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GIPSIES, or GYPSIES

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 43 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIPSIES, or GYPSIES , a wandering folk scattered through every See also:European See also:land, over the greater See also:part of western See also:Asia and See also:Siberia; found also in See also:Egypt and the See also:northern See also:coast of See also:Africa, in See also:America and even in See also:Australia. No correct estimate of their See also:numbers outside of See also:Europe can be given, and even in Europe the See also:information derived from See also:official See also:statistics is often contradictory and unreliable. The only See also:country in which the figures have been given correctly is See also:Hungary. In 1893 there weie 274,940 in Transleithania, of whom 243,432 were settled, 20,406 only partly settled and 8938 nomads. Of these 91,603 spoke the Gipsy See also:language in 1890, but the See also:rest had already been assimilated. Next in numbers stands See also:Rumania, the number varying between 250,000 and 200,000 (1895). See also:Turkey in Europe counted 117,000 (1903), of whom 51,000 were in See also:Bulgaria and Eastern See also:Rumelia, 22,000 in the vilayet of See also:Adrianople and z5oo in the vilayet of Kossevo. In See also:Asiatic Turkey the estimates vary between 67,000 and 200,000.. See also:Servia has 41,000; Bosnia and Herzegovina, 18,000; See also:Greece, 10,000; See also:Austria (Cisleithania), 16,000, of whom 13,500 are in Bohemia and See also:Moravia; See also:Germany, 2000; See also:France, 2000 (5000?); Basque Provinces, 500 to 700; See also:Italy, 32,000; See also:Spain, 40,000; See also:Russia, 58,000; See also:Poland, 15,000; See also:Sweden and See also:Norway, 1500; See also:Denmark and See also:Holland, 5000; See also:Persia, 15,000; See also:Transcaucasia, 3000. The rest is See also:mere guesswork. For Africa, America and Australia the numbers are estimated between 135,000 and 166,000. The estimate given by See also:Miklosich (1878) of 700,000 fairly agrees with the above statistics.

No statistics are forthcoming for the number in the See also:

British Isles. Some estimate their number at 12,000. . The Gipsies are known principally by two names, which have been modified by the nations with whom they came in contact, but which can easily be traced to either the one or the other of these two distinct stems. The one See also:group, embracing the See also:majority of Gipsies in Europe, the compact masses living in the See also:Balkan See also:Peninsula, Rumania and Transylvania and extending also as far as Germany and Italy, are known by the name Atzigan or Atsigan, which becomes in See also:time Tshingian (Turkey and Greece), Tsigan (Bulgarian, Servian, Rumanian), Czigany (Hungarian), Zigeuner (Germany), Zingari (See also:Italian), and it is not unlikely that the See also:English word See also:Tinker or Tinkler (the latter no doubt due to a popular See also:etymology connecting the See also:gaudy gipsy with the tinkling coins or the See also:metal wares which he carried on his back as a See also:smith and tinker) may be a See also:local transformation of the See also:German Zigeuner. The second name, partly known in the See also:East, where the word, however, is used as an expression of contempt, whilst Zigan is not See also:felt by the gipsies as an insult, is See also:Egyptian; in See also:England, Gipsy; in some German documents of the 16th See also:century Aegypter; See also:Spanish Gitano; See also:modern See also:Greek Gyphtos. They are also known by the parallel expressions Faraon (Rumanian) and Phdrao Nephka (Hungarian) or See also:Pharaoh's See also:people, which are only See also:variations connected with the Egyptian origin. In France they are known as Bohemiens, a word the importance of which will appear later. To the same See also:category belong other names bestowed upon them, such as Walachi, Saraceni, Agareni, Nubiani, &c. They were also knownby the name of Tartars, given to them in Germany, or as " See also:Heathen," Heydens. All these latter must be considered as nicknames without thereby denoting their probable origin. The same may have now been the See also:case with the first name with which they appear in See also:history, Atzigan. Much ingenuity has been displayed in attempts to explain the name, for it was felt that a true explanation might help to See also:settle the question of their origin and the date of their arrival in Europe.

Here again two extreme theories have been propounded, the one supported by Bataillard, who connected them with the Sigynnoi of See also:

Herodotus and identified them with the Komodromoi of the later See also:Byzantine writers, known already in the 6th century. Others bring them to Europe as See also:late as the 14th century; and the name has also been explained by de See also:Goeje from the See also:Persian Chang, a See also:kind of See also:harp or See also:zither, or the Persian Zang, See also:black, swarthy. See also:Rienzi (1832) and Trumpp (1872) have connected the name with the Changars of See also:North-East See also:India, but all have omitted to See also:notice that the real See also:form was Atzigan or (more correct) Atzingan and not Tsigan. The best explanation remains that suggested by Miklosich, who derives the word from the Athinganoi, a name originally belonging to a See also:peculiar heretical See also:sect living in Asia See also:Minor near See also:Phrygia and See also:Lycaonia, known also as the Melki-Zedekites. The members of this sect observed very strict rules of purity, as they were afraid to be defiled by the See also:touch of other people whom they considered unclean. They therefore acquired the name of Athinganoi (i.e. " Touch-me-nots "). Miklosich has collected seven passages where the Byzantine historians of the 9th century describe the Athinganoi as soothsayers, magicians and See also:serpent-charmers. From these descriptions nothing definite can be proved as to the identity of the Athinganoi with the Gipsies, or the See also:reason why this name was given to soothsayers, charmers, &c. But the inner history of the Byzantine See also:empire of that See also:period may easily give a See also:clue to it and explain how it came about that such a See also:nickname was given to a new sect or to a new See also:race which suddenly appeared in the Greek Empire at that period. In the history of the See also:Church we find them mentioned in one breath with the See also:Paulicians and other heretical sects which were transplanted in their tens of thousands from Asia Minor to the Greek empire and settled especially in Rumelia, near Adrianople and See also:Philippopolis. The Greeks called these heretical sects by all kinds of names, derived from See also:ancient Church traditions, and gave to each sect such names as first struck them, on the scantiest of imaginary similarities.

