching interview with Bunyan’s wife<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote205"><i>n</i>313</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He mentions the execution of thirteen Gipsies, at the Suffolk assizes<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote318"><i>n</i>513</a></li> + +<li class="level1">HATRED OF THE GIPSIES FOR OTHER PEOPLE<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><i>See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a></i><span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_433">433</a>-<a href="#Page_436">436</a></li> + +<li class="level1">HEBER, BISHOP, notices the Gipsies in India, Persia, Russia, and England.<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + +<li class="level1"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[561]</a></span>HINDOSTAN, the Gipsies supposed to originate in<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 20em;"><a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li> + +<li class="level1">HOGG, JAMES.</li> + +<li class="level2">Motto—<i><a href="#Secref4">Title page</a>.</i></li> + +<li class="level2">He notices a Gipsy scuffle and murder in Blackwood’s Magazine<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He says that Lochmaben is “stocked” with Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote264"><i>n</i>381</a></li> + +<li class="level1">HOYLAND, JOHN.</li> + +<li class="level2">The religious character of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The capacity of the early Gipsies, <a href="#Footnote55"><i>n</i>99</a>—English Gipsy surnames<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote145"><i>n</i>219</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Baillie Smith, of Kelso—Report on the Yetholm Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The difficulty in Gipsies acquiring settled habits<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote255"><i>n</i>368</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mr. George Offor says he was led captive by a Gipsy girl<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote263"><i>n</i>380</a></li> + +<li class="level1">HUGUENOTS introduced into England and America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_455">455</a></li> + +<li class="level1">HUME, BARON.</li> + +<li class="level2">Scots acts of 1608, and 1609, against the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Executions among the Gipsies, under these sanguinary laws<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Footnote284"><i>n</i>418</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Trial of two Gipsies, in 1786, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>—Baillie, in 1714, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>—And Pinkerton, in 1726<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He would make the black eyes evidence against the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> + +<li class="level1">HUNGARIANS, past and present, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>—They know nothing of their origin<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_495">495</a></li> + +<li class="level1">HURD, DR.</li> + +<li class="level2">The appearance of the Gipsies when they first arrived in Paris<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies called spies of the Turks<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote32"><i>n</i>72</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Marriage customs among the Russians, and Christians of Mesopotamia and Chaldea<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote174"><i>n</i>262</a></li> + +<li class="level1">IMPROVEMENT OF THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>, <a href="#Page_529">529</a>, <a href="#Page_534">534</a></li> + +<li class="level1">INTRODUCTION.</li> + +<li class="level2">Attention directed towards the Gipsies by the publication of Guy Mannering<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The classes interested—A mission founded by the Scottish Church among the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Articles sent to Blackwood’s Magazine—Letters from Mr. Blackwood<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Article by Sir Walter Scott on the Buckhaven fishermen—The zeal of an antiquary<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote13"><i>n</i>57</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Letters from Sir Walter Scott, and William Laidlaw<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_58">58</a>-<a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Scottish Gipsies a branch of the same tribe to be found in every country<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Comparisons between the Gipsies and Jews—The Jews’ letters to Voltaire<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Discontinuation of articles in Blackwood’s Magazine—The author’s authorities<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The difficulties in the way of a research into the subject of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A “Blowing up” from a Gipsy chief<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Notice from Professor Wilson, in Blackwood’s Magazine, and Sir Walter Scott, in Quentin Durward<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="level1">INVERKEITHING, GIPSY SCENES AT<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 17em;"><a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li> + +<li class="level1">IRISH GIPSIES IN SCOTLAND<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>-<a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a></li> + +<li class="level1">JEWS, THE.</li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies the “mixed multitude” that left Egypt with the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Circumstances under which the Jews left Egypt<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They were separated from the Egyptians by the prejudice of caste<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They termed Jesus Christ “Beelzebub”—the prince of devils<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their reception of Christ as the Messiah<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their condition while in Egypt<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their contemptuous description of the “mixed multitude” that followed them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their circumstances after leaving Egypt, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>—The destiny that awaited them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[562]</a></span>Comparisons between the Jews and the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Letters of the Jews to Voltaire—The universality and differences in the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote20"><i>n</i>61</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They change their names in various countries<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote81"><i>n</i>117</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The elder sister married before the younger, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>—Jewish marriages<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="level2">When they blow rams’ horns in September, they imagine they drive away the devil<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote176"><i>n</i>265</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They dedicated horses to the sun, in the time of Josiah<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote181"><i>n</i>269</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Hindoo sacrifice of the horse and the scape-goat in Leviticus compared<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The language of the Jews during the seventy years’ captivity<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote211"><i>n</i>318</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies dislike the Jews, <a href="#Footnote241"><i>n</i>358</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>—Jews during time of war<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote246"><i>n</i>360</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Neglect of women among Jews—A Jew’s morning prayer<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote250"><i>n</i>365</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Jews and Gipsies compared in a sermon by Mr. Borrow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote252"><i>n</i>366</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They marry among themselves, like the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The money that is squandered on the conversion of Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_443">443</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The subject of the Jews more or less familiar to people from infancy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_447">447</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies, without any necessary outward peculiarities, have yet a nationality, like the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_447">447</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The mixture of Gipsy and Jewish blood—A Jewish Gipsy possible<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_451">451</a></li> + +<li class="level2">In what respect the existence of the Gipsies differs from that of the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_458">458</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Philosophical historians on the existence of the Jews since the dispersion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_458">458</a></li> + +<li class="level2">No analogy between the Jews and any other people but the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_459">459</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Christian writer on the existence of the Jews since the dispersion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_459">459</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His description thereof, though erroneous, very applicable to the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_460">460</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The attachment of Jewesses and Gipsies to their respective races<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_470">470</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How the Jewish race is perpetuated—Religion of secondary importance<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_473">473</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Jewish Christians—Their feelings of nationality, and social position<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_474">474</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The rearing of Gipsies resembles that of Jews—The purity of Jewish blood a figment<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_475">475</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Half-blood Jews sometimes follow the synagogue, and sometimes the Christian church<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_476">476</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Many Jews who are not known to the world as such<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_477">477</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Jewish