A FAMOUS GIPSY KING.*
THE origin of the Gipsies is one of the unsolved problems of ethnology, and appears likely to remain so. There is no difficulty about the name. It is obviously a corruption of "Egyptian," a name by which the roving race is known all over Europe. There is a tradition among the Gipsies that they are a cross between Arabs and Jews, and left Egypt in the train of the Egyptians. We certainly read in the Biblical account of the Egyptian Exodus, that "a mixed multitude went up also with the Israelites." This "mixed multitude" were evidently not Jews. Hengstenberg sup- poses them to have been an inferior order of workmen, employed like the Jews as slaves in building the Pyramids and treasure cities of Egypt. What became of that mixed multitude ? We never hear of them again. They could hardly have been absorbed by proselytism into the Hebrew nation without some notice of the event ; and it seems scarcely possible for them to have shared the forty years' wanderings and entered into Canaan with the Israelites, without any mention being made of it in the records of that people. It is probable, therefore, that these nondescript fugitives separated themselves from the Israelites after the passage of the Red Sea. What became of them ? Simson, in his interesting History of the Gipsies, thinks that they must have gone to Hindustan. All other routes being closed against them, "their only alternative was to proceed east through Arabia Petrea, along the Gulf of Persia, through the Persian desert into Northern Hindustan, where they founded the Gipsy caste, and whence they issued, after a lapse of many centuries, in possession of the language of Hindustan, and thence spread themselves over the earth." To speak of "the language of Hindustan" is, however, an unmeaning expression. Scholars are agreed that the Gipsy lan- guage is a language of Hindustan, and that, it is agreed, stands towards the seven principal languages in the relation of a sister rather than daughter. Their common generic name in Europe, besides Gipsies or Egyptians, is a word which means wanderers, and which in German appears as " Zigeuner," in Czech as " Cingan," in Italian as " Zingano" or " Zingaro," in Magyar as " Cingany," in Bulgarian as "Atzigan," in Greek as "Atziganos," in Scotch as "Tinker." The unity of the Gipsies is a more wonderful fact than the unity of the Jews. They have no religion to bind them together. Sometimes they profess Christianity in its various forms, sometimes Mahommedanism. But they have no literature, no national history, no religion of their own; nothing in common but a language which, with dialectical variations, is common to them all over Europe, Asia, North America, and the Northern Coast of Africa; a physiognomy as marked as the Jewish ; an ideal of life which is perfectly distinct ; and a general attitude of lawlessness towards all other races, together with fixed standards of morality and honour among the Romani race. They intermarry with other races more than the Jews, and possess the same power of perpetuating their type. Gipsy blood, like Jewish, persists through generations of Gentile existence in a distinct type of features, especially in the lustrous dark eye. It would be curious to trace the Gipsy strain in some of our best-known names and families. The wife of Carlyle had Gipsy blood, and gloried in it. Several of our noble families can boast of the same distinction, and bear the evidence of it in their features. The Gipsies have an inborn love of music, and are, indeed, the creators of much of • The History and Curious Adventures of Bamlykleafoore-Carete, King of the Mendicants. London: Hobert Decries.
the wild pathetic music of Hungary, as well as its principal instrumental exponents. But what is leas known is that some of the b4ist Welsh harpists have been of the Romani race. How many of !those who have been charmed by the concerts of the Roberts family have known that they have been listening to Gipsy musicians ? In Hungary they are numerous and powerful, and the well-known statesman, Andrassy, is said to have been a Gipsy. When they first appear on the page of European history, we find them under the leadership of Dukes, Counts, and Knights of Little Egypt, who rode on good horses gaily caparisoned. In more recent times, the Gipsies of Europe have been under the rule of Kings and Queens, for they have no Salic Law.