One sect was called Paulician, another Melki-Zedekite; so also these were called Athinganoi, probably being considered the descendants of the outcast Samer, who, according to ancient tradition, was a See also:

goldsmith and the maker of the See also:Golden See also:Calf in the See also:desert. For this See also:sin Samer was banished and compelled to live apart from human beings and even to avoid their touch (Athinganos: " Touch-me-not "). Travelling from East to See also:West these heretical sects obtained different names in different countries, in accordance with the local traditions or to imaginary origins. The See also:Bogomils and See also:Patarenes became Bulgarians in France, and so the gypsies Bohemiens, a name which was also connected with the heretical sect of the Bohemian See also:brothers (Bohmische Bruder). Curiously enough the Kutzo-See also:Vlachs living in See also:Macedonia (q.v.) and Rumelia are also known by the nickname Tsintsari, a word that has. not yet been explained. Very likely it stands in See also:close connexion with Zingari, the name having been transferred from one people to the other without the See also:justification of any See also:common ethnical origin, except that the Kutzo-Vlachs, like the Zingari, differed from their Greek neighbours in race, as in language, habits and customs; while they probably followed similar pursuits to those of the Zingari, as smiths, &c. As to the other name, Egyptians, this is derived from a peculiar See also:tale which the gipsies spread when appearing in the west of Europe. They alleged that they had come from a country of their own called Little Egypt, either a confusion between Little See also:Armenia and Egypt or the See also:Peloponnesus. See also:Attention may be See also:drawn to a remarkable passage in the See also:Syriac version of the apocryphal See also:Book of See also:Adam, known as the See also:Cave of Treasures and compiled probably in the 6th century: "And of the See also:seed of See also:Canaan were as I said the Aegyptians; and, lo, they were scattered all over the See also:earth and served as slaves of slaves " (ed. Bezold, German See also:translation, p. 25). No reference to such a scattering and See also:serfdom of the Egyptians is mentioned anywhere else.

This must have been a See also:

legend, current in Asia Minor, and hence probably transferred to the swarthy Gipsies. A new explanation may now be ventured upon as to the name which the Gipsies of Europe give to themselves, which, it must be emphasized, is not known to the Gipsies outside of Europe. Only those who starting from the ancient Byzantine empire have travelled westwards and spread over Europe, America and Australia See also:call themselves by the name of Rom, the woman being Romni and a stranger Gazi. Many etymologies have been suggested for the word Rom. Paspati derived it from the word Promo. (See also:Indian), and Miklosich had identified it with Doma or Domba, a " See also:low See also:caste musician," rather an extraordinary name for a nation to call itself by. Having no See also:home and no country of their own and no See also:political traditions and no literature, they would naturally try to identify themselves with the people in whose midst they lived, and would call themselves by the same name as other inhabitants of the Greek empire, known also as the Empire of New Rom, or of the Romaioi, Romeliots, Romanoi, as the Byzantines used to call themselves before they assumed the prouder name of Hellenes. The Gipsies would therefore call themselves also Rom, a much more natural name, more flattering to their vanity, and geographically and politically more correct than if they called themselves "low caste musicians." This Greek origin of the name would explain why it is limited to the European Gipsies, and why it is not found among that stock of Gipsies which has migrated from Asia Minor southwards and taken a different route to reach Egypt and North Africa. See also:Appearance in Europe.—Leaving aside the doubtful passages in the Byzantine writers where the Athinganoi are mentioned, the first appearance of Gipsies in Europe cannot be traced positively further back than the beginning of the 14th century. Some have hitherto believed that a passage in what was erroneously called the Rhymed Version of See also:Genesis of See also:Vienna, but which turns out to be the See also:work of a writer before the See also:year 1122, and found only in the See also:Klagenfurt See also:manuscript (edited by Ditmar, 1862), referred to the Gipsies. It runs as follows: Gen. xiii. 15—" Hagar had a son from whom were See also:born the Chaltsmide.

When Hagar had that See also:

child, she named it Ismael, from whom the Ismaelites descend who See also:journey through the land, and we call them Chaltsmide, may evil befall them! They sell only things with blemishes, and for whatever they sell they always ask more than its real value. They cheat the people to whom they sell. They have no home, no country, they are satisfied to live in tents, they wander over the country, they deceive the people, they cheat men but rob no one noisily." This reference to the Chaltsmide (not goldsmiths, but very likely ironworkers, smiths) has wrongly been applied to the Gipsies. For it is important to See also:note that at least three centuries before See also:historical See also:evidence proves the See also:immigration of the genuine Gipsy, there had been wayfaring smiths, travelling from country to country, and practically paving the way for their successors, the Gipsies, who not only took up their crafts but who probably have also assimilated a See also:good proportion of these vagrants of the west of Europe. The name given to the former, who probably were See also:Oriental or Greek smiths and pedlars, was then transferred to the new-corners. The Komodromoi mentioned by See also:Theophanes (758-818), who speaks under the date 554 of one hailing from Italy, and by other Byzantine writers, are no doubt the same as the Chaltsmide of the German writer of the 12th century translated by See also:Ducange as Chaudroneurs. W6 are on surer ground in the 14th century. Hopf has proved the existence of Gipsies in See also:Corfu before 1326. Before 1346 the empress See also:Catherine de See also:Valois granted to the See also:governor of Corfu authority to reduce to vassalage certain vagrants who came from the mainland; and in 1386, under the Venetians, they formed the Feudum Acindanorum, which lasted for many centuries. About 1378 the Venetian governor of Naupliaconfirmed to the " Acingani " of that See also:colony the privileges granted by his predecessor to their See also:leader See also:John. It is even possible to identify the people described by See also:Friar See also:Simon in his See also:Itinerarium, who, speaking of his stay in See also:Crete in 1322, says: " We saw there a people outside the See also:city who declare themselves to be of the race of See also:Ham and who See also:worship according to the Greek rite.

