A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies Part 7

Writing and reading are attainments not to be expected from nomadic tribes. Sciences, and the refined arts, are never to be looked for among a people whose manner of living, and education, are so irregular. Music is the only science in which Gypsies partic.i.p.ate in any considerable degree; they likewise compose, but it is after the manner of the eastern people, extempore.

Grellmann a.s.serts, that the Hindostanie language has the greatest affinity with that of the Gypsies; but he does not rest this solely on the specimen he has introduced, a sketch of which will be presented in the next section; he adduces many facts in confirmation of his opinion, which it would be an injustice to him not to exhibit.

He infers from the following considerations, that Gypsies are of the lowest cla.s.s of Indians, namely Pariars, or as they are called in Hindostan, _Suders_.

The whole great nation of Indians is known to be divided into four ranks, or stocks, which are called by a portuguese name, _castes_; each of which has its own particular subdivisions. Of these castes, the Bramin is the first; the second contains the _Tschechteries_ or Setreas; the third, consists of the _Beis_, or Wazziers; the fourth is the caste of the above mentioned Suders; who upon the peninsula of Malabar, where their condition is the same as in Hindostan, are called Parias, and Pariers.

The first were appointed by Brama to seek after knowledge, to give instructions, and to take care of religion. The second were to serve in war; the third were as the Bramins, to cultivate science; but particularly to attend to the breeding of cattle. The caste of Suders was to be subservient to the Bramins, the Tschecteries, and the Beis.

These Suders are held in disdain, they are considered infamous, and unclean, from their occupation, and they are abhorred because they eat flesh; the three other castes living entirely on vegetables.

Of this very caste it will appear, by the following comparison, our Gypsies are composed. We have seen that the Gypsies are in the highest degree filthy and disgusting; and with regard to character, depraved and fraudulent to excess, and these are the qualities of the Suders.

Baldeus says, the Parias are a filthy people, and wicked crew, who in winter steal much cattle, &c.

It is related in the Danish Mission Intelligence:-n.o.body can deny that the Pariers are the dregs and refuse of all the Indians; they are thievish, and have wicked dispositions, &c.

Moreover Neuhof a.s.sures us: "The Parruas are full of every kind of dishonesty; they do not consider lying and cheating to be sinful, as they have no other custom or maxims among them. The Gypsey's solicitude to conceal his language is, also, a striking Indian trait."

"Professor Pallas says of the Indians round Astracan: custom has rendered them to the greatest degree suspicious about their language, insomuch that I was never able to obtain a small vocabulary from them."

With regard to Gypsey marriages, Salmon relates that the nearest relations cohabit with each other; and as to education, their children grow up in the most shameful neglect, without either discipline or instruction.

All this is precisely the case with the Pariars. In the journal of the Missionaries already quoted, it is said; "With respect to matrimony, they act like the beasts, and their children are brought up without restraint or information." Gypsies are fond of being about horses, so are the Suders in India, for which reason, they are commonly employed as horse-keepers, by the Europeans resident in that country."

We have seen that the Gypsies hunt after cattle which have died of distempers, in order to feed on them; and when they can procure more of the flesh than is sufficient for one day's consumption, they dry it in the sun. Such is likewise a constant custom with the Pariars in India.

That the Gypsies, and natives of Hindostan, resemble each other in complexion, and shape is undeniable. And what is a.s.serted of the young Gypsey girls rambling about with their fathers who are musicians, dancing with lascivious and indecent gestures, to divert any person who is willing to give them a small gratuity for so acting, is likewise perfectly Indian. Sonnerat confirms this in the account he gives of the dancing girls of Surat.

Fortune-telling is practised all over the East; but the peculiar kind professed by the Gypsies, viz: chiromancy, constantly referring to whether the parties shall be rich or poor, happy or unhappy in marriage, &c. is no where met with but in India.

