Chapter X (2)

[246] A Gipsy possesses all the properties requisite to render him a
fit agent to be employed in traitorous undertakings. Being
necessitous, he is easily corrupted; and his misconceived ambition and
pride persuade him that he thus becomes a person of consequence. He
is, at the same time, too inconsiderate to reflect on danger; and,
artful to the greatest decree, he works his way under the most
difficult circumstances. Gipsies have not only served much in the
capacity of spies, but their garb and manner of life have been assumed
by military and other men for the same purpose.--_Grellmann on the
Hungarian Gipsies._

Mr. Borrow gives a very interesting description of a meeting of two
Gipsies, in a battle between the French and Spaniards, in the
Peninsula, in Bonaparte's time. In the midst of a desperate
battle--when everything was in confusion--sword to sword and bayonet
to bayonet--a French soldier singled out one of the enemy, and, after
a severe personal contest, got his knee on his breast, and was about
to run his bayonet through him. His cap at this moment fell off, when
his intended victim, catching his eye, cried, "_Zincali, Zincali!_" at
which the other shuddered, relaxed his grasp, smote his forehead, and
wept. He produced his flask, and poured wine into his brother Gipsy's
mouth; and they both sat down on a knoll, while all were fighting
around. "Let the dogs fight, and tear each other's throats, till they
are all destroyed: what matters it to us? They are not of our blood,
and shall that be shed for them?"

What our author says of there being danger in employing Gipsies in
time of war has little or no foundation; for the associations between
those in the opposite ranks would be merely those of interest,
friendship, assistance, and scenes like the one depicted by Mr.
Borrow. The objection to Gipsies, on such occasions, is as applicable
to Jews and Freemasons.--ED.

The Scottish Gipsies have ever been distinguished for their gratitude to those who treated them with civility and kindness, during their progress through the country. The particulars of the following instance of a Gipsy's gratitude are derived from a respectable farmer, to whom one of the tribe offered assistance in his pecuniary distress. I was well acquainted with both of them. The occurrence, which took place only about ten years ago, will show that gratitude is still a prominent feature in the character of the Scottish Gipsy.

The farmer became embarrassed in his circumstances, in the spring of the year, when an ill-natured creditor, for a small sum, put him in jail, with a design to extort payment of the debt from his relatives. The farmer had always allowed a Gipsy chief, of the name of ----, with his family, to take up his quarters on his premises, whenever the horde came to the neighbourhood. The Gipsy's horse received the same provender as the farmer's horses, and himself and family the same victuals as the farmer's servants. So sure was the Gipsy of his lodgings, that he seldom needed to ask permission to stay all night on the farm, when he arrived. On learning that the farmer was in jail, he immediately went to see him. When he called, the jailer laughed at him, and, for long, would not intimate to the farmer that he wished to see him. With tears in his eyes, the Gipsy then told him he "would be into the jail, and see the honest man, whether he would or not." At last, an hour was fixed when he would be allowed to enter the prison. When the time arrived, the Gipsy made his appearance, with a quantity of liquor in his hand, for his friend the farmer. "Weel, man," said he to the turnkey, "is this your hour, now?" being displeased at the delay which had taken place. The jailer again said to him that he was surely joking, and still refused him admittance. "Joking, man?" exclaimed the Gipsy, with the tears again glistening in his dark eyes, "I am not joking, for into this prison I shall be; and if it is not by the door, it shall be by another way." Observing the determined Gipsy quite serious, the jailer at last allowed him to see the object of his search. The moment he saw the farmer, he took hold of both his hands, and, immediately throwing his arms around him, burst into tears, and was for some time so overcome by grief, that he could not give utterance to his feelings. Recovering himself, he enquired if it was the laird that had put him in prison; but on being told it was a writer, one of his creditors, the Gipsy exclaimed, "They are a d----d crew, thae writers,[247] and the lairds are little better." With much feeling, he now said to his friend, "Your father, honest man, was aye good to my horse, and your mother, poor body, was aye kind to me, when I came to the farm. I was aye treated like one of their own household, and I can never forget their kindness. Many a night's quarters I received from them, when others would not suffer me to approach their doors." The grateful Gipsy now offered the farmer fifty pounds, to relieve him from prison. "We are," said he, "not so poor as folk think we are;" and, putting his hand into his pocket, he added, "Here is part of the money, which you will accept; and if fifty pounds will not do, I will sell all that I have in the world, horses and all, to get you out of this place." "Oh, my bonnie man," continued the Gipsy, "had I you in my camp, at the back of the dyke, I would be a happy man. You would be far better there than in this hole." The farmer thanked him for his kind offer, but declined to accept it. "We are," resumed the Gipsy, "looked upon as savages, but we have our feelings, like other people, and never forget our friends and benefactors. Kind, indeed, have your relatives been to me, and all I have in this world is at your service." When the Gipsy found that his offer was not accepted, he insisted that the farmer would allow him to supply him, from time to time, with pocket money, in case he should, during his confinement, be in want of the necessaries of life. Before leaving the prison, the farmer asked the Gipsy to take a cup of tea with him; but long the Gipsy modestly refused to eat with him, saying, "I am a black thief-looking deevil, to sit down and eat in your company; but I will do it, this day, for your sake, since you ask it of me." The Gipsy's wife, with all her family, also insisted upon being allowed to see the farmer in prison.[248]

[247] A _writer_ in Scotland corresponds with an _attorney_ in
England. It is interesting to notice the opinion which the Gipsy
entertained of the writers. Possibly he had been a good deal worried
by them, in connection with the conduct of some of his folk.--ED.