They wander like a cursed people from See also:

place to place, not stopping at all or rarely in one place longer than See also:thirty days; they live in tents like the See also:Arabs, a little oblong black See also:tent." But their name is not mentioned, and although the similarity is See also:great between these " See also:children of Ham " and the Gipsies, the See also:identification has only the value of an See also:hypothesis. By the end of the 15th century they must have been settled for a sufficiently See also:long time in the Balkan Peninsula and the countries north of the See also:Danube, such as Transylvania and See also:Walachia, to have been reduced to the same See also:state of serfdom as they evidently occupied in Corfu in the second See also:half of the 14th century. The See also:voivode Mircea I. of Walachia confirms the See also:grant made by his See also:uncle Vladislav Voivode to the monastery of St See also:Anthony of Voditsa as to See also:forty families of " Atsigane," for whom no taxes should be paid to the See also:prince. They were considered See also:crown See also:property. The same See also:gift is renewed in the year 1424 by the voivode See also:Dan, who repeats the very same words (i Acigane, m, celiudi. da su slobodni of vstkih rabot i dankov) (Hajdau, Arhiva, i. 20). At that time there must already have been in Walachia settled Gipsies treated as See also:serfs, and migrating Gipsies plying their See also:trade as smiths, musicians, dancers, soothsayers, See also:horse-dealers, &c., for we find the voivode See also:Alexander of See also:Moldavia granting these Gipsies in the year 1478 " freedom of See also:air and See also:soil to wander about and See also:free See also:fire and See also:iron for their smithy. " But a certain portion, probably the largest, became serfs, who could be sold, exchanged, bartered and inherited. It may be mentioned here that in the 17th century a See also:family when sold fetched forty Hungarian florins, and in the 18th century the See also:price was sometimes as high as 700 Rumanian piastres, about £8, 1os. As late as 1845 an See also:auction of 200 families of Gipsies took place in See also:Bucharest, where they were sold in batches of no less than 5 families and offered at a " See also:ducat " cheaper per See also:head than elsewhere. The Gipsies followed at least four distinct pursuits in Rumania and Transylvania, where they lived in large masses. A goodly proportion of them were tied to the soil; in consequence their position was different from that of the Gipsies who had started westwards and who are nowhere found to have obtained a permanent See also:abode for any length of time, or to have been treated, except for a very See also:short period, with any See also:consideration of humanity.

Their appearance in the West is first noted by chroniclers See also:

early in the 15th century. In 1414 they are said to have already arrived in See also:Hesse. This date is contested, but for 1417 the reports are unanimous of their appearance in Germany. Some See also:count their number to have been as high as 1400, which of course is exaggeration. In 1418 they reached See also:Hamburg, 1419 See also:Augsburg, 1428 See also:Switzerland. In 1427 they had already entered France (See also:Provence). A troupe is said to have reached See also:Bologna in 1422, whence they are said to have gone to See also:Rome, on a See also:pilgrimage alleged to have been undertaken for some See also:act of See also:apostasy. After this first immigration a second and larger one seems to have followed in its See also:wake, led by Zumbel. The Gipsies spread over Germany, Italy and France between the years 1438 and 1512. About 1500 they must have reached England. On the 5th of See also:July 1505 See also:James IV. of See also:Scotland gave to " See also:Antonius Gaginae," count of Little Egypt, letters of recommendation to the See also:king of Denmark; and See also:special privileges were granted by James V. on the 15th of See also:February 1540 to " oure louit johnne Faw See also:Lord and See also:Erie of Litill Egypt," to whose son and successor he granted authority to hang and punish all Egyptians within the See also:realm (May 26, 1540). It is interesting to hear what the first writers who witnessed their appearance have to tell us; for ever since the Gipsies have remained the same.

See also:

Albert Krantzius (See also:Krantz), in his Saxonia (xi. 2), was the first to give a full description, which was afterwards repeated by See also:Munster in his Cosmographia (iii. 5). He says that in the year 1417 there appeared for the first time in Germany a people uncouth, black, dirty, barbarous, called in Italian " Ciani," who indulge specially in thieving and See also:cheating. They had among them a count and a few knights well dressed, others followed afoot. The See also:women and children travelled in carts. They also carried with them letters of safe-conduct from the See also:emperor See also:Sigismund and other princes, and they professed that they were engaged on a pilgrimage of expiation for some act of apostasy. The See also:guilt of the Gipsies varies in the different versions of the See also:story, but all agree that the Gipsies asserted that they came from their own country called " Litill Egypt," and they had to go to Rome, to obtain See also:pardon for that alleged sin of their fore-fathers. According to one See also:account it was because they had not shown See also:mercy to See also:Joseph and See also:Mary when they had sought See also:refuge in Egypt from the persecution of See also:Herod (See also:Basel See also:Chronicle). According to another, because they had forsaken the See also:Christian faith for a while (Rhactia, 1656), &c. But these were fables, no doubt connected with the legend of Cartaphylus or the Wandering See also:Jew. Krantz's narrative continues as follows: This people have no country and travel through the land.

They live like See also:

dogs and have no See also:religion although they allow themselves to be baptized in the Christian faith. They live without care and gather unto themselves also other vagrants, men and women. Their old women practise See also:fortune-telling, and whilst they are telling men of their future they pick their pockets. Thus far Krantz. It is curious that he should use the name by which these people were called in Italy, " Ciani." Similarly See also:Crusius, the author of the A nnales Suevici, knows their Italian name Zigani and the See also:French Bohemiens. Not one of these See also:oldest writers mentions them as coppersmiths or farriers or musicians. The See also:immunity which they enjoyed during their first appearance in western Europe is due to the See also:letter of safe-conduct of the emperor. As it is of extreme importance for the history of See also:civilization as well as the history of the Gipsies, it may find a place here. It is taken from the compilation of See also:Felix Oefelius, Rerum Boicarum scriptores (Augsburg, 1763), H. 15, who reproduces the " Diarium sexennale " of " Andreas See also:Presbyter," the contemporary of the first appearance of the Gipsies in Germany. " Sigismundus Dei gratia Romanorum Rex See also:semper See also:Augustus, ac Hungariae, Bohemiae, Dalmatiae, Croatiae, &c. Rex Fidelibus nostris universis Nobilibus, Militibus, Castellanis, Officialibus, Tributariis, civitatibus liberis, opidis et eorum iudicibus in Regno et sub domino nostro constitutis ex existentibus salutem cum dilectione.