The account we have given of Gypsey smiths may be compared with the Indian, as related by Sonnerat in the following words: "The smith carries his tools, his shop, and his forge about with him, and works in any place where he can find employment; he erects his shop before the house of his employer, raising a low wall with beaten earth; before which, he places his hearth; behind this wall, he fixes two leathern bellows. He has a stone instead of an anvil, and his whole apparatus is a pair of tongs, a hammer, a beetle, and a file. How exactly does this accord with the description of the Gypsey smith!

We have seen that Gypsies always choose their place of residence near some village, or city, very seldom within them; even though there may not be any order to prevent it, as is the case in Moldavia, Wallachia, and all parts of Turkey. Even the more improved Gypsies in Transylvania, who have long since discontinued the wandering mode of life, and might, with permission from government, reside within the cities, rather choose to build their huts in some bye place, without their limits. This custom appears to be derived from their original Suder education; it being usual all over India, for the Sunders to have their huts without the villages of the other castes, and in retired places near their cities.

With respect to religion, it has appeared that the greater part of the Gypsies live without any profession of it; _Tollius_ says, worse than heathens. The more wonderful it is, that a whole people should be so indifferent and void of religion, the more weight it carries with it, to confirm their Indian origin, when all this is found to be literally true of the Suders.

In relation to the emigration of the Gypsies, no cause can be a.s.signed for their leaving their native country, so probable, as the war of Timur Beg, in India. The date of their arrival marks it very plainly. It was in the years 1408, and 1409, that this Conqueror ravaged India for the purpose of disseminating the Mahometan religion. Not only every one who made any resistance was destroyed, and such as fell into the enemies'

hands, though quite defenceless, were made slaves; but in a short time those very slaves, to the number of one hundred thousand, were put to death. In consequence of the universal panic which took place, those, who could quit the country, might well be supposed to consult their safety by flight.

If any of the higher castes did withdraw themselves on account of the troubles it is probable, they retired southward to people of their own sort, the Mahrattas. To mix at all with the Suders, would have been degrading their high characters, which they consider worse than death; it was therefore morally impossible for them to have united with the Suders in a retreat. Moreover, by putting themselves into the power of the Suders, with whom they live in a state of discord and inveteracy, they might have incurred as much danger as from the common enemy.

Before presenting a vocabulary of Gypsey words, it may be observed, that though the Hindostanie language is fundamentally the same, all over Hindostan; yet, like other languages, it has different dialects in the various provinces. The eastern dialect, spokes about the Ganges, has different names for some things; and inflections of some words different to the western ones spoken about the Indus: There is, besides, a third, varying from both these, viz: the Surat dialect, which has a number of Malabar, and other words mixed with it. To this must be added, that in the Hindostan, as well as in every other language, there are often several names for the same thing.

The particular dialect bearing the closest affinity to the Gypsey language, as will appear hereafter, is the western; and perhaps more especially that of Surat. With respect to the construction and inflections of the two languages, they are evidently the same. In that of Hindostan, every word ending in j is feminine, all the rest masculine; the Gypsey is the same. That makes the inflections entirely by the article, adding it at the end of the word. The Gypsey language proceeds exactly in the same manner

_Grellmann_.

SECTION VIII.

Comparative view of the Gypsey, Hindostanie, and Turkish languages.

The following collection is extracted from Grellmann's Vocabulary.

_Gypsey_. _Hindostanie_. _English_.

Ick, Ek Ek One

Duj, Doj Du Two

Trin, Tri Tin Three

Schtar, Star Tschar Four

Pantsch, Pansch Pansch Five

Tschowe, Schow Tscho Six

Efta Hefta, Sat Seven

Ochto Aute Eight

Desch, Des Des, Des Ten

Bisch, Bis Bjs Twenty

Diwes Diw Day

Ratti Rateh Night

Cham, Cam Kam The Sun

Schan Tschand The Moon

Panj Panj Water

Sonnikey Suna Gold

Rup Ruppa Silver

Jiv Giuw Wheat

Bal Bal The Hair