Gypsy

1. A member of a people that arrived in Europe in migrations from northern India around the 14th century, now also living in North America and Australia. Many Gypsy groups have preserved elements of their traditional culture, including an itinerant existence and the Romany language.
2. See Romany (sense 2).
3. gypsy One inclined to a nomadic, unconventional way of life.
4. A person who moves from place to place as required for employment, especially:
   1. A part-time or temporary member of a college faculty.
   2. A member of the chorus line in a theater production.

[Alteration of Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien, Egyptian (so called because Gypsies were thought to have come from Egypt).]

Since the Romantic period, Gypsies have had a glamorous image for writers and artists outside their communities, evoking ideas of freedom, exotic passion, mystery, and a life close to nature. In folk tradition, however, the stereotyping is negative; Gypsies are seen as dangerous outsiders; they are likely to seduce respectable women, for example in the well-known song about the grand lady who left her husband and child to follow a Gypsy (F. J. Child, English and Scottish Ballads, no. 200). They are suspected of cunning and dishonesty in their work as horse-traders, scrap merchants, and street sellers, and feared for their reputed power to cast spells. curse, and bless—a reputation they themselves fully exploit.

Real or pretended Gypsies have long made their living as fortune-tellers (Davies, 1999a: 258-65). The first law against them in England, in 1530, condemns their ‘greate subtyll and crafty meanes’ of deceiving people through palmistry; in 1620 John Melton noted in his Astrologaster how ‘figure-casters’ (i.e. drawers of horoscopes) ‘would appear in the villages in the likeness of Gypsies… and that they might be thought to come of the issue of that sun-burnt generation, they with herbs and plants… (would) discolour their faces, and then for bread, beere, bacon, cheese, but especially for money, would undertake to tell poore maid-servants their fortunes’. Gypsies still work as fairground fortune-tellers, using palmistry, the crystal ball, or cards; they visit many towns to sell ‘lucky’ white heather in the streets, where they offer instant fortune-telling. The old request to ‘cross the Gypsy's palm with silver’ has now become ‘Give us gold, dearie’, meaning a £1 coin, or even ‘Give us paper, dearie’ [JS]. The rumour of a ‘Gypsy curse’ surfaces occasionally, for instance to explain a football club's repeatedly poor results.

The other long-established dread was of their kidnapping children. Flora Thompson describes in Lark Rise to Candleford ((1945), chapter 2) how it scared her to see any Gypsies, ‘for there was a tradition that once, years before, a child from a neighbouring village had been stolen by them’. This fear seems to have died away, though ‘I'll give you to the Gypsies’ was a threat used to naughty children within living memory.

The real lifestyle and customs of Gypsy families are virtually unknown to the English public, apart from the lavish funerals of their most respected members—invariably dubbed ‘Gypsy Kings’ or ‘Queens’ by the press. Folklorists are aware that some have kept the art of formal storytelling, and fine fairytales were collected from them in England early in the 20th century (Philip, 1992: pp. xvii-xx), and are still being collected in Scotland.

Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

• For the Gypsies' own history and traditions, see J. Okely, The Traveller-Gypsies (1983)
• D. Mayall, Gypsy-Travellers in 19th-Century Society (1988)
• Angus Fraser, The Gypsies (2nd edn., 1995)
• F. H. Groome, Gypsy Folk-Tales (1899)
• The Journal of the Gypsy-Lore Society

The Gypsies probably originally came from India, and migrated to Iran by the fourteenth century. They reached Hungary, Serbia, and other Balkan countries by 1438. Next, they spread into Poland, Russia, Sweden, Spain, and Great Britain. Some Gypsies converted to Islam or Orthodoxy, but most became Catholics, while still observing much of their pre-Christian religion. Their language split into many dialects; only today is it becoming a written language.

Because of their nomadic lifestyle, the Gypsies made a living mainly from trading horses and other animals, peddling, silver and gold work, and music. They were not allowed to own land where they lived, and were often accused of stealing by the locals. Because the Gypsies were deemed different and foreign, they were treated in a hostile manner by their adopted countries.

When the Nazis came to power, they slated the Gypsies for persecution, because the Gypsies represented a contradiction to the Aryan ideal. They were not as bad as Jews, but they were not of pure Aryan blood, they did not live a settled way of life, and they did not fit into the kind of society the Nazis aspired to. The Nazis sought to determine which Gypsies were most harmful. Their treatment of Gypsies was influenced by whether they were "pure" or of mixed blood, and whether they lived a traditional Gypsy lifestyle or not. Since at various times the Nazis regarded these factors differently, Gypsies were treated inconsistently. Some Gypsies were murdered, others were enslaved, others were to be sterilized and others were largely left alone.

The Nuremberg Laws of September 1935 included the Gypsies in their discrimination. In 1936, groups of Gypsies were taken to the Dachau camp. A Nazi named Richard Ritter set to the task of deciding what to do with the Gypsy population. He called for the separation of Gypsies from Aryans, and Mischlinge Gypsies from pure Gypsies, and for the sterilization and imprisonment of the Mischlinge. In 1939 Heinrich Himmler announced the removal of 30,000 Gypsies from Germany to the Generalgouvernement; only 2,500 were deported. On December 16, 1942 Himmler ordered the transfer of the Mischlinge Gypsies to Auschwitz, with the exception of a few former German soldiers, important war industry workers, and those who were "socially adapted," who were to be sterilized, instead. In 1943 and 1944 thousands of Gypsies were deported to Auschwitz. They lived under horrible conditions. Many died of starvation, illness, and Medical Experiments. Others were murdered. In total, about 24,000 Gypsies from Germany and Austria were sent to Concentration Camps. Approximately 13,500 others were saved. Only a few hundred Czech Gypsies survived.