Fideles nostri adierunt in praesentiam personaliter See also:

Ladislaus Wayuoda Ciganorum cum aliis ad ipsum spectantibus, nobis humiliinas porrexerunt supplicationes, huc in sepus in nostra praesentia supplicationum precum cum instantia, ut ipsis gratia nostra uberiori providere dignaremur. Unde nos illorum supplicatione illecti eisdem hanc libertatem duximus concedendam, qua re quandocunque idem Ladislaus Wayuoda et sua gens ad dicta nostra dominia videlicet civitates vel oppida pervenerint, ex tune See also:vestris fidelitatibus praesentibus firmiter committimus et See also:mandamus ut eosdem Ladislaum Wayuodam et Ciganos See also:sibi subiectos omni sine impedimento ac perturbatione aliquali fovere ac conservare debeatis, immo ab See also:omnibus impetitionibus seu offensionibus tueri velitis: Si autem inter ipsos aliqua Zizania seu perturbatio evenerit ex parte, quorumcunque ex tune non vos nec aliquis alter vestrum, sed idem Ladislaus Wayuoda iudicandi et liberandi habeat facultatem. Praesentes autem See also:post earum lecturam semper reddi iubemus praesentanti. "Datum in Sepus See also:Dominica See also:die ante festum St Georgii Martyris See also:Anno Domini MCCCCXXIII., Regnorum nostrorum anno Hungar. See also:XXXVI., Romanorum vero XII., Bohemiae tertio." Freely translated this reads: " We Sigismund by the See also:grace of See also:God emperor of Rome, king of Hungary, Bohemia, &c. unto all true and loyal subjects, See also:noble soldiers, commanders, castellans, open districts, free towns and their See also:judges in our See also:kingdom established• and under our See also:sovereignty, kind greetings. Our faithful voivode of the Tsigani with others belonging to him hashumbly requested us that we might graciously grant them our abundant favour. We grant them their supplication, we have vouchsafed unto them this See also:liberty. Whenever therefore this voivode Ladislaus and his people should come to any part of our realm in any See also:town, See also:village or place, we commit them by these presents, strongly to your See also:loyalty and we command you to protect in every way the same voivode Ladislaus and the Tsigani his subjects without hindrance, and you should show kindness unto them and you should protect them from every trouble and persecution. But should any trouble or discord happen among them from whichever See also:side it may be, then none of you nor any-one else belonging to you should interfere, but this voivode Ladislaus alone should have the right of punishing and pardoning. And we moreover command you to return these presents always after having read them. Given in our See also:court on See also:Sunday the See also:day before the Feast of St See also:George in the year of our Lord 1423. The 36th year of our kingdom of Hungary, the 12th of our being emperor of Rome and the 3rd of our being king of Bohemia." There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this document, which is in no way remarkable considering that at that time the Gipsies must have formed a very considerable portion of the inhabitants of Hungary, whose king Sigismund was.

They may have presented the emperor's grant of favours to Alexander prince of Moldavia in 1472, and obtained from him safe-conduct and See also:

protection, as mentioned above. No one has yet attempted to explain the reason why the Gipsies should have started in the 14th and especially in the first half of the 15th century on their See also:march westwards. But if, as has been assumed above, the Gipsies had lived for some length of time in Rumelia, and afterwards spread thence across the Danube and the plains of Transylvania, the incursion of the See also:Turks into Europe, their successive occupation of those very provinces, the overthrow of the Servian and Bulgarian kingdoms and the dislocation of the native See also:population, would account to a remark-able degree for the See also:movement of the Gipsies: and this movement increases in See also:volume with the greater successes of the Turks and with the peopling of the country by immigrants from Asia Minor. The first to be driven from their homes would no doubt be the nomadic See also:element, which felt itself See also:ill at ease in its new surroundings, and found it more profitable first to settle in larger numbers in Walachia and Transylvania and thence to spread to the western countries of Europe. But their immunity from persecution did not last long. Later History.—Less than fifty years from the time that they emerge out of Hungary, or even from the date of the See also:Charter of the emperor Sigismund, they found themselves exposed to the fury and the prejudices of the people whose good faith they had abused, whose purses they had lightened, whose barns they had emptied, and on whose credulity they had lived with ease and comfort. Their inborn tendency to roaming made them the terror of the peasantry and the despair of every legislator who tried to settle them on the land. Their See also:foreign appearance, their unknown See also:tongue and their unscrupulous habits forced the legislators of many countries to class them with rogues and vagabonds, to declare them outlaws and felons and to treat them with extreme severity. More than one judicial See also:murder has been committed against them. In some places they were suspected as See also:Turkish- spies and treated accordingly, and the murderer of a Gipsy was often regarded as See also:innocent of any See also:crime. Weissenbruch describes the wholesale murder of a group of Gipsies, of whom five men were broken on the See also:wheel, nine perished on the gallows, and three men and eight women were decapitated. This took place on the 14th and 15th of See also:November 1726.

Acts and edicts were issued in many countries from the end of the 15th century onwards sentencing the "Egyptians" to See also:

exile under See also:pain of See also:death. Nor was this an empty See also:threat. In See also:Edinburgh four " Faas " were hanged in 1611 " for abyding within the kingdome, they being Egiptienis," and in 1636 at See also:Haddington the Egyptians were ordered " the men to be hangied and the weomen to be drowned, and suche of the weomen as hes children to be scourgit throw the See also:burg and burnt in the cheeks." The burning on the cheek or on the back was a common See also:penalty. In 1692 four See also:Estremadura Gipsies caught by the See also:Inquisition were charged with See also:cannibalism and made to own that they had eaten a friar, a See also:pilgrim and even a woman of their own tribe, for which they suffered the penalty of death. And as late as 1782, 45 Hungarian Gipsies were charged with a similar monstrous crime, and when the supposed victims of a supposed murder could not be found on the spot indicated by the Gipsies, they owned under See also:torture and said on the See also:rack, " We See also:ate them." Of course they were forthwith beheaded or hanged. The emperor Joseph II., who was also the author of one of the first edicts in favour of the Gipsies, and who abolished serfdom throughout the Empire, ordered an inquiry into the incident; it was then discovered that no murder had been committed, except that of the victims of this monstrous See also:accusation. The history of the legal status of the Gipsies, of their treatment in various countries and of the penalties and inflictions to which they have been subjected, would form a remarkable See also:chapter in the history of modern civilization. The materials are slowly accumulating, and it is interesting to note as one of the latest instances, that not further back than the year 1907 a " drive " was undertaken in Germany against the Gipsies, which fact may account for the appearance of some German Gipsies in England in that year, and that in 1904 the Prussian Landtag adopted unanimously a proposition to examine anew the question of granting peddling licences to German Gipsies; that on the 17th of February 1906 the Prussian See also:minister issued special instructions to combat the Gipsy See also:nuisance; and that in various parts of Germany and Austria a special See also:register is kept for the tracing of the See also:genealogy of vagrant and sedentary Gipsy families. Different has been the history of the Gipsies in what originally formed the Turkish empire of Europe, notably in Rumania, i.e. Walachia and Moldavia, and a careful See also:search in the archives of Rumania would offer See also:rich materials for the history of the Gipsies in a country where they enjoyed exceptional treatment almost from the beginning of their See also:settlement. They were divided mainly into two classes, (1) Robi or Serfs, who were settled on the land and deprived of all individual liberty, being the property of the nobles and of churches or monastic establishments, and (2) the Nomadic vagrants. They were subdivided into four classes according to their occupation, such as the Lingurari (woodcarvers; lit.

