The God of the Gypsies

Baro Devel is the great god of the gypsies. His son is named Alako, who, the gypsies say, will ultimately restore them to their native country. The image of Alako has a pen in the left hand and a sword in the right. Grellmann, in his "Dissertation on the Gypseys," says: "These people did not bring any particular religion with them from their native country, by which they could be distinguished, as the Jews are; but they regulate themselves, in religious matters, according to the country where they live. Being very inconsistent in their choice of residence, they are likewise so in respect to religion. They suffer themselves to be baptized in Christian countries; among Mohammedans to be circumcised. They are Greeks with Greeks, Roman Catholics with Roman Catholics, and again profess themselves to be Protestants whenever they happen to reside where Protestantism prevails." More modern investigators, however, represent the gypsies as mixing with their rudimentary Christianity or Mahometanism the relics of an older faith, which is pantheistic. Devel, their name for god, means also sky. The phrase, "Miro baro devel dela berschindo" ("My great God gives rain"), preserves the ancient signification. They have many words suggestive of nature-worship. Survivals of phallic worship are supposed to be found in the honor paid by the three great German gypsy clans to the fir, the birch, and the hawthorn trees, and in the veneration in which the Welsh gypsies hold the fasciated vegetable growth known as the brado koro. The Turkish gypsies are said to keep a fire constantly burning in their camp; and on the first day of May they all go in a body to the seacoast or the banks of a river, where they throw rice water on their temples, invoking the genii of the place to grant their special wishes. Concerning the gypsies as a race, we may, upon the whole, agree with Grellmann, who has written their history, by regarding them as a singular phenomenon. For the space of three or four hundred years, they have been wanderers, yet neither time nor place has made any alteration in them. They remain what their fathers were. Africa makes them no blacker, nor does Europe make them whiter. It is now pretty generally agreed that the gypsies as a race came from Hindostan; their language so far coincides with the Hindostanic, that even now, after the lapse of centuries, during which they have been dispersed in various countries, nearly one-half of their words are precisely like those of Hindostan. Very little variation is found between the vocabularies procured from the gypsies in Turkey, Hungary and Germany, and those of England and America. In most places on the Continent, the gypsies are called Zingari; the Spaniards call them Gitanos.

It is not certain when the gypsies first appeared in Europe; but mention is made of them in Hungary and Germany as early as 1417. Ten years after they made their appearance in France, Switzerland and Italy. The earliest mention made of them in England is in the following penal statutes: "Forasmuch as before this time, divers and many outlandish people calling themselves Egyptians, using no craft, have come into this realm, and gone from shire to shire in great companies, and used great subtlety and crafty means to deceive the people; bearing them in hand, that they by palmistry could tell men's and women's fortunes; and so, many times, by craft and subtlety, have deceived the people of their money, etc." It was afterwards made a crime punishable by death for them to continue in the kingdom, and it remains on record that thirteen gypsies were executed for violation of this law a few years before the Restoration in 1660; nor was this act repealed till about the year 1783. The gypsies were expelled from France in 1560, and from Spain in 1591; but it does not appear that they were ever entirely extirpated from any country.

They are estimated to number in all countries seven or eight hundred thousand. They are most numerous in Asia, and in the northern parts of Europe. Various opinions have prevailed as to their origin. That they came from Egypt was the prevailing opinion for a long time; this notion procured for them the name Gypsies. It is not the least remarkable feature of this singular people, that they should have for so many centuries maintained their credit for foretelling events, when the fallacy of their predictions must have been so often exposed, and their ignorance and want of principle so well known. Palmistry is the pretended art of telling the future events of men's lives by the lines in their hands. When among strangers, the gypsies elude inquiries respecting their peculiar language, calling it Gibberish; but the real name of the Gypsy language is Rommary. Not one gypsy in a thousand can read; efforts have been made, from time to time, to civilize this vagabond people, but without any lasting results. Their manners, like their language, coincide, for the most part, in every quarter of the globe; they are everywhere the same idle, wandering race of beings. Representatives of all the European tribes of gypsies may be found in America, and it is stated as a fact that a very large proportion of the itinerant cutlers and tinkers of American cities are German, Hungarian or French gypsies. They are generally "house-dwellers," but the number of tent-gypsies has greatly increased within a few years, and they roam from Canada to Texas. It is thought by some that John Bunyan was of gypsy origin, as his father was a tinker, and he speaks of himself as being of the most despised race in the land.