A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the GypsiesHoyland, John
History
A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies
Hoyland, John
Romanies
In the seventh Vol. of the Asiatic Researches, page 470, Captain David
Richardson says of the _Panchperee_, or Budee’a Nuts: “’Tis probable
there will be found in their manners, a stronger similitude to the
Gypsies of Europe, than in those of any other which may come under
review. They have no particular system of religion, adopting with
indifference that of the village near to which they happen to be
encamped. In the upper provinces of Hindostan, the little encampments of
these people are frequently very regular and neat, being there formed of
the Sirkee entirely. Each apartment, though not much larger than a
mastiff’s kennel, has its own particular enclosure, or court-yard;
generally erected in such a manner, as to become a species of
circumvallation to the whole portable hamlet.
“One cannot help wondering where so many men, women, and children, and
other domestic animals manage to sleep; or shelter themselves from the
storms which sometimes assail these itinerant people. The men are
remarkably athletic and active, and also nimble and adroit, in every kind
of slight of hand. Many of the subdivisions of this class of men, pay
little, or no attention to cleanliness, or any restrictions in diet;
eating dead jackalls, bullocks, horses, or any kind of food procurable.
“The women do not attend the men during their juggling exploits, but have
a peculiar department allotted to themselves; which consists of the
practice of physic, cupping, palmistry, curing disorders of the teeth,
and marking the skin of the Hindoo women, an operation termed Godna.
They have two languages peculiar to themselves; one intended for the use
only of the craftsman, the other general among men, women, and children.
“The Hindostanie is the basis of both; the first is general, being a mere
transposition or change of syllables; and the second apparently, a
systematic conversion of a few letters; but which will be best elucidated
by the following specimen, which contains twenty-two words.”
After which, he says: “I find these people in Colebrook’s arrangement of
the Hindoo Classes, mentioned in the sixth class, under the head of
_Nata_, Bazeegurs; and in Sir William Jones’s translation of the
Ordinances of Menu, _Munoo_, Chapter 10.
“I shall now subjoin a short parallel between the Gypsies of Europe, and
the people I have described. Both the _Gypsies_ and the _Nuts_ are
generally a wandering race of beings, seldom having a fixed habitation.
They have each a language peculiar to themselves. That of the Gypsies is
undoubtedly a species of Hindostanie; as well as that of the Nuts. In
Europe, it answers all the purposes of concealment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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