CHAPTER VI.

_The Gipseys are of the Caste called Suders_.

WE come now to the position we hoped to substantiate, viz. that the Gipseys are of the lowest class of Indians, namely, _Parias_; or, as they are called in Hindostan, _Suders_.

The whole great nation of Indians is known to be divided into four ranks or stocks, which are called by a Portuguese name, castes, each of which has its own particular subdivisions. Of these castes, the _Bramin_ is the first: the second contains the _Tschechteries_ or _Setreas_: the third consists of the _Beis_ or _Wasziers_: the fourth is the caste of the just-mentioned _Suders_; who upon the Peninsula of Malabar, where their condition is the same as in Hindostan, are called _Parias_ or _Parier_.

The relative situation of these four castes, and the grounds of their difference, rest on the Indian fable of the Creation. This relates, that the God who created Bruma, ordained that the Bramin should proceed out of Bruma’s mouth; the Tschechterie out of his arms; the Beis out of his legs; and the Suder from his feet. As Bruma afterwards allotted the employments of each of these stocks, he appointed the first to seek after knowledge, to give instruction, and to take care of religion; the second was to serve in war; the third was, as well as the Bramin, to cultivate science, but to attend particularly to the breeding of cattle and agriculture: the caste of Suders was destined to be subservient to the Bramins, the Tschechteries, and the Beis. These Suders are held in the greatest contempt: they are considered infamous and unclean, from their occupations; and they are abhorred because they eat flesh, the three other castes living entirely on vegetables.

Of this very caste, as will appear by the following comparison, our Gipseys are composed.

We have seen that the Gipseys are in the highest degree filthy, and disgusting; and with regard to character, of the most depraved hearts: that they are thievish, liars, and fraudulent to excess:—and these are exactly the qualities of the Suders. Baldæus says, “The Pareas are a filthy race, in a word, a contemptible stinking people; a wicked crew, who in winter steal much cattle, kill them, and sell the hides.” It is again related in the Danish Mission Intelligence, “Nobody can deny that the Bareier are the dregs and refuse of all the Indians: they have wicked dispositions, are thievish, arrant liars, are intractable with good usage, require to be kept in order by fear and blows, and held under continual restraint.” Moreover, Neuhof assures us, “The Parruas are full of every kind of dishonesty; they do not consider lying and cheating to be sinful, as they have no other maxim or custom among them.” The Gipsey’s solicitude to conceal his language, is likewise a striking Indian trait. “Custom,” says Pallas, of the Indians round Astrakan, “has rendered them to the greatest degree suspicious about their language, insomuch that I never was able to obtain a small vocabulary from them.”

In addition to the foregoing, the Gipseys love to intoxicate themselves; they are particularly fond of brandy, because it more speedily answers their purpose than any other liquor. Among the Suders we find this inclination is universal; though other Indians do not commit such excess, or very seldom, and then privately.

What has been further said with respect to the immoral life of the Gipseys, agrees perfectly with the Suders. “Their wives and daughters,” says Neuhof, “make no difficulty of yielding up their persons, for money, to any sort of people, be they of what country or religion soever; as the inclination of this tribe tends more to voluptuousness, than towards diligence or industry.”

With regard to Gipsey marriages, it has been asserted, that it is a matter of indifference to them whether the party be the nearest relation or an utter stranger, or, as Salmon expresses himself, the nearest relations cohabit like beasts with each other; and as to education, that their children grow up in the most shameful neglect, without either discipline or instruction. All this is precisely the case with the Pariars. In the Journals of the Missionaries already quoted, it is said, “With respect to matrimony, they act like the beasts; and their children are brought up without restraint or information.”

Gipseys are fond of being about horses; so are the Suders in India, for which reason they are commonly employed as horsekeepers by the Europeans resident in that country.

The Gipseys were formerly employed as flayers, hangmen, and executioners, all over Hungary and Transylvania; and they still readily perform those offices whenever called upon. In like manner, in India, no one who is not of the caste of Suders will on any account transact that kind of business.

