THE ORIGIN OF GYPSIES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 88, 15 April 1911, Page 10

THE ORIGIN OF GYPSIES.

In the fifteenth century a new and undesirable element made its appearance in tho lower stratum of English society, to swell the already overcrowded ranks of thriftless wanderers. These were bands o£ nomads, having no regular means of subsistence, who came to be known as gypsies. The name gypsy, ;ielnfj a corruption of "Egyptian," assumes that Egypt was the original home of this 6trange people, as was widely believed when they made their first appearance in Europe early in tho fifteenth century. This, however, was a mistake, of which their language leaves no doubt, proclaiming vi it does that they aro wanderers from a more distant East, an outcast tribe from Hindustan. The French mo-do a similar error in calling them Bohemians, imaging they were expelled Hussites of Bohemia. In different countries they obtained different names for themeslves; as Gitanos in Spain, Zingari in Italy, and Pharaoh-nepak (Pharasah's people) in Hungary, although they called themselves Sinte, asserting that they came from Sind — that is, Ind or Hindustan. Notwithstanding their intercourse with other nations, their manners, customs, visage, _ and appearance have remained distinctive for centuries ; and in this count i y their pretended knowledge of futurity has given them considerable power oyer the ignorant and superstiiions. The bolder and moro heroical spirits of Elizabeth's limo who "spurned the baso mechanical arts" found outlflle for more honourable employment in life beyond the soae— the wild and profligate, perhaps, in seeking' adventures in tho Spanish Main. But the less adventurous,, and perhaps the more unimaginative, to whom regular labour was equally irkdotne, instead of joining themselves to sett-rovers went out of the towns .mil villages to the wealds and heaths: they ihscoloured their skins, gave an Oriental fashion to their ragged apparel, learned the gypsy dialect, and -put on tho gypsy -nature of cheating and pilfering.— F. W. Hackwood in "The Good Old Times."