In reciting the employments of the Gipseys, their smith’s business was mentioned; when it was remarked, that their anvil is a stone, and what more implements they use consist in a pair of hand-bellows, a pair of tongs, a hammer, a vise, and a file. With such a portable apparatus, the travelling Gipsey wanders from place to place. We will compare this account with what Sonnerat relates of the Indian smiths: the following are his own words: “The smith carries his tools, his shop, and his forge, about with him, and works in any place where he can find employment: he erects his shop before the house of his employer, raising a low wall with beaten earth, before which he places his hearth; behind this wall he fixes two leathern bellows, which his apprentice blows alternately, to keep up the fire. He has a stone instead of an anvil, and his whole apparatus is a pair of tongs, a hammer, a beetle, and a file.” The most striking circumstance relating to this coincidence is, that both Gipsey and Indian should use the same kind of hand-bellows, and both have exactly two. As the apprentice works these for the Indian, so does the wife or one of the children for the Gipsey.
What is asserted of the young Gipsey girls, rambling about with their fathers who are musicians, dancing with all kinds of indecent and lascivious attitudes and gestures, to divert any person who is willing to give them a small gratuity for so acting, is likewise perfectly Indian. Sonnerat confirms this also.—“Surat is,” he says, “famous for its dancing girls. These young women devote themselves entirely to the worship of the Gods, whom they attend in the processions, dancing and singing before the representations of them. The handycraftsmen generally destine the youngest of their daughters to this service, and send them to the pagoda before they come to the age of puberty. There they have dancing and music masters, with persons to teach them to sing. The Bramins form their young minds, and deflower them; in the end, they become common prostitutes. They then join in companies, take musicians with them, to entertain any-body who chooses to engage them, with music and dancing.” Sonnerat speaks here likewise of the wanton gestures of these dancing girls, of which he has given a drawing; and ends his description thus: “The blinking of their eyes—half open, half shut—and the negligent sinking of their bodies, to the most languishing music, shew that their whole frame breathes nothing but lasciviousness.”
Fortune-telling is practised all over the east; but the peculiar kind professed by the Gipseys, viz. chiromancy—constantly referring to whether the parties shall be rich or poor, fortunate or unhappy in marriage; whether they shall have many or few children, &c.—is no-where met with but in India. The following instance will evince, how perfectly Gipseyish it is: “It once happened,” says Baldæus, “that the Rajah Khans made his appearance before the inhabitants; when being given to understand that an experienced Bramin was arrived, he ordered him to be brought before him, and said—‘Narret (that was his name), look at my daughter’s hand, and inform me whether she will be happy or unfortunate, poor or rich; whether she will have many or few children; if her life will be long or short: speak out freely, and conceal nothing.’ The Bramin having looked at her hand, replied, ‘May it please your Majesty, according to the indication of these lines, I read thus—She shall bear seven children, viz. six sons and a daughter; the youngest of whom shall not only deprive you of your crown and empire, but likewise of your head and life, and afterwards place himself in your seat.’” This method, Baldæus adds, of looking in the hands, is very common among the heathens.
The excessive loquacity of the Gipseys, as well as their very advantageous natural qualities, which have been before noticed, are likewise distinguishing characteristics of the Indian; besides, the very name Zigeuner, or, according to a broader way of pronunciation, Ciganen and Tchingenen, is the appellation of an Indian people, living at the mouth of the Indus, as mentioned by Thevenot.
Another striking intimation of the Indian descent of the Gipseys, is the partiality of the latter for red colours, or saffron: in like manner the Bramin performs all his religious duties in a white dress, without the least mixture of any other colour. On his return home from these functions, he changes his white turban for a red one. The common Indians also prefer this colour for their little round caps: and these last, especially on holidays, make a double deep yellow stripe on their foreheads with fat, saffron, and sacred cow-dung. The Bramins make the same stripe with red, as a mark of pre-eminence. Again, the Gipseys as Twiss assures us of those in Spain, never intermarry with any people who are not, like themselves, of Gipsey extraction; which puts us strongly in mind of the Indian castes.
CHAPTER VI.
The Gipseys are of the Caste called Suders.
We come now to the position we hoped to substantiate, viz. that the Gipseys are of the lowest class of Indians, namely, Parias; or, as they are called in Hindostan, Suders.
The whole great nation of Indians is known to be divided into four ranks or stocks, which are called by a Portuguese name, castes, each of which has its own particular subdivisions. Of these castes, the Bramin is the first: the second contains the Tschechteries or Setreas: the third consists of the Beis or Wasziers: the fourth is the caste of the just-mentioned Suders; who upon the Peninsula of Malabar, where their condition is the same as in Hindostan, are called Parias or Parier.
The relative situation of these four castes, and the grounds of their difference, rest on the Indian fable of the Creation. This relates, that the God who created Bruma, ordained that the Bramin should proceed out of Bruma’s mouth; the Tschechterie out of his arms; the Beis out of his legs; and the Suder from his feet. As Bruma afterwards allotted the employments of each of these stocks, he appointed the first to seek after knowledge, to give instruction, and to take care of religion; the second was to serve in war; the third was, as well as the Bramin, to cultivate science, but to attend particularly to the breeding of cattle and agriculture: the caste of Suders was destined to be subservient to the Bramins, the Tschechteries, and the Beis. These Suders are held in the greatest contempt: they are considered infamous and unclean, from their occupations; and they are abhorred because they eat flesh, the three other castes living entirely on vegetables.