"spoonmakers"), Caldarari (tinkers, coppersmiths and ironworkers), Ursari (lit. " See also:

bear drivers ") and Rudari (miners), also called Aurari (See also:gold-washers), who used formerly to See also:wash the gold out of the auriferous See also:river-sands of Walachia. A See also:separate and smaller class consisted of the Gipsy Ldeshi or Vdtrashi (settled on a See also:homestead or " having a fireplace " of their own). Each shatra or Gipsy community was placed under the authority of a See also:judge or leader, known in Rumania as See also:jude, in Hungary as See also:aga; these officials were subordinate to the bulubasha or voivod, who was himself under the See also:direct See also:control of the yuzbasha (or governor appointed by the prince from among his nobles). The yuzbasha was responsible for the See also:regular income to be derived from the vagrant Gipsies, who were considered and treated as the prince's property. These voivodi or yuzbashi who were not Gipsies by origin often treated the Gipsies with great tyranny. In Hungary down to 1648 they belonged to the See also:aristocracy. The last See also:Polish Krolestvo cyganskie or Gipsy king died in 1790. The Robi could be bought and sold, freely exchanged and inherited, and were treated as the negroes in America down to 1856, when their final freedom in Moldavia was proclaimed. In Hungary and in Transylvania the abolition of See also:servitude in 1781–1782 carried with it the freedom of the Gipsies. In the 18th and 19th centuries many attempts were made to settle and to educate the roaming Gipsies; in Austria this was undertaken by the empress Maria See also:Theresa and the emperor See also:Francis II. (1761–1783), in Spain by See also:Charles III.

(1788). In Poland (1791) the See also:

attempt succeeded. In England (1827) and in Germany (1830) See also:societies were formed for the reclamation of the Gipsies, but nothing was accomplished in either case. In other countries, however, definite progress was made. Since 1866 the Gipsies have become Rumanian citizens, and the latest official statistics no longer distinguish betweenthe Rumanians and the Gipsies, who are becoming thoroughly assimilated, forgetting their language, and being slowly absorbed by the native population. In Bulgaria the Gipsies were declared citizens, enjoying equal political rights in accordance with the treaty of See also:Berlin in 1878, but through an arbitrary See also:interpretation they were deprived of that right, and on the 6th of See also:January 1906 the first Gipsy See also:Congress was held in See also:Sofia, for the purpose of claiming political rights for the Turkish Gipsies or Gopti as they call themselves. See also:Ramadan Alief, the tzari-bashi (i.e. the head of the Gipsies in Sofia), addressed the Gipsies assembled; they decided to protest and subsequently sent a See also:petition to the Sobranye, demanding the recognition of their political rights. A curious reawakening, and an interesting chapter in the history of this peculiar race. Origin and Language of the Gipsies.—The real See also:key to their origin is, however, the Gipsy language. The scientific study of that language began in the See also:middle of the 19th century with the work of See also:Pott, and was brought to a high state of perfection by Miklosich. From that time on monographs have multiplied and See also:minute researches have been carried on in many parts of the See also:world, all tending to elucidate the true origin of the Gipsy language. It must remain for the time being an open question whether the Gipsies were originally a pure race.

Many a See also:

strange element has contributed to swell their ranks and to introduce discordant elements into their vocabulary. Ruediger (1782), Grellmann. (1783) and See also:Marsden (1783) almost simultaneously and independently of one another came to the same conclusion, that the language of the Gipsies, until then considered a thieves' See also:jargon, was in reality a language closely allied with some Indian speech. Since then the two See also:principal problems to be solved have been, firstly, to which of the See also:languages of India the See also:original Gipsy speech was most closely allied, and secondly, by which route the people speaking that language had reached Europe and then spread westwards. Despite the rapid increase in our knowledge of Indian languages, no See also:solution has yet been found to the first problem, nor is it likely to be found. For the language of the Gipsies, as shown now by See also:recent studies of the Armenian Gipsies, has undergone such a profound See also:change and involves so many difficulties, that it is impossible to compare the modern Gipsy with any modern Indian See also:dialect owing to the inner developments which the Gipsy language has undergone in the course of centuries. All that is known, moreover, of the Gipsy language, and all that rests on reliable texts, is quite modern, scarcely earlier than the middle of the 19th century. Followed up in the various dialects into which that language has split, it shows such a thorough change from dialect to dialect, that except as regards See also:general outlines and principles of See also:inflexion, nothing would be more misleading than to draw conclusions from apparent similarities between Gipsy, or any Gipsy dialect, and any Indian language; especially as the Gipsies must have been separated from the Indian races for a much longer period than has elapsed since their arrival in Europe and since the formation of their European dialects. It must also be See also:borne in mind that the Indian languages have also undergone profound changes of their own, under influences totally different from those to which the Gipsy language has been subjected. The problem would stand differently if by any See also:chance an ancient vocabulary were discovered representing the oldest form of the common stock from which the European dialects have sprung; for there can be no doubt of the unity of the language of the European Gipsies. The question whether Gipsy stands close to See also:Sanskrit or See also:Prakrit, or shows forms more akin to See also:Hindi dialects, specially those of the North-West frontier, or Dardestan,and See also:Kafiristan, to which may be added now the dialects of the Pisaca language (Grierson, 1906), is affected by the fact established by Fink that the dialect of the Armenian Gipsies shows much closer resemblance to Prakrit than the language of the European Gipsies, and that the dialects of Gipsy spoken throughout See also:Syria and Asia Minor differ profoundly in every respect from the European Gipsy, taken as a whole spoken. The only explanation possible is that the European Gipsy represents the first See also:wave of the Westward movement of an Indian tribe or caste which, dislocated at a certain period by political disturbances, had travelled through Persia, making a very short stay there, thence to Armenia staying there a little longer, and then possibly to the Byzantine Empire at an indefinite period between i roo and 1200; and that another See also:clan had followed in their wake, passing through Persia, settling in Armenia and then going farther down to Syria, Egypt and North Africa.