[248] There is something singularly inconsistent in the mind of the
Gipsies. They pride themselves, to an extraordinary degree, in their
race and language; at the same time, they are extremely sensitive to
the prejudice that exists against them. "We feel," say they, "that
every other creature despises us, and would crush us out of existence,
if it could be done. No doubt, there are things which many of the
Gipsies do not hold to be a shame, that others do; but, on the other
hand, they hold some things to be a shame which others do not. They
have many good points. They are kind to their own people, and will
feed and clothe them, if it is in their power; and they will not
molest others who treat them civilly. They are somewhat like the wild
American Indians: they even go so far as to despise their own people
who will willingly conform to the ways of the people among whom they
live, even to putting their heads under a roof. But, alas! a hard
necessity renders it unavoidable; a necessity of two kinds--that of
making a living under the circumstances in which they find themselves
placed, and the impossibility of enforcing their laws among
themselves. Let them do what they may, live as they may, believe what
they may, they are looked upon as everything that is bad. Yet they are
a people, an ancient and mysterious people, that have been scattered
by the will of Providence over the whole earth."

It is to escape this dreadful prejudice that all Gipsies, excepting
those who avowedly live and profess themselves Gipsies, will hide
their race, if they can, and particularly so, in the case of those who
fairly leave the tent, conform to the ordinary ways of society, and
engage in any of its various callings. While being convoyed by the son
of an English Gipsy, whose family I had been visiting, at their house,
where I had heard them freely speak of themselves as Gipsies, and
converse in Gipsy, I said, in quite a pleasant tone, "Ah, my little
man, and you are a young Gipsy?--Eh, what's the matter?" "I don't wish
to be known to the people as a Gipsy." His father, on another
occasion, said, "We are not ashamed to say to a friend that we are
Gipsies; but my children don't like people to be crying after them,
'Look at the Gipsies!'" And yet this family, like all Gipsies, were
strongly attached to their race and language. It was pitiful to think
that there was so much reason for them to make such a complaint. On
one occasion, I was asked, "If you would not deem it presumptuous,
might we ask you to take a bite with us?" "Eat with you? Why not?" I
replied. "What will your people think, if they knew that you had been
eating with us? You will lose caste." This was said in a serious
manner, but slightly tinged with irony. Bless me, I thought, are all
our Scottish Gipsies, of high and low degree, afraid that the ordinary
natives would not even eat with them, if they knew them to be
Gipsies?--ED.

This interview took place in presence of several persons, who were surprised at the gratitude and manner of the determined Gipsy. It is proper to mention that he is considered a very honest man, and is a protection to the property of the country-people, wherever he is quartered. He sells earthen-ware, through the country, and has, sometimes, several horses in his possession, more for pleasure than profit, some of which the farmers graze for nothing, as he is a great favourite with those who are intimately acquainted with him. He is about fifty years of age, about six feet in height, is spare made, has small black eyes, and a swarthy complexion. He is styled King of the Gipsies, but the country-people call him "Terrible," for a by-name. It was said his mother was a witch, and many of the simple, ignorant people, in the country, actually believed she was one. That her son believed she possessed supernatural power, will appear from the following fact: As some one was lamenting the hard case of the farmer remaining in prison, the Gipsy gravely said, "Had my mother been able to go to the jail, to see the honest man, she possessed the power to set him free."

That numbers of our Gipsies attend the church, and publicly profess Christianity, and get their children baptized, is certain; and that many of the male heads of principal families have the appearance and reputation of great honesty of character, is also certain. Yet their wives and other members of their families are, in general, little better than professed thieves; and are secretly countenanced and encouraged in their practices by many of those very chief males, who designedly keep up an outward show of integrity, for the purpose of deception, and of affording their plundering friends protection. When the head of the family is believed to be an honest man, it excites a feeling of sympathy for his tribe on his account, and it enables him to step forward, with more freedom, to protect his kindred, when they happen to get into scrapes. I am convinced, could the fact be ascertained, that many of the offenders who are daily brought before our courts of justice are Gipsies, though their external appearance does not indicate them to be of that race.

With regard to the education of our Scottish Gipsies, I am convinced that very few of them receive any education at all; except some of those among the superior classes, who have property in houses, and permanent residences. A Gipsy, of some property, who gave one of her sons a good education, declared that the young man was entirely spoiled.[249] It appears, however, that the males of the Yetholm colony received such an education as is commonly given to the working classes; but it is supposed there is scarcely such a thing as a female Gipsy who has been educated. There are, however, instances to the contrary; and I know one female at least, who can handle her pen with some dexterity.[250]

[249] It it well to notice the fact, that by giving a Gipsy child a
good education, it became "entirely spoiled." It would be well if we
could "spoil" all the Gipsies. A thoroughly spoiled Gipsy makes a very
good man, but leaves him a Gipsy notwithstanding. A "thorough Gipsy"
has two meanings; one strongly attached to the tribe, and its
_original habits_, or one without these original habits. There are a
good many "spoiled" Gipsies, male and female, in Scotland.--ED.