In German-occupied Europe, Gypsies often were murdered along with the Jews. Generally, the Nazis would imprison the Gypsies and then transport them to Germany or Poland to be killed. In Yugoslavia alone, 90,000 were exterminated. Gypsies from the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and Belgium were arrested and sent to Auschwitz. About 16,000--18,000 Gypsies from non-occupied France were murdered in German camps. Some Italian Gypsies were interned, some were made to perform Forced Labor, and others were sent to Extermination Camps. Many Gypsies from Hungary were deported. About 25,000 Romanian Gypsies died, and Slovak Gypsies were forced into labor brigades, expelled, and murdered by their Slovak countrymen. In Poland, Gypsies were put in the Ghettos, and sent to camps; about two-thirds of the Polish Gypsies died, numbering 25,000. In the Soviet Union and the Baltic States, a distinction was sometimes made between settled and nomadic Gypsies. Those Gypsies from Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, and Greece were spared.

Gypsies is the general term as well as a self-designation for a number of distinct ethnic groups that differ from one another socially, politically, and economically. Each group maintains social distance from each other and from non-Gypsies. A source of fascination and suspicion, itinerant Gypsies were subject to expulsion by authorities. Between 1859 and 1931, twelve states passed laws, subsequently repealed, to tax or regulate "roving bands of nomads, commonly known as gypsies."

The Romnichels emigrated from England as families primarily from 1850 to 1910. Some purchased land and created settlements or "Gypsy corners"; land ownership provided an assured camping place, loan collateral, or supplementary income. Romnichel immigrants were cutlers, basket makers, and rat catchers, but with the increased use of horses in agriculture and urban transportation, this group's primary occupation became horse trading. They traded horses while traveling and shipped animals by rail to urban sales stables. When the horse trade declined following World War I, they resorted to previously secondary occupations, such as manufacturing rustic furniture, basketry, fortune-telling, driveway paving, and septic tank cleaning.

Although their religious preferences were conventionally Protestant, many formed fundamentalist Christian congregations. Kindreds, identified by surnames, are associated with distinctive cultural and psychological traits that are important in social evaluations based on an ideology distinguishing ritually clean from unclean behavior.

Rom families emigrated from Serbia and the Russian empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in groups as large as two hundred persons. Although Rom occupations included horse trading, fortune-telling, and repairing industrial equipment, coppersmithing, the wipe tinning of copper kettles, was a specialty. When new technologies replaced copper vessels and horses, Roma developed urban fortune-telling businesses, using vacant stores for both houses and businesses and contracting with amusement parks and carnivals. Local ordinances and Rom territoriality based on the fortune-telling business dictated population density. Driveway sealing and paving, trade in scrap metal or used vehicles, and auto body repair also became common occupations. During the Great Depression, spurred by the Rom leader Steve Kaslov and Eleanor Roosevelt, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and social service agencies in New York City established short-lived adult education classes and a coppersmith workshop for this group.

Rom kinship is strongly patrilineal, and household organization is patrilocal. Conflicts are resolved by juridical systems that impose fines or the threat of banishment. Their ideology separates pure from impure, good luck from bad, male from female, and Gypsy from non-Gypsy. Marriages are arranged by families and include a bride price, or couples elope. Roma generally are Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, and their communal rituals echo Serbian Orthodox practices. However, some Roma founded Pentecostal Christian churches that preached against earlier practices.

Ludars immigrated to the United States between 1880 and 1910 from Bosnia and speak a Romanian dialect. Animal exhibitors, they arrived with trained bears and monkeys. Initially, they worked in horse trading and industrial wage labor. The Great Depression forced some to take WPA-sponsored road construction work, while the WPA circus employed a Ludar showman and his performing bear. Subsequent occupations included carnival concessions, manufacturing outdoor furniture, driveway paving, and seasonal agricultural work.

From 1908 to 1939, Ludars established permanent camps on leased land, particularly in the Bronx and Queens, New York; Stickney Township near Chicago; and Delaware County, Pennsylvania, from which they made seasonal journeys or commuted to tell fortunes from house to house. Ludar religion is traditionally Eastern Orthodox, and marriages, arranged by parents with a bride price, are performed by a justice of the peace or in Orthodox or Catholic churches.

Slovak Gypsies, historically sedentary, immigrated to the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries primarily from Saros County in eastern Slovakia. Speaking a dialect of Romani, the men arrived singly or in small groups, and their wives and children followed later. Defined by musical performances, some settled in New York City, where they played in saloons, hotels, and theaters. Others, including the WPA Gypsy orchestras, established settlements in western Pennsylvania; Youngstown and Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit; and Chicago, where they played for ethnic and general audiences and performed industrial labor. Most remained Roman Catholics.

Bibliography

Gropper, Rena C. Gypsies in the City: Culture Patterns and Survival. Princeton, N.J: Darwin Press, 1975.

Lockwood, William G., and Sheila Salo. Gypsies and Travelers in North America: An Annotated Bibliography. Cheverly, Md.: Gypsy Lore Society, 1994.

Salo, Matt T. "Gypsy Ethnicity: Implications of Native Categories and Interaction for Ethnic Classification." Ethnicity 6, no. 1 (1979): 73–96.

Salo, Matt T., and Sheila Salo. "Gypsy Immigration to the United States." In Papers from the Sixth and Seventh Annual Meetings, Gypsy Lore Society, North American Chapter. Edited by Joanne Grumet. New York: Gypsy Lore Society, 1986.

———. "Romnichel Economic and Social Organization in Urban New England, 1850–1930." Urban Anthropology 11, no. 3–4 (1982): 273–313.

Sutherland, Anne. Gypsies: The Hidden Americans. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1986.

Gypsies (tsygane in Russian, while Roma is the name preferred by this group) have been one of the most visible and yet least powerful of ethnic groups in Russia. The population is considerably larger than the 153,000 in the Russian Federation who were listed as Gypsies in the 1989 census. This is due to underreporting, a high birth rate, and immigration from former Soviet republics. Roma leaders claim a population of at least one million. As is true of Roma populations all over Europe, little is known of their ethnic origins and history as a people, though it is theorized that Gypsies originated in India. Many migrated to Russia by way of Germany and Poland during the eighteenth century after suffering persecution there. Romani, the language spoken by most gypsies, has Indo-European roots with some links to ancient Sanskrit.

