Origin of the Giplies.

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at Manheim. Befides the tragedy He has also published the Prospectus of the Robbers, he has written two of a moral periodical work, which others, and is engaged in a fourth, he means foon to begin. on the story of Don Carlos of Spain.

Of the Origin of the Gipfies. By Heinrich Moritz Gottlieb Grellmann, Tranflated from the German *.

HAT the Gipfies are of In

deavoured to prove from the ftriking resemblance between their language and that of the Hindoost. Upon examination of the vocabulary which I have given of Gipfey and Hindoftan words, it will appear that every third Gipfey word is likewife an Hindoftan one; or ftill more, out of thirty Gipfey words, eleven or twelve are conftantly of Hindoftan. This agreement is uncommonly great: it inuft alfo be remembered, that the words there communicated have only been learned from the Gipfies within thefe very few years; confequently, at a feafon when they had been near four compleat centuries away from Hindoftan, their native country (as I may now affert it to be) among people who talked languages totally different, and in which the Gipfies themselves converfed. Under the conftant, and fo long-continued influx of thefe languages, their own must neceffarily have fuffered great alteration, more especially as they are a people entirely raw, without either writing or literature. One word after another must have crept from the others into their language; confequently, by the frequent ufe of foreign words, the Gipfey word, of the fame fignification, was more rarely used, and by degrees entirely loft from their recollection: by which circumftance the original compofition of their language became entirely deranged; which is

the reason why, as any body may convince themselves by inspection, all kinds of languages and idioms, Turkish, Grecian, Latin, Wallachian, Hungarian, Sclavonian, German, and others, make part of their vocabulary.

I come now to the main defign of my treatise, to the pofition, that the Gipfies are of the lowest class of Indians, namely, Parias, or as they are called in Hindoftan, Suders.

The whole great nation of Indians is known to be divided into four ranks or stocks, which are called, by a Portuguese name, CASTS, each of which has its own particular fubdivifions. Of thefe Cafts, the Bramin is the firft. The second contains the Tfchechteries or Setreas. The third confifts of the Beis or Wafziers. The fourth is the Caft of the just mentioned Suders; who, upon the Peninsula of Malabar, where their condition is the fame as in Hindoftan, are called Parias, or Parier.

The relative fituation of these four Cafts, and the grounds of their difference, reft on the Indian fable of the Creation. This relates, that the God who created Bruma, ordained that the Bramin fhould proceed out of Bruma's mouth; the Tfchechterie out of his arms, the Beis out of his legs, and the Suder from his feet. As Bruma afterwards allotted the employments of each of thefe flocks; he appointed the firft to feek after knowledge, E e 2

to

• Differtation of the Gipfres, 4to. Tranflated by M. Raper, Efq. Juft published. See an Ellay on this subject, Edinb. Mag. Vol. II. p. 39.

to give inftruction, and to take find this inclination, without excep

care of religion. The fecond was to ferve in war. The third was alfo to cultivate fcience, but to attend particularly to the breeding of cattle and agriculture. The Caft of Suders was deftined to be fubfervient to the Bramins, the Tfchech. teries, and the Beis. Thefe Suders are held in the greatest contempt; they are infamous and unclean from their occupations; they are abhorred because they eat flesh, whereas the other three Cafts live on vegetables only.

Of this very Caft, as will appear. by the following comparison, our Gipfies are compofed.

We know that the Gipfies are in the highest degree filthy and difgufting; with regard to character, of the most depraved hearts: they are thievish, liars, and fraudulent to excefs, and these are exactly the qualities of the Suders. Baldæus fays, "The Pareas are a filthy <6 race; in a word, a contemptible "ftinking people: a wicked crew, "who in Winter fteal much cattle, "kill them, and fell the hides." It is again related in the Danish Miffion Intelligence, "No body can "deny that the Bareier are the "dregs and refufe of all the Indi"ans; they have wicked difpofi❝tions, are thievish, arrant liars, "cannot bear good ufage, require "to be kept in order by fear and "blows, and held under continual "reftraint." Moreover, Neuhof affures us,

tion, though other Indians do not commit fuch excefs, or at most very feldom, and that privately.

What has been further faid, with refpect to the immoral life of the Gipfies, agrees perfectly with the Suders. Their wives and daugh"ters," fays. Neuhof, "make no "difficulty of yielding up their per"fons for money, to any fort of people, be they of what country

66

or religion foever as the incli"nation of this tribe tends more "to voluptuoufnefs, than towards diligence or industry."

With regard to Gipfies marriages, it has been afferted, that it made no difference with their confciences, whether the party was the nearest relation or an utter ftranger; or, as Solomon expreffes himfelf, the nearest relations cohabit, like beafts, with each other; and as to education, that their children grow up in the most shameful neglect, without either difcipline or inftruction. All this is precifely. the cafe with the Pariars. In the Journals of the Miffionaries already quoted, it is faid, "With refpect "to matrimony, they act like the "beafts, and their children are "brought up without restraint or "information."