We have seen that the Gipseys hunt after cattle which have died of distempers, in order to feed on them; and where they can provide more of the flesh than is sufficient for one day’s consumption, dry it in the sun: such is likewise a constant custom with the Pariars in India. It “is their office,” according to the accounts we have of them, “to remove carrion, which they cut up; part they boil fresh and eat, other parts they dry in pieces, by the heat of the sun, for their future provision.”

Hitherto the accounts of the Gipseys and Suders perfectly coincide. Even the before-mentioned smiths and dancing girls are of this caste: and as they before shewed, in general, from the similarity of their make, that they were of Indian extraction, so in this instance they give particular evidence, that they are descendants from the lowest class.

But there are still some further traits relating to the Gipseys; we shall now examine whether they also are to be found among the Suders. Of these the first is, that the Gipseys always choose their place of residence near some village or city; very seldom within the village or city, even though there may be no order to prevent it: as is the case in Moldavia, Wallachia, and all parts of Turkey. Even the more improved Gipseys, as those in Transylvania, who have long since discontinued their wandering mode of life, and might, with permission from government, reside within the cities, yet rather choose to build their huts in some bye-place, without their limits. This custom seems to be a remnant of their original Suder education; it being usual, all over India, for the Suders to have their huts without the villages of the other castes, and in retired places near their cities.

Further, with regard to the Gipseys’ religion, we may recollect, from what has been said, that their sense of it is very confined, and that they have not the least degree of steadiness in it. To the Gipseys, every persuasion is the same; as often as he meets with a different one, he changes his opinions. To-day he receives the sacrament as a Lutheran; next Sunday, from a Roman-catholic; and perhaps before the end of the week partakes of the communion in a Reformed church. Yet the greater part of them do not even go so far as this, but live without any religion at all, and are, as Tollius says, worse than heathens. The more wonderful such an appearance is—of a whole people being so void of and indifferent about religion—the more weight it carries with it to confirm their Indian origin, when all this is found to be literally true of the Suders. “This race,” says Rogerius, of the Suders in the kingdom of Surat, “seems to be neither heathens nor Mahometans; they live on in their own way, without any religion, or worshipping of God. There are some, it is true, who imitate the other castes in an outward shew of religion, and appoint priests for themselves; but they neither frequent the pagodas of the higher castes, nor have any of their own: and as to the choice of their deities, every one conforms to the custom of the place where he lives, or happens to remain a short time, exactly the same as the Gipseys.”

If people, in reflecting on the emigration of the Gipseys, are not determined to imagine that they were actuated by a blind impulse, to break up at once, and quit their native country; no cause can be assigned for their retreat from thence so plausible as the war of Timur Beg in India. The date of their arrival marks it very plainly. It was in the years 1408 and 1409 that this conqueror ravaged India; and having persuaded himself, as well as his followers, that he had undertaken the expedition against India for the purpose of disseminating the Mahometan religion, his war was oppressive enough to occasion such an emigration. Not only every one who made any resistance was destroyed, and such as fell into the enemy’s hands, though quite defenceless, were made slaves, but in a short time these very slaves, to the number of a hundred thousand, were put to death. As in consequence an universal panic took place, nobody being secure that it might not be his own fate in a short time, what could be more natural than that a great number of terrified inhabitants should endeavour to save themselves by flight?

An objection naturally occurs, that when this supposed flight took place, had it been true, not Gipseys only, or the lowest class of people, but with them all sorts of Indians, of superior rank, would have come among us. But this argument will fall of itself, when we reflect on the prepossession which the three higher castes of Indians entertain for their country. They ascribe an extraordinary degree of holiness to it, and believe it to be the only country thought, by the Creator of the universe, worthy for such sanctified people as the Bramins, Tschechteries, and Beis, to dwell in. They would rather suffer torture and death, than quit this land, chosen by the Almighty himself for their residence, to go and dwell any-where else. Moreover a Suder is, in their estimation, the most execrable being in the world; and the least intercourse with him would be defiling and degrading their high characters, which, to them, would be more dreadful than death. Wherefore it was a moral impossibility for those of a higher caste to have any thing in common with a Suder, or that they should have made an united retreat. Finally, by putting themselves into the power of the Suders, with whom they live constantly in a state of discord and inveteracy, they would have hazarded a greater danger, than by patiently risking their fate from the hands of their common enemy. If any of the higher ranks of Indians did withdraw themselves, on account of the troubles, it is probable they retired southwards, to people of their own sort, the Mahrattas.

