GQ PSIES.
Information Translated and Gathered
from Various Sources.
BY
Sk J; WATTs de PEYSTER., Skusal
JUNE, I885.
NEW YORK :
CHAs, H. LUDWIG, PRINTER, 10 & 12 READE STREET.
1885.
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GQ EPSICS.
SOME CURIOUS INVESTIGATIONS, COLLECTED
FROM VARIOUS SOURCES, RESPECTING THIS
RACE OF MYSTERIOUS ORIGIN.
“His captain's heart “ ” * reneges all temper;
And is become the bellows and the fan
To cool a gipsy's lust.”
“O this false soul of Egypt I this grave charm,
Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.”
SHAKSPEARE. 1608.
“The companion of his [the Tinker's] travels is some foul, sunburnt
quean, that since the TERRIBLE STATUTE [against Gipsies and the like],
recanted gypsisme, and turned pedlaress.”
SIR THoMAs OvKRBURY’s “Characters.” Sig. I. Circa, 1614.
“Outlandish persons calling themselves Egyptians, or Gypsies, are
another object of the severity of some of our unrepealed statutes.”
BLACKSTONE, “Commentaries.” B. IV., c. 13. Circa, 1765.
—----º-º-º---
GIPSIES.—Translated from “2edler's Grosses Universa/ Zexi-
con aſler Wissenschaften und Kinste welche, etc.” Leipzig and
Halle, 1749. &
Gipsies—Ger. Ziegeuner, Zigeuner, Zigeiner, Zigainer, Zügeu-
ner; Zaf. Cingari or Zingari. A wandering and trooped-together
mob, which has stolen in over almost all Christendom, and are
variously designated, for, besides the names given above, they are
called Attingani, Cigani, Cingai, Cyani, Cigari, Cyngai, Zigeu-
ni, Zigeneri, all, however, words of the same stem. Even the
word Attingani, which is the name given them by the Greeks,
appears to be one with the others, if the syllable “At" be
thrown off and the “t" changed into C or Z. They are called
416834
4
also Taten or Tattan, or Heyden, also Saracenen, Saraceni and
Agareni, or (corrupted), Zagareni, especially, too, Egyptians
(AEgyptiani), from which it is supposable that the name Cyani or
Zingani comes. Since our forefathers, the Germans, were
accustomed to shorten names, they may have thrown away the
two first syllables of AEgyptiani and left only Ciani remaining.
See Jacob Thomasius’ “Dissertation on the Cingari,” Leipsic,
1652, § 4, and so on. In France they are called “Bohemians.”
They are also called by some learned men Nubians.
Some derive the name Zigeuner (Gipsy) from the German as
meaning “Zieht-einher” (Come-in), because these people had no
fixed dwelling-place but wandered about hither and thither
(Zeiler's Sendschreið. AEpist. 71) a derivation which is further con-
firmed by the circumstance that the common people gave the
name Zihegan to land-tramps before Gipsies were heard of
(Zeiler's Sendschreið ... Zetter 276.)
As regards the origin of the Gipsies, no agreement has, as yet,
been arrived at. It is, however, certain and proved, that they
were first seen in Germany in the fifteenth century, under the
Emperor Sigismund.
Zeiler writes, they first appeared in Hesse, in the year 1414,
but almost all historians put their first appearance in Germany
in 1418. Jacob Thomasius, in his “ Disscrá de Cingaris,” S $ 16,
17, prefers this latter date. Counting from this date they passed
through all Germany in two years and afterwards turned into
Italy, France and Spain. The first bands that came into Ger-
many consisted of 14,000, including men, women and children,
and were split up into various small tribes, of which some wan-
dered hither, some thither.
They had with them horses, mules and asses and were under the
command of a king or colonel (obrist) named Michael. Aventinus,
however, says the colonel whom they had in 1639, when they
were in Bavaria, was called Zindelo, or Zandadel. Stumpfius
tells us, in his “KajserChronic,” that at their first appearance
they paid for the necessaries of life they wanted with hard money
and that they possessed much gold and silver, although they wore
poor and ragged clothes. The Emperor Sigismund, it is said, gave
them, on account of their good behavior, a free pass and safe
conduct (Thomasius, loco. cit.,). Otherwise the gipsies were of a
dark complexion and not over cleanly in their clothing and gen-
eral way of life. They said they were Christians and that they
were from Lower Egypt (Klein-Egypten). On this account they
were called, in the emperor's free pass, Egyptians. This is also
corroborated by three gravestone inscriptions over their colonels,
which Mart Crusius cites in his “Swabian Annals.” The first
5
runs thus, “ Counting from the birth of Christ our Saviour, in the
year 1445, on St. Sebastian's Eve, died the noble-born Lord
Panuel, Duke of Lower Egypt and Lord of Hirschhorn in the
same country.” The second, “Anne Domini 1453 Obüt nobilis
comes Petrus de Minore Ægypto in die Philippi et Jacobi Apos-
tolorum.” The third, “In the year 1498, on Monday after the
Festival of St. Urban, died the well-born Lord John, Frey Graf
of Lower Egypt. May God be gracious and pitiful to his soul.”
As to the cause of their wandering, the people gave out that they
had denied Christianity and for seven years became heathen, and
this sin they desired to atone for by seven years of pilgrimage.
They mixed the Pope in with it as having laid on them the pen-
ance of seven years wandering for having forsaken Christianity
(“Zeiler's Sendschreiben, Æpist. 71). Others say that their pretext
was that by their wanderings they were doing penance for the
sins of their forefathers, who had refused hospitality to the Vir-
gin Mary and the Jesus-child at the time of the flight into Egypt.
Others pretended that the gipsies had previously lived in Singara,
a city of Mesopotamia, and since they were driven thence by
Julian the Apostate had never been able to regain their country,
and for this reason they wandered about the world. Others
seek their origin in Assyria, others in Cilicia, others in the Cau-
casus, many in Tartary, others in the province of Zeugitana in
Africa, others in Nubia and Abyssinia. So some derive the
name from the Zechis, Zichis, Zinchis, who had their dwellings by
the Don on the Palus Moeotis and came from Asiatic Sarmatia
(Abel's “German and Saxon Antiquities,” P. II. p. 329, &c.) In-
deed, some would make the gipsies the descendants of Cain, who,
like their ancestor, are fugitives and vagabonds, and must wander
over the face of the earth (Thomasius, ſoc. cit., § 54). But these
do not know what they are talking about since the whole race of
Cain perished [?] in the flood. If some wish to make them out the
descendants of Ham this might be, but there is no apparent
cause why they should, on this account, be tramps and vagrants,
since others of Ham's race have settled habitations.
The gipsies' own account of the cause of their wandering
was only a fiction by means of which they wished to make people
willing to tolerate them. This at first succeeded. People
pitied them and felt scrupulous about injuring them. It was also
supposed that on the ending of their seven years of pilgrimage
they would return home. This did not take place, and when
called to account for it they replied that the way home was barred
to them, that they were not able to return to their country, or
that they were obliged to begin another seven years of pilgrimage,
and if they did not do so they would be visited with failure of
6
crops and other national visitations. Stumpfius, indeed, says that
the original gipsies returned to their country on the ending of the
seven years. This cannot be so, since as vagrants they had no
home and no proper country. They may have wandered into
other Christian countries, but there were always many of them
remaining in Germany and we have records that since that time
there have always been more or less there. Some are disposed to
consider the gipsies who were still to be found in Germany as
only a crowd of thieves, murderers, knaves and other riff-raff,
who, after the departure of the gipsies proper, collected together
and wished to pass for those people. And it cannot be denied
that all sorts of loose characters may have joined them, whom
they also willingly received and whom they knew how to stain of
a dark color by various inventions so that they could not be re-
cognized. It is even related of a Spanish nobleman that he fell
in love with a gipsy girl and was thus induced to join their com-
pany (Thomasius, $62). In any case it is beyond doubt that
many original gipsies remained in the Country, to whom all sorts
of reckless people joined themselves.
That the original gipsies were more honest than their succes-
sors cannot be certainly asserted although Thomasius maintains that
it was so. They were, in any case, deceivers who attempted to
profit by all kinds of falsehoods as to their own history and cir-
cumstances. Yet their successors may have become worse and
worse, as is usually the case with such vagabonds. They were
shameless beggars who possessed themselves of what they could
not obtain fairly by trickery and violence, as also they were ex-
cellently trained by all manner of arts and deception for getting
people's money away from them. For this purpose they addicted
themselves to all sorts of fortune-telling and conjuring, also they
pretended to many medicinal secrets, which were, however,
nothing but simple nonsense and deception. When cunning did
not answer, they resorted to violence, with robbery, murder and
plundering. They are even accused of being spies for the Turks,
and betrayed to the latter the plans and projects of the Chris-
tians. For this reason, ſº since the year 1500, severe orders
and ordinances were issued against them in almost every
Christian country in which they were found. Æ,
They indeed gave themselves out to be Christians and had
their children baptized, but this was only with the expectation of
receiving the usual godparents' presents. Otherwise they were
but poor Christians, since they availed themselves neither of hear-
ing the Divine words nor of partaking of the Holy Communion.
