THE WANDERING GIPSIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 18, 22 January 1938, Page 20

THE WANDERING GIPSIES

WHEN in summer the caravan trail leads from the city," along white • highways and green byways how we long for the gipsy life— to travel in leisurely content, lighting our campflres where the tang of the sea fills our nostrils or in some wood-smoke-scented bushland.

Many boys and girls are enjoying this kind of holiday at present, but their caravans are motor-driven and their trails lead city-ward again when Summer ends. But what of the real gipsies, the wandering Romanys, those picturesque,' mysterious chsracters of adventure stories, poetry, and music.

Nobody knows where they originated, nobody can trace them to their origin, except that they came from the East, possibly from Egypt, a land recalled by the' spelling of their, name. They are iri; every European country; they are'in,every continent. We trace them in every age, roaming, settled, bond: or free; in Rumania they were serfs for 500 years, being liberated there so recently: as 1856.

Incurable wanderers, they have been known to travel from Poland to the heart of China; they have crossed every sea. But they haae not always gone willingly. Every \i#»re they have been hated and feared, m well as admired and loved. EngSmd deported them to France and Norway, Scotland to the West Indies; Portugal to Africa and Brazil (where they turned slave dealers); while Spain sent them in hordes to the Dark Continent.. ,

They have produced musicians and

artificers, but throughout the ages'they have been variously condemned 'as kidnappers, spies, pickpockets,-horse-thieves, fortune-tellers, and all else that is bad—many of.the charges bding, of course, frequently baseless; put so: evil was their reputation that for many years drowning or hanging was their common lot, offence or no offence —merely for being gipsies. ■■'■":■ ■

To their credit is the fact that for almost countless centuries they—have been skilled workers in metal".;. So ancient are they that it is argued by students of the subject that they were the small-handed race who brought with them the arts which created our Bronze Age in Britain. 'Every two or three years the,people of the little moorland township of Baildon, near Bradford, turn'.: .themselves into gipsies on behalf of-.liospi-tals and other charities. It .is an old-time custom which has lately been revived.

• This year real gipsies had a considerable share in, the party, for' about 20 of them-attended at the'parish-church, where two of them were married by .the vicar.= All wore the picturesque Romany wedding garb. Later in the day the bride and. bridegroom were married according to - Romany- rites, and Petulengro, who is the uncle of the bridegroom, -officiated..

The party opened this year with the" usual crowning of the gipsy king. King they call him, for gipsies have ; .borne titles of this sort ever since .history has kept trace of them. This' time a real gipsy, Petulengro, was crowned in the presence of about 40,000 people. The party went on in various forms for a week.

■ After the bride and bridegroom had made answer to-the chiefs he took the left hand of the bridegroom and- the right hand of the bride and cut-them for the,"mingling- of the blood," which is an important part of the ceremony. He then bound their hands with a silken cord and ." offered . a prayer, after which he. took, the bride's bouquet and dusted, the pollen.from it -on the bride, and bridegroom, afterwards cutting the silken cord and. announcing their marriage.

After the placing pf. a ring on the bride's finger and the tying of a ribbon on the ear of the bridegroom,, the. couple embraced; and gave' the sacred kiss of marriage. Thereupon they jumped, in turn over the flames of' a fire which had been kindled, joined hands, and jumped ' back together again. The gift of a loaf and two red cabbages from the chief were followed by gifts from other Romanys.

