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
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 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.
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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