d lineage.

SECTION VII.

On the origin of the Gypsies

* * * * *

Various are the conjectures which have been indulged, and the
coincidences which have been sought for, in order to obtain a solution of
the query, _What race of people are the Gypsies_?

Whoever is disposed to refer to Continental writers, may see more than
thirty different opinions started on this subject, founded on no better
authority than some similarity of appellation, garb, complexion, or
unsettled way of life.

They were sometimes _Torlaques_, _Kalendars_, or _Faquirs_. The
Torlaques are Mahometan Monks, who under the pretence of holiness, are
guilty of the most flagrant excesses. Bajazet the 2d, banished them from
the Turkish empire in 1494. The Kalendars wander about in heathen
countries, as the Gypsies do among Christians. The Faquirs are religious
fanatics; and rove about in heathen and mahometan countries, like the
most atrocious robbers. Anquetil says, the Faquirs in India go a
pilgrimage to Jagrenat; they plunder such villages and cities as lie in
their way; they form considerable bodies about a mile from Jagrenat,
where they choose themselves a leader, to whom they pay all the attention
due to a general.

With regard to strolling and thieving, the Faquirs and Gypsies agree
exactly. Thomasius, Griselini, and the English geographer Salmon,
imagined that when Sultan Selim conquered Egypt in 1517, several of the
natives refusing to submit to the Turkish yoke, revolted under one
Zinganeus.

But we have already adverted to authentic documents for the proof, that
they were in Germany, Italy, and France, near a century before the
conquest of Egypt by Selim.

Yet the belief that Gypsies were of Egyptian origin is parallel with
their existence in Europe. It arose from the report circulated by the
first of them, that they were pilgrims from Egypt; and this statement was
not only adopted by the common people, but here, and there, obtained
credit among men of learning. Grellmann observes, that had this opinion
not been received at a time when almost every thing was taken upon trust,
with little examination; had it not been propagated by the first Gypsies,
and then obtained a sanction, it would have been impossible for it to
have gained such general acceptation, or to have maintained itself to the
present times. Till the 17th century, the Egyptian descent of the
Gypsies rested entirely on trad