As every part to the northward and eastward was beset by the enemy, and no passage left in those directions for escaping, it seems most probable that the countries below Multan, to the mouth of the Indus, were the first asylum and rendezvous of the fugitive Suders. Here they were safe; and so remained, till Timur returned from his victories on the Ganges. Then it was that they first entirely quitted the country; and, probably, with them a considerable number of the proper inhabitants about the Indus, which will explain the meaning of their original name, Ciganen, or, according to the German mode of speaking, Zigeuner. For if it was in the country of the Zinganen that these terrified fugitives collected; and they afterwards drew a considerable number of the Zinganen themselves along with them, nothing could be more easy or natural than that the people who had assembled from the general wreck should take the name of the greater number.

By what route they came to us, cannot be ascertained: if they went straight through the southern Persian deserts of Sigistan, Makran, and Kirman, along the Persian Gulph to the mouth of the Euphrates, thence they might get, by Bassora, into the great deserts of Arabia, afterwards into Arabia Petræa, and so arrive in Egypt, by the isthmus of Suez. They must certainly have been in Egypt before they reached us; otherwise we cannot account for the report that they were Egyptians. In what manner they were afterwards transported to Europe is also an obscure research: perhaps it was effected by means of the Turks, who, being at that time fully employed with the Grecian empire, might permit the Gipseys to travel about with the rabble of Serdenjesti and Nephers, who were appointed to go on ravaging parties. However, all that can be said upon that subject is mere surmise. The chief aim in this Dissertation was, to prove that the Gipseys came from Hindostan, and that they were Suders, which it is hoped has been accomplished. When every thing, even the most fortuitous concomitant circumstances, but particularly that most decisive one—the similarity of their language to that of Hindostan, uniformly point out that extraction, we cannot believe them to belong to a different country, and to be descended from another people.

SUPPLEMENT.

To invalidate, if possible, the charge of cannibalism—apparently so well founded—brought against the Gipsey tribe, it is thought proper in this place to mention circumstances, relative to the proceedings in Hungary, which at least render the justice of the sentence pronounced against these devoted people doubtful.

In the year 1534, as recorded in the Hungarian history, the Gipseys were suspected of traitorously assisting John Zapolya; in consequence of which the governor of Leutschau, _Tsernabo_, sent some horsemen to arrest a company of them, near Iglo: the greatest part escaped by flight; only a few old men and boys were taken, who were brought into Leutschau. These confessed circumstantially (which certainly appears improbable, that men should lye to effect their own ruin), as well before, as upon the rack, the following falsities—That a hundred of them had been sent by Zapolya since the middle of Lent, and had agreed for a sum of money to set fire to the five chief cities, Kaschau, Leutschau, Bartfeld, Eperies, and Zeben: that the preceding Saturday several of them had privately entered Leutschau, disguised like Wallachians and shepherds, under the pretence of selling skins: that they laid fire in various places; and moreover, that they had murdered several people: and finally, that they had letters from Zapolya to thirteen different cities, with orders to afford them shelter and protection within their districts, as long as they chose to remain. In consequence of this confession they were impaled, “but whether justly or not,” adds the Chronicle, “that, let him answer for who condemned them:” for on being conducted about the town, to shew in what places they had laid the fire, they could not specify them; besides, they denied every thing when they came to execution.