If it be asked to what nation did the gipsies belong and
whence they came, such a question it is difficult to answer. They
7
gave themselves out, as has been said, for Egyptians; but this is
not in accordance with truth, for Belonius declares that he had
seen the gipsies in Egypt in great numbers under the palm trees
on the river Nile and that they were there as much strangers as
they were everywhere else (Zeiler, Epist. 532). D. Wagenseil, of
Altdorf, has here and again maintained in his writings that the
gipsies sprang originally from the Jews, who, in the 13th and 14th
centuries, suffered dreadful persecutions in Germany and other
Countries, so that those who escaped fire and the sword betook
themselves to the forests and there lived for a time, as much as
possible, concealed. Finally they came out with a changed lan-
guage and disguised as to clothing, and gave themselves out as
Egyptians. Afterwards all kinds of loose vagabonds associated
themselves to them for the purpose of enjoying a free, disorderly
life. (See S. Huebner's Staats-Zeitung, and Conversations Lexi-
con, Article “Zigeuner.”)
This idea is contradicted by the circumstance that it is difficult
to conceive how such a multitude of men—14,000—could remain
so long conbealed in the forests. The black color of the gipsies,
too, opposes itself as not being that which we find in the Jews.
Those seem to hit the mark more nearly who say that they first
came into Germany from Turkey and the Turkish-Hungarian
frontier, for here they are, to the present day, frequently met with.
About Gross-Waradein in Hungary there are many gipsies, some
having houses, who maintain themselves partly as horse dealers,
partly as Smiths and partly by stealing. They also sometimes act
as hangmen or executioners in Hungary and Transylvania.
Some of them pick up exhausted cattle and tan their skins. In
Transylvania some of them wash out gold from the sand of rivers
and brooks and are obliged to deliver such sand-gold to the
imperial treasury at a certain price. They generally go naked
and eat the carrion of dead horses, cattle and sheep thrown
into the flayer's-field. They get from the inhabitants the diseased
and dead cattle, whose flesh they smoke in their huts or dry in
the sun and eat as a great delicacy, but generally raw and un-
cooked. Of fortune-telling they understand nothing nor do they
attempt it as an occupation. In the year 1676 the gipsies plun-
dered the Hungarian miner town of Potack and set fire to it, as
well as to the church. Among these gipsies was found a French
engineer, Pierre Durois, who had been with them some eight
years, and meantime drawn large bills of exchange on France.
He was captured by the Imperialists and on him were found
plans of almost all the Imperial cities, and the cities of Upper
Hungary. It is said that the gipsies of Wallachia furnish musi-
cians, although their music sounds miserably enough. [Of late
8
years gypsy bands and gypsy peculiar music have been in
great repute in Eastern Europe.] [1794.] (Mark Zeiler's
description of the Kingdom of Hungary, pp. 29, 748, IoI7.)
The gipsies came first into Germany and thence wandered
into other European countries, therefore it is quite suppos-
able that they came from Hungary and the Slavonic countries
about it. Thomas Brown says, in Pseudodox, Epidem., L. VI. C.,
13, that the gipsy language is Slavonic, which is a further argument
for the above-given view, since that language is very common in
Hungary and Turkey and even at the Turkish court.
Nevertheless, although they may have come thence into Ger-
many, Hungary cannot be their original country and the question
remains, where is this to be sought P But where can such be
found, since the gipsies are a vagrant people, and at home
nowhere? The opinion which we find in Salmon’s “Present
History of Persia,” Chap. ix., p. 247, may, perhaps, be the best.
He says, “The Fackirs in Mahommedan, the Kalenters in Hea-
then, and the Gipsies in Christian lands, are as like as one egg is
to another, and they are without doubt one race. The Kalan-
ders or Kalenters are essentially heathen begging-monks and the
Fackirs Mahommedan ones. These latter so often go into India,
because there are, in that country, as many Mohammedans as
heathen, and both orders of devotees (the Kalenters and Fakirs)
think as much of one religion as of another, that is, they hold
to none. So they form light companies and are now in Persia,
now in India, now in Egypt, now in Europe, in which last we
call them (Gipsies) Zigeuner, Heathen or Tartars. I consider all
three sorts, altogether one and the same people, whether they be
in Asia or in Europe, only that, according to the people with
whom they are, they assume a somewhat altered appearance and
name. With the heathens and Mahommedans they pass for a
sort of monks who deny themselves in everything, therefore it
would not answer for them to take females, generally and openly,
with them. Nevertheless, it occurs. When it is necessary, they
take them secretly with them on their journeys in Christian
lands. When they find in Catholic ones bands of pilgrims, in Pro-
testant ones, again, beggar bands, consisting of one or more
whole families, the gipsies put themselves on a like footing, often
join with them, as in Asia with the Fakirs and Kalenters, in one
troop, according as they are at one place or another. That they
are one people, however, sometimes in Europe, sometimes in
Asia, can be seen in Duke Henry of Saxony’s “Travels in the
Promised Land,” which in 1498, according to the custom of his
time, he made there. The author of the biography of this
prince relates the following, “He (the Duke) spoke but seldom
9
of this journey, as it was now almost forgotten, unless indeed
Some particular inducement or occasion for it presented itself,
such as the mention of the Gigeunter or Zigeuner (Gipsies, as they
are called). Against them he was fierce, calling them traitors or
spies in the land, because they/had recognized him and told who
he was, in Syria, in consequence of which he encountered much
anxiety and danger. On this account he would not suffer them
in his territory, so that during the whole time that I was at the
court of Freiberg and otherwise in his Grace's cities and employ-
ment, I never saw a gipsy, although they were in the country
nevertheless.” (See “An Introduction to the History of the Elec-
torate of Saxony.”)
But now-a-days it is only too well known that these gipsies are
nothing else than a congregated troop of bad characters, who
have no willingness to work, but choose to make a profession of
idleness, stealing, fornication, gluttony, drunkenness, gambling and
the like. One finds among them discharged and deserting sol-
diers, dissolute servants and apprentices who do not wish to profit
their masters, degenerate sons who have run away from home,
female beggars who have received a public whipping and who,
besides, can no longer earn anything as procuresses or prostitutes.
They stain their faces with green nutshells, in order to increase
their ugliness and that they may more easily induce the inexper-
ienced to believe that they come from the hot oriental countries.
They form for themselves a peculiar language and separate dialect
[Argot], in order thus to appear more foreign and that they may
communicate with each other concerning their plans without being
understood by other people. The real gipsy-troops elect a chief
from among themselves, who commands them all and to whom,
in general, they yield obedience. The females wear long mantles
under which they may the better conceal the stolen clothes and
other goods. They have with them horses, pistols and all sorts
of arms for use when occasion offers. They especially wish to
appear very well versed in calculating nativities, in cheiromancy
and in fortune-telling and they prophesy to people, mostly to the
vulgar and for a fee, those things that their dupes wish to hear.
They take pains to inform themselves of events in the lives of
certain persons, so that they may be ready to relate to them past
circumstances and thus create in them and others the impression
that they can, with equal skill, foretell the future. They pretend
to be able to promise fires and to set them agoing in the most
dangerous place, where, nevertheless, they do no damage. Of
this we have examples in that they sometimes make fires in
barns and the building does not catch. They prefer encamping
on the frontier, so that in case they are sought for and pursued
10
they may easily pass into a foreign territory. They also com-
monly live in the forests. They are accustomed at particular
times to have their children baptized, and on such occasions to
choose rich and prominent persons for Godparents, in order that
they may have the better time in revelling and rioting on the
christening gifts received from the sponsors.
It is, besides, certain that the gipsies of every period have been
Godless, bad people, who were persecuted most justly. Mr. Hom
|Horn ?] has given in his unpresuming “Thoughts on City and
Country Beggars” the following description of the gipsies as they
were to be found in the Coburg territories, according to their most
recent condition and mode of living. He says: “They confess
and avow that they are divided into several bands or troops,
which are made up of some six hundred, which are under one
captain, of the name of Reichert, and that they assembled every
year at a rendezvous. The bands are twenty, thirty, forty, or,
at different times, more or less strong. Generally they have no
arms, but they have some horses, by means of which they can
more easily transport and save their baggage and booty. In the
day they send their women and children into the neighboring
villages to steal, which they know how to accomplish in a most
masterly and handy manner, under the pretext of begging and tell-
ing fortunes, while they abstract clothing, goods and small utensils
from the houses of the peasants, catch up chickens and geese
or whatever they can find to pilfer. To the inhabitants of
the places where they find their lodgment and night-quarters
they do no injury, but buy their own food or feed on what
they stole elsewhere, so that such hosts shall not betray them
and when they return may be ready to harbor them again.
