The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
History
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
But the language of the Gypsies has been most relied upon to prove their
derivation from Hindostan, both by Grellman and Borrow. Remarkable
similarities have been shown to exist between the Hindoo dialects and
the Gypsy tongue. But the argument of language is better for Bohemian
than for Hindoo origin. The Bohemians were Cechs, a branch of the great
Slavic race of undoubted Asiatic origin; and the Cech language descended
from the Sanscrit almost as directly as the Hindoo dialects did. Here is
a good reason why the Hindoo dialects and the Gypsy tongue--if the
Gypsies were Bohemians--should closely resemble one another. They were
from the same parent stem. The learned Buesching said, "The Gypsy
language is a mixture of corrupt words from the Wallachian, Slavonian,
Hungarian, and other nations." These are the cognate languages of the
Slavic race, all descended from the same source, and that also the
source of the Cech. The first list of Gypsy words ever made was cited to
prove an Egyptian origin, and they were Slavic. That was, perhaps, the
best list ever made, as later ones show the results of the use of the
languages of the various lands in which the Gypsies wander.
The complexion, habits, and character of the Gypsies resemble those of
the Cechs as nearly as they do those of the Hindoos. The Cechs are an
eminently gay and musical race. As regards complexion, it is found that
the Gypsies in the Austrian army, who have been compelled to relinquish
their wild life and dwell in houses, are as white as Europeans
generally.
Assuming that Grellman has disproved all the other suggested origins in
favor of the Hindoo theory, and considering the question as simply
between India and Bohemia, it appears to me that the argument is
altogether in favor of the derivation of the Gypsies from the latter
country.
PASSAGES FROM HAWTHORNE'S NOTE-BOOKS.
II.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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