Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/465

* GYPSIES. 413 GYPSIES. their way to Rome to Jo penance for apostasy, thus gaining the aid and good wishes of the siiiipk'. A large band wandered into Italy under the leadership of a 'duke of Eg^-pt' named. - (Irew, and encamped before the gates of Bologna on .July 18. 1422. The 'duke' himself entered the city and took lodgings at the 'Alljcrgo del Ke.' displaying a passport for himself and his tribe, signed by Sigismund, King of Hungary, and explaining to the town authorities that he and many others of 'Uttle Egypt' had turned against Christianity and consequently had been driven from their country by King Sigismund. He himself, and 4000 of his people, had there- uix)n decided to renounce the error and return to the Church; and the King, after putting to death the most obstinate renegades, had imposed upon the others a penance of seven years' wan- dering and the obligation of going to Rome to get the Papal absolution, as a condition of re- ceiving back their lands and goods. For five years had they already wandered, and now were approaching Konie. This stor^' served the 'duke' well for several years; bvit the imposition was ultimately discovered, and the whole band was expelled from Italy. In 1429 we find the city of Arnhem. in Gelderland. furnishing money and provisions "to the Count of Little Eg^pt, with his company," and another item ''to the same count and the heathen women, for the honor of God." In 14.59 the town of Zutphen made a like present to the 'King of Little Egypt.' and Duke Egmont granted a passport to "Count Jlartin Gnoug}'. jichorcii van Klijn-Efii/ptcn, so that he might be helped on his pilgrimage." Many more instances might be cited ; and it may be observed that in all these cases the gj'psies were from Himgary. and strangers in the lands through which they were wandering. In the course of time their fraud was naturally exposed ; and then the "dukes' and 'counts,' reduced to common vagabonds, either retraced their path to Hun- gary or remained with their tribes and became severally Gennan and Italian and Dutch g.vp- sies. As such they were treated as outcasts and often rigorously persecuted. In Germany, acts of banishment were passed against them in 1479, 1.500, 1544, 1548. and 1577. each more stringent than the last; and that of 1725. under Frederick William I., was the most cruel of all: "Gypsies, whether men or women, that are caught in the Prussian States, if over eighteen years of age, shall be sent to the gallows without mercy, and may previously also be punished with branding and tiogging, whether they have come into the cciimtry for the first time singly or in company, and whether they have passes to show or not." Christian III. of Denmark gave the gypsies three months to leave the country in 1536. under pen- alty of death in case of return, and a similar roy.i! edict was passed against them by Sweden in 10(52. In France they were never allowed to gain a foothold. Himgary. Rumania. Poland, Russia, and England, on the contrary, have on the whole been generous to them, they have thriven in Spain, and Italy has tolerated the comparatively few that dwell there. To-day the tent-dwelling gypsies seldom pass from one country to another; they have become habituated to their adopted country, and with the growth of popular education and the increasing dilliculty of leading the nomadic life, they .are gradually losing their peculiar character and becoming as- similated to their neighbors. Their last migra- tion is to the New World or to Australia ; and here, in new surroundings, nuxny thousands are already living, mostly English gpsies, but also bands from the Continent, especially from Hun- gary and the Balkan States. The gj'psies are most numerous in Rumania and various parts of the Balkan region, Hungary (with Transyl- vania), and Russia. Their aggregate number in these countries is in the neighborhood of 500,- 000. On the migi-ations of the gypsies, consult especially Von Wlislocki, Vrmi loandernden Zie- geunervolke (Hamburg, 1890). Language. It is a very prevalent impression among English-speaking people that the language of the gj'])sies is a simple jargon or cant. Noth- ing could be further from the truth. The broken dialect of the English gypsies, indeed, is a strange mixture of English and roinani. in which the grammar has almost wholly disappeared, and it is this fact that has created the popular impres- sion. But in the farther East, where the race is more compact and has preserved far better its habits and instincts., rmnaiii is a true and com- plete language, with a considerable vocabulary and a higlily developed system of inflections. A brief characterization is all that is possible here ; but the student is referred to the list of valuable works appended to this article. There are fourteen distinct dialects of romani in Europe: (1) The Greco-Turkish, (2) Ruma- nian, (3) Hungarian, (4) Slavonian, (5) Polish- Lithuanian, (6) Russian, (7) Finnish, (8) Ger- man, (9) Scandinavian, (10) Italian, (11) Basque, (12) Sp.anish, (13) Anglo-Scotch, (14) Welsh. Any one of these dialects is not easily intelligible "to the speakers of the others. The purest are those of Turkey, the Balkan States, and Hungary-Transylvania; the most corrupt are those of England, Scotland, and Spain. We may first select the dialect of Turkey as an example of the pure roma)ii — the hiclio romiino chih — and then illustrate its corruption in the hybrid dia- lect, the posh and posli romani, of the English gj-psies. For the Turkish dialect we owe our accurate knowledge to Dr. Alexander G. Paspati, of Constantinople, whose extensive researches are summed up in his Etudes siir les Tchingianis, oil Bohcmiens de I'Empiie Ottoman (Constanti- nople, 1870). AuH-iBET. As romani is not a written lan- guage, it properly has no alphabet; but it is very rich in sounds, both vowel and consonantal. Article, (a) Definite masc. o, fem. », from the Greek (S, j}. (b) Indefinite: Yek, properly 'one.' Examples: o rakU, 'the boy'; i rakli, 'the girl'; yck cliavo, 'a child.' Noun. There are two genders, mase. and fern. Nouns may terminate equally in vowels and consonants. All nouns are fully declined, and tjjere are eight cases, as follows: Masc. Fem. T;lkl6, 'boy' r.iklf.'fnrV Sing. Nom. Takl6 r.ikll Gen. rakl^fikorn r.'ikli/ikoro First Pat. rakI/^f!te/to thehoy* rnkllAle. 'tothefriri' SMond Dat.ratWste.' in the boy" rakliSke. ' in the girl" Acp. rnkl^s rakli/l Voe. rnklfivR, r.ikliA Iiistr. rakh'sa rnkliAsa AW. rnk/fistar rakli.ltar Plnr. Num. raklf nikliA (ipn. raklfineoro rakltfnfmro First Dat. rakh'niif. rnklifDilf. 'to the boye' • to the girls'