pre-possessing. These strange travellers took a
course thence towards the Teutonic Hanse, starting from Luneburg: they
subsequently proceeded to Hamburg, and then, going from east to west along
the Baltic, they visited the free towns of Lubeck, Wismar, Rostock,
Stralsund, and Greifswald.

These new visitors, known in Europe under the names of _Zingari, Cigani,
Gipsies, Gitanos, Egyptians_, or _Bohemians_, but who, in their own
language, called themselves _Romi_, or _gens maries_, numbered about three
hundred men and women, besides the children, who were very numerous. They
divided themselves into seven bands, all of which followed the same track.
Very dirty, excessively ugly, and remarkable for their dark complexions,
these people had for their leaders a duke and a count, as they were
called, who were superbly dressed, and to whom they acknowledged
allegiance. Some of them rode on horseback, whilst others went on foot.
The women and children travelled on beasts of burden and in waggons (Fig.
369). If we are to believe their own story, their wandering life was
caused by their return to Paganism after having been previously converted
to the Christian faith, and, as a punishment for their sin, they were to
continue their adventurous course for a period of seven years. They showed
letters of recommendation from various princes, among others from
Sigismund, King of the Romans, and these letters, whether authentic or
false, procured for them a welcome wherever they went. They encamped in
the fields at night, because the habit they indulged in of stealing
everything for which they had a fancy, caused them to fear being disturbed
in the towns. It was not long, however, before many of them were arrested
and put to death for theft, when the rest speedily decamped.

[Illustration: Fig. 369.--Gipsies on the March.--Fifteenth Century Piece
of old Tapestry in the Chateau d'Effiat, contributed by M.A. Jubinal.]

In the course of the following year we find them at Meissen, in Saxony,
whence they were driven out on account of the robberies and disturbances
they committed; and then in Switzerland, where they passed through the
countries of the Grisons, the cantons of Appenzell, and Zurich, stopping
in Argovie. Chroniclers who mention them at that time speak of their
chief, Michel, as Duke of Egypt, and relate that these strangers, calling
themselves Egyptians, pretended that they were driven from their country
by the Sultan of Turkey,