They put out sentinels to guard against an unforseen attack
and are so swift and nimble that, especially in the woods,
they can hardly be overtaken. Their women commonly
carry very long and straight knives concealed on their per-
sons, with which they, in case of necessity, defend them-
selves, and are able the more promptly to kill and
more easily carry off the stolen poultry. When asked how they
make a living they answer, partly by horse-dealing, partly by
begging, partly also from their pay which they get in bills of
exchange sent out of Little Egypt by the emperor of Turkey
over the Red Sea to the Roman emperor, and by the latter
commonly transmitted by the Messrs. Fugger, of Augsburg.
ºf Since now these gipsy people, as has been said, do
much mischief, it is a just and equitable punishment for
them, that it is, almost everywhere in Germany, the law
that they be sought out by armed pursuit wherever they may be,
11
in towns, villages, hamlets, underbrush or woods, and forcibly ex-
pelled from the country. On any marked resistance they may
be shot dead. When they are captured they are to be executed
without any grace or indulgence and without any further legal
proceedings, simply and alone on account of their forbidden way
of life and manifest disobedience. The women and children, for
their part, are to be condemned for life to the houscs of correc-
tion and work. The best way for discovering the gipsies is that
the mounted road police should fully do their duty and patrol
zealously, likewise that the gamekeepers and foresters should al-
ways immediately report what they may meet in the way of such
bands of thieves and loose characters and not allow themselves
to be diverted from this duty by either gifts or threats.”
In the same way, even now-a-days the gipsies are looked upon
as mischievous bad characters, indeed, as spies, foreign scouts and
traitors in Christendom. In this view they have been frequently
banished from Germany as well as from other countries, Indeed,
by a decree of the Kammer Gericht at Speyer they were
Cºdeprived of all legal protection and declared outlaws
(Jablonski Lex. Becmann).
In this connection the first, not unreasonable, question is, are
these so-called gipsies to be tolerated in any well-constituted
commonwealth, or may it be said of them with justice that they
form of themselves a kind of separate commonwealth P [as the
Romanists, who are only really true to the Pope, do in every
country|. The first question is fairly answered in the nega-
tive, in view of the manifold crimes committed by them,
this particularly by Besold de Trib. Domest. Societ. Spec.
c. 4, n. 4, and by K'océ de Aerario, Lib. II., C. Io2,
n. 28, &c. The second question, however, in view of
their continual vagabondism and other evils occasioned
in the commonwealths and states, in which they at any time
have attempted to settle down. Of the first. Besoſa gives
instances in his Tractat. de Princ. et Fin. Polit., c. 8, n. 8, and
many others agree with these ideas. Thus one finds, not alone
in these imperial decrees, various ordinances against the gipsies,
but whole “circles" in Germany, as well as single departments,
have, from time to time, and when this otherwise useless mob has
somewhat increased, were themselves compelled not only to re-
peat such imperial decrees in their countries, but in some measure
to sharpen them. As regards the imperial statutes, we find in the
final decrees of the Diet at Augsburg, of the year 15oo, Title Zi-
geunern; at Speyer, 1544, “Aberder jenigen Zigeuner halber, &c.;”
at Augsburg, or in the re-formation of a good police, of 1548,
Title, von Zigeunern ; at Augsburg, 1551, § “Nachdem uns auch
12
angezeigt, &c.,” and in the next following § “Damit nun in dem,
&c.” As also in the police regulations at Frankfort, of 1577,
Title 28, “Of gipsies, in relation to those who call themselves
gipsies and wander about the country, it is strictly forbidden to
all Electoral princes, Princes and governments, on the allegiance
which they bear to the Holy Empire, that, as regards these giftsies,
when credible proof exists that they are scouts, traitors, spies,
and explore Christian countries for the benefit of the Turks and
of other enemies of Christendom — (strictly forbidden) to
allow them to travel in or through their states, to traffick, to
give them safe conducts, escorts, or passports and, since the gip-
sies have obtained some passports, or may obtain them hereafter,
such passports are, by virtue of this decree broken, nullified and
abolished. The gipsies must immediately get themselves out of
all German countries, keep out of them, and not let themselves
be found in them, for when they, nevertheless, hereafter enter
them, and ſº any one does them violence or injures, them, that
person shall not be considered as having committed a crime, or
having done anything wrong.”
Subsequently, it being found-that the above-mentioned laws,
contained in imperial statutes, did not suffice to drive off this
vagrant mob from German lands, not only whole circles, but also
separate imperial states have been forced, not only to repeat
these laws in their lands, but also, according to the circumstances
and exigencies, to make them more severe in one or another
point.
Here belongs, first of all, the imperial decree for the rooting
out of the gipsies wandering hither and thither about the coun-
try, and of other collections of thieves, robbers and murderers,
as also regarding those who harbor them : “We, Charles VI.,
&c., to all and each of our subordinate spiritual and secular land
or town rulers, and to all our lieges, subjects and vassals, of
whatever rank or dignity, who inhabit our archduchy of Austria
(Lower and Upper Ems), our gracious good wishes; and we
graciously give you to understand, that although very appropriate
mandates have been issued on repeated occasions by our fore-
fathers formerly reigning as lords and as the secular princes of
our archduchy of Austria, having for object the complete banish-
ment of the gipsies wandering about the country along with their
wives and children and the other rabble of thieves, robbers and
murderers who have joined themselves to them ; and despite of
our own gracious orders and especially of the general public de-
cree issued on the 1st of July, 1720, for the general quiet and
security of the country, in which we announced to all, the bann
and the death punishment issued against these people; for all
13
this, it appears, to our great displeasure, that these wholesome ordi-
nances and the efforts for carrying them out have not accom-
plished their desired object and full effect, and that meantime
certain of our subjects have had the audacity to give the for-
bidden lodgments and shelter to this gipsy rabble, pests of the
country, both within and after the most carefully arranged time
allotted for their departure.
When now our own most highly honored lord and father
Roman emperor and prince of this country, of most Christian
memory, most righteously ordained, as early as the 22d of NO-
vember, 1689, in a general decree of that date, against har-
bourers and all those who, in what manner soever, give illegal aid
and shelter to this wicked rabble, the incommutable punishment
of death, and, inasmuch as by long lapse of time, this decree
seems to have become almost forgotten, we now renew, confirm
and publish it in the form following, that although we retain the
punishment of death, as in the former, against the gipsies wan-
dering hither and thither in the country, as well as against the
mob of thieves, robbers and murderers who have joined them,
we also ordain, that their harbourers and all those who, by day
or by night, secretly or openly, within or beyond the time allowed
for their quitting the country, give forbidden shelter, &c., to the so
often denounced mischievous gipsies and robber-mobs be impris-
oned and beheaded, whether such have been sharers of the
property robbed and stolen or not, whether they have done so
with the hope of gain or not, if they have given them illegal
occupation of their houses, barns, grounds, or other place fitted
for concealment; consequently in whatever way the forbidden
harbouring may have been accomplished, that such harbourer
shall be arrested, imprisoned and there [at once, without trial]
beheaded, literally with a stroke of the sword sent from life into
death. *
We command, therefore, to you, who are the first-named, but
especially to the local magistrates, most graciously, but at the
same time in the greatest earnest, that for contributing to the
greater abhorrence and destruction of the gipsies and land-wasting
robber mobs, they renew the placards which, by our order of the
1st July, 1720, were to be posted at the principal road-crossings
of every district: to the effect that any individual of the before-
named gipsy and robber bands, who resists arrest with the use of
arms, may be killed ; and also we command that these magis-
trates add in these placards, with great distinctness of expres-
sion, that any person who voluntarily provides these people with
a resting place, shelter, by whatever name it may be called, shall
be visited with the like death punishment. And finally, in order
14
that this wholesome law and regulation may remain fresh in the
memories of our subjects, and that none of them may shield him-
self under plea of ignorance or any other subterfuge, we also re-
quest and order you, state officials and village magistrates in
general, as also you, village magistrates, separately, that you read
in public to our subjects in the common assembly (Panchadung)
every year this renewed definite statute, and that you at the same
time earnestly admonish them to heed it, so that every one may
know how to conduct himself and keep out of trouble.
Given at our capital and residence, the city of Vienna,
August 18th, 1722.”
The above statute is to be found, word for word, as we have
given it, in Faber’s “Auropäisch. Staats-Cantzley,” Part XLI., p.
