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THE GYPSIES - INTRODUCTION
THROUGHOUT my life the Gypsy race has always had a peculiar
interest for me. Indeed I can remember no period when the mere
mention of the name of Gypsy did not awaken within me feelings hard
to be described. I cannot account for this - I merely state a
fact.
Some of the Gypsies, to whom I have stated this circumstance, have
accounted for it on the supposition that the soul which at present
animates my body has at some former period tenanted that of one of
their people; for many among them are believers in metempsychosis,
and, like the followers of Bouddha, imagine that their souls, by
passing through an infinite number of bodies, attain at length
sufficient purity to be admitted to a state of perfect rest and
quietude, which is the only idea of heaven they can form.
Having in various and distant countries lived in habits of intimacy
with these people, I have come to the following conclusions
respecting them: that wherever they are found, their manners and
customs are virtually the same, though somewhat modified by
circumstances, and that the language they speak amongst themselves,
and of which they are particularly anxious to keep others in
ignorance, is in all countries one and the same, but has been
subjected more or less to modification; and lastly, that their
countenances exhibit a decided family resemblance, but are darker
or fairer according to the temperature of the climate, but
invariably darker, at least in Europe, than those of the natives of
the countries in which they dwell, for example, England and Russia,
Germany and Spain.
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