Gypsies​—Are They Misunderstood?

By “Awake!” correspondent in Britain

“THE Gypsies are here!” Few neighbourhoods would welcome such news. Many view Gypsies as thieves, social misfits.a They are accused of turning neighbourhoods into eyesores by dwelling in campsites that are unkempt and filthy. This feeling of disdain, however, is quite mutual. Indeed, Gypsies call non-Gypsies gaji or gorgios. These words and their variants mean “yokels” or “barbarians.”

Who, though, are the Gypsies? Why do they have such a difficult time maintaining friendly relations with the settled community? Are they really misfits or, perhaps, simply misunderstood?

Their Mysterious History

In a general sense, the word “gypsy” means “a person of nomadic habit or origin.” True Gypsies, however, are a race of people with a language of their own. They call themselves Rom, which means “Man” in their language. From this we get the word “Romany”​—another name for the Gypsy. However, the origin of the Gypsies was long a puzzle.

The word “Gypsy” itself derives from “Egyptian.” But it is most unlikely that they originated in Egypt, though at one time they claimed to do so. As recently as the 1780’s, philologist Grellmann noted the striking similarity between the Gypsies’ Romany language and the Indo-Aryan languages of northern India. His studies led him to conclude that India was the motherland of the Gypsy. Today this is generally accepted as fact. However, when and why they began their westward migration remains a mystery. As Gypsies themselves have never been keepers of written records, historical traces of them are found only in the annals of the nations in which they have sojourned.

Such records reveal that the Gypsies have seldom been welcome as guests. Indeed, their carefree way of life​—and occasional rapacity—​have often triggered vicious persecution. In the 16th century, England ordered them out of the country, declaring death for any who remained! Gypsies fared just as badly in what is now Romania. There they were bought and sold as slaves up until the middle of the 19th century. In 1726, Emperor Charles VI of Germany declared that Gypsy men were to be hanged. Their women and children were to have their ears cut off, so as to be easily identified if they dared return. In France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, Gypsies were chased by dogs and hunted like deer for “sport.”

What of modern times? The Nazi regime labelled Gypsies “enemies of the people” and set about exterminating them. Over 400,000 perished.

Their Life Today

In spite of this gruesome history of persecution, Gypsies today thrive in Europe, the United States, South America, and Australia. A common language, an undying urge to keep on the move, an unwritten culture kept alive around the campfire, and a conviction that they are a superior people have helped preserve the identity of this diverse and scattered people. Time, however, has wrought some changes.

While there is a growing tendency among some of them to settle, thousands still travel the roads. Fewer and fewer, though, do so in their colourful, horse-drawn vardos. In Western Europe, most of the Gypsies are motorized, losing, as a result, much of their former romantic image. However, in Eastern Europe and Spain the old culture lingers: dancing, making music, telling fortunes, taming bears, dealing in horses, and making a living in the Gypsies’ own inimitable ways. Thousands of spectators can thus still thrill to the vivacious flamenco dancing of the Spanish Gypsy and the heart-stirring music of his Hungarian brother!

Although extreme persecution has died down, the Gypsy still is often in trouble. For example, according to a British government report in 1982, “there are 8-9,000 or so gypsy families in England and Wales, and of those about half live on permanent authorised sites. The rest park their caravans on unauthorised sites, with the constant threat of eviction and frequently to the annoyance of nearby residents.”

Modernization has forced the Gypsy to rethink his feelings toward secular education. In the past, this was generally considered a waste of time. However, a recent report by The National Gypsy Council states that ‘our children need education so that they can mix with the children of the settled community in order to ensure a peaceful co-existence.’

Changes in the Making

Modernization has also forced some changes in the ways the Gypsies make their living. In times past, seasonal farm work was very popular among Gypsies. Usually, farmers would allow them to camp on their land while they worked. Mechanization, though, has sharply reduced such work opportunities. Not needing their labour anymore, farmers are generally unwilling to allow Gypsies to camp on their land. Thus the Gypsy has been forced to the cities where scrap-metal dealing and the building trade have afforded work opportunities.

Since Gypsies have a way with animals, some have chosen, instead, to work with travelling fairs and circuses. Because they are lovers of music, some do well as entertainers. The women, keen observers of human nature, often make a good living telling “fortunes.” (See following article.) The Gypsy is well suited for such occupations. They allow him to avoid being tied too long to one place. Freedom to roam is far more precious to him than accumulating material possessions.

The following first-person story shows how one Gypsy found a new life-style, the best one of all.

[Footnotes]

A Gypsy Finds “The Way”

IN 1929 I was born in a tent in north Wales to a family of Romanies, or, as most people call us, Gypsies. For years thereafter, I lived according to the ways of the Gypsies, travelling throughout Wales and southwestern England. It was a simple way of life, disturbed only by the fact that every week or two we were forced to move.

My parents, along with us four children, travelled in two horse-drawn waggons. We children slept in a four-wheeled “barrel” waggon that carried our household things. (If a haystack or barn was handy, we all slept there.) A two-wheeled “matchbox” cart carried our camping equipment and tools. To lighten the load on our horses, we children generally walked.

Whenever possible, we would find campsites in the woods, well out of the sight of house dwellers. This helped us avoid their hostility. Before each move, Father had us pick up any litter and sweep the grass. We left everything tidy.

The Ways of the Gypsy

How did we make a livelihood? Hop picking in Wiltshire and Herefordshire was one of our seasonal occupations. This was always a happy time. Gypsy families, though camped apart from one another, would gather round a campfire in the evenings, playing music, singing, and telling stories. We were poor but free from the cares that go with material possessions.

At other times of the year, Father made mats and baskets out of bulrushes (marsh plants). We would collect the rushes and also small willow branches for the basket frames. These we boiled, bleaching the rushes and enabling us to remove the bark from the willows. Using dyes he made from plants, my father decorated the finished articles with paintings of wild birds or animals. Gypsy men, though, never participate in actual selling. So the rest of us would sell them from door to door, and for good prices at that!

Father also showed us how to make such things ourselves. We learned, too, to form flowers from paper and wood, to break and train horses, and to identify wild herbs and use them as medicines. He took us to the garbage dump and showed us how to take whatever was of use, including food. But we also knew how to catch rabbits, hedgehogs, and all sorts of wild game for our pot. When these were in short supply, we saw no wrong in taking a chicken or two, or a few vegetables, from a farmer. We reckoned that he could well afford it, and after all, we were hungry. We also learned to cook nettles, rose stalks, honeysuckle flowers, all kinds of wild herbs, and, as a special delicacy, snails. But many a day we had no food at all.

From the time I was four, my mother taught me to beg, sell, and steal. First she would make sure that I was poorly dressed and without shoes. Then she would send me alone to a house, ordering me to cry at the door. If I did not feel like crying, she would slap my legs so that I had tears in my eyes anyway! I would tell the householder that I had nothing to eat. Few could resist the appeal of a bedraggled, weeping little girl.

I also learned another craft common among Gypsies: fortune-telling. Actually, our “fortune-telling” usually amounted to little more than observing people and discerning what they wanted to hear. But as I learned in later years, this craft can also involve the supernatural. For me, though, using cards, tea leaves, or the lines of a palm was only a gimmick. And I was successful only with people who wanted to cooperate.