The Gipseys are a singular phenomenon in Europe; whether we contemplate their habitations, attend at their meals, or merely look in their faces, they always appear particular, and we are each moment struck with something new and extraordinary.

What appears most worthy of remark is, that neither time, climate, nor example, has, in general, hitherto, made any alteration. For the space of between three and four hundred years, they have gone wandering about, like pilgrims and strangers: they are found in eastern and western countries, as well among the rude as civilised, the indolent as active, people: yet they remain ever, and in all places, what their fathers were—Gipseys. Africa makes them no blacker, nor Europe whiter: they neither learn to be lazy in Spain, nor diligent in Germany: in Turkey, Mahomet, and among Christians, Christ, remain equally without adoration. Around, on every side, they see fixed dwellings, with settled inhabitants; they, nevertheless, proceed in their own way, and continue, for the most part, unsocial wandering robbers.

When we search for similar cases, among all the different people who have quitted their mother country, and inhabited a foreign one, we do not meet with a single instance that exactly agrees with that of the Gipseys. History certainly does record accounts of people that have migrated, and remained the same in a strange country; but then this constancy has been on account of religion, either permitted by the regents, or maintained by their victorious arms: though this last circumstance has existed much less frequently than might be imagined. Many instances have occurred in which, the people subdued being more enlightened than their conquerors, the latter have adopted the manners of the former. The Romans became Greeks on the conquest of Greece; and the Franks assumed the manners of the Gauls when in possession of their country: the Mantcheous vanquished the Chinese; but Chinese customs prevailed over those of the Mantcheous. How, then, does it happen that the Gipseys, who never either established their manners and customs by force, or obtained any toleration from governments under which they lived, remain unchanged, and resemble each other exactly, in every place? There are two causes, to which this coincidence is principally owing: one is the place whence they originate, with their consequent mode of thinking; the other arises from the circumstances which have hitherto attended their situation.

The Gipseys are unquestionably of eastern origin, and have eastern notions. There is a principle inherent in uncivilised people, particularly those of Oriental countries, which occasions them to be strongly attached to their own habits: hence every custom, every conception, which has once been current among them, be it ever so pernicious or ridiculous, is invariably preserved; or any affection which has once predominated in their minds, retains its dominion even for ages. Innovations do not easily succeed with people living in a state bordering on that of nature; the least deviation from custom is observed, and often resented with impetuosity. For any new thing to take root it must either be introduced by cunning and force, or be attended with the most favourable circumstances. This latter was the case with Christianity. Providence had called Greeks and Romans into the east, and, by innumerable vicissitudes, had rendered that country ripe for further instruction: then came the great Sower—Christ scattered the seed, and it prospered. Mahomet, on the contrary, before he became strong enough to enforce conviction with the sword, brought about his purpose by art: knowing that the weak side of his countrymen was their veneration for every thing handed down from their forefathers, he gave his new religion the colouring of antiquity.

Mahomet says, “We have swerved from the religion of our founder Abraham, and have introduced novelties among us. Abraham worshipped only one God; we have many Gods. I am sent to retrench these novelties, and to bring you back to the religion of your forefathers.” This was the first ground on which he went. When the Ishmaelite would not acquiesce in the charge of having fallen off from Abraham’s religion, Mahomet proceeded: “Ye are illiterate people; ye have no books: the inhabitants of the neighbouring countries have books, which contain the religion of Abraham.” The Arabians applied to the Jews and Christians, for information on this head; and as the event turned in favour of the pretended prophet, they yielded without contradiction. Mahomet proceeded in teaching, and again appealed to the people with books: the Arabians, too, continued asking questions, being more tractable whenever his assertions were confirmed; but when the contrary happened, a dispute arose, in which the prophet could only get the better by defending the antiquity of his madness at the expence of truth, accusing both the Jews and Christians with having falsified their books.