These two tribes though of a common remote Indian origin must, however, be kept strictly apart from one another in our investigation, for they stand to each other in the same relation as they stand to the various dialects in India. The linguistic See also:

proof of origin can therefore now not go further than to establish the fact that the Gipsy language is in its very essence an originally Indian dialect, enriched in its vocabulary from the languages of the peoples among whom the Gipsies had sojourned, whilst in its grammatical inflection it has slowly been modified, to such an extent that in some cases, like the English or the Servian, barely a See also:skeleton has remained. Notwithstanding the statements to the contrary, a Gipsy from Greece or Rumania could no longer understand a Gipsy of England or Germany, so profound is the difference. But the words which have entered into the Gipsy language, borrowed as they were from the Greeks, Hungarians, Rumanians, &c., are not only an indication of the route taken—and this is the only use that has hitherto been made of the vocabulary—but they are of the highest importance for fixing the time when the Gipsies had come in contact with these languages. The See also:absence of Arabic is a See also:positive proof that not only did the Gipsies not come via See also:Arabia (as maintained by De Goeje) before they reached Europe, but that they could not even have been living for any length of time in Persia after the See also:Mahommedan See also:conquest, or at any See also:rate that they could not have come in contact with such elements of the population as had already adopted Arabic in addition to Persian. But the form of the Persian words found among European Gipsies, and similarly the form of the Armenian words found in that language, are a clear indication that the Gipsies could not have come in contact with these languages before Persian had assumed its modern form and before Armenian had been changed from the old to the modern form of language. Still more strong and clear is the evidence in the case of the Greek and Rumanian words. If the Gipsies had lived in Greece, as some contend, from very ancient times, some at least of the old Greek words would be found in their language, and similarly the See also:Slavonic words would be of an archaic See also:character, whilst on the contrary we find See also:medieval Byzantine forms, See also:nay, modern Greek forms, among the Gipsy vocabulary collected from Gipsies in Germany or Italy, England or France; a proof positive that they could not have been in Europe much earlier than the approximate date given above of the r rth or 12th century. We then find from a grammatical point of view the same deterioration, say among the English or Spanish Gipsies, as has been noticed in the Gipsy dialect of Armenia. It is no longer Gipsy, but a corrupt English or Spanish adapted to some remnants of Gipsy inflections. The purest form has been preserved among the Greek Gipsies and to a certain extent among the Rumanian. Notably through Miklosich's researches and See also:comparative studies, it is possible to follow the slow change step by step and to prove, at any rate, that, as far as Europe is concerned, the language of these Gipsies was one and the same, and that it was slowly split up into a number of dialects (13 Miklosich, 14 Colocci) which shade off into one another, and which by their transitional forms See also:mark the way in which the Gipsies have travelled, as also proved by historical evidence.

The Welsh dialect, known by few, has retained, through its See also:

isolation, some of the ancient forms. Religion, Habits and Customs.—Those who have lived among the Gipsies will readily testify that their religious views are a strange medley of the local faith, which they everywhere embrace, and some old-world superstitions which they have in common. with many nations. Among the Greeks they belong to the Greek Church, among the Mahommedans they are Mahommedans, in Rumania they belong to the See also:National Church. In Hungary they are mostly Catholics, according to the faith of the inhabitants ofthat country. They have no ethical principles and they do not recognize the obligations of the Ten Commandments. There is extreme moral laxity in the relation of the two sexes, and on the whole they take See also:life easily, and are See also:complete fatalists. At the same time they are great cowards, and they See also:play the role of the See also:fool or the See also:jester in the popular anecdotes of eastern Europe. There the See also:poltroon is always a Gipsy, but he is good-humoured and not so malicious as those Gipsies who had endured the hardships of See also:outlawry in the west of Europe. There is nothing specifically of an Oriental origin in their religious vocabulary, and the words Devla (God), See also:Bang (See also:devil) or Trushul (See also:Cross), in spite of some remote similarity, must be taken as later adaptations, and not as remnants of an old See also:Sky-worship or Serpent-worship. In general their beliefs, customs, tales, &c. belong to the common stock of general See also:folklore, and many of their symbolical expressions find their exact counterpart in Rumanian and modern Greek, and often read as if they were direct See also:translations from these languages. Although they love their children, it sometimes happens that a Gipsy See also:mother will hold her child by the legs and See also:beat the See also:father with it. In Rumania and Turkey among the settled Gipsies a good number are See also:carriers and bricklayers; and the women take their full See also:share in every kind of work, no See also:matter how hard it may be.

The nomadic Gipsies carry on the ancient See also:

craft of coppersmiths, or workers in metal; they also make See also:sieves and traps, but in the East they are seldom farriers or horse-dealers. They are far-famed for their See also:music, in which See also:art they are unsurpassed. The Gipsy musicians belong mostly to the class who originally were serfs. They were retained at the courts of the boyars for their special See also:talent in reciting old See also:ballads and love songs and their deftness in playing, notably the See also:guitar and the See also:fiddle. The former was used as an See also:accompaniment to the singing of either love ditties and popular songs or more especially in See also:recital or heroic ballads and epic songs; the latter for dances and other amusements. They were the troubadours and minstrels of eastern Europe; the largest collection of Rumanian popular ballads and songs was gathered by G. Dem. Teodorescu from a Gipsy See also:minstrel, See also:Petre Sholkan; and not a few of the songs of the guslars among the Servians and other Slavonic nations in the Balkans come also from the Gipsies. They have also retained the ancient tunes and airs, from the dreamy " doina " of the Rumanian to the fiery " czardas " of the Hungarian or the stately " hora " of the Bulgarian. See also:Liszt went so far as to ascribe to the Gipsies the origin of the Hungarian national music. This is an exaggeration, as seen by the comparison of the Gipsy music in other parts of See also:south-east Europe; but they undoubtedly have given the most faithful expression to the national temperament. Equally famous is the Gipsy woman for her knowledge of occult practices.

