he
language; how in 1417 a band of them appeared in Europe, led by a few men
of great diplomatic skill, who, by crafty dealing, obtained from the
Pope, the Emperor of Germany, and all the kings of Europe, except that of
England, permission to wander for fifty years as pilgrims, declaring that
they had been Christians, but, having become renegades, the King of
Hungary had imposed a penance on them of half a century's exile. Then I
informed them that precisely the same story had been told by them to the
rulers in Syria and Egypt, only that in the Mohammedan countries they
pretended to be good followers of Islam. I said there was reason to
believe that some of their people had been in Poland and the other
Slavonic countries ever since the eleventh century, but that those of
England must have gone directly from Eastern Europe to Great Britain;
for, although they had many Slavic words, such as _krallis_ (king) and
_shuba_, there were no French terms, and very few traces of German or
Italian, in the English dialect. I observed that the men all understood
the geographical allusions which I made, knowing apparently where India,
Persia, and Egypt were situated--a remarkable contrast to our own English
"travelers," one of whom once informed me that he would like to go "on
the road" in America, "because you know, sir, as America lays along into
France, we could get our French baskets cheaper there."

I found, on inquiry, that the Russian gypsies profess Christianity; but,
as the religion of the Greek church, as I saw it, appears to be
practically something very little better than fetich-worship, I cannot
exalt them as models of evangelical piety. They are, however, according
to a popular proverb, not far from godliness in being very clean in their
persons; and not only did they appear so to me, but I was assured by
several Russians that, as regarded these singing gypsies, it was
invariably the case. As for morality in gypsy girls, their principles
are very peculiar. Not a whisper of scandal attaches to these Russian
Romany women as regards transient amours. But if a wealthy Russian
gentleman falls in love with one, and will have and hold her permanently,
or for a durable connection, he may take her to his home if she likes
him, but must pay monthly a sum into the gypsy treasury; for these people
apparently form an _artel_, or society-union, like all other classes of
Russians. It may be suggested, as an explanation of this a