[250] The education and acquirements of the Spanish Gipsies, according
to Mr. Borrow, are, on the whole, not inferior to those of the lower
classes of the Spaniards; some of the young _men_ being able to read
and write in a manner by no means contemptible; but such never occurs
among the females. Neglecting females, in the matter of education, is
quite in keeping with the Oriental origin of the Gipsies. The same
feature is observable among the Jews; and the Talmud bears heavily
upon Jewish women. Every Jew says, in his morning prayer, "Blessed art
thou, O Lord, our God, King of the Universe, who hast not made me a
woman!" And the woman returns thanks for having been "created
according to God's will."--ED.

As to their religious sentiments, I am inclined to think that the greater part of the Scottish Gipsies are quite indifferent on the subject. Numbers of them certainly attend church, occasionally, when at home, in their winter quarters; but not one of them will enter its door when travelling through the country.[251] On Sundays, while resting themselves by the side of the public roads, the females employ themselves in washing and sewing their apparel, without any regard for that sacred day. It appears to me that a large proportion of them comply with our customs and forms of worship, more for the purpose of concealing their tribe and practices, than from any serious belief in the doctrines of Christianity. I recollect, however, of once conversing with an aged man who professed much apparent zeal in religious matters; and I mind well that he stoutly maintained, in opposition to Calvin's ideas on the subject of free grace, that everything depended upon our own works. "By my works in this life," said he, "I must stand, or fall, in the world to come." This very man acknowledged to me that the Gipsies were a tribe of thieves. But almost all the Gipsies, when the subject of religion is mentioned to them, affect to be very pious; speak of the goodness of God to them, with much apparent sincerity; lament the want of education; and reprobate, in strong terms, every act of immorality. This, I am sorry to say, is, in general, all hypocrisy and deception. There is not a better test, in a general way, for discovering who are Gipsies, than the expression of "God bless you," which is constantly in the mouth of every female.[252]

[251] The ostensible reason which the Gipsy gives for not attending
church, when travelling, is to prevent himself being ridiculed by the
people. If he enters a place of worship, he makes the old people
stare, and frightens the children. On returning from church, a child
will exclaim, "Mother, mother, there was a Tinkler at the kirk,
to-day."--"A what? a _Tinkler_ at the kirk? What could have possessed
_him_ to go there?"

Gipsies are extremely sensitive to the feeling in question. A short
time ago, one of them entered ----, in the State of ----, with a
"shears to grind," having a small bell attached. Some bar-room gentry
assembled around him, and saluted him with, "Oh, oh, a Gipsy in a new
rig!" So keenly did he feel the insult, that he at once left the
village.--ED.

[252] According to Grellmann, the Gipsies did not bring any particular
religion with them from their own country, but have regulated it
according to those of the countries in which they have lived. They
suffer themselves to be baptized among Christians, and circumcised
among Mahommedans. They are Greeks with Greeks, Catholics with
Catholics, Protestants with Protestants, and as inconstant in their
creed as their place of residence. They suffer their children to be
several times baptised. To-day, they receive the sacrament as a
Lutheran; next Sunday, as a Catholic; and, perhaps before the end of
the week, in the Reformed Church. The greater part of them do not go
so far as this, but live without any religion at all, and worse than
heathens. So thoroughly indifferent are they in this respect, as to
have given rise to the adage, "The Gipsy's church was built of bacon,
and the dogs ate it." So perfectly convinced are the Turks of the
insincerity of the Gipsy in matters of religion, that, although a Jew,
by becoming a Mahommedan, is freed from the payment of the poll-tax, a
Gipsy--at least in the neighbourhood of Constantinople--is not, even
although his ancestors, for centuries, had been Mahommedans, or he
himself should actually have made a pilgrimage to Mecca. His only
privilege is to wear a white turban, which is denied to unbelieving
Jews and Gipsies.

Mr. Borrow says, that when the female Gipsies, who sing in the choirs
of Moscow, were questioned, in their own language, about their
externally professing the Greek religion, they laughed, and said it
was only to please the Russians.

The same author mentions an instance in which he preached to them;
taking, for his text, the situation of the Hebrews in Egypt, and
drawing a comparison between it and theirs in Spain. Warming with his
subject, he spoke of the power of God in preserving both, as a
distinct people, in the world to this day. On concluding, he looked
around to see what impression he had made upon them, but the only
response he got from them all was--a squint of the eye!--ED.

