THE LIFE OF THE GIPSY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2739, 29 May 1924, Page 1

THE LIFE OF THE GIPSY.

DESCENT FROM TSHMA ELITES. STRANGE AND ANCIENT PEOPLE. “Our people rive a strange people and an nnoienf people.” said Captain Gipsy Pnf Smith, (lie evange-li-t, in (lie course of a vaoy and interesting address on Romany life

Ihe weekly luncheon of (lie Ancle. land Rotary Club. Hr explained that the word Gipsy was no) known in the Romany vocabulary, hut his people now called themselves by that name n= (he Gorpins or those not of Romany hlot.d had hesfwed that title upon them. Tlie name Gip. sy, however, was no clue to the origin of the people, and when Tan MncLarcii and Sir James Barrio spoke of Ihe-m as “these Egypt in ns” tliey erred. Tlie best cine to (he origin of a people was (heir traditions, arid the legend handed down by the old people was that they were the direct descendants of the Tshmnelites mentioned in the l(ith Chapter of Genesis. They had a Irngnuge of their own and the speaker was of the opinion that the word Romany had been adopted as being Ihe language of a roaming people,

■ The English gypsies, said tlie irpenker. could trace their ancestry hack to the year 1 Ifltili A.D. He was, however, no( keen on those who were for ever speaking of their ancestry for the reason that he felt that tliev were like the potato —the host part of them was underground. He explained that there were gypsies as English as the English themselves, while those of the tribe in Scotland and Ireland had acquired most of the characteristics of the people among whom they roamed, yet they were a distant race with customs and language of their own. Tn all his travels he had never met a Romany, with the exception of his own father, who could read or write hut all could relate the story of the Tshmaelites. They were taught from their earliest years that the hand of the Gentile was against them and so they were against the Gentile.

Dealing with their means of livelihood, Captain Smith said that apart from “finding” things, not stealing as was generally supposed, tin chief >ouree of revenue to the gipsies was fortune-telling. He found when lie became converted that he could no longer live the life of his people for, as he put it, “you cannot tell fortunes if you cannot tell lies.” To this difficulty he attrihilled the fact that, few of his people embraced religion because they were not willing to live in the street called “Straight.” Tt. was somewhat different with the Gentiles, he naively stated, mentioning that in his younger days he was wont to think that if a man went to church lie must be good in all things, but lie had since been disillusioned.