physiognomy—What may be termed a “pure Jew”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_477">477</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The relative position of Jews and Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_477">477</a>-<a href="#Page_480">480</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Jews have a church, a history, and a literature<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_480">480</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Public sympathy for the Gipsies, in preference to the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_483">483</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The philosophy of the existence of the Jews since the dispersion <i>See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies</i><span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_484">484</a>-<a href="#Page_505">505</a></li> + +<li class="level2">John Bunyan asked himself whether he was of the Israelites<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_511">511</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Jews readmitted into England, under Cromwell—Manasseh Ben Israel<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_511">511</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The natural curiosity of the Gipsies regarding the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_511">511</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies have existed, in Europe, a greater length of time than the Jews dwelt in Egypt<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_532">532</a></li> + +<li class="level2">It would have been a miracle had the Jews been lost among mankind<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_533">533</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A prophecy of Moses regarding a people who are to provoke and anger the Jews<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote308"><i>n</i>491</a>, <a href="#Page_533">533</a></li> + +<li class="level1">LAIDLAW, WILLIAM.</li> + +<li class="level2">His letter to the author, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>—A Gipsy “blowing up,” alluded to by him<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> + +<li class="level1">LANGUAGE OF THE GIPSIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">The love of Gipsies for their language, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>—They keep it a profound secret<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="level2">It is for the most part Hindostanee—Mr. Borrow’s remarks on its antiquity<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[563]</a></span>The philosophy of the preservation of the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_433">433</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Scottish Gipsies very reserved and tenacious in the matter of their language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Its existence, but as slang, scarcely credited by people of the greatest intelligence<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Grellmann, Bright, and Borrow on the difficulties in acquiring the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote189"><i>n</i>281</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies have excellent memories, but shuffle when bored by people of whom they expect money<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote189"><i>n</i>282</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The causes of the reserve among the Scottish Gipsies: 1st. The sanguinary laws. 2d. The popular prejudice. 3d. Their natural secrecy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_282">282</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Scottish Gipsy works all his life in a shop, and no one discovers him to be a Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Two Gipsy women nearly killed by colliers, for not explaining the meaning of two Gipsy words<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> + +<li class="level2">As the Gipsies become civilized, they avoid intercourse with the barbarous part of the race<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote190"><i>n</i>283</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Scottish peasantry, in some places, do not greatly despise the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote191"><i>n</i>284</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The use of the Gipsy language in markets—The pride of the people as linguists<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Seven years’ trouble in getting a Gipsy woman to own up to her language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> + +<li class="level2">She is afraid the public would treat her with horror and contempt, for knowing the language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The character of Spanish Gipsy women, according to Mr. Borrow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote192"><i>n</i>285</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy woman maintains she was speaking Latin, when discovered conversing in Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The general difficulties in the way of acquiring the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The way in which the author learned what he knew of the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_286">286</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How the use of Gipsy affected the tribe—Ludicrous scenes<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_287">287</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How old Gipsy women were affected—“You are no gentleman, sir, otherwise you would not insult us in that way”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A woman, in a dreadful passion, threatens the author with apprehension, as the head of a band of thieves, for asking her, if her <i>chavo</i> (son) was a <i>chor</i> (thief)<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A female Gipsy “blabs” with the author, but expresses great surprise, when addressed in Gipsy, before a third party<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></li> + +<li class="level2">These people afraid of the sanguinary laws passed against the tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sir Walter Scott’s advice in prosecuting an enquiry into the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Scottish Gipsies a branch of the tribe to be found everywhere<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy as distinguished from his language—The race comes before the speech<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote194"><i>n</i>292</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An old woman and her two daughters—“No harm in the least, sir, in speaking the Gipsy language”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Two girls, of the name of Jamieson—“You gentlemen understand all languages now-a-days”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Four or five children—“You are a Gipsy, yourself, sir, or you never could have got these words”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Ruthven addresses her child in Gipsy—“I know that the public are trying to find out the secrets of the Gipsies, but it is in vain”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The threats of the tribe against those teaching the language to “strangers”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote195"><i>n</i>294</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A female Gipsy, with three or four children, begging—“Curse you, take the road”—“Mother, mother, come away”—An innkeeper anxious to learn the words that dismiss importunate beggars<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_294">294</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Young Andrew Steedman, of Lochgellie, communicative—Old Andrew shakes and trembles in his stable—“Rob that person”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[564]</a></span>The woman who baffled the author for seven years—“It is in our hearts, and as long as a single Tinkler exists, it will be remembered”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A women and four children—“You know quite well what he says”—“I am sure he is a tramper, and can speak as good cant as any of us”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A brother and a cousin of the Jamieson girls—“So I saw, for he understood what I said”—“To show you I am no impostor, I will give you the names of everything in your house”—“My speech is not the cant of packmen, nor the slang of common thieves”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_301">301</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy-hunting like deer-stalking—Modern Gipsy-hunting<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_302">302</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Jamieson returns—“I have been bred in that line all my life”—“You are welcome to as many as you please”—“We can converse and have a word for everything in our speech”—He sings a song in English, and turns it into Gipsy—“Had I, at first, been aware you did not know my speech, I would not have given you a word of it”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The songs composed by the Gipsies illustrate their plunderings, robberies and sufferings, and quarrels among themselves<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_306">306</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies very fond of the Border marauding songs—“Hughie the Græme,” as a specimen<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_308">308</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sophia Scott, afterwards Mrs. Lockhart, sings “Hughie the Græme” to the author, at Abbotsford<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote201"><i>n</i>308</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sir Walter Scott interested in the Gipsies—He is afraid they might injure his plantations<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote201"><i>n</i>309</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The author visits St. Boswell’s fair, and becomes acquainted with a Gipsy family there<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He introduces himself by saying who his ancestors were—“God bless you! Ay, those days are gone; Christian charity has now left the land”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The head of the family a very superior man; merry and jocular, like many of his race<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their language—“The Tinklers have no language of their own, except a few cant words”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The author addresses them in Gipsy—“Preserve me, he kens a’ about us!”