Pictured above

 VERY OLD PRINT OF GYPSIES ON THE MARCH SHOWING THEM AS THEY CAME INTO EUROPE FROM ASIA AND MUCH AS THEY HAVE LIVED EVER SINCE Kindly  (Extracted by Sandy Buckland)

BUDAPEST SEPT 15th

The Hungarian government has ordered that all Gypsies must not only take up fixed dwellings but perform military service.

They must abandon the costumes of their fore-fathers , they are even forbidden to use their own language and must speak Hungarian, at the same time they receive the suffrage and right to own property.

Foreign Gypsies who have been very busy numerous in Hungary are ordered to leave or go to Jail, Gypsy Caravans from Romania, Czechoslovakia and other countries will be stopped at the frontiers.

The Gypsies had hitherto lived in complete independence and known no rule except that of their chief of their Clan to whom they paid tribute.

 King HERZEILAZEI the supreme Chief of the Hungarian Gypsies uttered an eloquent Protestantism, the new law depriving them of “ The freedom that God gave us “ but this government is merciless.

Consequently there is a real danger that not only will all the romance be taken out of the Gypsy life, but that the race itself will disappear.

 Their Nomadic existence is free footloose wandering is the thing that has kept them apart from the people of the lands through which they have roamed, that isolation has prevented their absorption and so the Gypsy strain has remained comparatively pure until the present day.

But if the Romany are to be confined within the borders of nations if they are to be taxed and conscripted and made to live like ordinary citizens anchored to permanent abodes, they will in no time inextricably mixed with non Gypsy populations that their customs language and breeding with disappear. The Leaders of the race in Hungary are throughly aware of the danger and they regard it with extreme apprehension for pride of race is practically all the religion a Romany has.

The Great sins in his creed are those which would tend to make him in anyway like a Gorgio- Gentiles- non-Gypsies

so that part from any considerations of comfort or expedience, the thought of having to abandon gypsy ways is utterly unthinkable.

A Gypsy's chief mission in life is to remain Gypsy and despoil non Gypsies , If he is to be made amenable to the laws of non gypsies he can neither retain racial integrity one over comes the Gorgios and life will be not worth living.

The situation is one so desperate the leaders in Hungary are planning a mass exodus like no other to America ,caravans Horses and all – like nothing since that of the tribes of Israel out of Egypt.

The Gypsies want Congress to declare them a nation a separate entity like Germany or England so that they may have an immigration quota and be allowed through Ellis Island in worthwhile numbers.

Without such a ruling it would take many years for all the tribes to reach America, It would be very unlikely Congress will give the Gypsies a Quota for they have never been recognized as a nation since they first appeared five centuries ago. Stranger things have happened and their American Gypsy Brothers are not without power and influence might conceivably lend their brothers practical help.

The Persecution of the Gypsies began when they first appeared in Europe about 1400 from their mysterious home in Asia. The German Emperor in 1479 proclaimed that Gypsies were outlaws anybody could kill them and would go unpunished.

 The Count of Ruess in 1711 ordered all Gypsies to be shot on sight.

 One excuse for the present Hungarian government was that of Madame Hilda Hanika a gypsy who had excited great popular indignation by poisoning her husband for which she was strangled to death. Every conceivable crime was at times charged against the Gypsies .

 It was said that Gypsies would exhumed dead bodies to satisfy their craving for Human Flesh , 45 Gypsies were unjustly executed for this in 1782 in Hungary.

This accusation against the Gypsies was based on their misunderstanding of one of their most ancient funeral customs.

A Gypsy grave is marked by a curious post shaped like a wedge the upper end of which is hardly visible above surface of the ground while the lower end is almost touches the head of the corpse.

The object was to hasten the decomposing of the body, Formerly they would remove the head of the corpse and bury it elsewhere, according to the Gypsy belief the soul could only enter “ The Kingdom of the dead “ after the complete dissolution of the body.

The Gypsies met with rather better treatment in England & Scotland than in other countries, In England they were subject to a King belonging to the LEE family JOSEPH LEE died 1884.

 Recently many English Gypsies have inter-married with London Costamongers and the breed has not improved. Most American Gypsies are descended from English Tribes.

The Gypsy race is known by many names in different parts of Europe The English term GYPSY is a corruption of the word Egyptian and seems to have been taken by the Gypsies themselves in England as it improved their position to be thought descendants of of the ancient Egyptians.

 They were thought to have some of the wisdom and super natural powers of the Egyptian Pharaohs priests.

This accounted for their skill as fortune tellers.In Hungary where they had always been a conspicuous feature in life numbered some 200.000 they are called TZIGANES, The Hungarian Gypsies are wonderfully musical and many of their lyrics are considered among the most beautiful in existence. An example of one of the kind of Hungarian TZIGANE was Janesi Rigo the musician who lured the Princess de Chimay away from her wealthy family and illustrious husband to share his wandering life.In Italy the Gypsies are called ZINGARI and in Spain GRITANOS the women GRITANAS Carmen was a remarkable specimen of that brand.In the Latin countries they were treated very cruelly in France Louis XIV times orders were given to exterminate them all. Finally a remnant were allowed to settle in the remote Basque province, In 1802 under Napoleon this remnant was shipped to Africa.One theory of the origin of the Gypsies holds that they came from India and were probably driven out by the cruelty of some Ruler or higher caste, they spoke their own language until recently and now use their adopted country it is always largely mixed with Gypsy words.

The Gypsy speech is allied with the Dardu group of languages spoken in Kashinir and other countries in north-western India. It is of the Sanskrit stock. From India the Gypsies wandered through Western Asia and gradually filtered into Europe from the Balkan States Hungary was naturally one of their earliest haunts and Bohemia was another.

