entering here into the history of the playing-cards and of the
different forms of the faces and of the symbolical meaning of the
different designs, one may assume safely that the cards, before
they were used for mere pastime or for gambling, may originally
have had a mystical meaning and been used as sortes in various
combinations. To this very day the oldest form is known by the
hitherto unexplained name of Tarock, played in Bologna at the
beginning of the 15th century and retained by the French under
the form Tarot, connected direct with the Gipsies, “Le Tarot des
Bohémiens.” It was noted above that the oldest chronicler
(Presbyter) who describes the appearance of the Gipsies in 1416
in Germany knows them by their Italian name “Cianos,”
so evidently he must have known of their existence in Italy
previous to any date recorded hitherto anywhere, and it is therefore
not impossible that coming from Italy they brought with
them also their book of divination.
Physical Characteristics.—As a race they are of small stature, varying in colour from the dark tan of the Arab to the whitish hue of the Servian and the Pole. In fact there are some white-coloured Gipsies, especially in Servia and Dalmatia, and these are often not easily distinguishable from the native peoples, except that they are more lithe and sinewy, better proportioned and more agile in their movements than the thick-set Slavs and the mixed race of the Rumanians. By one feature, however, they are easily distinguishable and recognize one another, viz. by the lustre of their eyes and the whiteness of their teeth. Some are well built; others have the features of a mongrel race, due no doubt to intermarriage with outcasts of other races. The women age very quickly and the mortality among the Gipsies is great, especially among children; among adults it is chiefly due to pulmonary diseases. They love display and Oriental showiness, bright-coloured dresses, ornaments, bangles, &c.; red and green are the colours mostly favoured by the Gipsies in the East. Along with a showy handkerchief or some shining gold coins round their necks, they will wear torn petticoats and no covering on their feet. And even after they have been assimilated and have forgotten their own language they still retain some of the prominent features of their character, such as the love of inordinate display and gorgeous dress; and their moral defects not only remain for a long time as glaring as among those who live the life of vagrants, but even become more pronounced. The Gipsy of to-day is no longer what his forefathers have been. The assimilation with the nations in the near East and the steps taken for the suppression of vagrancy in the West, combine to denationalize the Gipsy and to make “Romani Chib” a thing of the past.
Bibliography.—The scientific study of the Gipsy language and its origin, as well as the critical history of the Gipsy race, dates (with the notable exception of Grellmann) almost entirely from Pott’s researches in 1844.
I. Collections of Documents, &c.—Lists of older publications appeared in the books of Pott, Miklosich and the archduke Joseph; Pott adds a critical appreciation of the scientific value of the books enumerated. See also Verzeichnis von Werken und Aufsätzen . . . über die Geschichte und Sprache der Zigeuner, &c., 248 entries (Leipzig, 1886); J. Tipray, “Adalékok a czigányokról szóló írodalomhoz,” in Magyar Könyvszemle (Budapest, 1877); Ch. G. Leland, A Collection of Cuttings . . . relating to Gypsies (1874–1891), bequeathed by him to the British Museum. See also the Orientalischer Jahresbericht, ed. Müller (Berlin, 1887 ff.).
