WHERE GYPSIES COME FROM

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 46, 24 February 1938, Page 4

WHERE GYPSIES COME FROM

An Uncanny People

J7UROPE is no Aryan continent, writes M. K. R. Savma, in Indian Review, Madras. She enfolds in her bosom immigrant thousands of Asiatic origin. There are the Lapp, Finn and Esquimaux, remnants of the Mongoloid peoples of the Far East. There are Semites in the Balkans such as the European Turks and the Magyars of Hungary, the descendants of invading Mussulmen. There are from Africa, the Moors of Spain and the Berbers in Mediterranean islands of the south. An altogether different people, distinctly Oriental, made an appearance in south-eastern Europe at the beginning of the 10th century A.D. Coming not as invaders but itinerant nomads, they were the Gypsies, the most interesting people of all the Asiatics in Europe. They gradually spread north and west, roamed over England, and finally continued their adventures in America. They were called by different names; in Spain, they were Zingaro; in Germany, Bohemian. They named themselves the “Romany.” It was the English who gave them the title of Gypsy under the supposition that they hailed from Egypt, the land cf mysteries. Gypsies were a nomadic people who lived in tribes and clans and tried obstinately to preserve their individualities and characteristics, customs, manners, and their own dialect, though they had to learn the language of the countries through which they had occasion to pass, through sheer necessity. They could never be compelled t) give up their roving habits and settle permanently at any place. They would shift their tents from place to place whenever the mood seized them. Their roving character, dirty habits, and uncompromising manners were not to the liking of Europeans, who despised and distrusted them. To them the Gypsies were terrors to be considered cunning, rapacious, and murderous. When a Gypsy clan pitched camp near or outside a town a special police force was appointed to watch over them and they never felt relieved until they were sure the Gypsies had shifted their encampment. They were notorious for their shifting

propensities, burglaries, and kiunappings, because they were reported as anxious to increase the strength of their tribes by adding a- healthy, strong child whenever a convenient opportnity presented itself. Basketweaving and petty trade were their main occupations. Gypsies have been characters in the best works of classical English literature. The name of George Borrow is often associated with them. He made a thorough study of these uncanny people and devoted his life to their characterisation. He moved , with them closely, knew their social habits end customs so well that Gypsies often thought him one of themselves. They believed him to have been a Gypsy in his previous life and attributed his c’ose 'similarity with them to that idea, a belief which strongly suggests their Hindu origin. Borrows best known books on the Gypsies are "Lavengro” and “Romany Rye.” He wrote of Spanish Gypsies as well. There are still many in Spain to-day. Originally supposed to have come from Egypt, it has been established beyond doubt that Gypsies hail from India and were of Hindu origin. They are descendants of an unknown tribe from north-western India which left the borders of India, impelled by a spirit of adventure. The obstinacy with which they maintained their tribal customs and rules without troubling to adapt or change themselves to their constantly changing circumstances, and the peculiar nature of their beliefs and superstitions, all lend weight to this view. They practise fortune-telling, astrology, and palmistry, all characteristic of the nomadic Hindu tribes of north-western India to-day. Finally, careful study of their dialect reveals a strong resemblance to Hindustani, the lingua franca of northern India since time immemorial. Several nouns of the Gypsy language are pronounced exactly as are their synonyms in Hindustani. Their folk-lore, tales, nursery rhymes, and even their dances resemble closely those of the Indian tribes. Only slight alterations have been brought about in them by time and distance.