Giplies are fond of being about horfes, the Suders in India likewise; for which reason they are commonly employed as horfekeepers by the Europeans refident in that coun

"The Parruas are full try. "of every kind of difhonefty, they "do not look upon lying and cheat"❝ing to be finful; as they have no "other maxim or cuftom among

"them."

In addition to the foregoing, the Giplies love to intoxicate themfelves; they are particularly fond of brandy, because it more fpeedily anfwers their purpose than any other drink. Among the Suders we

The Gipfies were formerly the common flayers, hangmen, and executioners, all over Hungary and Tranfilvania, and ftill readily per form thofe offices, whenever called upon. In like manner, in India, no one, who is not of the Caft of the Suders, will on any account transact that kind of bufinefs.

That the Gipfies hunt after cattle which have died of distempers, in

order

Origin of the Gipfies.

order to feed on them; and where they can provide more than is fufficient for one day's confumption, dry it in the fun, which is likewife a conftant cuftom with the Pariars in India. "It is their office," according to the accounts we have of them, to remove carrion; which "they cut up, part they boil fresh "and eat, other parts they dry in "pieces, by the heat of the fun, "for their future provifion."

Every one of the Parias prays to the God who beft pleafes him, and is always of the fame opinion with the reft of his friends or neighbours where he lives. Miffions berichte, Th. I. S. 398, 399.-The caule of the Suders' great ignorance in religious matters may easily be accounted for from the ftate of oppreflion in which they live. So far are they from receiving any, inftruction in thefe matters,

emigration of the Gipfies, are not determined to imagine that they were actuated by a blind impulfe, to break up at once and quit their native country, there is no caufe to be affigned for their retreat from thence, by any means fo plaufible as the war of Timur Beg in India. The date of their arrival marks it very plainly. It was in the year 1408 and 1409 that this conqueror ravaged India; and having perfuaded himself, as well as his followers, that he had undertaken the expedition against India for the purpofe of fpreading the Mahometan religion, his war was quite oppreffive enough to occafion such an emigration. For not only every one who made any refiftance was deftroyed, and fuch others as fell into the enemies hands, though ever fo defenceless, were made flaves, but fhortly after thefe very flaves, to the number of an hundred thoufand, were put to death. As, on this occafion, an univerfal panic took place, no body being fecure that it might not be his own fate in a fhort time, what could be more natural, than that a great number of terrified inhabitants fhould endeavour to fave themselves by flight.

this argument will fall of itself, when we reflect on the prepoffeffion which the three higher Cafts of Indians entertain for their country. They afcribe an extraordinary degree of holiness to it, and believe it to be the only country thought, by the Creator of the Univerfe, worthy for fuch fanctified people as the Bramins, Tschechteries, and Beis, to dwell in. They would fooner fuffer torture and death, than quit this land chosen by the Almighty himself for their refidence, to go and dwell any where elfe. Moreover, a Suder is, in their eftimation, the moft execrable being in the world, and the least intercourfe with him would be defiling and degrading their high characters, which to them would be more dreadful than death. Wherefore it was a moral impoffibility for thofe of a higher Cast to have any thing in common with a Suder, or that they fhould have made a united retreat. Finally, by putting themselves into the power of the Suders, with whom they live con stantly in a state of difcord and inveteracy, they would have run a greater risk of their lives, than by patiently expecting their fate from the hands of their common enemy. In cafe any of the higher ranks of Indians did withdraw themselves on account of the troubles, it is probable they retired fouthwards, to people of their own fort, the But Marattas.

There feems to be fome reafon to object here, that when this fuppofed flight took place, had it been true, not Gipfies only, or the loweft clafs of people, but with them all forts of Indians of fuperior rank would have come among us.

As

that the other three Cafts feem ftrenuously to wish they fhould have no religion, esteeming them an inferior race of beings, originally deftined to perdition. (Miffions berichte, Th. I. S. 111.) Should any of them take it into their heads, of their own accord, to endeavour to procure information concerning the religion of the other Indians, they fubject themselves to the following penalties, according to the laws of the Tfchentus: "If a man of the Sooder reads the Bedis of "the Shafter, or the Pooràn, to a Bramin, a Chebtere, or a Bice, then the ma"gistrate shall heat some bitter oil, and pour it into the aforefaid Sooder's mouth; "and if a Sooder liftens to the Bedis of the Shafter, then the oil, heated as be"fore, fhall be poured into his ears, and arzeez and wax fhall be melted toge"ther, and the orifice of his ears fhall be ftopped therewith.- -This ordination "ferves alfo for the Arzal tribe." Gentoo Laws, octavo, 1777, 261–24+

A Chinese Anecdote.

A Chinese Anecdote*.

to ascertain the number of those of his fubjects whofe lives heaven had protracted beyond the general period of human existence; and, by the ftates that were fent to him, it appeared that there were 192 families, the heads of which faw their fifth generation, and four of thefe were upwards of a hundred years

* Memoires concernans les Chinois; lately published.