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He enumerates their clan—“Say not another word, but call at ——“<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The surprise among the natives—“Yon was queer looking wark wi’ the Tinklers”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An innkeeper ashamed, or afraid, of a customer that is a gentleman<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A little factory of horn-spoons—“No such language exists, except a few cant words”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy obstinacy—The word “Gipsy” a terror to the tribe—The Gipsy forfeits his promise<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Laughter from another apartment—The Gipsy starts to his feet, and takes hold of the author—“Farewell, I will know you when I see you again”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Revisit to the factory of horn-spoons—The Gipsy ashamed to give his language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A promise or secrecy—The Gipsy cheerful, he hesitates, but at last fulfills his oath<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Circumstances illustrative of the history of the family of John Bunyan<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote205"><i>n</i>313</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies a tribe of Ethiopian thieves and robbers, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>—The pronunciation of their speech—It is copious, but not written—“So long as there exist two Gipsies in Scotland, it will never be lost”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy horse-dealers—“Several thousand in Scotland acquainted with the Gipsy tongue”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[565]</a></span>The children of Gipsies instructed in Gipsy, from their infancy—Their pride in their language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The character of an intelligent Gipsy chief<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy sings a song in Gipsy—The Gipsies have doubtless an oral literature<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote209"><i>n</i>317</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A great alarm in the family, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>—“Give to the world what had been theirs for 350 years”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_318">318</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Smith on the language of the Jews during the captivity—How the Gipsy tribe will relish the present work<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote212"><i>n</i>318</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A tinker at Grangemouth—“Yes, the dog is not bad”—“What do you mean? I don’t understand you—Yes, the dog is hairy”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_319">319</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Thimbling Gipsies—“<i>Chee, chee,</i>” (hold your tongue)—“But, sir, what was that you said to them, for they seem afraid?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_319">319</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The author taken for a Thimbler—“I tell ye, woman, the man you spoke to was nothing but one of these villains”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote214"><i>n</i>321</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Thimbler’s sign—“Where can you find a shop without a sign? and where’s the other person that gets a sign from the public for nothing?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote214"><i>n</i>321</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Thimblers’ traps, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>—A victim drowns himself<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_322">322</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Thimblers’ conversation—“Bloody swells”—“I will require three men to take care of that boat”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_323">323</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Is that man a Gipsy?—“Ask himself, sir”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_323">323</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An old thimbling Gipsy attempts to inveigle some youths on Arthur’s Seat—“Wasn’t he a slippery old serpent, after all?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote215"><i>n</i>323</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The science of thimbling, <a href="#Footnote215"><i>n</i>324</a>—Thimble-riggers, and their ancestry—Ancient Egyptian thimbling<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote215"><i>n</i>325</a></li> + +<li class="level2">English, Scottish, and Irish Gipsies speak the same language, and assist each other, when they meet<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_324">324</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An Irish Gipsy family—An ass bearing a “bundle of bones”—“Good-day, sir, God bless you”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_326">326</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Two Irish Gipsies in court—“Three days, and be banished the town”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_326">326</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy wife a go-between—“The scoundrel shall lie in prison till the last hour of his sentence”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_327">327</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An escape, and a “banishing the town,” <a href="#Page_327">327</a>—“A fight for the sake of friendship”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A horde of Irish Gipsies—The town-clerk ashamed of his company<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_328">328</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy quizzes his friend—“You will put me out, by speaking to me in that language”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Irish Gipsies in Scotland—Their number, appearance, and occupations<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_329">329</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The origin of the idea that the Gipsies came from India<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_329">329</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scottish Gipsy words collated with vulgar Hindostanee<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> + +<li class="level2">John Lobbs, a low caste native of Bombay, examined<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><i>specimens</i> <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Rev. Mr. Crabb’s annual Gipsy festival—The Hindostanee and Gipsy languages<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote220"><i>n</i>334</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy words sent to Sir Walter Scott, collated with the Rev. Mr. Baird’s collection<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_334">334</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scottish Gipsy words that bear a relation to Sanscrit<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_336">336</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A comparison between Gipsy and various oriental languages<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_337">337</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The language of the Gipsies mixed—How it has got corrupted<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_338">338</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Rev. Mr. Baird’s remarks thereon—The language of the Gipsies in the Scottish Highlands<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote222"><i>n</i>338</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Sclavonic in the Gipsy language—Variations in the Gipsy of different countries<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote224"><i>n</i>338</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies supposed to originate in India—The tribe originally thieves and robbers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Nuts, or Bazegurs, supposed to be the parent stock of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><i>See <a href="#Page_371">Disquisition</a> on the Gipsies</i><span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_431">431</a>-<a href="#Page_433">433</a></li> + +<li class="level1">LINLITHGOWSHIRE GIPSIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies of this county more daring than the other bands in Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[566]</a></span>They take up their quarters near the Bridge of Linlithgow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their sagacity—The district populous—Much business passes through it<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The names of the tribe—They have no connection with native vagrants<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their occupations—Horses, music, feasting, and dancing<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies very civil and honest with their neighbours, but plunder others at a distance<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy unintentionally attempts to rob his own clergyman<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote88"><i>n</i>124</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The tribe form strong attachments to individuals of the community<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Terrific fighting among themselves, on dividing their spoil<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their children attend school—None dare taunt them, or their parents, though thieves and robbers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The magistrates of Linlithgow dare not interfere with the tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They play with them at golf, and admit them to social meetings and dinner parties<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The authorities being passive, the Gipsies plunder at pleasure<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The chief of the tribe taken off, when attempting highway robbery<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His funeral attended by the magistrates, and other people of respectability<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy mode of burying the dead<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The deceased chieftain succeeded by his son, who exceeds him in audacity and daring<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The band very numerous, having lieutenants, like a military company<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Appearance, acquirements, and habits of the new chieftain, and his brother-in-law<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="level2">By means of trained horses, the chief plays many tricks<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of his wife, and for what she was greatly respected<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies protect their friends, but vindictively torment their enemies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Peculiarities of the Gipsies in the matter of robbing people—Gipsy passports<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The chief and his brother-in-law condemned to be hung<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Threatened rescue by the tribe—Precautions taken, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>—Execution of the criminals<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The chief’s wife before, and after, the execution—Touching and terrible scenes<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Attempted resuscitation of the bodies—They are interred in the church-yard of Linlithgow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They are torn up by the populace, and buried in a moor, in the neighbourhood<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The chief divorced from his first wife, over a horse, sacrificed for the occasion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Her character, and that of her successor, who continues her old practices<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></li> + +<li class="level2">She returns to a friend a purse, stolen by the tribe in a fair<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Her two nephews pursued, tried, and executed for robbing the mail<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sizes of these two Gipsies—Mixed Gipsies a strong race of men<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote95"><i>n</i>139</a></li> + +<li class="level1">LOCHGELLIE once the headquarters of Gipsies, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>—Description of the neighbourhood, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>—Scenes among the Lochgellie Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li> + +<li class="level1">LOCHMABEN is said, by James Hogg, to be stocked with Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote264"><i>n</i>381</a></li> + +<li class="level1">MACAULAY, LORD.