The Gipsies.

THE GIPSIES .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JUNE 23 , 1866 .

" The most appropriate word to apply to modem Gipsyisrn , and especially British Gripsyism , is to call it a- caste , and a kind of Masonic society , rather than any particular mode of life . " This passage occurs in a work * lately published , and

from which we shall occasionally quote in illustration of the remarks which , we venture to- make on this extraordinary people . That an article on Gripsyism . is not out of place in this MAGAZINE will be admitted hy every one

who knows anything of the history , manners , and customs of those strans-e wanderers among ' the nations of the earth . The Freemasons have a

language , words , and signs peculiar to themselves ; so have the Gipsies . A Freemason has in every country a friend , and in every climate a home , secured to him by the mystic influence of that world-wide association to which he belongs ;

similar are the privileges of the Gipsy . But here , of course , the analogy ceases . Freemasonry is an Order banded together for purposes of the highest benevolence . Gipsyism , we fear , has been a source of constant trouble aud inconvenience to European nations .

The interest , therefore , which as Masons we may evince in the Gipsies arises principally , we may say wholly , from the fact of their being a secret society , and also from the fact that many of them are enrolled in our lodges ; "indeed they

are the very people to push their way into a Masonic lodge ; for they have secrets of their own , and are naturally anxious to pry into those of others , by which they may be benefited . I was told of a Gipsy who died lately , the Master of a

Masons' lodge . A friend , a Mason , told me the other clay , of his having entered a house in Tetholm , t where were five Gipsies , all of whom responded to his Masonic signs . Masons should therefore interest themselves in and befriend the

Gipsies . "—( Simson ' s History . ) The origin of the Gipsies is involved in much obscurity . In every part of Europe they have been styled Egyptians . They are , however , now

believed by those who have made researches into their history , to have issued from Hindostan ; and this theory seems to be borne out by the fact that their language bears considerable affinity to Hindostauee . This peculiar language they guard with

the most jealous care ; and notwithstanding the most assiduous efforts of those who have devoted themselves to their acquisition , the vocabularies that have been gleaned amongst the Gipsies of Spain , Hungary , Germany , & c , by Borrow , Bright ,

Kogalnitchan , Pott , and Bischoif , are very scanty indeed . Mr . Simson , to whose work allusion has already been made , succeeded in obtaining from the Gipsies themselves only about a hundred words , after most patient and ingenious efforts . Of this

strange tongue , Mr . Borrow remarks : — " Is it not surprising that the language of'Petulengro ( an English Gipsy ) is continually coming- to my assistance whenever I appear to be at a loss with respect to the derivation of crabbed words ? I have made

out crabbed words in . ZEschylus by means of his speech ; and even in my biblical researches I have derived no slight assistance from it . " " Broken , corrupted , and half in ruins as it is , it was not long before I found that it was an original speech ,

far more so , indeed , than one or two others of high name an'd celebrity , which , up to that time , I had been in the habit of regarding with respect and veneration . Indeed many obscure points connected with the vocabulary of these languages ,

and to which neither classic nor modern lore afforded any clue , I thought I could now clear up by means of this strange , broken tongue , spoken by people who dwell among thickets and furze bushes , in tents as tawny as their faces , and whom

the generality of mankind designate , and with much semblance of justice , as thieves and vagabonds . "

As regards the number of the British Gipsies , authorities are very much divided ; some , as Hoylaud in his " Historical Survey , " computing them at 18 , 000 ; others at double that number ; whilst the editor of " A History of the Gipsies" estimates

them at a still higher number . Throughout the world this strange race may be reckoned by millions . There are , moreover , in the United Kingdom , a vast multitude of mixed Gipsies , differing very

little in outward appearance , manners , and customs from ordinary Britons ; but in heart , thorough Gipsies , as carefully and jealously guarding their language and secrets , as we do , the secrets of the