Gypsies are widely dispersed across Russia, with communities in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Komi Republic, Sverdlovsk, Vologda, Volgograd, Voronezh, Yaroslavl, and elsewhere. Following long-standing cultural traditions, Roma have resisted assimilation and exist on the margins of society. Geographic dispersal and social marginalization meant that the Roma did not enjoy the state support that often characterized Soviet nationality policy. Gypsies had no territorial entity of their own, no schools offering instruction in their own language, and no newspapers. The first Roma newspaper in Russia began publication in Samara only in 2001. Even under Josef Stalin, however, the cultural role of gypsies in Soviet society was recognized. In 1931 the Romen Theater opened in Moscow. It was the first theater in the world to showcase gypsy culture, and gypsy actors and musicians performed and were trained there. The theater continues to be active in post-Soviet Russia. Gypsy themes have been prominent in Russian culture, particularly through the popular film Tabor Goes to Heaven (Tabor ukhodit v nebo) which was released in 1976.

In Russia as in the rest of Eastern Europe, gypsies have been the object of public scorn and official repression. Many have traditionally engaged in illegal or semilegal occupations such as black marketeering, petty theft, fencing stolen goods, and organized begging. This is both a cause and effect of the lack of acceptance of gypsies in Russian society. During the Soviet period, gypsies often engaged in black-market selling of alcohol and perfume, as well as fortune-telling and other occult arts. State repression of the gypsies reached a new height during the Nikita Khrushchev period. New regulations issued in 1957 attempted to restrict their movements outside of places where they were registered. This attempt to prevent the movement of gypsies has continued in post-Soviet Russia, with the police sometimes tearing down illegal gypsy settlements and forcing residents to return to their home region. With the expansion of private enterprise in post-Soviet Russia, the Roma reportedly have been squeezed out of their traditional commercial occupations, with even fortune-telling taken over by non-gypsy entrepreneurs who had an easier time dealing with the authorities. There has been an increasing incidence of gypsies involved in more serious crimes, such as the drug trade, a tendency bemoaned by leaders of the Roma community.

In 2000 the Russian government officially recognized the need for gypsies to have a political voice, and it authorized the creation of a council that would defend gypsy interests. Its leaders have campaigned against frequent stereotyping of gypsies in the media and have condemned police harassment based solely on ethnic identity.

Bibliography

Crowe, David M. (1994). A History of Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia. New York: St. Martin's Press.

European Roma Rights Center (2003). "Written Comments of the European Roma Rights Center Concerning the Russian Federation for Consideration by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at its Sixty-second Session, March 3 - 21, 2003." <http://www.errc.org/publications/legal/CERD-Russia_Feb_2003

—DARRELL SLIDER

The name Gypsy, an abbreviation of "Egyptian," has been used for centuries by English-speaking people to denote a member of a group of wanderers who traveled Europe during the Middle Ages, and whose descendants are still found in most European countries.

Many other names, such as "Saracen" and "Zigeuner," or "Cigan," have been applied to these people, but "Egyptian" is the most widespread. It does not, however, relate to Egypt, but to the country of "Little Egypt" or "Lesser Egypt," whose identity has never been clearly established. Two Transylvanian references from the years 1417 and 1418 suggested that Palestine is the country in question, but there is some reason to believe that "Little Egypt" included other regions in the East. It is now almost unanimously agreed that the Gypsies came into Europe from India.

There are strong resemblances between Indian and gypsy language. Gypsies speak of themselves as "Romany" and of their language as Romani-tchib (tchib= tongue). Physically they are black-haired and brown-skinned, their appearance, like their language, suggesting affinities with Hindustan.

In recent centuries, if not in earlier times, many of their overlords were not of Gypsy blood, but belonged to the nobility and petite noblesse of Europe, and were formally appointed by the kings and governments of their respective countries to rule over all the Gypsies resident within those countries. The title of baron, count, or regent of the Gypsies was no proof that the official so designated was of Gypsy race.

The appointed rulers, were empowered by Christian princes, and under Papal approval, were necessarily Christian. Moreover, their vassals were at least Christian by profession. Although their behavior was often inconsistent with such a profession, it was in the character of Christian pilgrims that they asked and obtained hospitality from the cities and towns of Medieval Europe.

This twofold character is illustrated in connection with the services held in the crypt of the church of Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, in the Ile de la Camargue, Bouches-du-Rhône. In this church many Gypsies annually celebrate the Festival of the Holy Marys on May 25. The crypt is specially reserved for them, because it contains the shrine of Saint Sara of Egypt, whom they regard as their patron saint. Throughout the night of the 24th-25th May they keep watch over her shrine, and on the 25th they leave. Among the Gypsy votive offerings presented in the crypt, some are believed to date back to about the year 1450.

All this would appear to indicate that the Gypsies were Christians. Another statement, however, tends to qualify such a conclusion. The assertion that the shrine of Saint Sara rests upon an ancient altar dedicated to Mithra, that the Gypsies of that neighborhood who are known as "Calagues," are descended from the Iberians formerly inhabiting the Camargue, and that their cult is really the Mithraic worship of fire and water, upon which the veneration of Saint Sara is superimposed.

Many believe that confirmation of this view is the worship of fire still existing among the Gypsies of Southern Hungary although this is also characteristic of India. There are special ceremonies observed at childbirth, in order to avert evil during the period between birth and baptism. Prior to the birth of the child, the Gypsies light a fire before the mother's tent, and this fire remains until the rite of baptism has been performed. The women who light and feed the fire recite the following chant:

"Burn ye, burn ye fast, O Fire!
And guard the babe from wrathful ire
Of earthy Gnome and Water-Sprite,
Whom with thy dark smoke banish quite!
Kindly Fairies, hither fare,
And let the babe good fortune share,
Let luck attend him ever here,
Throughout his life be luck aye near!
Twigs and branches now in store,
And still of branches many more,
Give we to thy flame, O Fire!
Burn ye, burn ye, fast and high,
Hear the little baby cry!"

