“The gold-washing in the Banat, is properly the business of the Gypsies, Zigeuner, and left, as it were, to this poor people, as an exclusive trade. This laid me under the necessity of applying to them for instruction.
“The river Nera, in Almash, carries gold dust; and seemed to me the fittest for my purpose; accordingly I caused some Gypsies, reputed to be skilful, to make a washing, near a village called Boshowitz; and I saw with pleasure, that with much dexterity, and in a few minutes time, they cleared in the trough, the value of some groshes of gold: they showed me likewise among their gold dust, some pieces of remarkable bigness.”
It has been stated, that when Gypsies first arrived in Europe, they had leaders and chiefs to conduct their various tribes in their migrations.
Grellmann says, this was necessary, not only to facilitate their progress through different countries and quarters of the globe; but to unite their force, if necessary, and thereby enable them to make a more formidable resistance
when opposed; and likewise, to carry any plan they might have formed, more regularly into effect.
We accordingly find in old books, mention made of Knights, Counts, Dukes, and Kings, among this people. Crucius cites a Duke, Michael; Muratorio, a Duke, Andreas: and Arentinus records a King, Zindelo: not to speak of inscriptions on monuments erected in different places to the memories of Duke, Panuel; Count, Johannis; and a Knight, Petrus, in the fifteenth century.
But no comment is necessary to show how improperly these appellations were applied. Though the Gypsey chiefs might be gratified with such titles; and their descendants probably esteemed them persons of rank, it was merely a ridiculous imitation of what they had seen, and perhaps admired, among civilized people. Nevertheless, the custom of having leaders and chiefs over them, prevails to this time, at least in Hungary and Transylvania; probably it may also still exist in Turkey, and
other countries, where these people live together in great numbers.
Their chiefs, or waywodes, were formerly of two degrees in Hungary. Each petty tribe had its own leader, beside which, there were four superior waywodes, of their own caste, on both sides the Danube and Teisse; whose residences were at Raab, Lewentz, Szathmar, and Kaschan; and to these the smaller waywodes were accountable. But now, only one superior waywode is appointed in all Transylvania, who has authority over the gold-washers in those parts. The Gypsies, however, still continue the custom among themselves, of choosing certain persons, whom they make heads over them, and call by the exalted Sclavonian title of waywode.
It would appear extraordinary, that any well-regulated state should allow these people a distinct establishment in the heart of the country; did not the Hungarian writers assign as a reason, that in the commotions and troubles occasioned by the Turkish wars, in former centuries, they were, by means of their waywode, more