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
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; 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.[21] 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,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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