724 and so on; also in Anton Balthasar Walther's “Silesiae Diplo-
matica,” T. II., part Ist, Part Generalia, pp. 236, 237, 239, and
many following. In the same way, in the Duchy of Silesia, when
it was still under the dominion of Austria, there were issued
many imperial superior-official decrees against the gipsies, aiming
at their extirpation, particularly among these one dated Bernstadt,
ſº Sth Sept., 1618, in which former orders are confirmed; with the
addition that, if they are not out of the country within fourteen
days, and they attempt violence or other dangerous proceedings,
they are to be arrested and punished with death; further, under
date of Brieg, 21st March, 1619, it is ordered that the gipsies be
driven out, arrested, and, according to circumstances, put to death
or banished. This by the country police itself, or, if necessary, with
the conjoined force of the country and cities. In the same tenor
of the 12th of February, 1683; of the 4th December, 1685; of
the 28th of April, 1688; of the 3d of June, 1689; of the 13th
of August, 1695; and of the 8th of August, 1703, and its renewal
of the 27th of September, 1703, and of the 3d of February, 1706,
that the gipsies must be driven back, that the militia must be
used for this purpose and if ſº the gipsies resist they are to be put
to death. And not less the same of the 19th April, 1708, that
for keeping back the gipsy rabble there are to be set up in all
places near the frontiers placards on posts on which their punish-
ment is to be described (alge/lah/et.) In the same way, an order
of the 26th July, 1715, regarding the extirpation of the gipsy
mob declared outlaws; again, of the 23d June, 1721, and of the
25th March, 1726, regarding extirpation and punishment of gip-
S162S.
As regards the Electorate Saxon countries, there likewise
has been no failure in this respect. From time to time the
sharpest and most emphatic decrees against such licentious and
land-destroying rabble have been made public. Especially the
15
gi?sies, who, besides, are outlawed completely throughout the
Holy Roman Empire, are not to be suffered in any corporation
under penalty of Ioo Rhinegold florins, to be paid by such cor-
poration, or the forfeiture of its charter (“Entziehung der
Gerichte”). Police ordinances of 1617, n. 19, and of 1661,
Title II.; also as a consequence of the mandate of 1709, § 12,
their children must not be baptized at any other place than that
in which they were born and when this has been ascertained with
certainty.—Police ordinances of 1661, Tit. II., § 4. Compare
also the general law, Art. 6. And in general they are not to be
tolerated on the main roads, housed, sheltered or entertained, as
may be seen in many supplementary mandates to the same effect,
of the years 1579, 1590, 1621, 1652, 1670, 1684-'6, 1689, 1703,
1713, 1720, and 1722; as also in the official circulars concerning
them of the years 1590, 1652, 1665, 1689 and 1696, and else-
where. To further illustrate the subject we will, here, add the
already mentioned most gracious mandate of his royal majesty of
Poland and Serene Elector of Saxony, 4th April, 1722, as the
last and newest of the kind, against the strong bands of gipsies
recently forcibly driven out of Hesse and the bordering states,
who then moved into the Thuringian forest and have been seen
on the frontiers of Saxony. They are to be banished, the land
being found necessary:
“We, Frederick Augustus, by the grace of God, King, Elec-
tor, &c., Command to all and each, &c., our Greetings, Grace
and Kind Will, that they should bear in mind what we and our
forefathers, resting in God, have issued through this country in
the way of sharp and earnest mandates, both in the year 1689
and subsequently at different periods up to the present time,
against the robber gipsy rabble, for the purpose of hunting out
and exterminating them, and that they should attend to their
contents under the head of gipsies, as respects the pestiferous
thief-robber bands, who have reappered in our lands.
Since then, however, up to the present time, the fatherly ob-
jects intended for the best good of our subjects cannot be attained
and we now receive the most trustworthy information that the
gipsy bands, not long ago forcibly driven out of Hesse and other
neighboring countries and which are said to consist of some 1.5oo
persons, have moved into the Thuringian forest and that already
some of this miserable mob have been seen in one and another
village on the frontiers. If so, being that necessity unavoidably
requires us to control this people, in good time, and with all pos-
sible energy, lest they should in our country, as it has already hap-
pened in neighboring parts, collect themselves together and here
ió
likewise be able to commit murders, robberies and plunderings, we
have found it necessary for turning off this evil, not only to repeat
and renew the mandates and orders first mentioned, past and
present; but also, by virtue of this, our now given mandate, to
sharpen the others in respect to their object and again to order, as
we have already done by our general field marshal and directing
cabinet minister, Count von Fleming, to our militia, also now to
all our vassals, officials, corporations and all subordinate magis-
trates of the country, that as respects themselves and those under
their control, they shall, without delay, make sufficient disposi-
tions for the purpose, and that, when eight days have elapsed
from the publication of this our mandate, which shall be posted
up everywhere in the corporations, on the pillars along the roads
and frontiers, and in other public places, if any gipsies are found
and caught in the towns, market-places, villages, woods and fields
of our electorate and its appertaining lands, even if they present
open passports or other certificates, that such gipsies are not only
given up for confiscation and execution as outlaws, as it was di-
rected in the above-quoted mandate of 1689, but it is permitted
and worthy of reward that they be at once shot down or other-
wise killed, on the spot, and their property taken from them, and
that no one who in this way does anything against them shall be
held as having committed any wrong or crime, or be made
answerable for what he has done. Æl The women and children,
however, so taken and caught, are to be delivered over to the
next office or court, and either confined and kept at work in the
place where they were taken, or if there be there no provision
for so doing, be taken thence to the poor and correction house
near Waldheimb, or to other poor and correction houses, accord-
ing to opportunity and circumstances. In addition, for the
quicker expulsion of this hurtful race, and the more thorough
searching for them, according to the precepts of our man-
date, issued in the year 17 Io against the thief and robber hordes;
on occasion of the gipsies being sighted or pursued, the alarm
bells are to be rung, or some other signal given, in order that in
conjunction with the inhabitants and subjects, at the same time
the militia also and gamekeepers, which last are included in
the same orders, shall assemble in as strong force as quickly as
possible, when called out, so that the whole may act against the
oft-mentioned gipsies in the way prescribed, or as the necessity
of the circumstances may require, and thus our intentions for
the safety of the country and of our loyal subjects may be the
more appropriately and certainly carried out. To the same end
our upper circle chiefs and officials and other judicial magistrates,
upon and near the frontiers, are not the less to communicate dili-
17
gently and properly with the neighboring proprietors and officials,
and arrange for a mutual understanding how the hunting up and
expulsion and following up of this frequently-mentioned gipsy
rabble is to be accomplished in the most effectual, easiest and
quickest way.
Accordingly now, the, at the commencement mentioned, our
vassals, officials, and all and each our judicial authorities and subor-
dinate magistrates, as well as all subjects, will and must know
how to properly and exactly observe this decree and to arrange
what will be sufficient for carrying out and enforcing it.
In more emphatic witness whereof we have with our own
hands signed this mandate and ordered our privy seal to be im-
pressed on it. Done and given at Dresden, on the 4th of April,
in the year 1722.
e AUGUSTUS REX. [L. S.
Henry von Bunua.
Jno. Christopher Gunther. Sec'y].”
See the “Annals of Christopher Ernst Siculs,” Leipzig, Sect.
xvii., p. 166, &c., and by virtue of an official circular dated from
the Electoral Saxon castle at Budissin, 18th October, 1652, there
also exists a “most gracious order,” in the margraviate of Upper
Lausitz, along with that of his Electoral Serenity of Saxo y, in his
police order issued at Dresden, on the 23d of April, 1612, reſer-
ring to his already issued statute concerning gipsies, thus, to-wit :
“In virtue of the there drawn-up imperial decree and electoral
transcript, and in virtue of the superior magisterial instructions in
the margraviate of Ober-Lausitz, drawn up in conformity there-
with, the already-named gypsies, who are accustomed to move up
and down the country and to plague and overpower its
inhabitants with robberies, thefts and all sorts of chicanery, are
not to be suffered in the country, much less to be allowed to live
and trade therein, or to have security and protection given to
them, but they are to be hunted out of the land. In case, how-
ever, that they show themselves contumacious, the authorities of
the place where they attempt to encamp themselves are allowed
to seize all their property and to throw them into prison and
without delay to refer to their superior officials for further orders.
Also no one will be held to account in any way who does any vio-
lence to them, who, as is said in the letter of the high imperial de-
cree and its electoral transcript, are outlaws in property, estates
and body. In order that this transcript and circular, intended
and adapted for preserving the safety of the country, avoidance
of threatened danger and furthering of the common good, may
come to the knowledge of everyone, it is not only to be posted
18
at the usual places, but to be read from "the pulpit. In other
respects the superintendence of the gipsy bands in Electoral
Saxony belongs to the most praiseworthy (hoch-lobliche) country
government, as is shown by Wabst in his historical account of the
present land-judiciary of Electoral Saxony and its appertaining
lands, Sect. II., c. I, §12, n. I.”