Except the circumstance of retracting, of which nothing is mentioned in the sentence of death, the above case seems to be exactly similar to that of the men-eaters executed in Hungary in 1782. These were taken upon suspicion of theft; in the course of their examination something escaped them which gave occasion to think they had committed murder, and the criminals being interrogated on this point, perhaps on account of the severity used, or probably from an idea of heroism (a very common trait in their character), they confessed the fact, and chattered away till they had filled the paper, without considering consequences. When desired to state where they had deposited the bodies, they promised to shew, but on being brought to the spot nothing was found, and they endeavoured to run off. Nevertheless, having once confessed, they were put on the rack. As the persons said to have been murdered could not be found, the judge imagined they must have eaten them, which, though denied by the poor miserable wretches, decided their fate.

(A)

How much the Gipsey language has altered by time, may be seen, in a striking manner, from the following translations of the Lord’s Prayer, obtained from Hungarian Gipseys at different periods.

1. Lord’s Prayer, according to the old translation.

Dade! gula dela dicha mengi, Czaoreng hogodoleden tavel, ogoledêl hogoladhem, te a felpesz, trogolo anao Czarchode, ta vela mengi sztre kedapu, maro mandro kata agjesz igiertiszara a more beszecha, male dsame, andro vo lyata, enkala megula, dela enchala zimata. Seszkesz kisztrio oothem banisztri, putyere feriszamarme, à kana andre vecsi, ale Va kosz. Piho.

2. The same, according to a more modern translation.

Muro Dad, kolim andro therosz; Ta weltro szentanao; Ta weltro t’him; Ta weltri olya, szarthin andro therosz kethjn t’he pre p’hu: sze kogyesz damande mandro agyesz a mingi; Ertitza amare bezecha, szar, t’hamin te ertingiszama rebezecha; Mali zsa men andre bezna, nicka men le dsungalin mansáár, Ke tirino t’hin, tiro hino baribo szekovari. Amen.

3. Another, with the Latin.

Amàro Noster del Deus Szavo qui hal es othé ibi opre super óndro in csérász cœlo, avel veniat szinton sanctum tro tuum nav, nomen, te ut avel veniat tri tuum lume regnum te ut khergyol fiat tri tua voje voluntas szàr sicut andro in csérósz cœlo chidé sicque te ut phé in phu. terra. ámáro nostrum mandro panem ogyéuszuno quotidianum dé da áméngé nobis ágyèsz hodie, értiné remitte amenge nobis ámáro nostrum vitsigosz peccatum te ut ámén nos kidé ita értináha remittimus ámáréngé, nostris, palidschá ne inducas ámén nos ándro in dschungalo periculosam tsaszosz, horam, támi sed unkáv sume ámen nos ávri ex ándral e ó dschungalo periculo tiri tuum hin est é lume regnum tiri tua hin est ezor potentia, te ut akana-szekcvar. nunc-semper. Amen.

FINIS.

* * * * *

BALLINTINE, TYP. _Duke-st._ _Adelphi_.

FOOTNOTES.

{v} The instruments used by the Chinese for marking time, act either by fire or water. Those that act by water, somewhat resemble our large hour-glasses: those by fire, are composed of sweet smelling powder, made up into a sort of match.

{3} Leo Africanus, in his _Histoire Naturelle des Indes_, _&c._ p. 327, says of the merchants of Agades, that they kept great numbers of armed slaves for their security, and mentions that their caravans—“sont tous vexéz de divers peuples du desert, comme de ceux qu’on appelle communément _Bohémiens_, ou Egyptiens.”

{16} _Beytrage zum Reichs Postreuter_, St. 71. 1782. “On the 21st of August there was a dreadful execution at Frauenmark in the Hortenser country. Thirteen delinquents, Gipseys, who had existed twelve years by robbing on the highway, and were accustomed to eat the bodies of those they had murdered, were brought to punishment. Four of them were women, who were beheaded; of the remaining nine men, six were hanged, two were broken on the wheel, and the leader of this inhuman gang was quartered alive. It is said that one hundred and fifteen more, of these European cannibals, remain in the county gaols.” See APPENDIX.