With regard to the general politics of the Scottish Gipsies, if they entertain any political sentiments at all, I am convinced they are monarchical; and that, were any revolutionary convulsion to loosen the bonds of society, and separate the lower from the higher classes, they would take to the side of the superior portion of the community. They have, at all times, heartily despised the peasantry, and been disposed to treat menials with great contempt, though, at the very moment, they were begging at the doors of their masters. In the few instances which have come to my knowledge, of Scottish Gipsies forming matrimonial connexions with individuals of the community, those individuals were not of the working or lower classes of society.[253]

[253] What our author says of the politics of the Gipsies is rather
more applicable to their ideas of their social position. Being a small
body in comparison with the general population of the country, they
entertain a very exclusive and, consequently, a very aristocratic idea
of themselves, whatever others may think of them; and therefore scorn
the prejudice of the very lowest order of the common natives.--ED.

I believe there are Gipsies, in more or less numbers, in almost every town in Scotland, permanent as well as periodical residenters. In many of the villages there are also Gipsy inhabitants. In Mid-Lothian there are great numbers of them, who have houses, in which they reside permanently, but a portion of them travel in other districts, during the summer season. I have been at no ordinary pains and trouble in making enquiries regarding the number of the Gipsies, and the result of my numerous investigations induces me to believe that there are about five thousand of them in Scotland, at the present day. Indeed, some of the Gipsies themselves entertain the same opinion, and they must certainly be allowed to have some idea of the number of their own fraternity.[254]

[254] Before the reformation of our criminal law, many of the male
Gipsies perished on the gallows, but now, the greatest punishment they
meet with is banishment, or a short imprisonment, for "sorning,
pickery, and little thieving." Few of them are now "married to the
gallows tree," in the manner of Graham, as described under the head of
Fifeshire Gipsies. Owing to their, (the more original kind
especially,) all marrying very young, and having very large families,
their number cannot fail to encrease, under the present laws, in a
ratio far beyond that of our own population. Instead of there being
only 5,000 Gipsies in Scotland, there are, as I have already said,
nearer 100,000, for reasons to be given in my Disquisition on the
Gipsies.--ED.

It appears to me that the civilization and improvement of the body, generally, would be a work of great difficulty. I would be apt to give nearly the same answer which a Hungarian nobleman gave to Dr. Bright, when that traveller asked him if he could not devise a plan for bettering the condition of the race in Hungary. The nobleman said he knew of no manner of improving the Gipsies.[255] The best plan yet proposed for improving the race appears to be the one suggested by the Rev. James Crabb, of Southampton, and the Rev. John Baird, of Yetholm.[256] One of the first steps, however, should be a complete publicity to their language, if that was possible; and encouragement held out to them to speak it openly, without fear or reproach. Their secret speech is a strong bond of union among them, and forms, as it were, a wall of separation between them and the other inhabitants of the country.

[255] Speaking of the attempted civilization of the Gipsies, by the
Empress Maria Theresa, Grellmann says, "A boy, (for you must leave the
old stock alone,) would frequently seem in the most promising train to
civilization; on a sudden, his wild nature would appear, a relapse
follow, and he become a perfect Gipsy again."

"_Curate._--Could you not, by degrees, bring yourself to a more
settled mode of life?

"_Gipsy._--I would not tell you a lie, sir; I really think I could
not, having been brought up to it from a child."--_Hoyland on the
English Gipsies._

The restless desire which the more original kind of Gipsies, and those
more recently from the tent, have for moving about, is generally
gratified in some way or other. The poorer class will send their wives
and young ones to the "grass," in company with the nomadic portion, or
to the streets in towns. In either case, they have no great occasion
to feel uneasy about their support; for she would be a poor wife
indeed, if she could not forage for herself and "weary bairns." Among
other things, she can hire herself to assist in disposing of the wares
made by another Gipsy. Her husband will then work at his calling, or
go on the _tramp_, like some of our ordinary mechanics.

The feeling which mankind in general have for the sweets of the
country, and the longing which so many of us have to end our days in
the midst of them, amount almost to a mania with these Gipsies.
Frequently will Gipsies, in England, after spending the best part of
their lives in a settled occupation, again take to the tent; while
others of them, on arrival in America, will buy themselves places, and
live on them till seized with the travelling epidemic, communicated by
a roving company of their tribe accidentally arriving in their
neighbourhood. Some of the more recently settled class of Gipsies,
whose occupations do not easily admit of their enjoying the pleasure
of a country or travelling life, show a great partiality to their
wandering brethren, however poor, with whom they are on terms of
intimacy, and especially if they happen to be related. Their children,
from hearing their parents speak of the "good old times"--the "golden
age" of the Gipsies--when they could wander hither and thither, with
little molestation, and live, in a measure, at free-quarters, wherever
they went, grow impatient under the restraint which society has thrown
around them; and vent their feelings in abusing that same society, and
all the members thereof. They envy the lot of these "country cousins."
Meetings of that kind render these Gipsies, (old as well as young,)
irritable, discontented, and gloomy: they feel like "birds in a cage,"
as a Gipsy expressed it. Not unfrequently will a young town Gipsy
travel in the company of these country relatives, dressed _a la
Tinklaire_, as a relief to the discontentment which a restrained and
pent-up life creates within him. At other times, his parents will know
nothing of his movements, beyond his coming home to "roost" at night.

