In Hungary and Transylvania the authorities, hopeless of getting rid of
the troublesome immigrants, took strong measures to bring them into line
with the rest of the population. They were prohibited from using the
Romany tongue, from retaining their gipsy surnames, from wandering about
the country, from eating carrion, and from dealing in horses. Those fit
for military service were to be taken into the army, and the rest were to
live and dress and deport themselves in the same manner as the peasantry
of the country. These regulations were not wholly effective, but the
result of the efforts put forward by Maria Theresa, and her successors may
be seen in the sedentary gipsies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At times
they have been subjected to fierce persecution. In 1782, a dreadful
accusation was brought against the Hungarian Romanis, when more than a
hundred of them were accused of murder and cannibalism. The gang were said
to have lived by highway robbery and murder, and to have cooked and eaten
the bodies of their victims. At Frauenmark four women were beheaded, six
men were hanged, two were broken on the wheel, and one was quartered
alive. Altogether forty-five were executed and many more were imprisoned.
How much of this was suspicion substantiated by torture?
The gipsies came frequently in contact with the myrmidons of the law. "As
soon as the officer seizes or forces away the culprit," says Grellmann,
"he is surrounded by a swarm of his comrades who take unspeakable pains to
procure the release of the prisoner.... When it comes to the infliction of
punishment, and the malefactor receives a good number of lashes well laid
on, in the public market place, a universal lamentation commences among
the vile crew; each stretches his throat to cry over the agony his dear
associate is constrained to suffer. This is oftener the fate of the women
than of the men; for as the maintenance of the family depends most upon
them, they more frequently go out for plunder." It is a noteworthy fact
that Grellmann writing in 1783, has not a word of condemnation of the
barbarous practice of flogging women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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