ame, and the person will become your own. Very
lucky is a red string or ribbon. Keep it. It foretells happy love. Do
not let this run away from thy soul, my child."

"No, aunt, never."

THE ORIGIN OF THE GYPSIES.

This chapter contains in abridged form the substance of papers on the
origin of the gypsies and their language, read before the London
Philological Society; also of another paper read before the Oriental
Congress at Florence in 1878; and a _resume_ of these published in the
London _Saturday Review_.

It has been repeated until the remark has become accepted as a sort of
truism, that the gypsies are a mysterious race, and that nothing is known
of their origin. And a few years ago this was true; but within those
years so much has been discovered that at present there is really no more
mystery attached to the beginning of these nomads than is peculiar to
many other peoples. What these discoveries or grounds of belief are I
shall proceed to give briefly, my limits not permitting the detailed
citation of authorities. First, then, there appears to be every reason
for believing with Captain Richard Burton that the Jats of Northwestern
India furnished so large a proportion of the emigrants or exiles who,
from the tenth century, went out of India westward, that there is very
little risk in assuming it as an hypothesis, at least, that they formed
the _Hauptstamm_ of the gypsies of Europe. What other elements entered
into these, with whom we are all familiar, will be considered presently.
These gypsies came from India, where caste is established and callings
are hereditary even among out-castes. It is not assuming too much to
suppose that, as they evinced a marked aptitude for certain pursuits and
an inveterate attachment to certain habits, their ancestors had in these
respects resembled them for ages. These pursuits and habits were that

They were tinkers, smiths, and farriers.

They dealt in horses, and were naturally familiar with them.

They were without religion.

They were unscrupulous thieves.

Their women were fortune-tellers, especially by chiromancy.

They ate without scruple animals which had died a natural death, being
especially fond of the pig, which, when it has thus been "butchered by
God," is still regarded even by prosperous gypsies in England as a
delicacy.

They flayed animals, carried corpses, and showed such aptness for these
and similar detested callings that in sever