Dissertation on the Gipseys: Representing their manner of life, family economy, occupations & trades, marriages & education, sickness, death, & burial, religion, language, sciences & arts, &c. &c. &c.; with an historical enquiry concerning their origin & first appearance in EuropeGrellmann, Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb
History
Dissertation on the Gipseys: Representing their manner of life, family economy, occupations & trades, marriages & education, sickness, death, & burial, religion, language, sciences & arts, &c. &c. &c.; with an historical enquiry concerning their origin & first appearance in Europe
Grellmann, Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb
Romanies
In addition to the foregoing, the Gipseys love to intoxicate themselves;
they are particularly fond of brandy, because it more speedily answers
their purpose than any other liquor. Among the Suders we find this
inclination is universal; though other Indians do not commit such excess,
or very seldom, and then privately.
What has been further said with respect to the immoral life of the
Gipseys, agrees perfectly with the Suders. “Their wives and daughters,”
says Neuhof, “make no difficulty of yielding up their persons, for money,
to any sort of people, be they of what country or religion soever; as the
inclination of this tribe tends more to voluptuousness, than towards
diligence or industry.”
With regard to Gipsey marriages, it has been asserted, that it is a
matter of indifference to them whether the party be the nearest relation
or an utter stranger, or, as Salmon expresses himself, the nearest
relations cohabit like beasts with each other; and as to education, that
their children grow up in the most shameful neglect, without either
discipline or instruction. All this is precisely the case with the
Pariars. In the Journals of the Missionaries already quoted, it is said,
“With respect to matrimony, they act like the beasts; and their children
are brought up without restraint or information.”
Gipseys are fond of being about horses; so are the Suders in India, for
which reason they are commonly employed as horsekeepers by the Europeans
resident in that country.
The Gipseys were formerly employed as flayers, hangmen, and executioners,
all over Hungary and Transylvania; and they still readily perform those
offices whenever called upon. In like manner, in India, no one who is
not of the caste of Suders will on any account transact that kind of
business.
We have seen that the Gipseys hunt after cattle which have died of
distempers, in order to feed on them; and where they can provide more of
the flesh than is sufficient for one day’s consumption, dry it in the
sun: such is likewise a constant custom with the Pariars in India. It
“is their office,” according to the accounts we have of them, “to remove
carrion, which they cut up; part they boil fresh and eat, other parts
they dry in pieces, by the heat of the sun, for their future provision.”
Hitherto the accounts of the Gipseys and Suders perfectly coincide. Even
the before-mentioned smiths and dancing girls are of this caste: and as
they before shewed, in general, from the similarity of their make, that
they were of Indian extraction, so in this instance they give particular
evidence, that they are descendants from the lowest class.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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