She is the real See also:

witch; she knows charms to injure the enemy or to help a friend. She can break the See also:charm if made by others. But neither in the one case nor in the other, and in fact as little as in their songs, do they use the Gipsy language. It is either the local language of the natives as in the case of charms, or a slightly Romanized form of Greek, Rumanian or Slavonic. The old Gipsy woman is also known for her skill in See also:palmistry and fortune-telling by means of a special set of See also:cards, the well-known See also:Tarok of the Gipsies. They have also a large stock of See also:fairy tales resembling in each country the local fairy tales, in Greece agreeing with the Greek, and in Rumania with the Rumanian fairy tales. It is doubtful, however, whether they have contributed to the dissemination of these tales throughout Europe, for a large number of Gipsy tales can be shown to have been known in Europe long before the appearance of the Gipsies, and others are so much like those of other nations that the borrowing may be by the Gipsy from the Greek, Slav or Rumanian. It is, however, possible that playing-cards might have been introduced to Europe through the Gipsies. The oldest reference to cards is found in the Chronicle of Nicolaus of Cavellazzo, who says that the cards were first brought into See also:Viterbo in 1379 from the land of the See also:Saracens, probably from Asia Minor or the Balkans. They spread very quickly, but no one has been able as yet to trace definitely the source whence they were first brought. Without texts; C. Hopf, Die Einwanderung der Zigeuner in See also:Europa (See also:Gotha, 1870); F. von Miklosich, " Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Zigeuner-Mundarten," i.-iv., in Sitzungsber. d.

Wiener Akad. d. Wissenschaften (Vienna, 1874-1878), " Uber die Mundarten and die Wanderungen der Zigeuner Europas," i.-xii., in Denkschriften d. Wiener Akad. d. Wissenschaften (1872-188o) ; M.' J. de Goeje, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der Zigeuners (See also:

Amsterdam, 1875), English translation by MacRitchie, Account of the Gipsies of India (See also:London, 1886) ; Zedler, Universal-See also:Lexicon, vol. lxii., s.v. Zigeuner," pp. 520-544 containing a rich bibliography; many publications of P. Bataillard from 1844 to 1885; A. Colocci, Storia d' un popolo errante, with illustrations, See also:map and Gipsy-Ital. and Ital.-Gipsy glossaries (See also:Turin, 1889) ; F. H. Groome, " The Gypsies," in E. Magnusson, National Life and Thought (1891), and art. " Gipsies " in See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed., 1879) ; C.

Amero, Bohemiens, Tsiganes et Gypsies (See also:

Paris, 1895) ; M. Kogalnitschan, Esquisse sur l'histoire, See also:les mceurs et la langue See also:des Cigains (Berlin, 1837 ; German trans., See also:Stuttgart, 1840)—valuable more for the historical part than for the linguistic; J. Czacki, Dziela, vol. iii. (1844-1845)—for historic data about Gipsies in Poland; I. Kopernicki and J. Moyer, Charakterystyka fizyczna ludrosci galicyjskiej (1876)—for the history and customs of Galician gip sies; Ungarische statistische Mitteilungen, vol. ix. (See also:Budapest, 1895), containing the best statistical information on the Gipsies; V. Dittrich, A nagy-idai cziganyok (Budapest, 1898) ; T. H. Schwicker, " Die Zigeuner in Ungarn u. Siebenbiirgen," in vol. xii. of Die Volker Osterreich-Ungarns (Vienna, 1883), and in Mitteilungen d. K.

K. geographischen Gesellschaft (Vienna, 1896) ; Dr J. Polek, Die Zigeuner in der Bukowina (See also:

Czernowitz, 1908); Ficker, " Die Zigeuner der Bukowina," in Statist. Monatschrift, v. 6, Hundert Jahre 1775-1875: Zigeuner in d. Bukowina (Vienna, 1875), Die Volkerstamme der osterr.-ungar. Monarchie, &c. (Vienna, 1869); V. S. Morwood, Our Gipsies (London, 1885); D. MacRitchie, Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts (Edinburgh, 1894) ; F. A. Coelho, " Os Ciganos de See also:Portugal," in See also:Bel.

See also:

Soc. Geog. (See also:Lisbon, 1892); A. See also:Dumbarton, Gypsy Life in the See also:Mysore See also:Jungle (London, 1902). p of such translations, see Pott ii. 464-521. graphy, detailed See also:grammar, etymological See also:dictionary and important IV. Folklore, Tale, Songs, &c.--Many songs and tales are found entering here into the history of the playing-cards and of the different forms of the faces and of the symbolical meaning of the different designs, one may assume safely that the cards, before they were used for mere pastime or for gambling, may originally have had a mystical meaning and been used as sortes in various combinations. To this very day the oldest form is known by the hitherto unexplained name of Tarock, played in Bologna at the beginning of the 15th century and retained by the French under the form Tarot, connected direct with the Gipsies, " Le Tarot des Bohemiens." It was noted above that the oldest chronicler (Presbyter) who describes the appearance of the Gipsies in 1416 in Germany knows them by their Italian name " Cianos," so evidently he must have known of their existence in Italy previous to any date recorded hitherto anywhere, and it is there-fore not impossible that coming from Italy they brought with them also their See also:hook of See also:divination. See also:Physical Characteristics.—As a race they are of small stature, varying in See also:colour from the dark tan of the Arab to the whitish See also:hue of the Servian and the See also:Pole. In fact there are some See also:white-coloured Gipsies, especially in Servia and See also:Dalmatia, and these are often not easily distinguishable from the native peoples, except that they are more lithe and sinewy, better proportioned and more agile in their movements than the thick-set Slays and the mixed race of the Rumanians. By one feature, however, they are easily distinguishable and recognize one another, viz. by the lustre of their eyes and the whiteness of their See also:teeth.