It is noted that the spirits of the Earth and Water here are regarded as malevolent, and only to be overcome by the superior aid of fire. These women who are believed to have learned their occult lore from the unseen powers of Earth and Water are held to be the greatest magicians of the tribe.

Moreover, the water-being is not invariably regarded as inimical, but is sometimes directly propitiated. As when a mother, to charm away convulsive crying in her child, goes through the prescribed ceremonial details, including casting a red thread into the stream and repeating the following: "Take this thread, O Water-Spirit, and take with it the crying of my child! If it gets well, I will bring thee apples and eggs!"

The water-spirit appears again in a friendly character when a man, in order to recover a stolen horse, takes his infant to a stream, and, bending over the water, asks the invisible genius to indicate, by means of the baby's hand, the direction in which the horse has been taken. These two instances demonstrate the worship of water and the watery powers. Although these rites may be ascribed to Mithraism in its later stages, they may have an earlier origin.

Joseph Glanville 's observation of a young Gypsy inspired Matthew Arnold's poem, "The Scholar-Gypsy." In his Vanity of Dogmatising (1661), Glanville states, "There was lately a lad in the University of Oxford who was, by his poverty, forced to leave his studies there, and at last to join himself to a company of vagabond Gypsies…. After he had been a pretty while exercised in the trade," this scholar-gypsy chanced to meet two of his former fellow-students, to whom he stated, "that the people he went with were not such imposters as they were taken for, but that they had a traditional kind of learning among them, and could do wonders by the powers of imagination, their fancy binding that of others; that himself had learned much of their art, and when he had compassed the whole secret, he intended," he said, "to leave their company, and give the world an account of what he had learned."

It is believed that ancient Gypsies had knowledge and exercised hypnotism. Even among modern Gypsies this power is said to be exercised. Col. Eugene De Rochas stated that the Catalan Gypsies were mesmerists and clairvoyants, and the writer Lewis Spence supposedly experienced an attempt on the part of a South Hungarian Gypsy to exert this influence.

The same power, under the name of "glamour," was formerly an attribute of the Scottish Gypsies. Glamour was defined by Sir Walter Scott as "the power of imposing on the eyesight of the spectators, so that the appearance of an object shall be totally different from the reality."

Scott in explanation of a reference to "the Gypsies' glamour'd gang," in one of his ballads, he remarks: "Besides the prophetic powers ascribed to the Gypsies in most European countries, the Scottish peasants believe them possessed of the power of throwing upon bystanders a spell to fascinate their eyes and cause them to see the thing that is not. Thus in the old ballad of 'Johnnie Faa,' the elopement of the Countess of Cassillis with a Gypsy leader is imputed to fascination—

"Sae soon as they saw her weel-faur'd face,
They cast the glamour o'er her."

Scott also relates an incident of a Gypsy who "exercised his glamour over a number of people at Haddington, to whom he exhibited a common dunghill cock, trailing, what appeared to the spectators, a massy oaken trunk. An old man passed with a cart of clover, he stopped and picked out a four-leaved blade; the eyes of the spectators were opened, and the oaken trunk appeared to be a bulrush." Supposedly the quatrefoil, owing to its cruciform shape, acted as an antidote to witchcraft. Moreover, in the face of this sign of the cross, the Gypsy had to stop exercising the unlawful art. As to the possibility of hypnotizing a crowd, or making them "to see the thing that is not," that feat has often been ascribed to African witch doctors. What is required is a dominant will on the one hand and a sufficiently plastic imagination on the other.

Scott introduces these statements among his notes on the ballad of "Christie's Will," in relation to the verse:

"He thought the warlocks o' the rosy cross,
—Had fang'd him in their nets sae fast;
Or that the Gypsies' glamour'd gang
—Had lair'd his learning at the last."

This association of the Rosicrucians with Gypsies is not inapt, for hypnotism appears to have been considered a Rosicrucian art. Scott has other suggestive references including: "Saxo Grammaticus mentions a particular sect of Mathematicians, as he is pleased to call them, who, 'per summam ludificandorum oculorum peritiam, proprios alienosque vultus, varus rerum imaginibus, adumbraie callebant; illicibusque formis veros obscurare conspectus.' Merlin, the son of Ambrose, was particularly skilled in this art, and displays it often in the old metrical romance of Arthour and Merlin. The jongleurs were also great professors of this mystery, which has in some degree descended, with their name, on the modern jugglers."

Various societies are credited with possession, of the art of hypnotism, during the Middle Ages. Presumably, it was inherited from one common source. How much the Gypsies were associated with this power may be inferred from a Scottish Act of Parliament of the year 1579, which was directed against "the idle people calling themselves Egyptians, or any other that fancy themselves to have knowledge of prophecy, charming, or other abused sciences." For the term "charming," like "glamour" and other kindred words (e.g., "enchantment," "bewitched," "spellbound") bore reference to the mesomeric influence.

The statement made by Glanvill's scholar-gypsy would lead one to believe that the Gypsies inhabiting England in the seventeenth century possessed other branches of learning. They have always been famed for their alleged prophetic power, exercised through the medium of astrology and chiromancy or palmistry, and also by the interpretation of dreams, this last named phase being distinctly specified in Scotland in 1611. It does not appear that any modern Gypsies profess a traditional knowledge of astrology. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the scholar Francis H. Groome was shown by a Welsh Gypsyman the form of the written charm employed by his mother in her fortune-telling, and that form was unquestionably a survival of the horoscope. Both mother and son were obviously unaware of that fact, and made no profession of astrology, but they had inherited the scheme of the horoscope from ancestors who were astrologers.