THE CIRCUS LION (OriginalJ He was just a soft little-roly-poly when the hunters killed his iather and motherland he didn't understand that when.the old lion sprang upon .one of the men even as a bullet ended his life that that man would always hate him. He struggled and bit,' but could not escape, arid, he was. carried. off to become a performing lion.; He grew to fear his'trainer,-the big ugly man with the scar on His face, who beat him when he made mistakes in-his tricks. He feared him more than he: feared the hoop' of fire, through which he had to -jumpy and so he did his best to please. ;.: . ;' ■': '_ .. •

The circus went all wer the /world, and at last it came back-to Africa, the land'of his"'birth. The circus gave its first performance in • Johannesburg,

which was ; just like any other big town, then it moved on. - ' The ■■ next week it stopped at a small town on the edge of the jungle. It was night time, and the tent was crowded.: ..The now full-grown • lion came, into .the ring to do his tricks. The fiery hoop -, was^set up. ■ : •-■■."..■■ '.'■ ■-"•' ■■'•'■ ■ "Jump," cried the trainer, . and cracked his whip. The lion cringed, then suddenly he-heard the roar of a lion on the prowl in the nearby jungle. He did not jump,- and he-took no notice of the whip.- He was thinking,.:"Why should I, the king of beasts,- obejr- anyone? I will be free like my brothers in the jungle.'/ He looked the-, man straight in the eyes and growled. Someone cried, "Look out!" but it was-too late. He had sprung. A shot rang out, and the lion quivered, and..was still. They dragged his body from, the man, but the trainer. was .dead. The king, of beasts was,avenged. '■

'■SIKI rWOO."

■■ v Lower' Hutt.

"PLEASE. . J"

Can any e!f of ahe Rinf alv« VaUrln Farmer the address of a Canadian penfrland? Valerie's address is 298 Taranakl Street. She would'like her penfrtend.to br 13 or 14 year« of age and fond of reading'and-sport..

' RIDDLE-0 ' - —:—« « What's the difference between tha King and the moon?—l9s Hid; because the King is a sovereign (£-1) and "the moon is a far thing (id).. Which room is it impossible to enter? —A .mushroom. . Why is twice, ten the. same as twica eleven? —Because twice ten is twenty, and twice, eleven is twenty-two (twenty tool. ■"■-:■ , .'..., ' .". When are eyes not eyes?—When th» sun .makes them water..;. . . - Found by "TUNNYHUN" QS), \ ■; Karon..- - - - • - ; •.■■■'■ HOW PAPER WAS NAMED. '■'-''■-''-'-' ■'■'■'■-Z —;.'""'♦' ' :" ' -- > ..-.. Faperi-; taking ■ its name from. tilt papyrus reed- which -.. still 'grows- in Egypt, has supersede'd'the parchments used long before.. Examples, of ancient papyri may be seen in the British Museum, many of them with- writing almost as clear after thousands ol years as when the ink -was newly, dried. The Romans perfected the manufacture of papyrus, but the industry languished, and the beginnings of paper-making as we know it are to b'e found in the methods brought westward from China by the Arabs, 'and said to have been introduce^, into Europe by the Moors. That would ba in'the" eleventh century. ■■.'-., ••

.In the- old days, paper was largely made' of- rags, -but .now most of it i3 manufactured from .wood pulp.- ■■.... .Paper =is ; everywhere;.;. It-, not only hangs ..on our walls;; paper clothes- are now.-:being manufactured,■ It-was a scrap- of paper- which; plunged - the world into war-f or four years. It is. on paper, that, peace treaties, are drawn up r -;' -• ,••.-•::.:... ■■: .:: . ■

monkeys of India j

:■ India, home .of myriads of monkeys, -is i-having'trouble with them. ~ ' Monkeys are - among the animala sacred to Hindus, so that violence must not be employed to destroy, or even to dispel them. Some sites, indeed, are the scene of trusts created by wealthy Hindus who ' have left funds from which thy are-daily fed, year after year. . . . •. In the towns the unchecked numbers'of monkeys are a nuisance and a menace to health. They swarm.down the roofs of-the shops and bazars, pilfer nuts: and fruit and anything felsa appealing to. their, taste, and, clambering back again to seclusion, eat-their booty, unchallenged,-ior.no' piou^ na-■tive.-dare;stop them. : . : -.■-.-. .-..- ---: -But-there are. ways even with sacred monkeys. At Belgaum,- in - -Bombay Presidency," the civic authorities have engaged an expert hunter who will trap-, the monkeys-, without causing them harm, and loaded- to the top of his cart", will set "off for the jungle.and liberate them there. . -. - .