Some are well built; others have the features of a See also:

mongrel race, due no doubt to intermarriage with outcasts of other races. The women See also:age very quickly and the mortality among the Gipsies is great, especially among children; among adults it is chiefly due to pulmonary diseases. They love display and Oriental showiness, See also:bright-coloured dresses, ornaments, bangles, &c.; red and See also:green are the See also:colours mostly favoured by the Gipsies in the East. Along with a showy handkerchief or some shining gold coins See also:round their necks,' they will See also:wear torn petticoats and no covering on their feet. And even after they have been assimilated and have forgotten their own language they still retain some of the prominent features of their character, such as the love of inordinate display and gorgeous See also:dress; and their moral defects not only remain for a long time as glaring as among those who live the life of vagrants, but even become more pronounced. The Gipsy of to-day is no longer what his fore-fathers have been. The assimilation with the nations in the near East and the steps taken for the suppression of See also:vagrancy in the West, combine to denationalize the Gipsy and to make " Romani Chib " a thing of the past. I. Collections of Documents, &c.—Lists of older publications appeared in the books of Pott, Miklosich and the See also:archduke Joseph; Pott adds a See also:critical appreciation of the scientific value of the books enumerated. See also Verzeichnis von Werken and Aufsatzen .. . fiber die Geschichte and Sprache der Zigeuner, &c., 248 entries "(See also:Leipzig, 1886) ; J Tipray, " Adalekok a cziganyokrol szotc irodalomhoz," in Magyar Konyvszemle (Budapest, 1877); Ch. G.

See also:

Leland, A Collection of Cuttings .. . See also:relating to Gypsies (1874-1891), bequeathed by him to the British Museum. See also the Orientalischer Jahresbericht, ed. See also:Muller (Berlin, 1887 ff.). II. History.—(a) The first appearance of the Gipsies in Europe. See also:Sources: A. F. Oefelius, Rerum Boicarum scriptores, &c. (Augsburg, 1763) ; M. Freher, Andreae Presbyteri . . . chronicon de ducibus Bavarian ...

(1602); S. Munster, Cosmographia . . . &c. (Basel, 1545); J. Thurmaier, Annalium Boiorum libri septem, ed. T. Zieglerus (Ingolstad, 1554); M. Crusius, Annales Suevici, &c. (Frankfurt, 1595-1596), Schwabische Chronik . (Frankfurt, 1733); A. Krantz, Saxonia (See also:

Cologne, 1520) ; Simon See also:Simeon, Itineraria, &c., ed. j.

Nasmith (See also:

Cambridge, 1778). (b) Origin and spread of the Gipsies: H. M. G. Grellmann, Die Zigeuner, &c (1st ed., See also:Dessau and Leipzig, 1783; 2nd ed., See also:Gottingen,, 1 87); English by M. Roper (London, 1787; 2nd ed., London, 1807), entitled Dissertation on the Gipsies, &c.; Carl von Heister, Ethnographische . . . Notizen fiber die Zigeuner (See also:Konigsberg, 1842), a third and greatly improved edition of Grellmann and the best book of its kind up to that date; A. F. Pott, Die Zigeuner in Europa and Asien (2 vols., See also:Halle, 1844-1845), the first scholarly work with com lete and critical biblio- in the books enumerated above, where they are mostly accompanied by literal translations. See also Ch. G.

Leland, E. H. See also:

Palmer and T. Tuckey, English Gipsy Songs in Romany, with Metrical English Translation (London, 1875) ; G. Smith, Gipsy Life, &c. (London, 188o); M. Rosenfeld, Lieder der Zigeuner (1882); Ch. G. Leland, The Gypsies (See also:Boston, See also:Mass., 1882), Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune-Telling (London, 1891); H. von Wlislocki, Mdrchen and Sagen der transsilvanischen Zigeuner (Berlin, 1886)—containing 63 tales, very freely translated; Volksdichtungen der siebenbiirgischen and sudungarischen Zigeuner (Vienna, 189o)-songs, ballads, charms, See also:proverbs and See also:loo tales; Vom wandernden Zigeunervolke (Hamburg, 189o) ; Wesen and Wirkungskreis der Zauberfrauen bei den siebenburgischen Zigeuner (1891) ; " Aus dem inneren Leben der Zigeuner,", in Ethnologische Mitteilungen (Berlin, 1892); R. Pischel, Bericht fiber Wlislocki vom wandernden Zigeunervolke (Gottingen, 1890)—a strong See also:criticism of Wlislocki's method, &c.; F. H. Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales (London, 1899), with historical introduction and a complete and trustworthy collection of 76 gipsy tales from many countries; Katada, Conies gitanos (Logrono, 19o7); M.

Gaster, Zigeunermdrehen aus Rumdnien (1881); "' 'iganii, &c.," in Revista pentru Istorie, &c., i. p. 469 if. (Bucharest, 1883) ; " Gypsy Fairy-Tales " in Folklore. The See also:

Journal of the Gipsy-See also:Lore Society (Edinburgh, 1888–'892) was revived in See also:Liverpool in 1907. V. Legal Status.—A few of the books in which the legal status of the Gipsies (either alone or in See also:conjunction with " vagrants ") is treated from a juridical point of view are here mentioned, also the history of the trial in 1726. J. B. Weissenbruch, Ausfuhrliche Relation von der famosen Zigeuner-Diebes-Mord and Rduber (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1727); A. Ch. See also:Thomasius, Tractatio juridica de vagabundo, &c. (Leipzig, 1731); F.

Ch. B. See also:

Ave-Lallemant, Das deutsche Gaunertum, &c. (Leipzig, 1858–1862) ; V. de Rochas, Les Parias de France et d'Espagne (Paris, 1876) ; P. Chuchul, Zum Kampfe gegen Landstreicher and Bettler (Kassel, 1881) ; R. Breithaupt, Die Zigeuner and der deutsche Staat (See also:Wurzburg, 1907); G. Steinhausen, Geschichte der deutschen Kultur (Leipzig and Vienna, 1904). (M.

End of Article: GIPSIES, or GYPSIES

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