The same means that helped Mahomet with the Arabians, have been, in latter times, very serviceable to the Jesuits, in China. How would these cunning fathers have obtained admission for their religion among the Chinese, had they not referred to Confucius, in aid of their doctrines? These are only instances of changes in religion; but the case is precisely the same in other things. In the eastern nations, no improvement is adopted, be it of what kind it may, merely because it is an improvement. The Chinese are acquainted with the use of glass; yet their mirrors are always made of metal, and their windows of oyster-shells. Mechanical watches have been for ages used at the court of Pekin; but the bulk of the nation depend upon fire and water. [v]

It is evident from the above, that the Gipseys, by reason of their eastern origin, and consequent way of thinking, are not easily made to change their principles and habits. When we further consider the circumstances under which these people have hitherto existed, we want nothing more to make us comprehend why they have remained, to the present time, what they were at their first arrival in Europe.

Figure to yourself a person, in whom custom, and deep-rooted affections, are the only, and at the same time strong, impulses to action; in whose soul no new unwonted thoughts arise, in consequence of his own reflections, nor find easy admittance when proposed by others:—leave this man entirely to himself; do not permit any of those means to be used which are requisite to give a new turn to his ideas, and deep-rooted prejudices:—he must necessarily remain the same; and his latest posterity will continue like him: this is exactly the case with the Gipseys. Unused to reflect, fettered by habits, they arrived in our quarter of the globe. No state has, hitherto, done any thing for the express purpose of instructing or reforming them; except the Empress Theresa, by her regulations, which were never put in execution. On their first arrival, they procured passports, and free quarters, by their holy lies. They dispersed, begged, deceived the common people, by fortune telling: they stole: and for a long time no attention was paid to them. At last the evil grew too enormous; the complaints against them became so loud, that government was constrained to take official notice of them. Exemplary punishments were judged necessary: hanging and beheading were not sufficiently efficacious; and it was then thought expedient to banish them;—a proceeding more likely to render them worse than better, and even in other respects liable to many objections; still the custom has prevailed, down to the latest times. The neighbour, to whom these unpolished guests were sent, sooner or later, followed the same method of disengaging the evil, till, in the end, they were persecuted by almost all kingdoms and governments. Many states afterwards relaxing in their severity, the Gipseys were suffered to creep in, a few at a time, and were permitted to remain quiet: yet every one of them stood in fear, innocent or guilty, lest he might be taken unawares, merely because he was Gipsey, and delivered over to the executioner. They had been accustomed, in their own country, to live remote from cities and towns: now they became still more uniformly inhabitants of the forests, and outcasts; as, in consequence of the search which was made after them, or at least threatened to be made, they judged themselves to be more secure in deserts and concealment, than they would have been if frequenting places of established abode, and having free intercourse with the civilised inhabitants: whereby they were divested of the most, perhaps only, probable means of inducing them to change their manners. And yet, had they not sequestered themselves from other people, or had they been more inclined to mix in society, it is not likely, without some direct interference of government, that they would have been rendered better. There were two great obstacles to be surmounted:—first, by mere intercourse, it would have been, generally speaking, difficult to eradicate the prejudices and customs from their Oriental minds: secondly, being Gipseys, people would not willingly have established any correspondence with them. Let us reflect how different they are from Europeans: the one is white, the other black;—this clothes himself, the other goes half naked;—this shudders at the thought of eating carrion, the other regales on it as a dainty. Moreover these people are famed, and were even from their first appearance in Europe, for being plunderers, thieves, and incendiaries: the European, in consequence, not merely dislikes, but hates them. For the reasons above stated, the Gipseys have been, at different periods, driven from all the countries of Europe; and only a few simple people occasionally made a nearer acquaintance, in order to consult them on matters of superstition.

Such is the state of what has been done, and attempted, for the improvement of the Gipseys; whereas, so soon as it was discovered that they were strangers, who thought of nothing less than of returning into their own country, if any plan had been acted upon for their reformation, and only half the wise regulations left behind by the Empress Theresa in her states for the management of these people been adopted, and duly enforced, they would long ago have been divested of the rude nature of their ancestors, and have ceased to be the uncultivated branches of a wild stock. On the contrary, having always been either left to themselves or persecuted, it could not be otherwise, but that they must remain for ever, and in all places, the same.

