Such is the condition of the Gipseys who wander about in Hungary, Turkey, and other countries; being no-where, or rather every-where, at home. The remainder of these people who have reconciled themselves to a settled mode of living, are in much better circumstances, and infinitely more rational, than those just described. It will be expected, that those Spanish Gipseys who are innkeepers, and entertain strangers, are more civilised; and it also holds good with regard to those in Hungary and Transylvania who have different ways of gaining a livelihood. Their habitations are conveniently divided into chambers; and are furnished with tables, benches, decent kitchen furniture, and other necessaries. The few who farm, or breed cattle, have a plough and other implements of husbandry; the others, what is necessary for carrying on their trade; though even here you are not to expect superfluity: habitations, clothes, every thing, indicate that their owners belong to the class of poor. They are very partial to gold and silver plate, particularly silver cups; which is a disposition they have in common with the wandering Gipseys: they let slip no opportunity of acquiring something of the kind; and will even starve themselves to procure it. Though they seem little anxious to heap up riches for their children, yet these frequently inherit a treasure of this sort, and are obliged in their turn to preserve it as a sacred inheritance. The ordinary, travelling Gipseys when in possession of such a piece of plate, commonly bury it under the hearth of their dwelling, in order to secure it. This inclination to deprive themselves of necessaries, that they may possess a superfluity, as well as many other of their customs, is curious, yet appears to be ancient; and it was probably inherent in them when they were first seen by Europeans.
CHAPTER VII.
Their Occupations and Trades.
On considering the means to which the Gipseys have recourse to maintain themselves, we shall perceive the reason why poverty and want are so generally their lot; namely, their excessive indolence, and aversion from industry. They abhor every kind of employment which is laborious or requires application; and had rather suffer even hunger and nakedness, than obviate these privations on such hard terms. They therefore either choose some profession which requires little exertion, allowing them many idle hours; or addict themselves to unlawful courses, and vicious habits.
Working in iron, is the most usual occupation of the Gipseys. In Spain, very few follow any regular business; but among these few, some are smiths: on the contrary, in Hungary this profession is so common among them, that there is a proverb—‘So many Gipseys, so many smiths:’ the same might be said of those in Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, and all Turkey in Europe; at least such workers in fire are very numerous in all those countries. This occupation seems to have been a favourite with them from the most distant periods, as appears not only by Bellonius’s account, but by an older record, of an Hungarian king Uladislaus, in the year 1496, mentioned by the Abbé Pray, in his Annals, and Friedwaldsky, in his Mineralogy, wherein it is ordered, that every officer and subject, of whatever rank or condition, do allow to Thomas Polgar, leader of twenty-five tents of wandering Gipseys, free residence everywhere, and on no account to molest either him or his people; because they had prepared musket bullets, and other military stores, for the Bishop Sigismund, at Fünfkirchen. Another instance occurred in the year 1565, when Mustapha, Turkish regent of Bosnia, besieged Crupa; the Turks having expended their powder and cannon balls, Gipseys were employed to make the latter, part of iron, the rest of stone cased with lead.
The Gipseys of our time are not willing to undertake heavy work; they seldom go beyond a pair of light horse-shoes: in general, they confine themselves to small articles, such as rings, jews-harps, and small nails: they mend old pots and kettles, make knives, seals, needles, and sometimes work trifles in tin or brass.
Their materials, tools, apparatus, all are bad, and of the most inferior kind. Their common method of proceeding is, to collect some pieces of rusty iron, old nails, broken horse-shoes, and such-like, which they fuse and shape to their purpose. The anvil is a stone; the other implements are, a pair of hand-bellows, a pair of pincers, a hammer, a vice, and a file: these are the tools which a nomadic Gipsey carries with him in his perambulations. Whenever he is disposed to work, he is at no loss for fuel: on his arrival at a station where he purposes remaining a few days, or perhaps weeks, he takes his beast, loads him with wood, builds a small kiln, and prepares his own coals. In favourable weather, his work is carried on in the open air; when it is stormy, or the sun too powerful, he retires under his tent. He does not stand, but sits down on the ground, cross-legged, to his work; which position is rendered necessary, not only by custom, but by the quality of his tools. The wife sits by to work the bellows, in which operation she is sometimes relieved by the elder children; the little ones sit, naked as they were born, round the fire. The Gipseys are generally praised for their dexterity and quickness, notwithstanding the wretched tools they have to operate with. When any piece of work requires much time to finish, they are apt to lose their patience, and in that case become indifferent whether it be well executed or not. They never submit to labour so long as they have got a dry crust, or any thing else to satisfy their hunger. They frequently receive orders to fabricate different articles; but if not, no sooner are a few nails, or some other trifles, manufactured, than man, woman, and children, dislodge, to convey their merchandise, from house to house, for sale, in the neighbouring villages: their traffick is carried on sometimes for ready money, sometimes by barter for eatables or other necessaries.