II. History.—(a) The first appearance of the Gipsies in Europe. Sources: A. F. Oefelius, Rerum Boicarum scriptores, &c. (Augsburg, 1763); M. Freher, Andreae Presbyteri . . . chronicon de ducibus Bavariae . . . (1602); S. Munster, Cosmographia . . . &c. (Basel, 1545); J. Thurmaier, Annalium Boiorum libri septem, ed. T. Zieglerus (Ingolstad, 1554); M. Crusius, Annales Suevici, &c. (Frankfurt, 1595–1596), Schwäbische Chronik . . . (Frankfurt, 1733); A. Krantz, Saxonia (Cologne, 1520); Simon Simeon, Itineraria, &c., ed. J. Nasmith (Cambridge, 1778). (b) Origin and spread of the Gipsies: H. M. G. Grellmann, Die Zigeuner, &c. (1st ed., Dessau and Leipzig, 1783; 2nd ed., Göttingen, 1787); English by M. Roper (London, 1787; 2nd ed., London, 1807), entitled Dissertation on the Gipsies, &c.; Carl von Heister, Ethnographische . . . Notizen über die Zigeuner (Königsberg, 1842), a third and greatly improved edition of Grellmann and the best book of its kind up to that date; A. F. Pott, Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien (2 vols., Halle, 1844–1845), the first scholarly work with complete and critical bibliography, detailed grammar, etymological dictionary and important texts; C. Hopf, Die Einwanderung der Zigeuner in Europa (Gotha, 1870); F. von Miklosich, “Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Zigeuner-Mundarten,” i.-iv., in Sitzungsber. d. Wiener Akad. d. Wissenschaften (Vienna, 1874–1878), “Über die Mundarten und die Wanderungen der Zigeuner Europas,” i.-xii., in Denkschriften d. Wiener Akad. d. Wissenschaften (1872–1880); M. J. de Goeje, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der Zigeuners (Amsterdam, 1875), English translation by MacRitchie, Account of the Gipsies of India (London, 1886); Zedler, Universal-Lexicon, vol. lxii., s.v. “Zigeuner,” pp. 520-544 containing a rich bibliography; many publications of P. Bataillard from 1844 to 1885; A. Colocci, Storia d’ un popolo errante, with illustrations, map and Gipsy-Ital. and Ital.-Gipsy glossaries (Turin, 1889); F. H. Groome, “The Gypsies,” in E. Magnusson, National Life and Thought (1891), and art. “Gipsies” in Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed., 1879); C. Améro, Bohémiens, Tsiganes et Gypsies (Paris, 1895); M. Kogalnitschan, Esquisse sur l’histoire, les mœurs et la langue des Cigains (Berlin, 1837; German trans., Stuttgart, 1840)—valuable more for the historical part than for the linguistic; J. Czacki, Dziela, vol. iii. (1844–1845)—for historic data about Gipsies in Poland; I. Kopernicki and J. Moyer, Charakterystyka fizyczna ludrości galicyjskiéj (1876)—for the history and customs of Galician gipsies; Ungarische statistische Mitteilungen, vol. ix. (Budapest, 1895), containing the best statistical information on the Gipsies; V. Dittrich, A nagy-idai czigányok (Budapest, 1898); T. H. Schwicker, “Die Zigeuner in Ungarn u. Siebenbürgen,” in vol. xii. of Die Völker Österreich-Ungarns (Vienna, 1883), and in Mitteilungen d. K. K. geographischen Gesellschaft (Vienna, 1896); Dr J. Polek, Die Zigeuner in der Bukowina (Czernowitz, 1908); Ficker, “Die Zigeuner der Bukowina,” in Statist. Monatschrift, v. 6, Hundert Jahre 1775–1875: Zigeuner in d. Bukowina (Vienna, 1875), Die Völkerstämme der österr.-ungar. Monarchie, &c. (Vienna, 1869); V. S. Morwood, Our Gipsies (London, 1885); D. MacRitchie, Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts (Edinburgh, 1894); F. A. Coelho, “Os Ciganos de Portugal,” in Bol. Soc. Geog. (Lisbon, 1892); A. Dumbarton, Gypsy Life in the Mysore Jungle (London, 1902).