</li> + +<li class="level2">John Bunyan’s tribe and nationality, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>—The Pilgrim’s Progress<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_514">514</a></li> + +<li class="level1">McLAURIN’S CRIMINAL TRIALS.</li> + +<li class="level2">He speaks of John Faw, “Earl of Little Egypt,” as “this peer”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the trial of William Baillie, in 1714, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>—On the mercy shown to James Baillie<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li class="level1">MARRIAGE CEREMONIES OF THE GIPSIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies all marry young—Few or no illegitimate children among them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[567]</a></span>A Gipsy stabs another, for seducing his sister, who is afterwards married to him<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The virtue of young Spanish Gipsy females—They are dressed in a kind of drapery<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote168"><i>n</i>257</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy courtships—The younger sister not married before the elder<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy multiplication table—The Gipsies obey one of the divine laws at least<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote169"><i>n</i>258</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A parallel between the ancient Hindoos and the Jews during the time of Laban<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_259">259</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The nuptial ceremony of the Gipsies of great antiquity, and one the longest to be observed<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_259">259</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Marriage customs generally—Those of the Gipsies should be made public<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sir Walter Scott not squeamish about delicacies, when knowledge is to be acquired<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The ideas of prudes and snobs on this chapter<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote172"><i>n</i>260</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Scottish Gipsy marriage ceremony described<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_260">260</a>-<a href="#Page_263">263</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Spanish Gipsy marriage ceremony, according to Bright, <a href="#Footnote173"><i>n</i>261</a>—and Borrow<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote173"><i>n</i>262</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Singular marriage customs among other tribes—“Hand-fasting” among Scottish Highland chiefs<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote174"><i>n</i>262</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Recent instances of Scottish Gipsy marriages, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>—A Gipsy on the Presbyterian form of marriage<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote175"><i>n</i>264</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of Peter Robertson, a famous celebrator of Gipsy marriages<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_264">264</a></li> + +<li class="level2">In his will, he gives away, during his life, more than a county, but reserves to himself a “pendicle,” and the town of Dunfermline<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Remarks on rams and rams’ horns<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote176"><i>n</i>265</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy priest given to good ale, and chastising his tribe without mercy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_266">266</a></li> + +<li class="level1">MILLER, HUGH, on the slavery of Scotch colliers and salters<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote85"><i>n</i>121</a></li> + +<li class="level1">MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER.</li> + +<li class="level2">The Scott clan agree to give up all friendship with common thieves, &c.<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Song of “Johnny Faa, the Gipsy Laddie,”<a name="FNanchor331" id="FNanchor331"></a><a href="#Footnote331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> <a href="#Page_289">289</a>—Of “Hughie the Græme”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_307">307</a></li> + +<li class="level1">MIRACLES.</li> + +<li class="level2">There is no miracle in the existence of the Jews since the dispersion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 28em;"><a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459</a>, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>, <a href="#Page_533">533</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They are to be found in the Old and New Testaments only<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_494">494</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They are things that are contrary to natural laws<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_533">533</a></li> + +<li class="level2">It would have been a miracle had the Jews been lost among mankind<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_533">533</a></li> + +<li class="level1">MIXTURE OF GIPSY BLOOD<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Footnote5"><i>n</i>80</a>, <a href="#Footnote45"><i>n</i>92</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>-<a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a></li> + +<li class="level1">MIXED GIPSIES, PECULIARITIES OF<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 17em;"><a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Footnote129"><i>n</i>195</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>-<a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>-<a href="#Page_462">462</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>, <a href="#Page_472">472</a>, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>, <a href="#Page_508">508</a>, <a href="#Footnote316"><i>n</i>509</a>, <a href="#Page_532">532</a></li> + +<li class="level1">MOSES.</li> + +<li class="level2">His difficulties in inducing the Jews to undertake the Exodus<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The difference between his rank and that of Jesus Christ<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The character of Moses, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>—His troubles after leaving Egypt<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How he apparently got rid of the “mixed multitude” that followed him<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></li> + +<li class="level1">OCCUPATIONS OF THE GIPSIES GENERALLY<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 20em;"><a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_467">467</a></li> + +<li class="level1">OFFOR, GEORGE, (Editor of Bunyan’s works).</li> + +<li class="level2">He avoids the Gipsies—His advice to the editor—He says Mr. Hoyland was led captive by a Gipsy girl<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote263"><i>n</i>380</a></li> + +<li class="level2">What he says about John Bunyan<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_515">515</a></li> + +<li class="level1">OWEN, JOHN, how he respected and appreciated John Bunyan<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_521">521</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PARK, MUNGO, Marriage customs among the natives of Africa<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote171"><i>n</i>260</a></li> + +<li class="level1"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[568]</a></span>PASSES.</li> + +<li class="level2">The system of Passes among the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The use of passes granted to the friends of the Gipsies among the community<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PENNECUIK, DR. ALEXANDER.</li> + +<li class="level2">He alludes to the Gipsies in his poems and history of Tweed-dale<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He gives a description of a Gipsy battle at Romanno<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He erects a dove-cot on the spot, to commemorate the battle<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PHILOLOGISTS AND THE GIPSY LANGUAGE<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, THE.</li> + +<li class="level2">What Lord Macaulay says of it, <a href="#Page_514">514</a>—What Bunyan himself wrote of it<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_517">517</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PONS ASSINORUM, THE, OF THE GIPSY QUESTION<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote266"><i>n</i>383</a></li> + +<li class="level1">POPULATION OF THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>, <a href="#Page_493">493</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PRESENT CONDITION AND NUMBER OF THE GIPSIES IN SCOTLAND.</li> + +<li class="level2">Every author represents the Gipsies as all remarkably dark in their appearance<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Scottish Gipsies of all colours—Fair-haired Gipsies in Finland and Arabia<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Children stolen and incorporated with the tribe—How its appearance has been changed<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_342">342</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Peculiarity of mixing “the blood” with native, in England<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote225"><i>n</i>342</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies formerly employed in Scotland as constables, peace- officers, and “country-keepers”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_343">343</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The peculiarities of the tribe in such capacities—They make matters a great deal worse<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_344">344</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Impressments during the American and French wars greatly break up the Gipsy bands<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_344">344</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The tribe desert the ranks on landing in America<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote228"><i>n</i>345</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies prefer self-mutilation to impressment<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_345">345</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sir Walter Scott meets a Prussian Gipsy soldier, a sentinel in Paris<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote229"><i>n</i>346</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies accept the bounty and desert—Burns’ “Jolly Beggars:” “My bonny lass, I work in brass.”