Those we have mentioned are the customary professions and occupations of Gipseys, in the different countries and states of Europe. But people must not imagine that their smiths’ shops are continually resounding with the hammer; nor that those of other professions are so attentive to their callings, as to provide even a daily subsistence, not to think of a comfortable maintenance. Their consummate laziness, on the contrary, as before observed, occasions so many idle hours in the day, that their family is often reduced to the greatest distress; for which reason, begging or stealing is by far a more common method, than diligence or assiduous application to business, for quieting the cravings of hunger. If we except soldiers, who are kept in order by the discipline of the corporal, with some of the Transylvanian goldwashers, who apply to music—and, living separate from their own caste, in constant habits of intercourse with people of a better sort, have thereby acquired more civilised manners, and learned the distinction, if not between right and wrong, at least between social honour and disgrace—the remainder are, in the most unlimited sense, arrant thieves. In fact, working at any trade, or employment, seems to be merely a disguise, in order the better to enable them to carry on their thieving practices; as the articles which they prepare for sale in the cities and villages, furnish an excellent excuse for sneaking into houses, to pry where there is any thing which they may appropriate to themselves. This kind of artifice is particularly the province of the women, who have always been reckoned more dextrous than the men in the art of stealing. They commonly take children with them, who are tutored to remain behind, in the outer part of the house, to purloin what they can, while the mother is negotiating in the chamber. It is generally the women’s office to make away with the boor’s geese and fowls, when they are to be found in a convenient place. Should the creature make a noise when seized, it is killed and dressed for the consumption of the family; but if, by chance, it have strayed so far from the village, that its crying cannot give any alarm, they keep it alive to sell at the next market town. Winter is the time when the women generally are most called upon to try their skill in this way: during that season, many of the men remain in their huts, sending the women abroad to forage. They go about in the guise of beggars—a character they well know how to support—and commonly carry with them a couple of children, miserably exposed to the cold and frost; one of these is led by the hand, the other tied in a cloth to the woman’s back, in order to excite compassion in well-disposed people. Whole troops of these Gipsey beggars are met with in Spain; and the encounter is by no means pleasant, as they ask alms in a manner, and with such importunity, as if they thought you could not deny them. They also tell fortunes; and impose on the credulous with amulets. Besides all this, they seldom return to their husbands without some pilfered booty. Many writers confine the thefts of the Gipseys to small maters, and will not allow that they are ever guilty of violence. This is not only denied by the testimony of others, but absolutely contradicted by some recent instances. It is true that, on account of their natural timidity, they do hesitate to commit a robbery which appears to be attended with great danger, nor do they often break open houses by night: they rather confine themselves to petty depredations, than, as they think, rush voluntarily into destruction by a great and dangerous action. Yet we have more than one proof, that they make no scruple to murder a traveller, or plunder cities and villages.
CHAPTER VIII.
On their Marriages and Education.
There are not, perhaps, any other people among whom marriages are contracted with so little consideration, or solemnised with so little ceremony, as among the Gipseys. No sooner has a boy attained the age of fourteen or fifteen years, than he begins to perceive that something more than mere eating and drinking is necessary to him. Having no fear of consequences, nor being under any restraint from his parents, he forms a connection with the girl he most fancies, of twelve, or at most thirteen, years old, without any scruple of conscience, whether she be his nearest relation, or an entire stranger; but it is to be observed, that a Gipsey never marries a person who is not of the true Gipsey breed. God’s commandments are unknown to him; and human laws cannot have much influence over one who lives in a desert, remote from the observation of any ruling power. The term of courtship is very short, often only long enough for the parties to communicate their mutual inclination. They do not wait for any marriage ceremony, as it is a matter of no consequence to them, whether it be performed afterwards, or not at all. Yet they do not seem to be entirely indifferent about matrimony, not on account of conforming to any institution, but from a pride they have in imitating what is done by other people, lest they should appear to be inferior to them. As the very early age of the parties, or some other irregularity, might meet with objections from a regular clergyman, they frequently get one of their own people to act the priest, and tack the decent couple together. A marriage being thus accomplished, the man provides a stone for an anvil, a pair of pincers, a file, and hammers away as a smith; or works at some other trade, he may have just learned from his father: then begins his peregrination. Should his wife commit a fault at a future time, he gives her half a dozen boxes on the ear; or very likely, for some trifling cause, turns her off entirely. Her conduct must, in general, be very much regulated by his will; and she is obliged to be more attentive to him than to herself. When the woman lies-in, which happens frequently, these people being remarkably prolific, the child is brought forth, either in their miserable hut, or, according to circumstances, it may be in the open air, but always easily and fortunately: a woman of the same kind performs the office of midwife. True Gipsey like, for want of some vessel, they dig a hole in the ground, which is filled up with cold water, and the new-born child washed in it. This being done, it is wrapped up in some old rags, which the motherly foresight has taken care to provide. Next comes the christening, at which ceremony they prefer strangers, for witnesses, rather than their own caste: but what kind of folks their guests are, may be collected from the mode of entertaining them. When the christening is over, the father takes the sponsors to an alehouse, or if none be near, to some other house, where he treats them with cakes and brandy. If he is a little above the lowest state of misery, and has a mind to be generous, other things are provided; but he does not join the company, being employed in serving his guests. Thus the affair ends. The lying-in woman passes her short time of confinement, seldom exceeding eight days, with her child, in the hut, or under a tent, in the smoke by the fire. Refreshments are often sent from the godfathers and godmothers; yet they are sometimes so uncivil, that they do not hesitate to quarrel with them or even to discharge them from the trust, if they think the present too small, or do not like the provisions. When this happens, they have another christening, in some other place; nay, sometimes even a third.