III. Linguistic.—[Armenia], F. N. Finck, “Die Sprache der armenischen Zigeuner,” in Mémoires de l’Acad. Imp. des Sciences, viii. (St Petersburg, 1907). [Austria-Hungary], R. von Sowa, Die Mundart der slovakischen Zigeuner (Göttingen, 1887), and Die mährische Mundart der Romsprache (Vienna, 1893); A. J. Puchmayer, Románi Čib (Prague, 1821); P. Josef Ješina, Romáňi Čib (in Czech, 1880; in German, 1886); G. Ihnatko, Czigány nyelvtan (Losoncon, 1877); A. Kalina, La Langue des Tsiganes slovaques (Posen, 1882); the archduke Joseph, Czigány nyelvtan (Budapest, 1888); H. von Wlislocki, Die Sprache der transsilvanischen Zigeuner (Leipzig, 1884). [Brazil], A. T. de Mello Moraes, Os ciganos no Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, 1886). [France, the Basques], A. Baudrimont, Vocabulaire de la langue des Bohémiens habitant les pays basques-français (Bordeaux, 1862). [Germany], R. Pischel, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der deutschen Zigeuner (Halle, 1894); R. von Sowa, “Wörterbuch des Dialekts der deutschen Zigeuner,” in Abhandlungen f. d. Kunde d. Morgenlandes, xi. 1, very valuable (Leipzig, 1898); F. N. Finck, Lehrbuch des Dialekts der deutschen Zigeuner—very valuable (Marburg, 1903). [Great Britain, &c.], Ch. G. Leland, The English Gipsies and their Language (London and New York, 1873; 2nd ed., 1874), The Gipsies of Russia, Austria, England, America, &c. (London, 1882)—the validity of Leland’s conclusions is often doubtful; B. C. Smart and H. J. Crofton, The Dialect of the English Gypsies (2nd ed., London, 1875); G. Borrow, Romano lavo-lil (London, 1874, 1905), Lavengro, ed. F. H. Groome (London, 1899). [Rumania], B. Constantinescu, Probe de Limba şi literatura Ţiganilor din România (Bucharest, 1878). [Russia, Bessarabia], O. Boethlingk, Über die Sprache der Zigeuner in Russland (St Petersburg, 1852; supplement, 1854). [Russia, Caucasus], K. Badganian, Cygany. Nêskolĭko slovŭ o narêčijahŭ zakavkazskihŭ cyganŭ (St Petersburg, 1887); Istomin, Ciganskij'azykŭ (1900). [Spain], G. H. Borrow, The Zincali, or an Account of the Gipsies of Spain (London, 1841, and numerous later editions); R. Campuzano, Origen . . . de los Gitanos, y diccionario de su dialecto (2nd ed., Madrid, 1857); A. de C., Diccionario del dialecto gitano, &c. (Barcelona, 1851); M. de Sales y Guindale, Historia, costumbres y dialecto de los Gitanos (Madrid, 1870); M. de Sales, El Gitanismo (Madrid, 1870); J. Tineo Rebolledo, ”A Chipicalli” la lengua gitana: diccionario gitano-español (Granada, 1900). [Turkey], A. G. Paspati, Études sur les Tchinghianés, ou Bohémiens de l’empire ottoman (Constantinople, 1870), with grammar, vocabulary, tales and French glossary; very important. [General], John Sampson, “Gypsy Language and Origin,” in Journ. Gypsy Lore Soc. vol. i. (2nd ser., Liverpool, 1907); J. A. Decourdemanche, Grammaire du Tchingané, &c. (Paris, 1908)—fantastic in some of its philology; F. Kluge, Rotwelsche Quellen (Strassburg, 1901); L. Günther, Das Rotwelsch des deutschen Gauners (Leipzig, 1905), for the influence of Gipsy on argot; L. Besses, Diccionario de argot español (Barcelona); G. A. Grierson, The Pi’sāca Languages of North-Western India (London, 1906), for parallels in Indian dialects; G. Borrow, Criscote e majaró Lucas . . . El evangelio segun S. Lucas . . . (London, 1837; 2nd ed., 1872)—this is the only complete translation of any one of the gospels into Gipsy. For older fragments of such translations, see Pott ii. 464-521.
IV. Folklore, Tales, Songs, &c.—Many songs and tales are found
