Whatever he has asserted, is less the result
of reading than of close observation, he having long since come to
the conclusion that the Gypsies are not a people to be studied in
books, or at least in such books as he believes have hitherto been
written concerning them.
Throughout he has dealt more in facts than in theories, of which he
is in general no friend. True it is, that no race in the world
affords, in many points, a more extensive field for theory and
conjecture than the Gypsies, who are certainly a very mysterious
people come from some distant land, no mortal knows why, and who
made their first appearance in Europe at a dark period, when events
were not so accurately recorded as at the present time.
But if he has avoided as much as possible touching upon subjects
which must always, to a certain extent, remain shrouded in
obscurity; for example, the, original state and condition of the
Gypsies, and the causes which first brought them into Europe; he
has stated what they are at the present day, what he knows them to
be from a close scrutiny of their ways and habits, for which,
perhaps, no one ever enjoyed better opportunities; and he has,
moreover, given - not a few words culled expressly for the purpose
of supporting a theory, but one entire dialect of their language,
collected with much trouble and difficulty; and to this he humbly
calls the attention of the learned, who, by comparing it with
certain languages, may decide as to the countries in which the
Gypsies have lived or travelled.
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