Gipsey women, as already mentioned, frequently smear their children over with a particular kind of ointment, and then lay them in the sun, or before the fire, in order that the skin may be more completely parched, and their black beauty thereby increased. They never use a cradle, nor even possess such a piece of furniture; the child sleeps in its mother’s arms, or on the ground. When the lying-in is over, the Gipsey woman goes to church, and thence, immediately, either to begging or stealing. While the child remains in her arms, perhaps imagining that people will be less severe in their chastisements, she is more rapacious than at other times, and takes whatever she can lay her hands on. If she cannot escape without a beating, she endeavours to screen herself by holding up the child to receive the blows, till she finds an opportunity of retiring imperceptibly, and running away.
When the child gets a little stronger, and has attained the age of three or four months, the mother seldom carries it on the arm, but at her back; there it sits, winter and summer, in a linen rag, with its head over her shoulder. If she have more children, in course of time, which is generally the case, as this race of beings is so prolifick, she leads one or two by the hand, while such as are older run by her side; and thus attended, she strolls through the villages and into houses. Notwithstanding their dark complexion, and bad nursing, writers are unanimous in stating, that these children are good-looking, well shaped, lively, clever, and have fine eyes. The mother plaits their black hair on the crown of the head, partly to keep it out of their face, and partly for ornament. This is all she ever does towards decorating her offspring; for in summer the children wear no clothes till ten years of age, and in winter they are forced to be content with a few old rags hung about them.
No sooner is the child, whether boy or girl, capable of running about, than it is taught to dance; which talent consists in jumping on one foot, and constantly striking behind with the other. As the young Gipsey grows up, all kinds of postures are added, in hopes of diverting, and thereby to obtain a reward from persons who happen to pass the parents’ habitation. What the children are further taught, especially by their mothers, is the art of stealing, which they often put in practice, as before related. Instruction or school is never thought of; nor do they learn any business, except perhaps to blow the fire when the father forges, or to assist in goldwashing.
By the twelfth or thirteenth year, a boy acquires some knowledge of his father’s trade; and then becomes emancipated from parental authority; as he now begins to think of forming his own separate connections. The Gipseys, in common with uncivilised people, entertain unbounded love for their children: this is a source of the most unpardonable neglect. Gipsey children never feel the rod; they fly into the most violent passion, and at the same time hear nothing from their parents but flattery and coaxing. In return, they act, as is commonly the consequence of such education, with the greatest ingratitude. This excessive fondness for their children is, however, attended with one advantage:—when they are indebted to any person, which is frequently the case in Hungary and Transylvania, the creditor seizes a child, and by that means obtains a settlement of his demand; as the Gipsey will immediately exert every method to discharge the debt, and procure the release of his darling offspring.
To the beforegoing account of Gipsey marriages, and education, there are but few exceptions; comprised in a small proportion of them who have fixed habitations. The character of people being formed by the instruction they receive in their early years, can it then be thought surprising that Gipseys should be idlers, thieves, murderers, and incendiaries? Is it probable, that man should become diligent, who has been educated in laziness? Can it be expected those should leave every person in possession of his own property, whose father and mother have taught them to steal, from their earliest infancy? Who can have a general idea of fair dealing, that knows not right from wrong, nor has ever learned the distinction between good and evil, virtue and vice? Punishments inflicted on others, for their crimes, have no effect upon one who is not sufficiently attentive to take warning by the examples of strangers: and when, by his own experience, he is taught not to lay hands on the property of others, he is become so hardened, that the milder punishments leave no lasting impression; while the more severe ones, which reach the life, cannot have any effect on him, and are, as before observed, totally disregarded by his fellows. So long therefore as the education of the Gipseys continues to be what it is, we cannot hope that they should leave off their vile practices and filthy habits.