Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/634

Rh 616 down fromTinklers ; and from a London Gipsy he obtained a version of The illaster T/def‘, which is current also among Roumanian Gipsies. At present our information is far too scanty to warrant a deﬁnite conclusion ; but could it once be shown that the Asiatic possess the same stories as the European Gipsies, it might be necessary to admit that Europe owes a. portion of its folk-lore to the Gipsies} Ifeligious Beliefs and 0l)serz'ances.—“ The Gipsies,” says Grellmann, “ brought no particular religion with them, but regulate themselves in religious matters according to the country where they live, . . . wherefore most writers place them below the lieatl1ens.” This author notwithstanding, the Gipsies mix with their beginnings of Christianity or _Iahometanism the relics of an older faith. Devel, their name for God or sky, is akin to the Sanskrit “ God” (cf. (lg/aus, “ sky ”), and the German Ilomani Illiro l)((.7'o (level dela bersc/zinclo, “ my great God gives rain,” '£.e., “it rains,” preserves the original signiﬁcation. G222-ibeiz, “thunder” (lit. “ bellowing of cattle ”), is another reminiscence of nature worship; and trzislml, “cross” (Sanskrit triszila, “the trident of Siva ”), presents a curious instance of the transference of religious ideas. Beng, “devil,” compared by Miklosich with the Sanskrit blzelca, “ frog,” is possibly a survival of serpent-worship, traces of which may be also found in various phrases, stories, emblems, and customs. Survivals also of phallic worship may probably be seen in the honour paid by the three great German Gipsy clans to the ﬁr-tree, the birch, and the hawthorn (Liebich, p. 38) ; and in the veneration in which lVelsh Gipsies hold the fasciated vegetable growth known as the l)r0a(l0 K-oro. There are besides a number of other Gipsy superstitions interesting enough in themselves, but which lose their full signiﬁcance by being at present isolated or insufficiently authenticated, such as, for instance, the alleged devotion of Norwegian Gipsies to a inoon-god, Alako (Sundt, 105-10). In the People of‘Turlre3/ (1878) the Tchinghianés are said to keep a ﬁre continually burning in their camp ; on the first of May to go all in a body to the sea-coast or banks of a river, where they thrice throw water on their temples, invoking the invisible genii loci to grant their special wishes; and annually to drink some potion, prepared in a way known only to the oldest and wisest of the tribe. Modes of Lz'fe.—In Turkey, according to Paspati, the nomad Tchinghianés far outnumber the sedentary; but how far the same statement is true of Gipsies of other lands is hard to determine. Certain at least it is that in England few house-dwelling Gipsies are to be met with who do 11ot remember that their forefathers followed a wandering life, or who do not themselves go temporarily under canvas as hop- picking or the great race-ineetings come round. But though for centuries the tent has been the Gipsy’s normal habitation, it would not seem to have been so always, if we look to the evidence of the Gipsy tongue. For had it been, assuredly the Romani name for “tent” would be everywhere the same, whereas the Persian Gipsy calls it gun", the nomad Tchinghiané A-atiizm (modern Greek KO.T‘L,'V(l), the sedentary tchérga (Turkish C/L€I'lL'€/L), the Polish Gipsy c:ate-r, the Ger- man taltin. (from tatto, “hot ”), the English tan, &c. On the other hand, ker, “a house,” occurs in every dialect. From the time, however, of Fitz-Siineon onwards Gipsies have.everywhere been found dwelling in tents, and his description of these tents as “ like those of the Arabs, low, black, and oblong,” tallies with Mr Boswell’s:—- “ The tents are made of rough blankets. They are nearly always brown ones, because the white blankets are not so good for the rain. First of all they measure the groniid with a ridge-pole, then they 1 See Paspati (pp. 591—629), Miklosich (part iv. ), Professor Friedrich lliiller’s L’ell'r¢‘i_r/e :.ur Kcizntaziss (ler Ifom-Spracltc (‘.3 parts, ieni1a, 1869-722), and Dr Barbn Constantiiiescn's I"/‘Dl/B (le Limbu si Lzteratura _Tz'g(m-llor dz‘/i I.