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
Many of the Gipseys are stationary, having regular habitations, according
to their situation in life. To this class belong those who keep
public-houses in Spain; and others in Transylvania and Hungary, who
follow some regular business; which latter have their own miserable huts
near Hermanstadt, Cronstadt, Bistritz, Grosswaradein, Debrezin, Eperies,
Karchau, and other places. There are also many slaves, to particular
bojars, in Moldavia and Wallachia, who do not wander any more than the
others. But by far the greatest number of these people lead a very
different kind of life: ignorant of the comforts attending a fixed place
of residence, they rove from one district to another in hordes, having no
habitations but tents, holes in the rocks, or caves; the former shade
them in summer, the latter screen them in winter. Many of these savage
people, particularly in Germany and Spain, do not even carry tents with
them, but shelter themselves, from the heat of the sun, in forests shaded
by the rocks, or behind hedges: they are very partial to willows, under
which they erect their sleeping place, at the close of the evening. Some
live in their tents (in their language called _tschater_) during both
summer and winter; which indeed the Gipseys generally prefer. In
Hungary, even those who have discontinued their rambling way of life, and
built houses for themselves, seldom let a spring pass, without taking
advantage of the first settled weather, to set up a tent for their summer
residence; under this each one enjoys himself, with his family, nor
thinks of his house till the winter returns, and the frost and snow drive
him back to it again.
The wandering Gipsey, in Hungary and Transylvania, endeavours to procure
a horse; in Turkey, an ass serves to carry his wife, a couple of
children, with his tent. When he arrives at a place he likes, near a
village or city, he unpacks, pitches his tent, ties his animal to a stake
to graze, and remains some weeks there: or if he do not find his station
convenient, he breaks up in a day or two, loads his beast, and looks out
for a more agreeable situation, near some other town. Indeed, it is not
always in his power to determine how long he will remain in the same
place; for the boors are apt to trouble him, on account of fowls and
geese he has made free with: it sometimes happens, when he is very much
at his ease, they sally out with bludgeons or hedge-stakes, making use of
such forcible arguments, that he does not hesitate a moment to set up his
staff a little farther off: though, in general, the Gipseys are cunning
enough, when they have purloined any thing, or done mischief, to make off
in time before the villagers begin to suspect them.
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