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote229"><i>n</i>346</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies are now crockery-dealers, horse-dealers, and innkeepers; coopers, shoemakers, plumbers, and masons; tinsmiths, braziers, cutlers, bell-hangers, umbrella-menders, and chimney- sweeps, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>—constables in large and small towns, female servants, lady’s maids and housekeepers; ginger-bread dealers, crockery, japan, and white-iron hawkers, &c.,<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_348">348</a></li> + +<li class="level2">English Gipsy constables—A Scottish clergyman married to a Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote232"><i>n</i>348</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A travelling Gipsy jeweller, disguised as a sailor, offers for sale “a valuable gold watch, that cost him not less than ten francs.”—“Do not attempt to cheat us in this manner”—The “sailor” makes his exit dancing, and twirling his bludgeon, in the manner of his tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_348">348</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Thimble-riggers, tinkers, dealers in horn spoons—“Did you ever make horn spoons?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_350">350</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Popular ideas of Gipsies, and their numbers—Sir Walter Scott’s opinion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_350">350</a></li> + +<li class="level2">“Tinklers and vagabonds,” since the peace of 1815<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_350">350</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies at St. Boswell’s, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>—An Asiatic camp to be seen after the fair<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of the <i>tinkering</i> Gipsies, at present in Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The hardy constitution of the Gipsy race in resisting the elements<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote238"><i>n</i>354</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Itinerant Gipsies—difficulty in pleasing them with hot rolls—Gipsy beggars in towns<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_355">355</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Travelling singing Gipsy impostors, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>—Gipsy mock country labourers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Irish Gipsies in Scotland—A Gipsy woman gives birth to a child in the open fields<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Irish Gipsies in England—They are disliked by their English and Scottish brethren<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote241"><i>n</i>357</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[569]</a></span>Irish Gipsy mechanics in Edinburgh, England, and the Untied States<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_358">358</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Infanticide among the Gipsies—The tribe physically, <a href="#Footnote243"><i>n</i>358</a>—Female Gipsy recklessness<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote244"><i>n</i>359</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies charged with cowardice—The Scottish Gipsies make excellent soldiers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_359">359</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies employed by European governments, as soldiers, <a href="#Footnote249"><i>n</i>359</a>,—and spies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote246"><i>n</i>360</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An interesting meeting between a French and Spanish Gipsy, in the heat of a battle<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote246"><i>n</i>360</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Supposed danger from Gipsies in time of war equally applicable to Jews and Freemasons<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote246"><i>n</i>360</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scottish Gipsies distinguished for gratitude, in return for civility and kindness<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_360">360</a></li> + +<li class="level2">“Terrible,” a Gipsy chief, offers to sell his all, to get a farmer out of prison<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_361">361</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Terrible’s opinion of “writers” and lairds, but especially of the writers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_362">362</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The feelings of the Gipsies in regard to the prejudice that exists against them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote248"><i>n</i>362</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Terrible’s character—His mother a witch—He believed she could have set the farmer free<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_363">363</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The character of Gipsy chiefs generally—Education among the Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_364">364</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How a Gipsy child became “spoiled,” <a href="#Page_364">364</a>—Education among the Spanish Gipsies, <a href="#Footnote250"><i>n</i>365</a>—Female Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote250"><i>n</i>365</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Neglect of females among the Jews—A Jew’s morning prayer<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote250"><i>n</i>365</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Religion among the Scottish Gipsies, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>—Their general political sentiments<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_366">366</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Grellmann on the religion of the Gipsies—Mr. Borrow preaches to them in Spain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote252"><i>n</i>366</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The number of the Gipsies in Scotland—Gipsies in all the towns, and many of the villages<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_367">367</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Few Gipsies now hanged—Their present punishment—They cannot fail to encrease<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote254"><i>n</i>367</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The civilization and improvement of the Gipsies—An Hungarian nobleman’s opinion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_367">367</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The restless nature of the Gipsies—How it is manifested<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote255"><i>n</i>368</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The language of the Gipsies should be published, and the tribe encouraged to speak it openly<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The plan of the Rev. Mr. Crabb, <a href="#Footnote256"><i>n</i>368</a>, and the Rev. Mr. Baird for the civilization of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote256"><i>n</i>369</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The difficulty in distinguishing some of the tribe from common natives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote257"><i>n</i>369</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies marry among themselves, like the Jews, and “stick to each other.”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PRINCIPAL GIPSY FAMILIES IN SCOTLAND.</li> + +<li class="level2">Faw<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 4em;"><a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Footnote58"><i>n</i>103</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Footnote76"><i>n</i>113</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Baillie<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 5em;"><a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Footnote58"><i>n</i>103</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>-<a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PRITCHARD on the Hungarian race, past and present<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_413">413</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PROPHECIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">“Scattering of the Egyptians,” Ezek. xxix. 12-14, and xxx. 10, 23 and 26<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></li> + +<li class="level2">“A people that are to provoke and anger the Jews,” Deut. xxxii. 21, and Rom. x. 19<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote308"><i>n</i>491</a>, <a href="#Page_533">533</a></li> + +<li class="level1">PYRENEES, The Gipsies of the, resemble the inferior class of Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + +<li class="level1">QUAKERS.</li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy-Quakers, or Quaker-Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote263"><i>n</i>380</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The result of their society being dissolved<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_448">448</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The nature of the perpetuation of their existence<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_494">494</a></li> + +<li class="level1"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[570]</a></span>QUEENSFERRY, NORTH.</li> + +<li class="level2">Stylish habits of Gipsy plunderers at the inn at<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fashionable cavalcade of female Gipsies departing from<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The boatmen and their friends—“the lads that take the purses”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy scenes at<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li> + +<li class="level1">QUEENSFERRY, SOUTH.</li> + +<li class="level2">Adventure of a Gipsy with an ox at<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy scenes at<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></li> + +<li class="level1">RELIGION AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 16em;"><a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Footnote34"><i>n</i>74</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Footnote40"><i>n</i>89</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Footnote252"><i>n</i>366</a>, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_502">502</a></li> + +<li class="level1">ROME, THE CHURCH OF.