Small bodies of them kept wandering west-wards and so after reaching England they passed on to America and other tribes went to south America.

Another theory and more recent claims that the Gypsies were originally of the same stock as the Arabs who inhabit the marshes along the banks of the Tigria and Euphrates in lower Mesopotamia and that with the coming of the Sassanri or

Pre-Mohammedan rulers of Persia these Arabs were driven away from their homes about the ancient site of Babylon,They wandered through Persia to Syria and Palestine and eventually crossed into Europe.

Undoubtedly the best specimens of Gypsies possess a knowledge of healing herbs not known to other people and they have valuable medical knowledge and not unnaturally they are accused by their enemies of manufacturing poisons.

The Gypsies became Christians in most European countries but they know little about religion and their beliefs are a mixed up with their ancient Hindu faith.

 The Full title they give their God is “ BARO DEVEL “ meaning supreme being they believe his son ALAKO will eventually restore them to their native land. ALAKO is represented holding a pen in his left hand and a Sword in his right , The word DEVEL really means SKY and suggests conception of the universe, the word is defniately evident in the SANSKRIT language connected the word for god is DEVA.

The Gypsies live a healthy open air life and is so seldom ill that it is provable among them “ that Romanies are ill but once- and that is the last time “.Evidently freedom is of the essence of the Gypsy life- freedom from laws and roofs, freedom to roam where they please, If they are shut up in houses they will no longer be Gypsies.

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   LILTS OF ROMANY

Then I have some very special friends in the English Boswells the Aristocracy of the English Gypsies who for the last ten years have made their home in Canada The very least of the didikai whistle respectfully at the mention of this name.

They are in a way highly intellectual but the old fierce blood runs in them underneath all their gorgio education.

Eden Boswell for instance as handsome as any stage gypsy ever dared to be with great shoulders a small waist dark smoldering eyes teeth even pearls and white as milk with a laugh that will draw women and men to him as if with a silken cord.

 To hear him sing the old Romany Lilts The old old songs of Gypsydom in the gypsy language the songs that all have secret meanings that is something to stir the blood Once on an island where we were camping in a little known Canadian river I sat all night by a handful of fire listening to the strange husky yet divine voice as he walked up and down outside the circle of light.

The moon shining of course No gypsy wants to sing in the night unless light is lit

   FIDELITY IN LOVE

 The Gypsy man has something that few gorgio men possess in the same degree he has in love the utmost fidelity tenderess and passion and devotion from his mate. For a gypsy woman to be false to her marriage vows is all but unheard of. In return for this she is fiercely jealous .Her man it must be remembered is always more or less under her eye. He and the household life are as one.

You don;t hear much in the newspapers about what happens sometimes in the gypsy camps, I shall now tell you a story thust i dare too after ten years as all the parties in it are out of the country, It is realted to as here set down by one of gypsy blood in his veins who claims to be an eye witness.

 Picture yourself in a gypsy camp three wagons about ten horses two children fire in the middle with sharp pointed piece of iron over it,the kettle hanging over it from the long black hook atop it ,moon shine a man with a red sash a velvet coat with gold buttons and a large blue silk scarf wound about his black curls lying on a big braided rug before the fire.

 He is playing his guitar and singing a Romany song, At the fire with a red pleated skirt and a yellow silk waist priceless corals around her neck a beautiful woman bends putting corn unhusked in the ashes of the fire to roast

I stroll on the scene “Shalem Rawni” they say receiving me I ask after the four missing wagonsThey have gone up the other road I am told Something is in the air I don;t know what but i don;t like the feel of it That little little drop of the

Kaulli ratti ( the black blood) that i have tells me all is not well despite the peace of the scene.

 We eat, then the children are put to bed The horses are hobbled for the night. My bed is made for me in one of the lovely wagons, lovely fragant sheets all tidy in the vardo the singing still going on outside Why am I so nervous The song ceases After a few mintutes there is a strong gurgling cry I start up and rush out, there lies the singer by the fire and the woman is shivering and shaking besides him,the knife the gypsy women carry beneath their skirts is is sticking from the breast of the still figure.

I have heard of this thing but never seen it and I turn ill, After a time I go over to the woman she is moaning and kissing the dark handsome face .So he was false ? I say in the romany Jib At-at -he was false He owned to it.

He said he was a feared he would be false again It was a stain he wanted to go So -I looked down at the man who's beauty was fatal I had never seen such a man creature since All women many gorgios even simply threw themselves at his feet.

 He had a sweetheart among the farmers daughters in a state not far from New York and his wife had come to know of it He had confessed not only to that lapse but his fear that he could not save himself from the degradation of continued affairs Therefore his wife had killed him – He sung his last song then bared his breast to her knife that is kept for that

 purpose but seldom used.

  THE FUNERAL PIRE

Together we placed him in his wagon and drove twenty miles into the hills wherethe rest of the wagons were and there built a funeral pire. We tended it for 24 hours until there was nothing leftbut a blackened skull This woman put n a velvet bag and took away with her leaving behind only some grey ashes and the marks of where the wagons had been.

The World, February 10,

Gave a view of a Gypsy camp at Decker's Heights, Port Richmond, Staten Island, showing a bâro vardo, and a portrait of Ellen Bucklin ; the camp being that of King Kit Bucklin, reported to be 98 years old, and his wife 78, and they had a son David. There were nine tents, and about thirty persons : the children happy, healthy, and comfortable, though the thermometer ' clung around zero.'