One of the most famous Kings of the British Gipsies was Bamfylde-Moore-Carew, the son of a Devonshire clergyman of good family. He joined a band of Gipsies in consequence of an escapade at school, and became so enamoured of the life that he was formally initiated into the Romani common- wealth, and was elected King on the first vacancy. His principal recommendation was his singular dexterity in men- dicancy by the clever assumption of various characters. Sometimes he appeared as a shipwrecked mariner, sometimes as a paralytic old man, sometimes as a Gipsy crone, sometimes as a smuggler who had escaped from his band, and revealed to the Customs officers the hiding-place of valuable booty. In the course of a few days, on one occasion, he set all the Customs officers through a large part of Devon and Dorsetshire on a wild-goose chase after smuggled goods, receiving handsome rewards for his information, and then escaping. But he pur- sued his calling with considerable risk. At that time—that is, during the first half of the eighteenth century—a mendi- cant Gipsy was by law an outlaw. He was liable to be trans- ported to the American Colonies and sold as a slave. And Bamfylde-Moore-Carew was, in fact, twice transported, and on each occasion managed to escape and return to England. Those were also the days of the press-gang, and the Gipsy King was pressed into the British Navy, to which he likewise managed to give the slip in the Baltic, and found his way back to England after a series of amusing adventures. His adventures in America are also exciting. But his presence of mind, and ready wit and resource, never failed him. The most amusing part of his life is undoubtedly his adventures in England, exhibiting a protean power of disguise. But he once met his match. "One day, as he was begging in the town of Marden Bradby from door to door as a shipwrecked seaman, he saw on the other side of the road a mendicant brother-seaman, in a habit as forlorn as his own, begging for God's sake just like him- self." The stranger crossed the street and accosted Carew in the thieves' slang. They compared notes, and agreed to beg together, which they did through various towns and villages for some days, arriving at last at Lord Weymouth's mansion. It was agreed that Carew was to be spokesman. The servant, however, bade them begone unless they could give an accurate account of the countries they had travelled through, for should Lord Weymouth come and detect them in any false- hood, he would certainly horsewhip them, according to his custom. They got some money and food, and pursued their vocation towards Frome, where they separated. Carew's mendicant companion turned out to be no other than Lord Weymouth himself, who occasionally adopted this method of discovering the character of his neighbours of all classes. Lord Weymouth hurried back to Longleat, and doffing his disguise (which was known only to a confidential valet), he had Carew fetched back and brought before him. Carew was sternly ordered by his Lordship to bring back his fellow- beggar on pain of imprisonment. Having given this order, Lord Weymouth left the room, donned his beggar's dress, and was led into the presence of Carew, with whom he hurriedly agreed on the story which they were to tell Lord Weymouth. They were then separated, and Carew was again led into his lordship's presence, and was severely cross-examined. After thoroughly bewildering and frightening the Gipsy King, Lord Weymouth revealed his identity with the other beggar, and dismissed Carew with a liberal present.
It is perhaps not difficult to understand the fascination which this kind of life had for a well-born and well-educated gentleman. What is more difficult to understand is the code of morals which Carew adopted without compunction. He was an upright and honourable man, apart from the decep- tions which he practised in mendicancy, and practised evidently more from the love of exercising his powers of dis- guise than for the sake of gain ; for he might have lived in comfort and ease had he chosen to return to his friends. All through his wanderings he had a wife and daughter, to whom he was devotedly attached. In the Life of Carew there is a farewell speech to his people by the Gipsy King whom Carew succeeded, which is full of shrewd aphorisms in the art of begging. Is this true P—" A real scene of affection moves few hearts to pity ; dissembled wretchedness is what most reaches the human heart." Is a tragedy on the stage more moving than a tragedy in real life ? And if it is, why ? Is it because a skilful actor exhibits suffering more dramatically and powerfully than a real sufferer, who does not call Art to the support of Nature ? The Gipsy King's aphorism suggests a further question. If scenical representation affects us more powerfully than actual suffering, must not the influence of the theatre be, on the whole, harmful to character, as causing a waste of emotions, which are the raw material of character? Good emotions which are not utilised, waste so much of the stuff of which character is made. We express no decided opinion; but the question deserves some consideration.
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