The nomadic class take to winter-quarters in some village, towards the
close of the year, and fret themselves all day long, till, on the
return of spring, they can say, "To your tents, O Gipsies!" There is
as little direct relation existing between the tent and the
long-settled Gipsies, as there is between it and ordinary Scotch
people. But there is that tribal or national association connected
with it, that is inseparable from the feelings of a Gipsy, however
high may be the position in life to which he may have risen.--ED.

[256] The Fourteenth Annual Festival of the Rev. James Crabb's
Association, for civilizing and teaching the principles of
Christianity to the Gipsies in England, was held on the 25th December,
1841. At that time, twenty Gipsy youths were attending his school. He
was very sanguine of ultimately ameliorating the condition of the
British Gipsies.

At Yetholm, in the same year, after the Rev. John Baird's school had
been in existence about two years, there were about forty Gipsy
children receiving instruction. When they were educated, they were
hired as servants to families, or bound apprentices to different
trades.

[I will offer some remarks on the improvement of the Gipsies, in the
Disquisition on the Gipsies.--ED.]

Many of the Gipsies, following the various occupations enumerated, are not now to be distinguished from others of the community, except by the most minute observation; yet they appear a distinct and separate people; seldom contracting marriage out of their own tribe.[257] A tradesman of Gipsy blood will sooner give his hand to a lady's maid of his own race, than marry the highest female in the land; while the Gipsy lady's maid will take a Gipsy shoemaker, in preference to any one out of her tribe. A Gipsy woman will far rather prefer, in marriage, a man of her own blood who has escaped the gallows, to the most industrious and best-behaved tradesman in the kingdom. Like the Jews, almost all those in good circumstances marry among themselves, and, I believe, employ their poorer brethren as servants. I have known Gipsies most solemnly declare, that no consideration would induce them to marry out of their own tribe; and I am informed, and convinced, that almost every one of them marries in that way. One of them stated to me that, let them be in whatever situation of life they may, they all "stick to each other."

[257] It is a difficult matter to tell some of the settled Scottish
Gipsies. In searching for them, some regard must be had to the
employment of the individual, his associations, and his isolation from
the community generally, beyond what is necessary in following his
calling and out-door relations, as contrasted with his hospitality to
strangers from a distance; a close scrutiny of the habits of himself
and his numerous motley visitors; the rough-and-tumble way in which he
sometimes lives; his attachment to animals, such as horses, asses,
dogs, cats, birds, or pets of any kind; these, and other relative
circumstances, go a great way to enable one to pounce upon some of
them. But the use of their language, and the effect it has upon them,
(barring their responding to it,) is, at the present stage of their
history, the only satisfactory test. Scottish Gipsy families will
generally be found to be all dark in their appearance, or all very
fair or reddish, or partly very fair, and partly very dark, and
sometimes dark or fair nondescript. Many of the residentary class of
mechanic Gipsies are difficult of detection; so are the better
classes, generally, if it is long since their ancestors left the
tent--ED.

A DISQUISITION ON THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF GIPSYDOM.

"There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed."

In giving an account of the Gipsies, the subject would be very incomplete, were not something said about the manner in which they have drawn into their body the blood of other people, and the way in which the race is perpetuated; and a description given of their present condition, and future prospects, particularly as our author has overlooked some important points connected with their history, which I will endeavour to furnish. One of these important points is, that he has confined his description of the present generation of settled Gipsies to the descendants of those who left the tent subsequently to the commencement of the French war, to the exclusion of those who settled long anterior to that time. It is also necessary to treat the subject abstractly--to throw it into principles, to give the philosophy of it--to ensure the better understanding, and perpetuate the knowledge of it, amid the shifting objects that present themselves to the eye of the world, and even of the people described.

Gipsydom may, in a word, be said to be literally a sealed book, a _terra incognita_, to mankind in general. The Gipsies arrived in Europe a strange race; strange in their origin, appearance, habits and disposition. Supposing that their habits had never led them to interfere with the property of others, or obtain money by any objectionable way, but that they had confined their calling to tinkering, making and selling wares, trading, and such like, they would, in all probability, still have remained a caste in the community, with a strong feeling of sympathy for those living in other countries, in consequence of the singularity of their origin and development, as distinguished from those of the other inhabitants, their language and that degree of prejudice which most nations have for foreigners settling among them and particularly so in the case of a people so different in their appearance and mode of life as were the Gipsies from those among whom they settled. That may especially be said of tented Gipsies, and even of those who, from time to time, would be forced to leave the tent, and settle in towns, or live as _tramps_, as distinguished from tented Gipsies. The simple idea of their origin and descent, tribe and language, transmitted from generation to generation, being so different from those of the people among whom they lived, was, in itself, perfectly sufficient to retain them members of Gipsydom, although, in cases of intermarriages with the natives, the mixed breeds might have gone over to the white race, and been lost to the general body. But in most of such cases that would hardly have taken place; for between the two races, the difference of feeling, were it only a slight jealousy, would have led the smaller and more exclusive and bigoted to bring the issue of such intermarriages within its influence. In Great Britain, the Gipsies are entitled, in one respect at least, to be called Englishmen, Scotchmen, or Irishmen; for their general ideas as men, as distinguished from their being Gipsies, and their language, indicate them, at once, to be such, nearly as much as the common natives of these countries. A half or mixed breed might more especially be termed or pass for a native; so that, by clinging to the Gipsies, and hiding his Gipsy descent and affiliation from the native race, he would lose nothing of the outward character of an ordinary inhabitant; while any benefit arising from his being a Gipsy would, at the same time, be enjoyed by him.

