VANISHING GYPSIES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 82, 3 October 1931, Page 22

VANISHING GYPSIES

. Onee'upon a time the gypsy was easy ito^reeiognise; • He tripled the roads iwith ■careerow vans/lean asses, dusky childTen,; splashes of tawdry colour, and an air of keeping himself disdainfully aloof from his fellow:'creatures. He waagarbedxin rags, but he seemed to condescend. Always behind him, like •/..fox's scent,, lay scattered a trail of -.insolent , depredation—ravished or-' ehards,. plundered; hen-roost meaduws from Tfhich young hares had been whispered,empty stables fro^n' which the farmer's cob had been most diabolically lured,'writes' Lady Eleanor, Smith infthe//Daily Mail." ' ; ' ;.

AnimaU;followed in the-wake of this tattojedgypiy as though ho were the mitfie 'piper of' Browning's poem. At sight, camped .on the wildest heath be-, Heath ihr stars, the gypsy fed his family royally,,on roast pheasant, baby lamb, jugged hare, chicken, and rabbit •tew. >;He ■asked no quarter and received none. .His -swarthy' wife, more cunning than ,the'serpent, had Lev own means! of 'supplementing the family exchequer. It iseasy-to hawli baskets on marketday, easier; > itill to insinuato yourself .tbrongh-the back floors of lonely farmhouiei)"there to \vhi^'per love-se'erets to awestruck servant girls. 'Such.facile •ways of making a' few pence began Bbpner or liter tb pall upon tho gypsy wiich-^o'man. ■ ■■■ ■ ■

Thus, before very , long was evolved tho "great swindle .of the Komany people, kh^wn.'Kjr, them, in their own language aa thV'boro hukni. ' .

Th« busineM is a simple one. The gypij woman, Selecting with expert'eye some - flintier'• wife'sufficiently gullible f or ;hir purpose, begins by cajoling and flatt«ring;,therßimp!e soul with promises of making money for her by means of Egyptian spells. The farmer's wife is invariably in. the end persuaded to geeret« ,fiv© or ton pounds in a sack and bnry.itia.tome remote place where the gjfpsy atsnrei her that it will, within ■«vm dayi, by some magical proceis or •ther, be doubled or trebled in value. "Why," possibly asks some farmer's Wif« lew.foolish than her sisters, '.'why aren.'i.yon ,n, rich woman yourself, tbeß,,if.:y,qu can'play these tricks with An«t ,tli«;jtjrp»y,, fixing her ■'vrlth brilKaat, h*»dy eyes: ''Tie^»pena. arcn'fc. any good, lady,

DRIVEN INTO HOUSES

when the poor gypsy tries to work them forI.,herself. .■.. ; ').

.'" Incredible?, Possibly, but the money was always buried exactly where the sybil directed, only-to be dug up again by the gypsy people as soon as darkness fell. And then a swift, secret nocturnal flight'to the other end of the county, where, after lying low for a few days, there was much.feasting and dancing at the expense of ' c simple farmer's wife.

Bpch were the gypsies of the old days. Nowadays, although they exist and thrive like rabbits, they are less ofte» to be ■■ encountered . upon their happy hunting-ground, the road. There are many- reasons for this change..

One is the (increased and sometimes merciless vigilance of official inspectors, who seem,; according to the gypsies, to "have eyes in the back of their ugly heads." Another is that the roads of England, with their constant, noisy stream of traffic, are no Wnger suited to the dreamy peregrinations of Egyptian vans and asses. Nojvadays.taey have been driven forth from their nomads' kingdom by a whole army of campers, hikers, simple-lifers, and other amateur Bohemians.

. These hearty, muscular young men, and bouncing young women, in their uniform of khaki shorts, and hobnailed boots, seem at dusk to dive like homing pigeons towards these blooming hedgerows that ■ once sheltered the beehive tents of Egypt.

They are not to be dispossessed, for the roads' are theirs. If Maggie Tulliver ran away to the. gypsies to-day the chancfes are that she would tumble straightway into an encampment of Boy Sc'outa. If Borrow could to-day sit tinkering at a kettle in. his dingle^h'e would be. more likely than not to bo disturbed by a horde of hikers. ' Soon the gypsy, like his brother of America, will be driven to living ,in houses. Already some of them aro stifling their nomad instincts by renting fields from those farmers upon whose wives they once were wont to practise the boro ,hukni. In these fields, sullen and hunched about the lavender smoke of their fires, the Egyptians stare forth, inscrutably, upon an invading horde tramping, victoriously enough, those roads that once, long ago in Henry Vll.'a" reign, they in their turn invaded.