</li> + +<li class="level2">The seventy years schism—Three Popes anathematizing each other<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies tolerated in the dominions of the Church, for the sake of gain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies despised and tolerated by the Church, in Spain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_395">395</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The attempted conversion of the Jews to the superstitions and impostures of Rome<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_502">502</a></li> + +<li class="level1">ST. BOSWELL’S, The author’s visits to the fairs at—Gipsy scenes<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li> + +<li class="level1">ST. JAMES on the gratitude of wild animals<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_435">435</a></li> + +<li class="level1">ST. PAUL before the Jewish Council—Gamaliel’s advice on the persecution of Christians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote311"><i>n</i>494</a></li> + +<li class="level1">“SCOTSMAN” NEWSPAPER, Lament on the death of Will Faa, king of the Scottish Gipsies, in October, 1847<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SCOTT, SIR WALTER.</li> + +<li class="level2">His judicious advice to the author regarding this work<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy language a “great mystery,” <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>—His intended publication on the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He urges an enquiry into the subject of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The original of Meg Merrilies, in Guy Mannering<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An article on the Buckhaven fishermen—The zeal of an antiquary<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote13"><i>n</i>57</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His three letters to the author, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>-<a href="#Page_61">61</a>—His opinion of the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> + +<li class="level2">In a note to Quentin Durward, he urges a publication of the present work<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His translated article, in Blackwood’s Magazine, on the Gipsies in Germany<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His article in Blackwood’s Magazine—An English Gipsy family arriving in Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Billy Marshall the Gallowayshire Gipsy chief<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote102"><i>n</i>148</a></li> + +<li class="level2">In a letter to Captain Adam Ferguson, he alludes to the trial of Kennedy, a tinker<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote127"><i>n</i>192</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He notices a scuffle and a murder among Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His description of a Gipsy feast<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Adventure of a relative among Gipsies—The original of Meg Merrilies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His grandfather feasted by the Gipsies on Charter-house moor<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He discovers a Gipsy, when in the company of Baillie Smith, of Kelso<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He is not squeamish about delicacies when knowledge is to be acquired<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><a name="Secref1" id="Secref1"></a>His idea of the Scottish Gipsy population greatly erroneous<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote199"><i>n</i>301</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Footnote284"><i>n</i>417</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He causes his eldest daughter to sing “Hughie the Græme” to the author<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote201"><i>n</i>308</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He is interested in the Gipsies, but afraid they might injure his plantations<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote201"><i>n</i>309</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A list of Gipsy words sent to him for inspection<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He meets a Prussian Gipsy soldier, in Paris<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote229"><i>n</i>346</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Feudal robbers—Extract from his life by Lockhart<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote279"><i>n</i>410</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Highland robbers—Fitz-James and Roderick Dhu, in the “Lady of the Lake,”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote280"><i>n</i>411</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the disappearance of the Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote284"><i>n</i>417</a></li> + +<li class="level2">What he says about John Bunyan<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_515">515</a></li> + +<li class="level1"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[571]</a></span>SCOTTISH GIPSIES, DOWN TO THE YEAR 1715.</li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies supposed to be in Scotland before the year 1460<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> + +<li class="level2">McLellan of Bombie kills a Gipsy chief, and recovers the Barony of Bombie<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies enter Scotland, from Spain, by way of Ireland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote51"><i>n</i>98</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Armorial bearings—Act of James II. against vagabonds<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Letter of James IV., in 1506, to the king of Denmark, in favour of Anthonius Gawino, Earl of Little Egypt<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Capacity of the early Gipsies in passing for pilgrims and men of consequence<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote55"><i>n</i>99</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Treaty between James V. and John Faw, “Lord and Earl of Little Egypt,” in 1540<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Policy of the Gipsies—The act of James V. the starting point in the history of the Scoto-Egyptians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote58"><i>n</i>103</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies insult James V., and, for that reason, are ordered to leave Scotland, in 1541<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Faw’s diplomacy on the occasion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote61"><i>n</i>106</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Death of James V.—The Gipsies recover their position with his successors<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Remission of Gipsies for the slaughter of Ninian Small<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Scottish Gipsy captains, and Spanish Gipsy counts<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote65"><i>n</i>107</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies, at that time, men of importance, and allowed to live under their own laws<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Countess of Cassilis elopes with John Faa<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies tolerated from 1506 till 1579, when James VI. assumes the government<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Act of James VI. against vagabonds in general, and the Gipsies in particular<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mode prescribed for punishing the Gipsies and the other vagabonds mentioned<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Statute confirmed in 1592, when the Gipsies are again referred to<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Act of 1597 against “strong beggars, vagabonds, and Egyptians”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Coal and salt masters might apprehend and put such to labour<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote71"><i>n</i>111</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Origin of the slavery in Scotland which was abolished during last century<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote71"><i>n</i>111</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies now colliers in the Lothians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote71"><i>n</i>111</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fletcher of Saltoun’s estimate of the beggars and vagabonds in Scotland, in 1680<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote72"><i>n</i>111</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Act of 1600 declares previous ones ineffectual<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Acts of 1608 and 1609 banish the Gipsies forever, on pain of death<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Act of 1617 directs the authorities how to proceed against the</li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Condition of the Scottish people generally, at this time<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Acts against “famous and unspotted gentlemen” for protecting the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Similar acts passed against the nobility and commonalty in Spain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote77"><i>n</i>114</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy policy and cunning—Modifications of the term Gitano<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote77"><i>n</i>115</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Great outward change in the Gipsies at that time—Surnames and general policy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> + +<li class="level2">English and German Gipsy and Jewish surnames<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote81"><i>n</i>117</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies claim bastard kindred with the Scottish aristocracy and gentry<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="level2">They have a profound regard for aristocracy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote82"><i>n</i>117</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Trials and executions of the Gipsies in Scotland—Baron Hume’s account<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Faas and Baillies the principal Gipsy tribes in Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The influence of the Baillies, of Lamington, of great service to the Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Proscription of Gipsies, and enslavement of colliers and salters, in Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote85"><i>n</i>121</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SHEPHERD KINGS, Gipsies probably the descendants of the<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SHERIFFS OF SCOTLAND, their reports on the Gipsies in Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote162"><i>n</i>251</a></li> + +<li class="level1"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[572]</a></span>SKENE, WM. F.