In the Royal Prussian and Electoral Brandenburg lands, they
were likewise set, most earnestly, and by all serviceable means
and ways, upon driving out and extirpating the gipsy land-tramps
who, by means of fortune-telling, phrophecies, root-medicines,
lying and deceit, robbery and stealing and the like other offences
and wickedness, exceedingly mislead simple and inquisitive people
and get their property, yes, often in one day and night make
more evil and mischief where they are quartered than the
preachers can root out, so as to put things right, by
many sermons. To this end it is not only as already
ordered in the church-visitation of the Insterburg, and other
Lutheran offices of Prussia, in the year 1638, to the effect that
gipsies are not to be received and sheltered in the towns, sub-
urbs, and villages, but to be turned into the fields and not suf-
fered in the country; and that those who contravene this order and
for some supposed slight gain receive and house such bad and
harmful people, are liable to a fine to their landlord of 20 Polish
florins; but it is also by various recent royal orders, as that dated
Marienwerder, 29th October, 1709 ; Königsberg, 2 1st May,
17 Io; Köln on the Spree, 24th Nov. p. 73, 17 Io; it has been
most strictly commanded that no gipsy shall be tolerated in the
royal Prussian dominions. (See William Henry Beckher's short
extracts from the principal royal Prussian edicts and decrees,
under the word “Zigeuner’—gipsy). And likewise Gruben’s
Corp. Constit. Prutea, p. 1, N. 5, p. 73 and P. III. N. 373, 374
and 375, p. 507, &c. See another edict, dated Berlin, 26th July,
1715. His royal Prussian Majesty Frederick William, of most
glorious memory, thus complains :
“His majesty understands to his great displeasure that
despite the previously so frequently issued edicts against gipsies,
land-tranps, impudent beggars and the like thievish ral)ble,
nevertheless once again large bands of such vagabonds, worth-
less fellows and village thieves are to be found in his royal-elec-
toral and other possessions, and that, already, many have been
arrested and imprisoned. From a fatherly care for his land, for
the safety of travellers and general intercourse and commerce,
and that everyone may enjoy the royal protection, these people
should, on the one hand, be kept away from the frontiers of his
19
provinces, and, on the other hand, that quick judgment should
be passed on them when taken, and thus the land be cleared of
such dregs of people: he decides on this account hereby to order
and decree :
1. That henceforth no traveller, male or female, whose rank
and condition is made doubtful from his outward appearance or
any other reason, shall be allowed to enter his majesty's frontiers
or passes, fortresses or towns, unless he present, in addition to his
travelling pass, a passport from the government or magistrates of
the place whence he comes, describing the place where he
belongs, his profession and purpose, and thus legitimizing his
person. For this purpose, and that it may be the more exactly
executed and all evasion of it prevented, for such towns, market
places, and the like, where the gates are not guarded, and for
their suburbs, there, the innkeepers, publicans and tapsters are
made responsible for demanding the aforesaid pass and attesta-
tion from every stranger and traveller who enters their house, to
look it through, and in case they observe anything suspicious in
the papers or in the behaviour of the stranger—for immediately
informing the authorities of the place. This they shall not omit
under a heavy money penalty, and in case they may be detected in
any collusion with such stranger or traveller, or with the worth-
less fellows before mentioned, they shall, without fail, be visited
with bodily punishment.
2. Since, also, experience has taught that such rabble are
wont to disguise themselves under the names of lottery dealers,
thimble-riggers, jugglers and “fast-and-loose" players, and with
the occasion to ply their thieveries, sufth people are henceforth not
to be suffered in his majesty's towns, market places or villages,
either at yearly or weekly fairs or |fairs held at] church-ales, un-
less they have a special royal permit ; this under penalty of the
confiscation of their booths or under that of personal arrest, but
against all such persons the frontiers of his majesty's dominions
shall be entirely closed and barred off from the exercise of their
in any case suspicious trades.
3. Should it be that, in sp te of the earnest royal ordinance,
a worthless ſellow, pickpocket or cutpurse crosses the frontier and
practices his wickedness and he be taken in the act, then, in
order to spare the treasury the expense of his maintenance and of
other judicial costs, but at the same time to deprive these thieves
of the hope that under prolonged arrest they may by force or
Cunning get away and escape puishment, the following short judi-
cial proceedings will be applied to the case:
‘When such thieves are caught in the act of real stealing and
one may be sure of it, they should at once be brought before the
20
magistrates of the place, who must, particularly at the times of
public yearly markets and church-ales, be present and assembled
in their office or other headquarters, and the crime with its chief
circumstances shall be presented to them in a short written state-
ment. Should it happen that the delinquent, notwithstanding,
shamelessly denies the fact, the witnesses present are to be sworn
in presence of the delinquent, and then on the sum of their test
timony, there always being at least two witnesses, the delinquen-
shall at once, without reference to the value of the stolen pro-
perty, or whether the theft was fully accomplished or not, and
without further appeal to the King's majesty or to his government,
be flogged and, for all time, banished the country.”
4. Should it, however, happen that any of this thievish mob
commit such an act of theft as is by common law a capital crime,
then the regular process of inquiry, “servato Zuris ordine,” is to
be instituted against these misdoers. The magistracy of the
place, however, shall see to it that the trial be, as far as possible,
hastened and finished.
In regard to this it is commanded to the supreme court at
Berlin; to all the royal departments, high or low ; to the spiritual
and secular officers; to magistrates in the towns and country;
and to the royal treasury officials, respectfully to obey and in their
respective places give effect to this gracious expression of the
royal wishes. In order that this royal edict may be universally
known, it is to be affixed to and posted upon the gates and
in the inns and tapsters' houses.” See Fassman’s “Life and Acts
of Frederick William, King of Prussia,” part II., p. 4o, &c.
Soon after, there was issued, because the discharged and in-
valided soldiers, as well as others, partly poor, partly loose and
bad people, did not choose to be constrained from begging or
from exercising forbidden traffic and unallowed business, another
royal edict, under date of 1st March, 1717, in which it was
ordered that all such hucksters and beggars, whether they were
invalids and other natives, or strangers, or gipsies, should, with all
their baggage, their wives and children, immediately on being
taken up, be carried to the nearest military post, and thence to
the nearest fortress, there to be confined, to be kept at work and
on bread and water, and further directions concerning them to
be then asked for. Zbid. p., 47. §
A renewed and exceedingly sharpened edict against robberies
and thefts appeared, dated Berlin, 24th Novembel, 1724, according
to which ten dollars was to be paid every time to the detecter of
a gipsy or thief company, ºff the gipsies or thieves caught at
21
their work to be hanged without further inquiry, and those
who resisted to be shot on the spot. Æ) /bid, p. 693.
Further a new and very much sharper edict against the gip-
sies, tramps and foreign beggars wandering about the country,
under date, Berlin, 30th November, 1739, was as follows:
“We, Frederick William, by the Grace of God, King of
Prussia, &c., &c., declare and publish : Inasmuch as, to our
great displeasure, it has been abundantly proved that our, at
various times issued wholesome ordinances against the gipsies,
wandering beggars, and vagabonds, who so often show them-
selves, have been but loosely observed, indeed almost entirely
put out of sight, and we desire to have everywhere complete
compliance with these circulars tending to the good of the com-
monwealth.
Thus we renew and confirm all edicts published to this effect,
especially the one of the 20th December, 1727, as earnestly as
impressively issued, that all foreign beggars and land-hurtful loose
rabble shall entirely leave the country, and as regards the natives
of that sort, that they shall retire to the places of their birth or
to those where they have hitherto for some years lived and main-
tained themselves. This done, all those who may be anywhere
found and taken up shall be immediately carried to the fortresses,
where they must be at once received according to the directions
of our circular-orders of the 25th April, 1728, to all com-
manders of such. In the same way we renew the printed instruc-
tions of the 20th November, 1730, as to what is to be done in
regard to getting rid of gipsies and other vagrants, and what for
the purpose of keeping the country clear of such dissolute people.
Such are to be seized on the frontiers at the first village they
enter and at once carried off.
We, however, sharpen and extend the working of the above,
so that from now on, any district magistrate who knowingly
accords to such giftsies, vagrants and wandering beggars a resi
dence or even shelter and a night's lodging on his property, and
such people are not immediately, or as soon as may be, in con-
formity with our orders, at once arrested and carried off, shall be
visited with the loss of his magistracy and with a thousand dol-
lars fine in money. The bailiffs and communities, on the other
hand, who are neglectful, or do not give to the above-mentioned
magistrates proper assistance, are to be punished with severe and
certain bodily punishment and according to the circumstances
even confinement in a fortress.