Another branch of commerce much followed by the Gipseys is horse dealing, to which they seem to have been attached from the earliest period of their history. In those parts of Hungary where the climate is so mild that horses may lie out all the year, the Gipseys avail themselves of this circumstance to breed, as well as deal in, those animals; by which they sometimes not only procure a competence, but grow rich. Instances have been known on the Continent of Gipseys keeping from fifty to seventy horses each, and those the best bred horses of the country; some of which they let out for hire, others they sold or exchanged, as occasion offered. But this description of Gipsey horse-dealers is not very numerous; for the greatest number of them deal only in blind worn-out jades, which they drive about to different markets, to sell or barter. When the dealer is not fortunate enough to find a chap for his nag, he leads him to the collar-maker, who values the hide, and takes him off his hands for a few groschens. In order to prevent being reduced to this necessity, the slyest tricks are practised to conceal the animal’s defects. In Spain, therefore, Gitano and Gitaneria (Gipsey and Gipseyism) are become familiar expressions to imply a cheater in horses, with the deceptions he makes use of. In the year 1727 they had become so infamous in Sweden, that the subject was thought of sufficient consequence for the consideration of the diet, and their total expulsion was voted to be a necessary measure. The following trick is frequently played in Hungary, and the adjacent country, to make a horse appear brisk and active:—the rider alights at a small distance from the place where he means to offer his horse for sale, and belabours him till he has put the whole muscular system in motion with fright; he then mounts again, and proceeds. The poor beast remembering the blows he has received, jumps about, or sets out full speed, at the least signal; the buyer, entirely ignorant of the preparatory discipline the animal has undergone, supposes this to be natural vivacity, and in hopes that good feeding, with care, will render him still more lively, strikes a bargain: but the next day he has the mortification to discover that he has bought a jade, on which all his care will be thrown away, as the beast has not a leg to stand upon. In Suabia, and on the Rhine, they have another device:—they make an incision in some hidden part of the skin, through which they blow the creature up, till he looks fleshy and plump; they then apply a strong sticking-plaster, to prevent the air from returning. If what Wolfgang Franz assures us be true, they sometimes make use of a trick with a live eel, to this blown-up horse, that he may not only appear in good condition, but spirited and lively. It might be thought, that, on account of these and such-like roguish proceedings, nobody would ever venture to deal with a Gipsey for a horse, were not the possibility proved by the fact itself. But we see instances of this infatuation in other transactions: it is well known that every Jew will cheat, whenever he has an opportunity; yet these people have lived by trade, ever since their dispersion from Babel. Then, these frauds do not always happen: the Gipseys too sell their horses cheap; and as poor people cannot afford to pay dear for them, they must buy where they can; and thus the Gipseys are enabled to continue their traffick.
To the two professions before mentioned as commonly followed by the men, may be added, those of carpenters and turners: the former make watering-troughs and chests; the latter turn trenchers, dishes, make spoons and other trifling articles, which they hawk about. There are others who make sieves, or maintain themselves by cobbling shoes. Many of these, as well as the blacksmiths and whitesmiths, find constant employment in the houses of the better sort of people, for whom they work the year round. They are not paid in money; but, beside other advantages, find a certain subsistence. Those who are not thus circumstanced, do not wait at home for customers, but, with their implements in a sack thrown over their shoulders, seek business in the cities or villages: when any one calls, they throw down the bundle, and prepare the apparatus for work, before the door of their employer.
The Gipseys have a fixed dislike to agriculture; and had rather suffer hunger, or any privation, than follow the plough, to earn a decent livelihood. But, as there is no general rule without an exception, so, beside the slaves to the bojars in Moldavia and Wallachia, who are constrained to apply to it, there are some in Hungary who are cultivators by choice. Since the year 1768, the Empress Theresa has commanded that the Hungarian and Transylvanian Gipseys should be instructed in husbandry; but these orders have been very little regarded. At this time there are so few of them farmers, in those parts, that they are undeserving of notice; though in Spain, and other European countries, they are still more scarce, as it would be difficult to find one who had ever made a furrow in his life.