A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy LanguageSimson, Walter
History
A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy Language
Simson, Walter
Romanies; Romanies -- Languages
glory around it, and makes it the wonder of the world!"
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.
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 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.[6] 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.
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