Some of the Norwegian gipsies usually attend the October fair at Veblungsnœs. The women are very handsome, and some of the men. When they attend the fair, the women drink even more than the men. They are very fond of music, and at the fairs, when they have drunk to excess, are very quarrelsome and passionate. Under the Norwegian law any person who arrives at a certain age without being able to read or write, and who has not been confirmed, is liable to be committed to gaol. There they remain until they can read, write, and are properly instructed in religious knowledge. Many of the gipsies when examined by clergymen, have been found so ignorant, and without instruction, that they have from time to time been committed to prison, and detained there, till they came up to the standard of required proficiency. Prœsten Eilert Sundt had therefore good opportunities of seeing them, and conversing with them. The vocabulary of Romany words, as spoken by the Norwegian gipsies, which he has collected, with other information, is very valuable.[73] His mission seems to have been performed with much energy. The short résumé of his works, given in the appendix to this book, we had specially made for our English readers; it gives some idea of the state in which he found this wandering and singular people in Norway. The Storthing granted a large sum for the amelioration of their condition. We were told that some gipsies who had money given them, and were settled in farms on the shore of the Isfjord opposite Veblungsnœs, did not remain long, and, selling their farms, disappeared with the money. Many of the gipsies who attend the Veblungsnœs fair, when asked where they came from, say the Valders. This was one reason why we decided to return with our gipsies through that part of Norway. Notwithstanding, Prœsten Sundt’s account of their mode of life, and predilections, and the very unenviable notoriety they seem to have attained in Norway, we were certainly anxious to fall in with a band of these wanderers, so that our people might hold converse with them. We were told that some of the gipsies had land in the Valders! but it is very possible that the statement that they came from that part of Norway was an evasive reply. It is very seldom gipsies will give even their right names to curious questioners; as in other countries where they are found, and in very few they are not, they deal in horses and work in metals. The Norwegian gipsies are skilful workers in brass; we were told that they live in houses in the winter, the cold being too intense for them to travel with their tents.
The circumstance of the non-burial of the gipsy dead in the Norwegian churchyards, as stated by the Prœsten Sundt, is not confined exclusively to the gipsies of Norway. Baudrimont in his “Langue des Bohémiens,” as spoken by those living in the Basque provinces, says at page 27, “We know not what becomes of the gipsies who die; not the slightest trace of them is ever met with. This has given rise to the idea, that they turn the course of rivulets, and, digging a pit, place the body in the torrent’s bed, and again let the water resume its course.”
Francisque-Michel in his work, “Le Pays Basque,”[74] at page 143, says:—“‘I have noticed in many localities,’ said Monsieur le Vicomte de Belsunce, who was for a considerable period the mayor of a district, ‘that gipsy men and women of great age, long known to the present generation as old people, disappear suddenly, and never return. It is a common occurrence, and yet no labourer in the fields, or traveller on the roads, or shepherd, or hunter in the mountains, ever sees the trace of a grave.’”
And the same author says:—“Was Grellman[75] right, or was it true, as many assert, that these people turned the course of some brook whilst they made the grave, and turned the stream over it immediately afterwards? Such a burial would not leave any trace, and it was so they buried Attila, who followed, when he came into Europe, the same route as the gipsies.”
The more the gipsy element becomes mingled with other house-dwelling races the less strongly will they cling to their tents. We who have tried it must confess to a strange fascination in tent life. To our own knowledge we have known instances of gipsies who have married house-dwelling gorgios. One singular instance of romantic love was once narrated to me of a young gentleman of birth, who became so infatuated as to leave all for a handsome gipsy girl he met with. She left the neighbourhood of his home, but he could not rest, and, with a few things, followed and found her, and at last submitted for her sake to be her husband and adopt tent life. His end was sad. He was making some pegs for her to sell, but being unpractised in the art, and clumsy with his knife, it slipped and entered his thigh, probably severed the femoral artery, for he died soon after.
As long as much of the gipsy element remains, it is not probable that they can be bent to the steady pursuits of a stationary house-dwelling population. As well try to turn the falcon into a barn-door fowl; but Christian charity should lead us, if we cannot alter their nature, to aid in placing them in such course of life, as may best improve and raise their moral condition, without requiring them to sacrifice entirely, those strong and restless feelings, which seem inherent in their being, and the necessity of some mysterious law or predestination.
We sat out late by our tents, writing our notes; the long evenings of clear light, enabled us often to snatch those hours which in England, would be quite dark. The gipsies, before we retired to rest, had their dose of brimstone and treacle, and with many anticipations, we were soon buried in repose.
All was stir and bustle. Up, Noah!—up, Zachariah!—vand! All were moving before six. Eggs, bread, butter, and tea for breakfast. Esmeralda had been unwell all night. Our gipsies had been living well, and without their usual exercise. Esmeralda was evidently bilious. She had behaved very well, and was now deep in the mysteries of cooking and housekeeping.
The old farmer hovered near as if he was looking out for his quarry. We had scarcely seen him about before. We were uncertain when Mr. L. would come, and therefore mentioned to the farmer that we wished to pay him for our accommodation.
He led the way into his house, and we found ourselves in a little parlour, comfortably furnished, but without any ventilation: a picture of the death-bed of King Oscar in 1859, two prints of the Emperor Napoleon III. and the Empress, and a German coloured print called Elise, and Our Saviour, were placed on the walls.