But the subject assumes a totally different aspect when, instead of a slight jealousy existing between the two races, the difference in feeling is such as if a gulf had been placed between them. The effect of a marriage between a white and a Gipsy, especially if he or she is known to be a Gipsy, is such, that the white instinctively withdraws from any connexion with his own race, and casts his lot with the Gipsies. The children born of such unions become ultra Gipsies. A very fine illustration of this principle of half-breed ultra Gipsyism is given by Mr. Borrow, in his "Gipsies in Spain," in the case of an officer in the Spanish army adopting a young female Gipsy child, whose parents had been executed, and educating and marrying her. A son of this marriage, who rose to be a captain in the service of Donna Isabel, hated the white race so intensely, as, when a child, to tell his father that he wished he (his father) was dead. At whose door must the cause of such a feeling be laid? One would naturally suppose that the child would have left, perhaps despised, his mother's people, and clung to those whom the world deemed respectable. But the case was different. Suppose the mother had not been prompted by some of her own race, while growing up, and the son, in his turn, not prompted by the mother, all that was necessary to stir up his hatred toward the white race was simply to know who he was, as I will illustrate.[258]

[258] This Spanish Gipsy is reported by Mr. Borrow to have said: "She,
however, remembered her blood, and hated my father, and taught me to
hate him likewise. When a boy, I used to stroll about the plain, that
I might not see my father; and my father would follow me, and beg me
to look upon him, and would ask me what I wanted; and I would reply,
'Father, the only thing I want is to see you dead!'"

This is certainly an extreme instance of the result of the prejudice
against the Gipsy race; and no opinion can be formed upon it, without
knowing some of the circumstances connected with the feelings of the
father, or his relations, toward the mother and the Gipsy race
generally. This Gipsy woman seems to have been well brought up by her
protector and husband; for she _taught her child Gipsy from a MS._,
and procured a teacher to instruct him in Latin. There are many
reflections to be drawn from the circumstances connected with this
Spanish Gipsy family, but they do not seem to have occurred to Mr.
Borrow.

Suppose that a great iron-master should fancy a Cinderella, living by scraping pieces of iron from the refuse of his furnaces, educate her, and marry her, as great iron-masters have done. Being both of the same race, a complete amalgamation would take place at once: perhaps the wife was the best person of the two. Silly people might sneer at such a marriage; but if no objection attached to the personal character of the woman, she might be received into society at once, and admired by some, and envied by others, particularly if she had no "low relations" living near her. She might even boast of having been a Cinderella, if it happened to be well known; in which case she might be deemed free of pride, and consequently a very sensible, amiable woman, and worthy of every admiration.

But who ever heard of such a thing taking place with a Gipsy? Suppose a Gipsy elevated to such a position as that spoken of; she would not, she dare not, mention her descent to any one not of her own race, and far less would she give an _exposé_ of Gipsydom; for she instinctively perceives, or at least believes, that, such is the prejudice against her race, people would avoid her as something horridly frightful, although she might be the finest woman in the world. Who ever heard of a civilized Gipsy, before Mr. Borrow mentioned those having attained to such an eminent position in society at Moscow? Are there none such elsewhere than in Moscow? There are many in Scotland. It is this unfortunate prejudice against the name that forces all our Gipsies, the moment they leave the tent, (which they almost invariably do with their blood diluted with the white,) to hide from the public their being Gipsies; for they are morbidly sensitive of the odium which attaches to the name and race being applied to them. It is quite time enough to discover the great secret of Nature, when it is unavoidable to enter

"The undiscovered country from whose bourne
No traveller returns."

As little disposition is manifested by these Gipsies to "show their hands:" the uncertainty of such an experiment makes the very idea dreadful to them. Hence it is that the constant aim of settled Gipsies is to hide the fact of their being Gipsies from other people.