Perhaps it is reserved for our age, in which so much has been attempted for the benefit of mankind, to humanise a people who, for centuries, have wandered in error and neglect: and it may be hoped, that while we are endeavouring to ameliorate the condition of our African brethren, the civilisation of the Gipseys, who form so large a portion of humanity, will not be overlooked. It cannot be denied, that, considering the multitude of them, their reform must be an object of very serious consideration to many states. Suppose, according to a rough estimate, that the Gipseys in Hungary and Transylvania, including the Banat, amount to upwards of one hundred thousand; what a difference would it not make, in those countries, if one hundred thousand inhabitants, mostly loungers, beggars, cheats, and thieves, who now reap where they have not sown, consuming the fruits of others’ labour, were to become industrious useful subjects! Their reformation would be a difficult task, as the attempts made by the Empress Theresa evinced:—a boy (for you must begin with children, and not meddle with the old stock, on whom no efforts will have effect) would frequently seem in the most promising train to civilisation; on a sudden his wild nature would appear, a relapse follow, and he became a perfect Gipsey again. But the measure is not, therefore, impossible: Was not the case precisely the same with the Saxons, whom Charles the Great converted to Christianity? Let the state resolving to appropriate the Gipsey tribe only persevere in its endeavours; some effect will be gained on the second generation, and with the third or fourth, the end will certainly be accomplished.

By an attentive observation, we may perceive that the Gipseys are endued with very good capacities, which promise to make a profitable return, for much trouble bestowed upon them. In the first Section one attempt, made on this speculation, is produced, and it is hoped it will be found sufficiently complete, to exhibit the leading features of their character.

The origin of the Gipseys has remained a perfect philosopher’s stone till a late period. For more than two hundred years, people have been anxious to discover who these guests were, that, under the name of Gipseys, came, unknown and uninvited, into Europe, in the fifteenth century, and have chosen to remain here ever since. No enquirer ever broached an opinion that met with his successor’s approbation; a fourth scarcely heard what a third had said, before he passed sentence and advanced something new. We have no reason to wonder at the miscarriage of these enquiries, which were neither more nor less than a collection of conjectures founded on imaginary proofs and partial speculation.—An author set to work, to discover a country whence the Gipseys came, or a people to whom they could belong; he found out a place which had been named, for instance, Zeugitana, or a people who bore some faint resemblance to the Gipseys. As one coal lights another, so these two similarities became perfectly applicable to the people whose origin he was seeking; he stopped here, and published his discovery.

Several investigators laid their foundation on hearsay, and unauthenticated evidence; they then endeavoured to assist this testimony by modelling the extraneous circumstances which could not be passed over, in order to make them coincide; if, notwithstanding all this, difficulties still occurred, they borrowed Alexander’s sword, and cut the knot which no milder means could undo.

That this has been the mode of proceeding hitherto, will be frequently proved in the course of the work. Even had the imagination not magnified any thing, nor modelled circumstances agreeably to its own fancy, yet the following, which is taken for granted, “that two people resembling each other in one or two particulars, must be descended from the same stock,” is an over-hasty conclusion. In the first place, reject that the most different nations may agree in some points; further, make the allowance for various parts of the world producing inhabitants of similar shape and colour;—What, then, remains to prove that the Gipseys are descended from any one of the people from whom they have been traced?

There are no records, or historical sources, leading to a direct discovery of the origin of the Gipseys; those which have been thought so, are not genuine. Nothing, therefore, remains, but to seek the truth, through circuitous tracks; by this means, it may certainly be found. A man must not go to tombstones, recently erected, in German church-yards, nor adduce a single custom, or the name of a country bearing a resemblance to that of Gipsey, as grounds of proof; and, on the other hand, overlook a hundred difficulties, or even positive contradictions. But if the language of the Gipseys, their name, the conformation of their bodies and minds, their customs and religious principles, mark a country where it is possible for them to have been indigenous; when History and Chronology corroborate the supposition, and there is not any other country in the world to which the Gipseys, all these particulars taken together, could belong; then the country, where these circumstances meet, must, in all probability, be their true mother country.

Whether their Hindostan origin has so much in its favour, is more than we dare venture to affirm; as it is very possible for the judgment to be so deceived, that we may believe what does not, in fact, exist. However, on perusing the subsequent pages, our readers will judge if, like our predecessors, we have erred, or have discovered the truth.