So soon as such a one, gipsy or vagrant beggar or land-tramp,
may be caught and it appears from his examination that he, by
*
22
clear daylight, has gone through this or that village and at all
begged therein, or otherwise acted suspiciously and was seen by
people, but not arrested, an official account must at once be sent
in to the government (office P) and this must at once have the
case investigated by a treasury employé (ex-officio) and cause
the guilty persons to be punished in conformity with this edict.
In virtue of which it is enjoined upon all our governments,
war and domain-departments, colleges of justice, general treas-
ury officers and treasury employes, officials, district magistrates
and commanders, to act energetically in respect of this, as well as
of all other orders issued regarding gipsies, Country-beggars and
vagrants, and that no one may excuse himself under plea of
ignorance they are to have this edict read every year from the
pulpit.
Officially issued with our genuine autographical signature and
stamped with our royal signet [apparently more emphatic than
the privy seal] Berlin, November 30th, 1739. .*
FR. WILHELM.
S. v. CocCEJI.
[Contrast this rude justice of a rough old temporal king with
the merciless judicial edicts, following, of a spirituaſ Romanist
Prince and Priest Ruler.]
See Ludwig’s “Literary Analecta,” Part II., p. 1075, A.
Beside this there is no deficiency in pretty sharp ordinances
of other German imperial princes and states against the gipsies.
Thus, as an example of the like sharpened ordinance, his electoral
princely grace at Mayence, in concert with the four associated
Circles issued such in 1714 against the giftsles, foreign beggars
and other dissolute rabble owning no allegiance, by virtue
of which he extends the punishment ſºof DEATH without any
formalities to gipsies and notorious pickpockets, simply and alone
on account of their forbidden manner of life and on account of
their proved disobedience, their wives and children are to be
beaten with rods and branded. Land-tramps, vagrants, beggars,
wounded soldiers, foreign Jews and other rabble having no dom-
icile, whether provided with passes and discharges or not, are to
be hunted up and forcibly ejected across the frontiers, and in
case of any showed resistance, they are to be knocked down and
even shot dead. This is the amount of the ordinance as found
in the Æſectis ºuris Publici of Mayence, Vol., VI., Part VIII., p.
656, &c. In its full composition it runs as follows:
23
“First. It has been again most humbly represented to the
most high worthy prince and lord, the Lord Lothaire Francis,
Arch-Bishop of Mayence of the Holy See, Arch-Chancellor and
Elector of the Holy Roman Empire throughout Germany, Bishop
of Bamberg, &c., and he has learned with great dissatisfaction
that as regards the stringent orders, both Imperial and of the
Circle, often published and made known, against the still hither and
thither vagabonds, reckless to the common weal, more hurtful
giftsies, pickpockets, Jew-beggars and other masterless thief-rabble
who often also bring with them commonly all sorts of contagious
diseases; these orders seem no longer to be sufficient. In addi-
tion it also appears that there is often a want of proper execution
and carrying out of the so wholesomely conceived arrangements
of the empire, circle, and other governments, and their proposed
object has, up to this titue, not been attained.
Second. It has been obvious that in our Circles themselves,
and in one and another of the high and respectable departments,
they have given free domicile to such reckless and thievish rabble,
and thus with knowledge of it, whether from fear or other pre-
text; beside not applying the rigour of punishment directed in
the before-mentioned ordinances and not going hand in hand for
properly supporting each other. Therefore, at the last assembly
of the associated worthy Upper Imperial Circles, it has again
been held necessary on this occasion, not only to repeat and con-
firm the already-taken resolutions and the circulars containing
them in their full contents; but also to, at the same time, freshly and
most stringently ordain that, when discovered, all giftsies, notor-
ious pickpockets, ſº without any grace or indulgence, sine
strepitu judicin, (without any judicial fuss), and without any
further proceeding, simply and only by reason of their
forbidden manner of life and proved disobedience, shall
be executed with, or, if necessary, by some more severe manner
of capital punishment. Æ) Their wives and grown children, how-
ever, when they are not at the same time convicted of a theft,
shall be flogged, branded and for ever banished from the land, or
condemned to perpétual confinement in the correctional work-
houses; and because this loose, wicked and irresponsible rabble
begin to move about in places where, on account of the forest,
they think to find more concealment and security, and their num-
ber visibly increases, even so that, in spite of the guards posted
here and there, indeed even in villages so guarded, one still
hears, almost daily, of breaking into houses, of robberies, and
also despoiling of travellers, this protection notwithstanding.
Their daring impertinence is growing to such a degree that they
do not hesitate at threatening the countryman who refuses them
24
a night's lodging, with murder and the torch; that already var-
ious sheds, together with the grain in them, have been consumed,
having, it is supposable, been fired by these wretches. Thus the
country people are withheld by fear from carrying out with the
necessary energy and vigour the wholesome regulations decreed
by the Circle. It has been further unanimously resolved and
ordered to be published everywhere, to-wit: That from the pub-
lication of this order all land-tramps, vagrant-beggars, wounded
soldiers, foreign Jews, gipsies and other irresponsible rabble who
are not born in the country or in some other way its subjects-
whether having passes and discharges or not, are, without excep,
tion, at once to quit the whole territory and to bestow themselves
elsewhere, or should they remain the most severe and effective
punishment will be inflicted on them. Gº"That they be hunted up
by armed force everywhere, whether in towns, market-places,
villages, copses or woods, and forcibly driven out, also that in
case of their offering resistance they are at once to be
knocked down or shot dead on the spot. Æ) In order to prevent
those in such cases often occurring collisions as to jurisdiction,
through which, according to daily experience, many wholesome
laws and regulations are rendered unfruitful and remain in the
lurch, it has been most definitely determined and approved among
the electoral princes and the various governments, that when one
or another of the like foreign land-tramps, beggars, soldiers, for-
eign Jews, vagrants, irresponsible rabble—or, also, others, in a
certain measure subjects of the most worthy Circle governments
or persons belonging to them—are captured or brought in by
scouting parties, patrols, or other arrangements such as it may
have been thought well to make, then any one has the power and
authority, and indeed is under obligation, as concerns the One or
the others of these classes, to give safe convoy for delivering the
strangers and foreigners from out their governments and districts,
by the most advisable way (and so as to prevent their escape or
the like) to the nearest garrison next some fortified place without
regard to local intermediate jurisdiction of any species being op-
posed or unopposed to it. The fortress is also at once to pass
them on to another, and so on, until the frontiers of the circle are
reached. For so acting there is to be no possibility of anything
being quoted as, or of itself, tending to the legal prejudice or to
the legal privilege or advantage, or by whatever name any Conse-
quence may be called, for the present or in the future, against any
one so acting. And since it has further been discovered that
some shameless and audacious persons conceal themselves in the
garb of clergymen or other religious professionals, it is in the
Same way decreed that such strangers, and especially religious
25
persons who say that they are returning from Italy or any other place
of pilgrimage, be closely watched, and that, when they are not
fully provided with sufficient passes and testimonials, they be de-
tained on their entering the territories of the associated Circles,
carried from place to place up to the proper Ordinary, by him
examined, and, according to circumstances, handed further on or
discharged. Since also, finally, it has been found that the mis-
chievous poachers or venison-thieves creep into the forbidden
proprietary forests and that they therein, with the, by the highest
authority forbidden, rifle, not only cause great damage, but are
audacious enough to murderously attack and fell keepers on
guard against them, lest they be recognized, brought in and put
in arrest by them, and since consequently they take up and carry
on the same capitally punished sort of life as the herein so often
mentioned mischievous pickpockets and gipsey rabble with whom
they now and then associate themselves. On this account it is
therefore decreed, that, first of all, each one of the high and most
worthy Diets provide in their forests for the necessary arrange-
ments and watch that these may be cleared of the deer-stealers
and these last arrested and subjected to the punishment due them,
and also that they give to each other on proper pointing out and
description of the delinquents, all help necessary for taking and
delivering them up and that they do not knowingly give to any
reputed poacher forbidden concealment or shelter under penalty
of like punishment. It is still, as aforesaid, more than ever to be
observed, so far as circumstances will permit, that even when the
crime is committed in the forest of others, nevertheless, the crim-
inals are to be arrested and they are to be treated with the same
penal rigour. In order now that no one may excuse himself by
pleading ignorance of the decree now issued, this circular, like
the preceding ones, is, by the gracious special order of the Prince
Elector to be repeatedly read out and announced in the districts
and to be affixed at the open gipsy resorts, signboard posts, as
well as to the church doors, and like the previous ones, especially
the last of the 2d May, 1711, publicly printed and published, to
be most literally complied with. According to which every one
will know how to judge and how to prevent injury to himself.