It is a very common idea that Gipsies do not mix their blood with that of other people. Now, what is the fact? I may, indeed, venture to assert, that there is not a full-blooded Gipsy in Scotland;[259] and, most positively, that in England, where the race is held to be so pure, all that can be said of _some_ families is, that they have not been crossed, _as far as is known_; but that, with these exceptions, the body is much mixed: "dreadfully mixed" is the Gipsies' description, as, in many instances, my own eyes have witnessed. This brings me to an issue with a writer in the Edinburgh Review, who, in October, 1841, when reviewing the "Gipsies in Spain," by Mr. Borrow, says, "Their descent is purity itself; no mixture of European blood has contaminated theirs. . . . . . They, (the stranger and Gipsy,) may live together; the European vagrant is often to be found in the tents of the Gipsies; they may join in the fellowship of sport, the pursuit of plunder, the management of their low trades, but they can never fraternize." A writer in Blackwood's Magazine, on the same occasion, says, "Their care to preserve the purity of their race might, in itself, have confuted the unfounded charge, so often brought against them, of stealing children, and bringing them up as Gipsies." More unfounded ideas than those put forth by these two writers are scarcely possible to be imagined.[260]

[259] It is claimed, by some Scottish Gipsies, that there are
full-blood Gipsies at Yetholm, but I do not believe it. This, I may
venture to say, that there can be no certainty, but, on the contrary,
great doubt, on the subject. But, after all, what is a pure Gipsy? Was
the race pure when it entered Scotland, or even Europe? The idea is
perfectly arbitrary.

[260] It would be interesting to know where these writers got such
ideas about the purity of the Gipsy blood. It certainly was not from
Mr. Borrow's account of the Gipsies in Spain, whatever they may have
inferred from that work.

This mixture of "the blood" is notorious. Many a full or nearly full-blood Gipsy will say that Gipsies do not mix their blood with that of the stranger. In such a case he only shuffles; for he whispers to himself two words, in his own language, which contradict what he says; which words I forget, but they mean "I belie it;" that is, he belies what he has just said. Besides, it lets the Gipsies down in their imagination, and, they think, in the imagination of others, to allow that the blood of their race is mixed. It is also a secret which they would rather hide from the world.[261] I am intimate with English Gipsy families, in none of whom is full blood; the most that can be said of them is, that they range from nearly full, say from seven-eighths, down to one-eighth, and perhaps less. Suppose that a fair-haired common native marries a full-blood Gipsy: the issue of such an union will show some of the children, in point of external appearance, perfectly European, like the father, and others, Gipsies, like the mother. If two such European-like Gipsies marry, some of their children will take after the Gipsy, and be pretty, even very, dark, and others after the white race. In crossing a second time with full white blood, the issue will take still more after the white race. Still, the Gipsy cannot be crossed altogether out; he will come up, but of course in a modified form. Should the white blood be of a dark complexion and hair, and have no tendency, from its ancestry, to turn to fair, in its descent, then the issue between it and the Gipsy will always be dusky. I have seen all this, and had it fully explained by the Gipsies themselves.

[261] An instance of this kind of shuffling is given by Mr. Borrow, in
the tenth chapter of the "Romany Rye," in the person of Ursula, a full
or nearly full-blood Gipsy. She confines the crossing of the blood to
such instances as when a Gipsy dies and leaves his children to be
provided for by "_gorgios_, trampers, and basket-makers, who live in
caravans;" but she says, "I hate to talk of the matter." When Mr.
Borrow asked her, if a Gipsy woman, unless compelled by hard
necessity, would have anything to do with a _gorgio_, she replied, "We
are not over-fond of _gorgios_, and we hate basket-makers and folks
that live in caravans." Here she makes a very important distinction
between _gorgios_, (native English,) and _basket-makers and folks that
live in caravans_, (mixed Gipsies.) She does not deny that a Gipsy
woman will intermarry with a native under certain circumstances. A
pretty-pure Gipsy, when angry, will very readily call a mixed Gipsy a
_gorgio_, or, indeed, by any other name.

The result of this mixture of the Gipsy and European blood is founded, not only on the ordinary principles of physiology, but on common sense itself; for why should not such issue take after the European, in preference to the Gipsy? If a residence in Europe of 450 years has had no effect upon the appearance of what may be termed pure Gipsies, (a point which, at least, is questionable,) the length of time, the effects of climate, and the influence of mind, should, at least, predispose it to merge, by mixture, into something bearing a resemblance to the ordinary European; which, by a continued crossing, it does. Indeed, it soon disappears to the common eye: to a stranger it is not observable, unless the mixture happens to be met with in a tent, or under such circumstances as one expects to meet with Gipsies. In paying a visit to an English Gipsy family, I was invited to call again, on such a day, when I would meet with some Welsh Gipsies. The principal Welsh Gipsy I found to be a very quiet man, with fair hair, and quite like an ordinary Englishman; who was admitted by his English brethren to "speak deep Gipsy." He had just arrived from Wales, where he had been employed in an iron work. Unless I am misinformed, the issue of a fair-haired European and an ordinary Hindoo woman, in India, sometimes shows the same result as I have stated of the Gipsies; but it ought to be much more so in the case of the Gipsy in Europe, on account of the race having been so long acclimated there. Indeed, it is generally believed, that the population of Europe contains a large part of Asiatic blood, from that continent having at one time been overrun by Asiatics, who mixed their blood with an indigenous race which they met with there.