‘omnm'a (Bncliarest, 1878). GIPSIES take the kettle-prop and make lihe holes exactly opposite each other- Then they take up the ridge-pole and stick all the rods into it. Then there is a blanket that goes behind, and is pinned on with pin-thorns; next to that come the large ones over the top of all, also pinned with the same pins.” In the matter of dress, Mr Crofton, in Papers of (Ice .&l[(UlC/l.C’8te7' Litera-ry Club (1876), infers that “ llp:<lCS formerly had a distinctive costume, consisting of a turli:in- like headdress of many colours, together with a large cloak, worn after the fashion of a toga, over a long loose under—skirt.” The Gipsies, however, of to—day can lianlly be said to have a distinctive garb, though certain minutiae of dress still render them easily recognizable. In Tran— sylvania, for instance, their woinen’s ear—rings differ in pattern from those of the natives; the Hniigari:iii (illisy chief wears silver buttons, bearing a serpent crest ; and his old~fashioned English brother decks his Newinarket coat with spade-guineas or cr0wn~pieces. The English Gipsy woman may be known by her bright silk handkercliicf, her curiously—plaited hair, her massy rings, her coral or bead necklace, and by the mongi-ng-gmzo, a tablecloth arranged bagwise over her back. In August 1878 Queen Victoria was welcomed to Dunbar by a Gipsy “queen,” one of the Reynolds family, who was “ dressed in a black robe with white silk trimmings, and over her shoulders wore a yellow handkerchief. Behind her stood two other women, one of them noticeable from her rich gown of purple velvet, and two stalwart men, conspicuous by their scarlet coats.” On the other hand, the dress of the children upon the Continent is simple, not to say scanty. Everywhere Gipsies ply an endless variety of trades. In Egypt they monopolize the art of serpent-cliarining; in France and Spain they sit as professional models; in England we meet Gipsy Methodist preachers, actors, quack doctors, chimney-sweeps, carpenters, factory hands, the. But everywhere the men have three principal callings— workers in metals, musicians, and horse~dealers; everywhere the women are “pleasaunt dauncers” as in the days of Andrew Boorde, and by peddling and fortune—telling con- tribute their share——often more than their share—to the family purse. Gipsies have long been famous as copper and iron smiths in sontli-easterii Europe, where their horseshoes are reckoned unrivalled. The cal(le7'a7'i (copper- smiths) of Hungary and Transylvania, at certain intervals make trading tours to Germany, France, England, Norway, and even Spain and Algeria. The workers in iron, on the other hand, seldom or never quit the land of their adoption, as neither naturally do the few remaining aware", or Gipsy gold—w-ashers of Transylvania. Simson describes a primitive Tinkler method of smelting iron, and the caves of Granada still echo to the clink of Gipsy aiivils ; but in England the surname I’etule72{/7'0, “si1iitli ” (from petal, “horseshoe ”), alone recalls the days when Gipsies sur- passed the Gentile iii the farrier’s craft. Liszt, in his work Des ]i’o/ze'm2'e7zs et zle lean‘ Jlfusigue en. I[on_r]r2'e (Paris, 1859), ascribes to the Gipsies the creation of Hungary’s national music. Bartalus (1868) contests the theory, but few would hesitate to admit its plausibility who at the Paris Exhibition (1878) or elsewhere have listened to the Gipsies’ thrilling performance of a czardas, or are familiar with the undoubted compositions of Biliary, Csermak, and. other Gipsy maestri. The Gipsy’s favourite instrument is the violin, but few are the instruments he has not success- fully essayed. The Eisteddfods of Wales have witnessed the triumphs of Gipsy harpists ; and linndreds have been: charmed by the concerts of the Roberts family, not know- ing they were hearing a Gipsy band. “The Egyptians,” as Krantzius drily remarked in 1520, “frequently change their horses;” horse—dealing and horse-stealing are too often synonymous terms with them. Fortune-telling is on the wane with Gentiles’ waning belief in the fortune-