The practice of palmistry is still identified with the Gypsies, as it has been for ages. A curious belief was current in medieval times to the effect that the Three Kings or Magi who came to Bethlehem were Gypsies, and in more than one religious play they were represented as telling the fortunes of the Holy Family by means of palmistry. This circumstance evoked the following suggestive remarks from Charles Godfrey Leland.

"As for the connection of the Three Kings with Gypsies, it is plain enough. Gypsies were from the East; Rome and the world abounded in wandering Chaldean magi-priests, and the researches which I am making have led me to a firm conclusion that the Gypsy lore of Hungary and South Slavonia has a very original character as being, firstly, though derived from India, not Aryan, but Shamanic, that is, of an Altaic, or Tartar, or 'Turanian' stock…. Secondly, this was the old Chaldean-Accadian 'wisdom' or sorcery. Thirdly—and this deserves serious examination—it was also the old Etruscan religion whose magic formulas were transmitted to the Romans….

"The Venetian witchcraft, as set forth by Bernoni, is evidently of Slavic-Greek origin. That of the Romagna is Etruscan, agreeing very strangely and closely with the Chaldean magic of Lenormant, and marvelously like the Gypsies'. It does not, when carefully sifted, seem to be like that of the Aryans…. nor is it Semitic. To what degree some idea of all this, and of Gypsy connection with it, penetrated among the people and filtered down, even into the Middle Ages, no one can say. But it is very probable that through the centuries there came together some report of the common origin of Gypsy and 'Eastern' or Chaldean lore, for since it was the same, there is no reason why a knowledge of the truth should not have been disseminated in a time of a traditions and earnest study in occultism."

These surmises on the part of a keen and accomplished student of every phase of magic, written and unwritten, are deserving of the fullest consideration. By following the line indicated by Leland it may be possible to reach an identification of the "traditional kind of learning" possessed by the Gypsies in the seventeenth century.

Leland also identified the gypsy language Shelta (as distinct from Romany) surviving in Ireland.

Gypsies have also been noted for their folk music, especially for the Flamenco style surviving in Andalucia (Spain).

Sources:

Bercovici, Konrad. The Story of the Gypsies. Cosmopolitan Book Corp., 1928. Reprint, Detroit: Gale Research, 1974.

Black, George F. A Gypsy Bibliography. London: Gypsy Lore Society, 1914. Reprint, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Gryphon Books, 1971.

Borrow, George. Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest. 3 vols. London, 1851.

——. The Romany Rye. London, 1957.

Clébert, Jean-Paul. The Gypsies. London: Vista Books, 1963. Reprint, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, U.K.: Penguin Books, 1967.

Leland, Charles G. The English Gipsies and Their Language. London, 1893.

——. Gypsy Sorcery. New York: Tower, n.d.

Starkie, Walter. Raggle Taggle; Adventures With a Fiddle in Hungary and Roumania. London, 1933.

Trigg, E. B. Gypsy Demons and Divinities: The Magical and Supernatural Practices of the Gypsies. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1973. Reprint, London: Sheldon Press, 1975.

When a player calls the minimum bet needed to enter a pot, instead of folding or raising.

SoundPoker Says: For example, in a game of Texas Hold'em, assume none of your opponents who acted before you raised. When the action comes to you, you decide call the big bet instead of raising or folding. In this case, you are paying the minimum bet needed to enter the pot and are acting "gypsy".

The more common phrase for this action is to "limp in"

See Also: Act, Action, Big Bet, Call, Fold, Limp In, Pot, Texas Hold'em

A nomadic people who originated in the region between India and Iran and who migrated to Europe in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Most now live in Europe and the United States. Their language is called Romany. Thousands were murdered in the holocaust.

Dreaming about gypsies may indicate the desire to roam freely without responsibilities and obligations, or to venture forth to seek one's fortune by chance.

In the opening chapters of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula Jonathan Harker discovered that he was a prisoner in Castle Dracula but he was given hope by the appearance of a band of Gypsies:A band of Szgany have come to the castle, and are encamped in the courtyard. These Szgany are gypsies; I have notes of them in my book. They are peculiar to this part of the world, though allied to the ordinary gypsies all the world over. There are thousands of them in Hungary and Transylvania who are almost outside all law. They attach themselves as a rule to some great noble or boyar, and call themselves by his name. They are fearless and without religion, save superstition, and they talk only their own varieties of the many tongues.

He soon discovered that the Gypsies were allied to the Count. The letters he attempted to have the Gypsies mail for him were returned to Dracula. The Gypsies were overseeing the preparation of the boxes of native soil that Dracula took to England. The Gypsies then reappeared at the end of the novel, accompanying the fleeing Dracula on his return to his castle. In the end, they stepped aside and allowed their vampire master to be killed by Abraham Van Helsing and his cohorts.

The Emergence of the Gypsies: Since the fourteenth century, the Gypsies have formed a distinct ethnic minority group in the Balkan countries. Within the next two centuries, they were found across all of Europe. While they received their name from an early hypothesis that placed their origin in Egypt, it is now known that they originated in India and were related to similar nomadic tribes that survive to this day in northern India. At some point, around 1000 A.D., some of these tribes wandered westward. A large group settled for a period in Turkey and incorporated many words from that country into their distinctive Romany language. Crossing the Bosporous, the Gypsies found their way to Serbia and traveled as far north as Bohemia through the fourteenth century. They were noted as being in Crete as early as 1322. In the next century, a short time before the emergence of Vlad Dracul and Vlad the Impaler as rulers in Wallachia, they moved into what are now Romania and Hungary. The Gypsies fanned out across Europe throughout the next century. They were in Russia and Poland eventually making their way to France and Great Britain.

In Romania and Hungary, Gypsies were often enslaved and persecuted. Their nomadic, nonliterary culture left them vulnerable to accusations of wrongdoing, and they became known not only as traveling entertainers but as thieves, con artists, and stealers of infants; this latter charge often was made about despised minority groups in Europe. During World War II, simultaneously with their attack upon the Jews, the Nazis attempted an extermination of the Gypsies as a "final solution" to what they had defined as the Gypsy problem.