Signed under the most venerated prince-electoral grace and
hereto impressed the office seal, Mayence, 22d March, 1714.
[L. S.]
In like manner, quite lately, at the consultations of the Circle
of Suabia, held for a time at Ulm, the security of the main roads
within its territory was a prominent subject, as is evident from the
following circular:
26
“Since repeated proof is made to the now, here present, gen-
eral assembly of this Circle, that, despite the manifold and also
recently published circulars, and the capital punishment therein
declared, the gipsy, pickpockets and other irresponsible rabble so
excessively hurtful to the public are once more wandering about
hither and thither in this worthy Suabian Circle and have become
so bold as, on the 22d of last month, to again attack the Imperial
and German post-messenger, and so to misuse him that had he
not saved himself by flight, the letter bag with all its contents
would have been taken from him. And now it is an unavoidable
necessity, in order to oppose such wickedness and at once to
preserve from danger the correspondence so important for the
public, and the safety of the letter post, from all such commence-
ments of outrage. Thus we wish properly to admonish through
this circular all the high and respectable communities to keep a
watchful eye in this regard in their lands, territories and govern-
ments. For this purpose they are at once, not only to renew and
repeat the often recited district punishments, but also, on
any request or intimation, to afford speedy assistance to the post-
masters, and this with regular soldiers or in the absence of such,
with a trustworthy [armed] and sufficient force and day or night
to give this assistance, so that the conveyance of letters, on which
so much depends, shall not be hindered and shall be put in safety
against the like wicked and highway robber crew. Gº And when
such malefactor in this way shall be detected in the act and caught,
then, without formalities, his trial shall be had, according to the
present Circle orders, and it is allowable without mercy to inflict
upon him the extremest capital punishment, if necessary to
break him on the wheel, as a warning and example to others. Æ)
To the various documents to the same purpose the present cir-
cular is affixed and published, under the common official seal
of the five princely benches.
Signed at Ulm, 19th May, 1749, 7%e Councillors, the Ænvoys
and the Ambassadors of the AErinces and Sſafes of the zelorſhy Sua-
bian Circle present at the now assembled General Convention.
According to the High-princely Saxe-Gotha territorial order,
P. II., c. 4., tit. 23, in regard to the gipsies, their possessions and
belongings shall, according to the complete prohibition of their
travelling in German countries contained in the imperial statutes,
be taken from all such gipsies as venture to enter the lands of
the princedom of Saxe-Gotha, and they, with their wives and
children, shall be driven out of it. And in virtue of the circular
issued in the same country, of the 29th January, 1664, in respect
to the watch association, the gipsies are summarily to be driven
27
\
off from the frontiers. For this purpose the officers appointed
for the defence of the country are to aid the courts of justice in
all localities. And to this end the troops of every district, with
their arms and the necessary powder and shot, are to be kept
ready, exercised and provided, as also to the end of pursuit from
one district or government to another, as is allowed and to be
done by virtue of the imperial ordinances.
In the duchy of Würtemberg the gipsies were not tolerated,
more specially for the reason that they have several times ven-
tured to betray the Duke of Würtemberg, Eberhard, to the Sultan
of Egypt, as is shown in Crusii. Annal. Suev., Zindenspir ad.
Ordinat. Wurtemb., p. 1 20, n. 2.
Now it cannot be denied that the just now enumerated ordi-
nances and the punishment contained in them may, at first sight,
appear to many to be altogether too severe. But just as it is the
common good which requires any punishment, so these whole-
some laws were required by imperious necessity to make this
punishment severe. On this ground the severity of military dis-
cipline which often punishes a soldier who, in spite of orders, has
stolen a single fowl, with death, is justified, although as an abstract
proposition there is no proportion between a fowl and the life of
a man. If, however, one fully considers the circumstances
which give rise to such severity, the doubt concerning it will soon
disappear. Thus writes a certain Politicus (statesman P): “The
punishment of the least fault is made very severe that the greater
crimes may be avoided the more easily, on account of the mo-
mentous results which come from the least point of neglected
military discipline. It would be right if, in the proper manner.
this severe law were published, “Any soldier who steals even a
fowl shall be punished by the “froice,” since he has preferred the
pieasures of stealing before the sanctity of the laws and the pub-
lic security, and thus he would seem to consent to what he knew
would be the punishment of his act.'”
If now there be a justification of the severe punishments of
soldiers, then the severity of the punishments in regard to gipsies
and the like rabble are much more justifiable, for they are, accord-
ing to the extent above shown, which has been above shown
under imperial Outlawry—and thus their havings and belongings,
their bodies and lives, notwithstanding one or more public pass-
ports may be exhibited, since these were by the imperial ordi-
nances completely revoked, broken and annihilated.
PRFIss, as also especially in the Electis Juris Publici, T. VI.,
in the Eighth Part, p. 654, &c., has expressed himself decidedly. '
Still more concerning this gipsy rabble is to be found in the trea-
28
tise on the subject, by Ahasuerus Fritschen, “de Origine, Patria
and Moribus Zingarorum , ” as also in Johannes Lunnaeu's “de
Jur. Publ. Lib.” IX., c. I., n. 161, &c.; in Camerarius’ “Hor.
Subcif.” Cent. I., c. 17.; Cent. II., c. 38 and 75, and Cent. III.,
c. 75; in Schonborner's “Polit.” III., c. 26; in Flemming's
“Peutschen 9ager,” Theil II., p. 44, &c.; in Ludolph’s “Schau-
Auñne,” Theil I., p. 4oo; in Zubner’s “AWatur- Kunst- Berg-
Gewerck- und Handlungs-Zex.;” Arnctiel's “Mitternächtische
Völker” (Northern Peoples), Th. III., p. 45, &c.; in Falcken-
stein's “AWordgauisches Alterthum ” (Antiquity of Northern
Countries), Th. I. p. 125, lit. I 1 ; in Jacob Thomasius’ “Zisſº. de
Cingaris ; in the “A//gemein. Chronić,” (Universal Chronicle),
VI. Band, p. 66; in Micaelius’ “Aistor. Eccles.” (Ecclesiastical
History), T. L., p. 887; in Wegener’s “Ainleit. zu den Weſt und
Staats-Gesch. (Introduction to the History of the World, States,
&c.), p 422 ; in Bresslauis; Samml. XXXIII., Versuch (Essay),
p. 69; in Tharsander’s “Schau-Platz,” Th. III., p. 33.1, &c.; in
Nerret's “Aſeiden Tempel,” p. 1097; in Aventi's “Anna/.” p.
835; in Aligem’s “Aſſistor. Zex.” T. IV., p. 973; in Bodin “de
A'epubl.” Tit. W.; in Paulus’ “Zeit und Zust,” T. I., N. 198, p.
690; in Voetius’ “Sips.” T. II., p. 654; in Camer's “Dor Subsis.”
Cent I., p. 195, &c. See also, in addition, the Article, “Zeugi-
fame,” a country in “Africa proper,” on the Mediteranean See, in
the same (Zedler's) Universal Lexicon: &c., &c., therein.
GIPSIES, a word corrupted from Egyptians, is the name given
in England to a wandering race of people who are [now] found
scattered over many countries of Europe, whither they migrated
from the East about the beginning of the fifteenth century.
Pasquier, in his “Recherches Historiques,” says that they first
appeared at Paris in the character of Penitents or Pilgrims, in
August, 1427, in a troop of more than Ioo, under some chiefs
who styled themselves Counts, and that they represented them-
selves as Christians driven out of Egypt by the Mussulmans.
They obtained permission to remain in the kingdom; other
troops [bands] followed, and they wandered about in all direc-
tions, unmolested for many years, committing petty depredations,
and their women assuming the calling of fortune-tellers. In 1560
an Ordonnance of the States of Orleans enjoined all imposters
and vagabonds styled “Bohemians,” or “Egyptians,” to quit the
kingdom under pain of the galleys. The name o/ Bohemians,
given to them by the French, may be owing to the circumstance oſ
, some of them having come to France from Bohemia, for they are
mentioned as having appeared in various parts of Germany pre-
vious to their entering France; others derive the word from
29
“Boém,” an old French word signifying a Sorcerer. (Moreri,
Art. Bohemiens ; and Ducange's “Glossary,” Art. Ægyptiaci.)
The Germans gave them the name of “Zigeuner,” or Wanderers;
the Dutch called them “Heiden,” or Heathens; the Danes and
Swedes “Zartars.” In Italy they are called “Zingari , ” in
Turkey and the Levant “ Thhingenes , ” in Spain they are called
“Gitanos, ’’ in Hungary and Transylvania, where they are very
numerous, they are called “Pharaoh Mepeti” or “Pharaoh’s
Aeople.” The notion of their being Egyptians is probably de-
rived from the circumstance that many of them came imme-
diately from Egypt into Europe, but it seems proved that they
are not originally from that country, their appearance, manners,
and language being totally different from those of either the
Copts or Fellahs. There are many gipsies now in Egypt, but
they are looked upon as strangers, as indeed they are everywhere
else.