•; THE LOST CITY _...... ■ .. «> . . ■■ • ■ (Sent by "Queen of the Dawn," aged 12, Lyall Bay-) GLARE- TURNBULL-stepped- out of- ■ her- stuffy cabin, andgained- the deck-of-the Minx. AIL around her "Stretched an enaless sheet •of - water, unbroken except' for the dim^ outline- of the little Atlantic isle they were making for,. namely; ■Ramai. The tropical'sun beat viciously, on Clare's, head. ... " ■' , -:' '■' :*' -■'!.•'■.-■.' „ "Hullo Clare..-Dad Avan'ts.to tell.us all about the reason that brings us here. Hurry up,.-lazy!? Clare stood up and followed the .speaker-her brother Rex, into-her .father's cabin. He was the owner and..captain of tbe< Xongi- long ago'," -said Captain Turnbull,. "there was a city called-At-lantis built on an island. The inhabitants were skilled craftsmen, especially %KS that soon *ora the sea would come .to them and their city. He was laughed to scornbut several peopl™ believed, and the prophet and they invented .machines with which to manufacture air and-suits of glass in preparation-for-thß '^'if cameT'The city. of. Atlantis sank beneath the sea! .Water-rushed over the island None survived to tell the tale. : .■ •■- -• ■ "I heard a legend that .an island around here rose and sank at intervals. As you know, there are several disappearing islands in the world. In other words I have come to find Atlantis!",. •■ •■, -.; • ■ - :■ ■■ :. ..--•■.-■■ rJext morning, Clare woke -up ■ and went ,outside for her .morning walk. She was back in Rex's cabin at once. - ;. - -■ - :■ ,_ "Wake up!" she screamed. "Rex! There's a strange island-only a-few "vard<s awav and it seems to be moving!" ' lex followed his sister on the deck. Sure enough, a great hulk of rock, covered1 with huge water" growth,.reared itself up gainst, the. clean m°r"B n u gt-when' we anchored for the night last evening, this wasn't: here," , n , wp ,.p(} Hex "What can it mean? What. is. it?". .". •. .Y ... , „ an%?i s l«antis"- said a voice behind, them, and Captain .Turnbull joined '.the awed, watchers;' "We -.are. in precisely, the same; spot \ve. were 1 * I'm: frightened," whispered so amazing' .. ■ -Later on two dinghies with some sturdy sailors, .the captain, Oare, and lex iri,' landed on a little beach on^ the. strange island:" They cumbered up^the"slippery rocks, and at length gained the summit.- Look:mg down into, a large valley, they beheld, colossi buildings, temple?, pillars *~a rhl- mtle '"party ■ wandered about the . houses ■of memory. In. some : of them lay people, still wearing- glass suits, .fitted with -air; apparatus. S S3? wltn^cried a. ,oice, ;thern stood a figure clad in a glass air-suit. "Atlantis is sinking! You. are doomed!- lam the last of. the inhabitants of Atlantis.. , ~ ... . "Dad!"- screamed Clare. -"Look! Water is rushing, over the sides, .oft+Vip vallev' -Atlantis is sinking! Oh!" - .... --. • .-■ .- .^OuicklY'' cried the-captain hoarsely. "The. hoats!". .they rushed down •to the shore 'and jumpedinto the. row-boats not. a'.minutft [**£*& L^o^ the island, was -sinking from sight... The ; Minx rose ..and dipped into, thai c-ikpll caused bv the enveloping,-waters. ... : .. .~. ■■ ■■■••'-.•• SVeTI don' want ariothtr. adventure like that," .said j*e .^Ptatoj ■moppihg his-brow.. . "I should, think, not," breathed_.Clare,)vith;.;reHefii they" scrambled aboard ' th» Minx.. v ::.-.: :: •;"'