</li> + +<li class="level2">“Hand-fasting,” previous to marriage, practised among Scottish Highland chiefs<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote174"><i>n</i>263</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The plundering principles and habits of Scottish Highlanders<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_410">410</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SLANG, in connexion with the Gipsy language<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Footnote14"><i>n</i>59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Footnote222"><i>n</i>338</a>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SLAVES, the religion of<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>, <a href="#Footnote312"><i>n</i>496</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SMITH, ADAM, author of the “Wealth of Nations,” carried off by the Gipsies, when a child<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SMITH, BAILLIE, OF KELSO.</li> + +<li class="level2">His contribution to Hoyland’s “Survey of the Gipsies,”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SMITH’S HEBREW PEOPLE.</li> + +<li class="level2">History of their language during the seventy years’ captivity<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote211"><i>n</i>318</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SOLDIERS, Gipsies as<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Footnote229"><i>n</i>346</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SOUTHEY, ROBERT.</li> + +<li class="level2">He says Bunyan was bred to the business of a brazier<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote138"><i>n</i>206</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On tinkering and Bunyan’s education<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_512">512</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Bunyan’s family history and fame<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_516">516</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He is unreasonable in styling Bunyan a “blackguard,”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_519">519</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SPIES, Gipsies as<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote34"><i>n</i>74</a>, <a href="#Footnote246"><i>n</i>360</a></li> + +<li class="level1">STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF SCOTLAND.</li> + +<li class="level2">Description of Lochgellie, Fifeshire, and the Gipsies settled there<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Description of the Gipsies at Middleton, Mid-Lothian<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Allusion to the Falls, merchants, at Dunbar<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote276"><i>n</i>406</a></li> + +<li class="level1">STEALING AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 15em;"><a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Footnote106"><i>n</i>155</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>, <a href="#Page_482">482</a></li> + +<li class="level1">SURNAMES AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 16em;"><a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Footnote241"><i>n</i>358</a></li> + +<li class="level1">TACITUS on the destruction of the Druids, <a href="#Footnote307"><i>n</i>479</a>—On the religion of slaves<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote312"><i>n</i>496</a></li> + +<li class="level1">THIMBLE-RIGGERS AND THIMBLE-RIGGING<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_319">319</a>-<a href="#Page_325">325</a></li> + +<li class="level1">TIMOUR’S CRUELTIES on over-running India<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + +<li class="level1">TITLES AMONG THE GIPSIES<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up" style="margin-left: 14em;"><a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Footnote106"><i>n</i>155</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Footnote167"><i>n</i>256</a></li> + +<li class="level1">TRENCK, BARON.</li> + +<li class="level2">In his wanderings, comes in contact with a band of German Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + +<li class="level1">TWISS, RICHARD, on the religious character of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> + +<li class="level2">On the virtue of Gipsy females, and honesty of Gipsy innkeepers, in Spain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_524">524</a></li> + +<li class="level1"><a name="Secref3" id="Secref3"></a>TWEED-DALE AND CLYDESDALE GIPSIES.</li> + +<li class="level2">Description of Tweed-dale, in the time of Queen Mary<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Dr. Pennecuik’s works—The Gipsies never had a permanent habitation in the county<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The tribe attached to the district for three reasons: 1st, the Baillies claimed it as their own, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>—2d, plenty of provisions—3d, freedom from the laws<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Alleged relation of the Gipsies to the Baillies of Lamington<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote121"><i>n</i>185</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Braxy—Mr. Borrow on the Gipsies poisoning and eating swine<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote122"><i>n</i>186</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fashionable appearance and mounting of the Baillie tribe—Their children left in huts<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies well treated by the tenantry, who accept dinners from them<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Baillies specially mentioned—They give kings and queens to the tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The quarrelsome disposition of the Gipsies—“A shower of horns, hammers, knives, files, and fiery peats,”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Dr. Pennecuik’s account of s Gipsy battle st Romanno<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He erects a dove-cot on the spot, to illustrate, by contrast, the nature of the Gipsy<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The same battle noticed by Lord Fountainhall, in his MS<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy battle at Hawick—Terrific wounds, but no slain<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Sir Walter Scott’s allusion to this battle<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote127"><i>n</i>192</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Another and decisive battle between the hostile tribes, at Eskdale moor<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[573]</a></span>The country people horrified at the sight of the wounded Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Grellmann’s description of Hungarian Gipsies fighting<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote128"><i>n</i>193</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Female Gipsies fight as well as males—‘Becca Keith, the heroine of Dumblane<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The trifling occasions of Gipsies fighting, and agreeing among themselves<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote129"><i>n</i>195</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The fencibles and the clergy called out to quell and disperse the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote130"><i>n</i>195</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Assault of the Gipsies on Pennicuik House<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote130"><i>n</i>195</a></li> + +<li class="level2">An insult offered to the mother of the Baillies resented, with drawn swords<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Contribution from Mr. Blackwood towards a history of the Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> + +<li class="level3">Pickpockets at Dumfries, headed by Will Baillie—How he and his tribe travelled to fairs—He returns a farmer his purse, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>—The farmer, when intoxicated, goes to visit him—Baillie pays a widow’s rent, and saves her from ruin, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>—He borrows money, and gives the lender a pass of protection, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>—The pass, after scrutiny by two of the tribe, protects its bearer—Baillie repays his loan with a large interest—The “Jock Johnstone” gang of Gipsies, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>—Jock, in a drunken squabble, kills a country ale-wife—His jack-daw proves a bird of bad omen to him, and he a bird of bad omen to his executioner<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Jock’s execution, as described by Dr. Alexander Carlyle<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote132"><i>n</i>201</a></li> + +<li class="level2">William Baillie, a handsome, well-dressed, good-looking, well- bred man, and an excellent swordsman<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Like a wild Arab, he distributes the wares of a trembling packman, who extols, wherever he goes, “the extraordinary liberality of Captain Baillie,”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Bruce on the protection given by Arabs to shipwrecked Christians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote133"><i>n</i>203</a></li> + +<li class="level2">In indulging his sarcastic wit, Baillie insults the judge on the bench<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The deportment of Hungarian Gipsies during and after punishment<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote134"><i>n</i>204</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Baillie’s numerous crimes and sentences<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The nature of “sorning,” <a href="#Footnote135"><i>n</i>204</a>—Gipsies carried arms in the olden times<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote136"><i>n</i>205</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Baillie’s policy in claiming kin with honourable families<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_205">205</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He is slain by one of the tribe while in the arms of his wife<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> + +<li class="level2">His murderer pursued by the tribe over the British Isles, till he is apprehended and executed<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Legal enquiry regarding the slaughter of Baillie, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>—The trial of his murderers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></li> + +<li class="level2">William Baillie succeeded by Matthew Baillie—His descendants<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mary Yorkston, wife of Matthew Baillie, a Gipsy queen and priestess<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Her appearance and costume, on gala days, when advanced in years<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Old Gipsy women strip people of their clothes, like the Arabs of the desert<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mary Yorkston restores a stolen purse to a friend—Her husband first counts its contents—“There is your purse, sir; you see what it is, when honest people meet!”