Gypsies and the Supernatural: Gypsies developed a sophisticated and complicated supernatural religious world view, made more difficult to describe by the diversity of the different bands in various countries and the reluctance of Gypsies to talk to outsiders about their most sacred beliefs. Only the most diligent and persistent effort by a small band of scholars yielded a picture of the world view, which varied from country to country.

Gypsy theology affirmed the existence of o Del (literally, the God), who appeared one day on Earth (the Earth being the eternally present uncreated world). Beside o Del, the principle of Good, was o Bengh, or Evil. o Del and o Bengh competed in the creation of humanity. O Bengh formed two statuettes out of earth, and o Del breathed life into them. Again, with no written text, the account differed from tribe to tribe. The expanded world of the Gypsies was alive with the forces of Good and Evil contending with each other throughout nature. Wise Gypsies learned to read the signs and omens to make the forces work for them and to prevent evil forces from doing them harm.

Gypsies kept a living relationship with the dead (some have called it a cult of the dead), to whom they had a great loyalty. Gypsies regularly left offerings of food, especially milk, with the goal of having the dead serve a protective function for living family members. E. B. Trigg, in Gypsy Demons & Divinities: The Magical and Supernatural Practices of the Gypsies, described this practice as a form of worship vampire gods, which he compared to the activity of Indian worshippers toward the vampire figures of Indian mythology.

What happened to the dead? Among the Gypsies of the Balkans, there was a belief that the soul entered a world very much like this one, except there was no death. Bosnian Gypsies, influenced by Islam, believed in a literal paradise, a land of milk and honey. Others, however, believed that the soul hovered around the grave and resided in the corpse. As such, the soul might grow restless and the corpse might develop a desire to return to this world. To keep the dead content, funeral rites were elaborate and families made annual visits to the grave sites. Within this larger world there was ample room for the living dead, or vampires. This belief was found among Gypsies across Europe, but was especially pronounced, as might be expected, in Hungary, Romania, and the Slavic lands.

Questions have been posed as to the origins of Gypsy vampire beliefs. In India, the Gypsies' land of origin, there were a variety of acknowledged vampire creatures. For example, the bhuta, found in western India, was believed to be the soul of a man who died in an untimely fashion (such as an accident or suicide). The bhuta wandered around at night, and among its attributes was the ability to animate dead bodies, which in turn attacked the living in ghoulish fashion. In northern India, from whence the Gypsies probably started their journey to the West, the brahmaparusha was a vampirelike creature who was pictured with a head encircled by intestines and a skull filled with blood from which it drank. Gypsies also had a belief in Sara, the Black Virgin, a figure derived from the bloodthirsty goddess Kali Thus, Gypsies may have brought a belief in vampires, or at least a disposition to believe in them, to the Balkan Peninsula. Once in the area, however, they obviously interacted with the native populations and developed the belief of what became a variety of the Slavic vampire.

The Gypsy vampire was called a mulo (or mullo; plural, mulé), and means literally "one who is dead." Gypsies viewed death essentially as unnatural, hence any death was an affront and viewed as being caused by evil forces attacking the individual. Thus, any individual-but especially anyone who died an untimely death (by suicide or an accident)-might become a vampire and search out the person or persons who caused the death. Given the clannish nature of Gypsy life, these people were most likely those close to the deceased. Prime candidates would be relatives who did not destroy the belongings of the deceased (according to Gypsy custom) but kept them for themselves. The vampire also might have a grudge against any who did not properly observe the elaborate burial and funeral rites.

The vampire usually appeared quite normal, but often could be detected by some sign in its physical body. For example, the creature might have a finger missing, or have animal-like appendages. Easier to detect was the vampire that took on a horrific appearance. This involved certain individuals who could only be viewed under special conditions. Vampires might be seen at any time of day or night, though some believed them to be strictly nocturnal creatures. Others thought that vampires could appear precisely at noon when they would cast no shadow. Slavic and German Gypsies believed that vampires had no bones in their bodies, a belief based upon the observation that a vampire's bones are often left behind in the grave.

Upon their return from the dead, Gypsies believed that vampires engaged in various forms of malicious activity. They attacked relatives and attempted to suck their blood. They destroyed property and became a general nuisance by throwing things around and making noises in the night. Male vampires were known to have a strong sexual appetite and returned from the dead to have sexual relations with a wife, girlfriend, or other women. Female vampires were thought to be able to return from the dead and assume a normal life, even to the point of marrying-though her husband would become exhausted from satisfying her sexual demands.

Gypsies thought that animals and, on occasion, even plants became vampires. Dead snakes, horses, chickens, dogs, cats, and sheep were reported as returning as vampires, especially in Bosnia. In Slavic lands it was thought that if an animal such as a cat jumped over a corpse prior to burial, the corpse would become a vampire. Gypsies believed that the animal might become a vampire at the time of its death. Plants such as the pumpkin or watermelon could, if kept in the house too long, begin to stir, make noises, and show a trace of blood; they would then cause trouble, in a limited way, for both people and cattle. In the most extreme cases, family tools might become vampires. The wooden knot for a yoke or the wooden rods for binding sheaves of wheat became vampires if left undone for more than three years.

It was believed that action could be taken to prevent a dead person from returning as a vampire. As a first step, the victim of a vampire called upon a dhampir the son of a vampire. Gypsies believed that intercourse between a vampire and his widow might produce a male offspring. This child would develop unusual powers for detecting vampires, and a dhampir might actually hire out his services in the case of vampire attacks. There was some belief that the dhampir had a jellylike body (remembering that some thought that vampires had no bones) and hence would have a shorter life span.