It is now generally believed that the gipsies migrated origin-
ally from India at the time of the great Mohammedan invasion of
TIMUR BEG ; that in their own country they belonged to one of
the lowest castes, which resemble them in their appearance,
habits, and especially in their fondness for carrion and other un-
clean food. Pottinger, in his “Travels,’ saw some tribes resem-
bling them in Beloochistan. There is a tribe near the mouths of
the Indus called 78/linganes [somewhat similar to their Italian
and Spanish, and almost identical with their Turkish and Levan-
tine appellation].
The gipsies, in their language, call themselves Sind , and
their language has been found to resemble some of the dialects
of India (Bombay ZXansactions, 1820). They have no traditions
or records concerning their origin ; no religion of their own, but
they adopt the outward forms of the people among whom they
live, whether Christians or Mussulmans. Everywhere they ex-
hibit the same roving habits, a dislike to a fixed settlement and
to the arts of husbandry, uncleanness in their food, licentious-
ness, ignorance and intellectual apathy, a disposition to pilfer
and to impose on the credulity of others. They seldom com-
mit violent robbery or other heinous crimes, being fearful of pun-
ishment. Maria. Theresa ordered those in her states to be in-
structed in agriculture, with a view to their permanent settlement;
but her endeavors were not very successful. In Hungary and
Transylvania, however, many of them follow some regular trade
and have fixed habitations; they wash gold from the sand of the
rivers, and they work iron or copper; some are carpenters and
turners, others are horse-dealers, and even keep wine shops or
public houses. They abound in Wallachia, Moldavia, and Bess-
30
arabia, and they are found in Russia as far as Tobolsk. Grell-
man, in his ‘Versuch iber die Ziegeuner,’ Gottingen, 1787, con-
jectures that there are between 7 oo,ooo and 8oo,ooo in Europe,
of whom 40,000 are in Spain, chiefly in the southern provinces.
In England they have much diminished of late years, in conse-
quence of the inclosure of land and the laws against vagrants.
J. Hoyland has collected the most accurate information that
could be procured concerning this strange race, in his “ Aſistorica/
Survey of the Customs, AE/abits, and Present State of the Gipsies ;
designed to develop the Origin of this Singular People, and to pro-
mote the Ame/ioration of their Condition.” 8vo., York, 1816. He
has largely made use of the work of Grellman, “The Penny
Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowl-
edge.” London, 1838, vol. xi., GIPSIES, p. 225.
Die || Zigeuner || in || Europa und Asien || (The Gipsies in
Europe and Asia): Ethnographisch-linguistische Untersuchung ||
vornehmlich || ihrer Herkunft und Sprache, nach gedruckten und
ungedruckten Quellen, | von || Dr. A. F. Poſt, ord. Prof. der
allgem. Sprachwissenschaft an der konigl. Preuss. Universitat ||
Halle-Wittenberg.[| Erster Theil.]| Einleitung und Grammatik.
Halle, 1844. || Druck und Verlag von Ed. Heynemann || London,
bei Williams & Nordgate.
This is said to be the best and most exhaustive authority on
the origin and language of the Gipsies and was imported for ex-
amination and citation in the pamphlet on that subject now pass-
ing through the press. Too late for the original purpose its facts
will be used in a larger work, for which all these studies in rela-
tion to the Gipsies were prosecuted with diligence and care.
A GUy D'AGDE, in the “A)iction/laire de /a Conversation,”
article “Bohemiens” (Gipsies), has not a single good word for
these people, charging upon them that they are not capable of
any crime which indicates the possession of energy and courage,
in a word, of manhood; but only those which awaken sentiments
of contempt and disgust.
In the Supplement to this great work, this utterly degrading
character is somewhat relieved of such blasting stigma by the
statement that in the XVth and XVIth centuries they were noted
as military artificers among the Poles and Turks, and that subse-
quently they became distinguished as musicians. In Russia the
gipsies were not considered either as Outlaws or utter Outcasts, or
even vagabonds. In Germany, two centuries since, they were
looked upon as Spies in the interests of the Turks and penalties
fearfully severe were from time to time promulgated against them.
In case they did not obey the laws for their expulsion they were
31
ſiliili
to be flogged until they bled, then to have their nostrils slit, their *.
heads and beards shaved close, and, finally, to be transported out of
the country. Any violence committed against them was not cul-:
pable.
In Hungary the judicial oath administered to them is curious
“As God drowned King Pharaoh in the Red Sea, even so may
the Tsigane be buried in the bowels of the earth, and may he be
accursed if he does not speak the truth. May nothing honor-
able or dishonorable succeed with him. At the first trot may his
horse be miraculously changed into a donkey and himself hung
on the gallows by the executioner if he testify falsely.”
The gipsies have, little or no, if any, religion. According to
M. Poissonier, Moldavia and Wallachia were inundated by the
gipsies. In the latter principality the proverb runs: “Prayer
never passes the lips of the Tsiganes and and their church was
constructed of curds or lard and the dogs ate it.” This same is
also said of them by Velasquez, in Spain. In Harper's exhaust-
ive “Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical
Literature,” Gipsies are carefully treated: ©
“They bear different names in different countries. In France
they are Bohemiens (because they first came thither from Bohe-
mia, or from Æoem, an old French word meaning “sorcerer,” be-
cause of their practicing on the credulity of the vulgar; in Spain,
Giſa/los or Zinca/, , in Germany, Zigeuner, in Italy, Zingari : in
Holland, Heydeſ/en (Heathens); in Sweden and Denmark,
Zartars; in Sclavic countries, 7"sigawi, in Hungary, Czi-
ga/o/ ; in Turkey, 73//enge/e7: ; in Persia, Sisac/ ; in
Arabia, A/a/a/li. Various nicknames are also applied to them,
as Cagoux and G//ei/3 in France; Zie/-Gau/te/ (Wandering
Rogues) in Germany and 77////ers in Scotland. They call
themselves ROM (men, or husbands; comp. Coptic Æem), CALO
(black), or SINTE (from Ind; hence Zincali, or black men from
Ind.)
Some writers have connected them with the Xtyūvval, men-
tioned by Herodotus (V., 9), as a people of Median extraction
dwelling beyond the Lower Danube, and the Xtytvnot, described
by Strabo (§ 520), as living near Mount Caucasus, and practising
Persian customs. Others have referred them variously to Tar-
tary, Nubia, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Ethiopia, Morocco, &c.; but
the account which the Gipsies, at their appearance in Western
Furope gave of themselves, claimed “ I.ittle Egypt” as the
original home of the race, whence they welle driven in conse-
quence of the Moslem conquests. 3k sk The results of
the investigations made within the last hundred years in the fields
of comparative philology and ethnology prove beyond reasonable
32
FIU M.C D 63,
grounds of doubt that the theories above named are erroneous
and that we must look to India, “the nursing home of nations,”
(tel/us gentium, nutrix), as also the fatherland of the gipsies. It
is now the almost, if not entirely, universally received opinion,
that they came to Europe from Hindustan, either impelled by
the ravages of Tamerlane, or, more probably, at an earlier date,
in quest of fresh fields for the enjoyment of their vagabond life,
and the exercise of their propensity for theft and deception.
This view of their origin rests upon their physiological affinities
with Asiatic types of men, as well as on the striking resemblances
between the Gipsy language and Hindustanee, and the similarity
of their habits and modes of life to those of many roving tribes of
India, especially of the NUTS or Bazagurs, who are styled the
Gipsies of India, and are counterparts of those in Furope, both in
other respects and also in having no peculiar religion, since they
have never adopted the worship of Brahma. The NUTs are
thought by some to be an aborigina/ race, prior even to the Hindus.
Another theory, which seeks to reconcile the Gipsy statement of
an Egyptian origin with the clear evidences of a Hindu one,
would find their ancestors in the mixed multitude that went out
from Egypt with Moses (see Exod. xii., 38; AVum. xi., 4; AVeh.
xiii., 3), and who, according to this view, passed onward to India
and settled there, and from their descendants subsequently bands
of Gipsies migrated to Europe, probably at different times and
by different routes (see Simson). . . ." The Gipsies call their
/anguage “ROMMANY,” and modern philological researches prove
that it belongs to the Sanscrit family. It has doubtless received
additions and modifications from the languages of the countries
in which the race has sojourned, yet it is still so nearly the same
with modern Hindustanee that a Gipsy can readily understand a
person speaking in that dialect—a fact which tends to verify the
statements made as to the zealous care with which the Gipsies
have cherished their ancestral tongue. g