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A Gipsy chief chastises his wife for want of diligence or success at a fair<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_211">211</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mary Yorkston and her particular friend, the good-man of Coulter-park<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_211">211</a></li> + +<li class="level2">She scorns alms, but demands and takes by force a “boontith,”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_211">211</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Her son, James Baillie, condemned and pardoned again and again<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Baillies of Lamington’s influence successful in his case<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Stylish dress of the male head of the Ruthvens—The Gipsy costume generally<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Disguises of the tribe when plundering in fairs<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Vidocq on the disguises of the Continental Gipsies, on a similar occasion<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote142"><i>n</i>213</a></li> + +<li class="level2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[574]</a></span>A couple of mounted Gipsies taken for men almost of the first quality<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Straggling Gipsies—Their suspicious characters—A tinker and a tinker’s wife<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></li> + +<li class="level2">A quarrel among three Gipsy constables, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>—A murder, a capture, and a lamentation<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> + +<li class="level2">One Gipsy constable murdered, another hanged, and the third banished<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Great falling off in the condition of the Scottish nomadic Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The internal polity of the Gipsies—Their general system of passes<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The country divided into districts, under a king and provincial chieftains—The pass of a Baillie conducts its bearer over all Scotland<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Surnames among the Tweed-dale Gipsies—Surnames among the English Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote145"><i>n</i>219</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Travelling Gipsies possess two and sometimes several names—Superstitious ideas when travelling<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Present condition of the Tweed-dale Gipsies—They dispense with tents, but occupy kilns and outhouses<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The number of the tribe sometimes collected together, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>—How they are sometimes treated<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How the Gipsies approach the farmers’ premises, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>—How they disguise their numbers<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their honesty, while on the farm—The resemblance between Gipsies and ravens<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote147"><i>n</i>223</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Personal habits of the tribe while in their encampment<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The males remain aloof, tinkering and manufacturing—The women vend the goods<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_224">224</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Athletic amusements of the Gipsies, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>—They despise the peasantry, but boast of their own tribe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Their peaceable behaviour, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>—They do not attend church, or worship any thing whatever<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_226">226</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The musical talents of the Gipsies—Their pretensions to surgery—Dr. Duds<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_226">226</a></li> + +<li class="level2">How Gipsy women vend their wares, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>—They sometimes take, by force, a “boontith,”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Habits of the Hungarian Gipsy after child-birth<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote148"><i>n</i>227</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Mary Yorkston and her “boontith,” <a href="#Page_227">227</a>—Her terrible prediction<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_228">228</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Recent instances of “sorning,” or masterful begging, among the Scottish Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote149"><i>n</i>228</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsy fortune-tellers, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>—How they frequently obtain important information<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Travelling Gipsies—Gipsy fiddlers at parties—Gipsy lady’s maids<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fortune-telling by palmistry and the divining cup, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>—By the corn riddle and scissors<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fortune-telling in Kamtachatka and the ancient Eastern nations<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote150"><i>n</i>230</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Fortune-telling punishable by Act of Parliament<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote151"><i>n</i>230</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Anecdote of a Gipsy woman telling fortunes by the divining cup<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Gipsies’ meals—Sir Walter Scott’s description of a Gipsy feast<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy mode of cooking poultry and butcher-meat<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsy mode of working in iron—Its antiquity—Hungarian Gipsy smiths<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote155"><i>n</i>234</a></li> + +<li class="level1">VIDOCQ.</li> + +<li class="level2">On the disguises and plundering habits of the Continental Gipsies<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote117"><i>n</i>169</a>, <a href="#Footnote142"><i>n</i>213</a></li> + +<li class="level1">WILKINSON, SIR J. GARDNER.</li> + +<li class="level2">Thimble-rigging among the ancient Egyptians<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote215"><i>n</i>325</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The appearance of the Jews in the East differs from that in Europe<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_477">477</a></li> + +<li class="level1">WILSON, PROFESSOR.</li> + +<li class="level2">He strolls with the Gipsies in his youth, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>—Was he then looking at the “old thing?”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_471">471</a></li> + +<li class="level2">He notices the articles of the author in Blackwood’s Magazine<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + +<li class="level1"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[575]</a></span>YETHOLM.</li> + +<li class="level2">Description of its situation<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote97"><i>n</i>141</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies of Yetholm—Baillie Smith’s account, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>—Mr. Blackwood’s contribution<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Tradition of the first settlement of the Gipsies at Yetholm<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Footnote163"><i>n</i>252</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The author’s visit to Yetholm<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> + +<li class="level2">The Gipsies at Yetholm knock down their asses, when they separate from their wives<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> + +<li class="level2">Yetholm the metropolis of Scottish Gipsydom, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>—“I come from Yetholm”<span class="padl6"> </span></li> +<li class="up"><a href="#Page_443">443</a></li> + +</ul> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote331" id="Footnote331"></a><a href="#FNanchor331"><span class="label">[331]</span></a> The song of “Johnny Faa, the Gipsy Laddie,” appears in the Waverly anecdotes. +It might have been included in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.</p></div> + +<hr class="footnote" /> + +<hr class="c25" /> + +<div class="tnbox"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a> + +<h2>Transcriber's Notes:</h2> + +<ul class="index"> +<li>Footnotes have been moved to underneath the chapter they belong to.</li> +<li>The spelling, hyphenation and capitalisation of the original work have been maintained, including inconsistencies +(also in the lists of words), except when mentioned below. Examples of such inconsistencies are o/ou (as in colour/color), 22d/22nd, +clannish/clanishness/clanism, Couter-park/Coulter-park, Tschingenes/Tschengenes, depot/depôt, wagon/waggon, inconsistent use of periods +after the name of monarchs (Charles II/Charles II.), (John) Lobbs’/Lobb’s, etc.</li> +<li>Doubtful issues have been verified with another scan of the same edition of the book.</li> +<li>Textual remarks: the author uses "barrier" in several places where "barrio" might possibly be more appropriate. This has not been changed. The same applies to the author's use of "Pons Assinorum".</li> +<li>Changes made to the original text: +<ul class="index"><li>some minor obvious typographical errors (including punctuation) have been corrected silently;</li> +<li>Footnote [9]: Abbè changed to Abbé;</li> +<li>Page 76: Tereros changed to Toreros;</li> +<li>Footnote [40]: Annals changed to Annales;</li> +<li>Page 161: young laid changed to young lad;</li> +<li>Footnote [148]: the Gipsy women changed to the Gipsy woman;</li> +<li>Footnote [151]: Hudegger changed to Heidegger;</li> +<li>Page 337 (table): Doooe changed to Dooce as in Hoyland's work;</li></ul></li> +<li>Index: +<ul class="index"><li>Several page numbers inserted where they were lacking;</li> +<li>references to footnotes standardised as _n_xxx (spaces deleted);</li> +<li>spelling changed to conform to spelling in text: Graeme to Græme; Charterhouse moor to Charter-house moor; Esk-dale moor to Eskdale moor, Fitz James to Fitz-James; Free-masons to Freemasons;</li> +<li>The philosophy of the preservation ...: page number 33 changed to 23;</li> +<li>MIXED GIPSIES ...: page number 391 moved to proper place.</li></ul></li> +</ul> + +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A History of the Gipsies, by Walter Simson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE GIPSIES *** + +***** This file should be named 39665-h.htm or 39665-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/6/6/39665/ + +Produced by Steven Gibbs, Harry Lamé and the Distributed +Proofreaders Team at pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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