Of this very caste, as will appear by the following comparison, our Gipseys are composed.
We have seen that the Gipseys are in the highest degree filthy, and disgusting; and with regard to character, of the most depraved hearts: that they are thievish, liars, and fraudulent to excess:—and these are exactly the qualities of the Suders. Baldæus says, “The Pareas are a filthy race, in a word, a contemptible stinking people; a wicked crew, who in winter steal much cattle, kill them, and sell the hides.” It is again related in the Danish Mission Intelligence, “Nobody can deny that the Bareier are the dregs and refuse of all the Indians: they have wicked dispositions, are thievish, arrant liars, are intractable with good usage, require to be kept in order by fear and blows, and held under continual restraint.” Moreover, Neuhof assures us, “The Parruas are full of every kind of dishonesty; they do not consider lying and cheating to be sinful, as they have no other maxim or custom among them.” The Gipsey’s solicitude to conceal his language, is likewise a striking Indian trait. “Custom,” says Pallas, of the Indians round Astrakan, “has rendered them to the greatest degree suspicious about their language, insomuch that I never was able to obtain a small vocabulary from them.”
In addition to the foregoing, the Gipseys love to intoxicate themselves; they are particularly fond of brandy, because it more speedily answers their purpose than any other liquor. Among the Suders we find this inclination is universal; though other Indians do not commit such excess, or very seldom, and then privately.
What has been further said with respect to the immoral life of the Gipseys, agrees perfectly with the Suders. “Their wives and daughters,” says Neuhof, “make no difficulty of yielding up their persons, for money, to any sort of people, be they of what country or religion soever; as the inclination of this tribe tends more to voluptuousness, than towards diligence or industry.”
With regard to Gipsey marriages, it has been asserted, that it is a matter of indifference to them whether the party be the nearest relation or an utter stranger, or, as Salmon expresses himself, the nearest relations cohabit like beasts with each other; and as to education, that their children grow up in the most shameful neglect, without either discipline or instruction. All this is precisely the case with the Pariars. In the Journals of the Missionaries already quoted, it is said, “With respect to matrimony, they act like the beasts; and their children are brought up without restraint or information.”
Gipseys are fond of being about horses; so are the Suders in India, for which reason they are commonly employed as horsekeepers by the Europeans resident in that country.
The Gipseys were formerly employed as flayers, hangmen, and executioners, all over Hungary and Transylvania; and they still readily perform those offices whenever called upon. In like manner, in India, no one who is not of the caste of Suders will on any account transact that kind of business.
We have seen that the Gipseys hunt after cattle which have died of distempers, in order to feed on them; and where they can provide more of the flesh than is sufficient for one day’s consumption, dry it in the sun: such is likewise a constant custom with the Pariars in India. It “is their office,” according to the accounts we have of them, “to remove carrion, which they cut up; part they boil fresh and eat, other parts they dry in pieces, by the heat of the sun, for their future provision.”
Hitherto the accounts of the Gipseys and Suders perfectly coincide. Even the before-mentioned smiths and dancing girls are of this caste: and as they before shewed, in general, from the similarity of their make, that they were of Indian extraction, so in this instance they give particular evidence, that they are descendants from the lowest class.
But there are still some further traits relating to the Gipseys; we shall now examine whether they also are to be found among the Suders. Of these the first is, that the Gipseys always choose their place of residence near some village or city; very seldom within the village or city, even though there may be no order to prevent it: as is the case in Moldavia, Wallachia, and all parts of Turkey. Even the more improved Gipseys, as those in Transylvania, who have long since discontinued their wandering mode of life, and might, with permission from government, reside within the cities, yet rather choose to build their huts in some bye-place, without their limits. This custom seems to be a remnant of their original Suder education; it being usual, all over India, for the Suders to have their huts without the villages of the other castes, and in retired places near their cities.