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 the year 1534, as recorded in the Hungarian history, the Gipseys were
suspected of traitorously assisting John Zapolya; in consequence of which
the governor of Leutschau, _Tsernabo_, sent some horsemen to arrest a
company of them, near Iglo: the greatest part escaped by flight; only a
few old men and boys were taken, who were brought into Leutschau. These
confessed circumstantially (which certainly appears improbable, that men
should lye to effect their own ruin), as well before, as upon the rack,
the following falsities—That a hundred of them had been sent by Zapolya
since the middle of Lent, and had agreed for a sum of money to set fire
to the five chief cities, Kaschau, Leutschau, Bartfeld, Eperies, and
Zeben: that the preceding Saturday several of them had privately entered
Leutschau, disguised like Wallachians and shepherds, under the pretence
of selling skins: that they laid fire in various places; and moreover,
that they had murdered several people: and finally, that they had letters
from Zapolya to thirteen different cities, with orders to afford them
shelter and protection within their districts, as long as they chose to
remain. In consequence of this confession they were impaled, “but
whether justly or not,” adds the Chronicle, “that, let him answer for who
condemned them:” for on being conducted about the town, to shew in what
places they had laid the fire, they could not specify them; besides, they
denied every thing when they came to execution.
Except the circumstance of retracting, of which nothing is mentioned in
the sentence of death, the above case seems to be exactly similar to that
of the men-eaters executed in Hungary in 1782. These were taken upon
suspicion of theft; in the course of their examination something escaped
them which gave occasion to think they had committed murder, and the
criminals being interrogated on this point, perhaps on account of the
severity used, or probably from an idea of heroism (a very common trait
in their character), they confessed the fact, and chattered away till
they had filled the paper, without considering consequences. When
desired to state where they had deposited the bodies, they promised to
shew, but on being brought to the spot nothing was found, and they
endeavoured to run off. Nevertheless, having once confessed, they were
put on the rack. As the persons said to have been murdered could not be
found, the judge imagined they must have eaten them, which, though denied
by the poor miserable wretches, decided their fate.
(A)
How much the Gipsey language has altered by time, may be seen, in a
striking manner, from the following translations of the Lord’s Prayer,
obtained from Hungarian Gipseys at different periods.
1. Lord’s Prayer, according to the old translation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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