Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/352

 " '■o Cere77wnial Customs of the British Gipsies.

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she implored me not to go. "They'se will witch hevery penny out'n your pockets, an' put a spell onto yous so as yous will do none more good as long as yous may live. Yous will see nothink only but bad luck an' povertiness an' rescease into all your days, so now I'm a-warnin' of yous. An' yous'il come back here wid it all into your clothes an' things, an' it'll pass on to we, and onto all our childern."^* But this is only an isolated instance, and consequently is of little importance at present.

Inbreeding, as might be expected, has been prevalent, a fact which is revealed by the examination of a large number of English and Welsh Gipsy pedigrees collected chiefly by the Rev. Geo. Hall, Mr. John Myers, and myself. Marriages between cousins have been very common indeed, and have almost invariably resulted in healthy offspring. Four children of Elijah Lee married the same number of his brother Sampson's children, whilst in the Matthew Wood pedigree, recorded by Dr. Sampson,^" of 24 marriages during 3 generations, 7 are between first cousins, and 7 between either first cousins once removed or second cousins. In a list of the 16 great-great-great-grandfathers of Manfri Wood, the same person, Abram Wood, occurs 7 times. Marriages between nephew and aunt, and between uncle and niece, have also occurred, without the issue, which was very numerous in some cases, being in any way defective. There are also records of more or less per- manent unions between sister and brother, son-in-law and mother-in-law, father-in-law and daughter-in-law, grand- father and granddaughter, father and daughter, but these have played but a negligible part in the propagation of the race. Of the German Gipsies Liebich wrote in 1863 :^^ " Marriage prohibitions are confined only to ascendants and descendants, side relations, even brothers and sisters, being allowed to marry, although this has been avoided

^^ Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, N.S., vol. iv., p. 270. 2" /($/af., vol. ii., pp. 370-1. "'S C/. «V., p. 49.