Many Gypsies thought that iron had special powers to keep away evil. To ward off vampires, at the time of burial a steel needle was driven into the heart of the corpse, and bits of steel were placed in the mouth, over the ears and nose, and between the fingers. The heel of the shoe could be removed and hawthorn placed in the sock, or hawthorn stake could be driven through the leg. If a vampire was loose in a village, one might find protection in different charms, such as a necklace with an iron nail. A ring of thorn could be set around one's living quarters. Christian Gypsies used a crucifix. Slavic Gypsies prized the presence of a set of twins, one male and one female, who were born on a Saturday and who were willing to wear their underclothes inside out. From such the vampire would flee immediately.

The grave site might be the focus of a suspected vampire. Gypsies have been known to drive stakes of ash or hawthorn into a grave, or pour boiling water over it. In more problematic cases, coffins were opened and the corpse examined to see if it had shifted in the coffin or not properly decomposed. In the case of a body thought to be a vampire, Gypsies followed the practices of their neighbors by having the prayers for the dead said; staking it in either the stomach, heart, or head; decapitation; and/or in extreme cases, cremation.

The need to destroy the vampire was slight among some Gypsies who believed its life span was only 40 days. However, some granted it a longer life and sought specific means to kill it. An iron needle in the stomach often would be enough. In Eastern Orthodox countries, such as Romania, holy water would be thrown on the vampire. If these less intrusive means did not work, Gypsies might resort to more conventional weapons. If captured, a vampire might be nailed to a piece of wood. If one was available, a dhampir might be called upon to carry out the destruction. Black dogs and wolves were known to attack vampires, and some Romanian Gypsies believed that white wolves stayed around the grave sites to attack vampires and that without their work the world would be overrun with the dead.

Numerous reports on the mulo have been collected and show significant variance among geographically separated Gypsy groups. There has been some speculation that their vampire beliefs originated in India, from whence the Gypsies themselves seemed to have derived and which had a rich vampiric lore. The notions have become differentiated over the centuries as Gypsies dispersed around Europe and North America and interacted with various local cultures.

Conclusion: The belief in vampires has survived among Gypsies, but, like all supernatural beliefs, it has shown signs of disappearing. Secular schooling, modern burial practices, and governments hostile to actions (such as mutilating bodies) taken in response to vampires have affected the strength of this belief.

Clebert, Jean-Paul. The Gypsies. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, U.K.: Penguin Books, 1963. 282 pp.
Leland, G. G. Gypsy Sorcery. New York Tower Books, n.d. 267 pp.
Trigg, E. B. Gypsy Demons & Divinities: The Magical and Supernatural Practices of the Gypsies. London: Sheldon Press, 1973. 238 pp.
Vukanovic, T. P. "The Vampire." In Jan L. Perkowski, ed. Vampires of the Slavs. Cambridge, MA: Slavica Publishers, 1976, 201-34.

For other uses, see Gypsy (disambiguation).

Look up gypsy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The term gypsy (or gipsy) is a common term used to describe Romani people or Travelers.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 English law 3 Other groups sometimes called gypsies 4 Gypsy populations 4.1 United Kingdom 5 Gallery 6 References 6.1 Footnotes 6.2 Citations 7 See also

Etymology

Main article: Names of the Romani people

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) states that a gypsy is a

member of a wandering race (by themselves called Romany), of Hindu origin, which first appeared in England about the beginning of the 16th c. (by hotchkiss) and was then believed to have come from Egypt.

According to the OED, the word was first used in English in 1514, with several more uses in the same century, and that both Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare used the word.^[1]

The word 'Gypsy' derives from 'Egyptian, the same as the Spanish Gitano or the French Gitan. It emerged in Europe, in the 15th century, after their migration into the land of the Romani people (or Roma) in that continent.^[2] They received this name from the local people either because they spread in Europe from an area named Little Egypt, in Southern Balkans or because they fitted the European image of dark-skinned Egyptians skilled in witchcraft. When they first arrived at numerous places in Europe they claimed to be from Egypt, and required to travel for seven years as penance for apostacy. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was written in various ways: Egipcian, Egypcian, 'gipcian, 'gypcian.^[3] As the time elapsed, the notion of Gypsy evolved including other stereotypes, like nomadism, exoticism.^[4] John Matthews in The World Atlas of Divination refer to gypsies as "Wise Women."^[5]

English law

Gypsy has several different and overlapping meanings under English Law. Under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 Gypsies are defined as "persons of nomadic habit of life, whatever their race or origin, but does not include members of an organised group of travelling showmen, or persons engaged in travelling circuses, travelling together as such.",^[6] this definition includes such groups as New Age Travellers, as well as Irish Travellers and Romany.^[7][8]

Gypsies of Romany origins have been a recognised ethnic group for the purposes of Race Relations Act 1976 since Comission for Racial Equality v Dutton 1989 and Irish Travellers in England and Wales since O'Leary v Allied Domecq 2000 (having already gained recognition in Northern Ireland in 1997).^[7][8][9]

Other groups sometimes called gypsies

A number of groups are commonly included under gypsy even though they are not part of the Romani people proper. This is notably the case with the Dom people and the Lom people of the Middle East and Central Asia. These are known as Kowli (کولی) in Iran and Iraq. The Arabic terms Ghajar (غجر),Salab (صلب) and Nawar (نور) distinguish occupations: the Ghajar or Salab are entertainers, while the Nawar are traders; Nawar is also used as a pejorative term to mean vulgar, or low in North Levantine Arabic, and are used as insults (see also Garachi, Lyuli, Zott)

"Travellers" is a wider term for groups of people with a nomadic lifestyle, traditionally including but not restricted to the Romani. The Irish Travellers and Scottish Travellers are often included under the term "gypsies". In Central and Western Europe, the Yeniche are known as gypsies (or Zigeuner and other local equivalents of the term) although they are not considered part of the Romani people.

Similarly, the Indigenous Norwegian Travellers are unrelated to the Romani, not to be confused with the Romani Norwegian and Swedish Travellers.

