WHERE DO GIPSIES COME FROM?

Taranaki Daily News, 11 August 1932, Page 14

WHERE DO GIPSIES COME FROM?

LEGEND AND HISTORY.

(By

M.L.T.)

Where do the Gipsies come from 1 Nobody knows. Their origin is lost, their ancient history is an unsolved riddle. Each European country has a special name for them, which alone is proof of the mystery which surrounds them. Legend has accounted for them In its very charming manner, but fact is rare when you try to find out anything about their past. It is said that when the Virgin Mary and the Holy Child fled to Egypt, these people refused to shelter them, and were condemned io become the waifs and strays of the earth in consequence. The word gipsy is a corruption of Egyptian. In the year 1418, a recklessband of ’ gaudily dressed men and women appeared in Germany, led by a man who called himself Duke Michael of little Egypt. These strange people, the first of their kind to be seen in Europe, declared that they came from Egypt, and were doing seven years’ penance and exile to atone for their sins -and those of their ancestors. Their atonement took a strange form. They were robbers, murderers, sorcerers, and