Of the mixed Spanish Gipsy, to whom I have alluded, Mr. Borrow says, that "he had _flaxen hair_; his eyes small, and, like ferrets, red and fiery; and his complexion like a brick, or dull red, chequered with spots of purple." This description, with, perhaps, the exception of the red eyes, and spots of purple, is quite in keeping with that of many of the mixed Gipsies. The race seems even to have given a preference to fair or red hair, in the case of such children and grown-up natives as they have adopted into their body. I have met with a young Spaniard from Corunna, who is so much acquainted with the Gipsies in Spain, that I took him to be a mixed Gipsy himself; and he says that mixtures among the Spanish Gipsies are very common; the white man, in such cases, always casting his lot with the Gipsies. None of the French, German, or Hungarian Gipsies whom I have met with in America are full blood, or anything like it; but I am told there are such, and very black too, as the English Gipsies assert. Indeed, considering how "dreadfully mixed" the Gipsies are in Great Britain and Ireland, I cannot but conclude that they are more or less so all over the world.[262]

[262] Grellmann evidently alludes to Gipsies of mixed blood, when he
writes in the following manner: "Experience shows that the dark colour
of the Gipsies, which is continued from generation to generation, is
more the effect of education and manner of life than descent. Among
those who profess music in Hungary, or serve in the imperial army,
where they have learned to pay more attention to order and
cleanliness, there are many to be found whose extraction is not at all
discernible in their colour." For my part, I cannot say that such
language is applicable to full-blood Gipsies. Still, the change from
tented to settled and tidy Gipsydom is apt to show its effects in
modifying the complexion of such Gipsies, and to a much greater degree
in their descendants.

The blood once mixed, there is nothing to prevent a little more being added, and a little more, and so on. There are English Gipsy girls who have gone to work in factories in the Eastern States, and picked up husbands among the ordinary youths of these establishments. And what difference does it make? Is not the game in the Gipsy woman's own hands? Will she not bring up her children Gipsies, initiate them in all the mysteries of Gipsydom, and teach them the language? There is another married to an American farmer "down east." All that she has to do is simply to "tell her wonderful story," as the Gipsies express it. Jonathan must think that he has caged a queer kind of a bird in the English Gipsy woman. But will he say to his friends, or neighbours, that his wife is a Gipsy? Will the children tell that their mother, and, consequently, they themselves are Gipsies? No, indeed. Jonathan, however, will find her a very active, managing woman, who will always be a-stirring, and will not allow her "old man" to kindle the fires of a morning, milk his cows, or clean his boots, and, as far as she is concerned, will bring him lots of _chabos_.

Gipsies, however, do not like such marriages; still they take place. They are more apt to occur when they have attained to that degree of security in a community where no one knows them to be Gipsies, or when they have settled in a neighbourhood to which they had come strangers. The parents exercise more constraint over their sons than daughters; they cannot bear the idea of a son taking a strange woman for a wife; for a strange woman is a snare unto the Gipsies. If a Scottish Gipsy lad shows a hankering after a stranger lass, the mother will soon "cut his comb," by asking him, "What would she say if she knew you to be a loon of a Gipsy? Take such or such a one (Gipsies) for a wife, if you want one." But it is different with the girls. If a Gipsy lass is determined to have the stranger for a husband, she has only to say, "Never mind, mother; it makes no earthly difference; I'll turn that fellow round my little finger; I'll take care of the children when I get them." I do not know how the settled Scottish Gipsies broach the subject of being Gipsies to the stranger son-in-law when he is introduced among them. I can imagine the girl, during the courtship, saying to herself, with reference to her intended, "I'll lead you captive, my pretty fellow!" And captive she does lead him, in more senses than one. Perhaps the subject is not broached to him till after she has borne him children; or, if he is any way soft, the mother, with a leering eye, will say to him at once, "Ah ha, lad, ye're among Gipsies now!" In such a case, the young man will be perfectly bewildered to know what it all means, so utterly ignorant is he about Gipsies; when, however, he comes to learn all about it, it will be _mum_ with him, as if his wife's friends had _burked_ him, or some "old Gipsy" had come along, and sworn him in on the point of a drawn dirk. It may be that the Gipsy never mentions the subject to her husband at all, for fear he should "take her life;" she can, at all events, trust her secret with her children.

Why should there be any hard feelings towards a Gipsy for "taking in and burking" a native in this way? She does not propose--she only disposes of herself. She has no business to tell the other that she is a Gipsy. She does not consider herself a worse woman than he is a man, but, on the contrary, a better. She would rather prefer a _chabo_, but, somehow or other, she sacrifices her feelings, and takes the _gorgio_, "for better or worse." Or there may be considerable advantages to be derived from the connexion, so that she spreads her snares to secure them. Being a Gipsy, she has the whip-hand of the husband, for no consideration will induce him to divulge to any one the fact that his wife is a Gipsy--should she have told him; in which case she has such a hold upon him, as to have "turned him round her little finger" most effectually. "Married a Gipsy! it's no' possible!" "Ay, it is possible. There!" she will say, chattering her words, and, with her fingers, showing him the signs. He soon gets reconciled to the "better or worse" which _he_ has taken to his bosom, as well as to her "folk," and becomes strongly attached to them. The least thing that the Gipsy can then do is to tell her "wonderful story" to her children. It is not teaching them any damnable creed; it is only telling them who they are; so that they may acknowledge herself, her people, her blood, and the blood of the children themselves.