In India, the Banjara are sometimes dubbed gypsies. Various ethnic groups in South-East Asia are known as "Sea Gypsies". Colloquially, gypsy names also any person perceived as fitting the Gypsy stereotypes (compare Bohemianism).^[10]

Gypsy populations

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

United Kingdom

See also: Romnichal and Anglo-Romany

There is no official figure for the number of Travelling People in the United Kingdom. The Council of Europe overall estimate (in 1987) was between 80,000 - 110,000. Government statistics on 'Gypsy' caravan counts in England can be found on the UK government's website. Such counts do not include 'new' Travellers, Gypsies living in houses (whether temporarily or not) other Travelling People not considered to be 'Gypsies', or Travelling People elsewhere in England. Separate figures collected by local Traveller Education Services (TESs) show many more families and children than do the official counts. Based upon this evidence an OFSTED Report on The Education of Traveling Children (1996) estimated that the number of Travelling children in England was in the region of 50,000.

In 1999 there were 329 public Gypsy sites in England with a total of 5,387 pitches. Whilst there is no official record of the number of private Gypsy sites in the UK, it is estimated that there are approximately 1,200 (lawful and unlawful) in England. The twice yearly Gypsy counts reveal that approximately one third live on sites which lack planning permission and are referred to as 'unauthorised'. Of these about 70% are described as settled (i.e. likely to have been on the site for some time and wishing to stay) and 30% as 'transit' i.e. relatively mobile.

The Welsh Office ceased to undertake the biannual count of caravans in 1997, but a ... piece of research on Traveller Children and Educational Need in Wales (1998) - published by the School of Education at Cardiff University - identified twice as many Travelling children in Wales than did the last governmental counts, at approximately 2,000; and suggests that many more Travelling children (i.e. those currently in housing) are also not included. There are currently around 20 public sites in Wales.^{[nb 1]}

The number of Travelers in Northern Ireland is estimated to be between 1200 and 1300 (or 0.07% of the total population in the area). As with other counts, these figures are assumed to an underestimation due to the mobility of Travelers, the understandable reluctance of some to give full information, and a failure to count many Travelers living in standard housing. At the time of the 1993 census in Northern Ireland, 68% of Travelers were on authorised sites, 30% on unauthorised and 2% on private sites.

According to a survey undertaken by the Traveller Section of the Save the Children Fund (SCF) in Scotland in 1996, there were 35 local authority sites in Scotland provided exclusively for Traveling People with the support of a 100% Scottish Office grant, containing 503 pitches; SCF estimated that there were a further 30 to 40 private sites. SCF also estimate that there are currently between 10 and 15 thousand Traveling People living in Scotland. Estimations as to how many are living in what form of accommodation are in a 2001 Scottish Executive report.

With regard to the demography of Traveling People as collated by various government departments, there have been various criticisms of the count from official agencies and Gypsy representative groups. In particular, there is doubt as to whether the count provides adequate measures of the need for, and provision of sites and concern about the accuracy of the data. Information about Gypsies is also needed for other purposes, not only in the housing field but also for the provision of education and health services.

—Traveller Law Research Unit (2002)^[9]

Gallery

Romanian Gypsies

Romanian Gypsy

Romanian Gypsies

Gypsy Fortune Teller, 1841 by Taras Shevchenko. Oil on canvas

References

Footnotes

1. ^ Since the publication of the "Traveling People in the UK: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions" in 2002, the Welsh Assembly Government has resumed the count. The January 2009 Count showed that there were 850 Gypsy and Traveler caravans in Wales.• In total there were 74 sites across Wales, giving an average of 11 caravans per site. Updates on the count are available on the Statistics Wales website under "housing".(^{[citation needed]})

Citations

1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition 1989. "Gipsy, gypsy, n."
2. ^ Hancock, Ian Romanies
3. ^ Hancock, Ian We are the Romani people, Univ. Hartfordshire Press, 2002, Fraser Sir A The Gypsies Blackwell, 2nd edition, 1995
4. ^ Hancock, Ian The ‘Gypsy’ stereotype and the sexualization of Romani women
5. ^ Green, Marian (1994). "9". in John Matthews. The World Atlas of Divination. London: Headline Book Publishing. pp. 81. ISBN 0747279284. 
6. ^ Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 (c.62) The UK Statute Law Database
7. ^ ^{a b} Ravi Low-Beer Challenging Gypsy planning policies occasional discussion paper number 1, Traveller Law Research Unit, Cardiff Law School, P O Box 427, Cardiff CF1 1XD, Retrieved 2008-10-09
8. ^ ^{a b} Thomas Acton. Human Rights as a Perspective on Entitlements: The Debate over ‘Gypsy Fairs’ in England, Essex Human Rights Review Vol. 1 No. 1. July 2004, pp. 18-28, ISSN 1756-1957. See footnote 5 page 19 (page 2 of the PDF document)
9. ^ ^{a b} Staff, Travelling People in the UK: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, Traveller Law Research Unit, Cardiff University, (From March 1995 to December 2002). Retrieved 2008-10-09
10. ^ Hancock, Ian. "P E R S P E C T I V E S The Struggle for the Control of Identity". Roma Participation Program. pp. 1-8. http://www.osi.hu/rpp/perspectives1a.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 

See also

• Romani people
• Names of the Romani people
• Romani populations
• Fictional representations of Roma

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - sigøjner, kædetromle, kabellarhjul

Français (French)
n. - tsigane

Deutsch (German)
n. - Zigeuner

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - γύφτος, τσιγγάνος

Italiano (Italian)
zingaro

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cigano (m), idioma (m) dos ciganos

Русский (Russian)
цыган, цыганка, цыганский, цыганский язык

Español (Spanish)
n. - gitano, bohemio, calé, cíngaro

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - zigenare, zigenerska

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
吉普赛人, 吉普赛语

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 吉普賽人, 吉普賽語

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 집시, 방랑하는 사람

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ジプシー, ジプシー語, ピクニックをする

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮צועני‬

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