{19} _Hamburgh_. _Neue Zeitung_, 151. St. 1782. “_Hungary_, 4th of September.—The following is to be added concerning the murderers and man-eaters. Forty of these miscreants have already undergone their deserved punishment, in three separate places. Some, as lately communicated, were broken upon the wheel from below upwards; two of the most atrocious were quartered alive; and the remainder, one hundred and fifteen in number, will shortly be proceeded against in the same manner. This band has existed twenty-one years, and in the course of that time sacrificed eighty-four people to their cruelty. Every feeling mind must be struck with horror at the infernal rage of these European cannibals, on hearing their confession—that once at a wedding they killed three people, whom they ate with their guests, in the greatest festivity and joy! They prefer the flesh of a young person from sixteen to eighteen years old. They burnt the bones, which, according to their account, make excellent coals. A life-guard man of the country undertook to secure and succeeded in taking their _harumpascha_ or leader. This cannibal hero was magnificently dressed, and wore ornaments in his cap to the value of six thousand guilders.”

_Frankfurter Staats Ristretto_, Nr. 157. 1782. “_Donau Strohm_, 29th September.—We mention with horror, that besides those inhuman wretches who have already been put to the sword in Hungary, there are one hundred and fifty still in chains; and some thousands more are, with good foundation, suspected. They are all Gipseys. Maria Theresa had given orders that all these human vermin should be driven from their holes, and compelled to live in villages: but that wise regulation was not enforced, and the evil is now grown to such a height as scarcely to be remedied without a total extirpation of them.”

_Hamburgh_. _Unpartheiisch_. _Correspondent_. Nr. 159. 1782. “_Hungary_, 22d September.—Besides those Gipsey cannibals which were executed on the 22d of August, at Fraumark, there were fifteen of these barbarians put to death on the twenty-fourth at Kameza; and on the twenty-sixth, thirteen more at Esabrag. In the former place were seven women beheaded, five men hanged, two broken alive on the wheel, and one quartered alive. At the latter place seven women were beheaded, four men hanged and two broken on the wheel. Many still remain in confinement; among whom is one who acted as priest, and married people for two groschens a time. Their _harumpascha_, who, as we lately advised, was taken by a very simple stratagem, cannot yet be brought to any confession of his crimes.”

_Frankfurter Staats Ristretto_, Nr. 207. 1782. “_Donau Strohm_, 24th December.—Not long ago it was published, that forty-five of the men-eaters had been executed in Hungary. One hundred and fifty still remain in prison, whose sentence has, by express orders from court, been respited. Her majesty, not thinking it possible that the people in confinement could have been guilty of such enormous crimes, sent a commissary thither from court to examine minutely into the affair. On his return it was confirmed that they were really men-eaters; and that there are actually among them sons who have killed and eaten their own fathers.”

{29} About sixty years ago, ladies of the first quality in Petersburgh used to be guilty of somewhat the same kind of irregularity. They had begun to adopt the French modes in dress; but, as Salmon says, did not well know how to manage them. “Wherefore,” he continues, “one must not be surprised, notwithstanding all the state of a Petersburgh lady, to meet one of them in summer, at which season they use the English straw hats, magnificently dressed in damask, ornamented with gold, silver, lace, and ribbands, walking barefooted, carrying her slippers in her hand.”

{51} The college of Mons was established in 1748, by the Empress Theresa. In the seventh article of the Instructions granted, the Gipseys were allowed the privilege of washing for gold.

{87} It is reported in Hungary, that a Gipsey alphabet is somewhere preserved; but nobody ever has seen or ever will see it, for it probably never existed: as these people did not bring the art of writing from their own country; where they belong to a class of people who, by express laws, are prohibited from receiving any kind of instruction.

{88} Poetry and Music are in equal esteem among the Transalpine Wallachians, who have consigned over these two amiable sisters to the licentiousness of slaves—Gipseys. These alone sing, play, rhyme—for we cannot allow the appellation of poems to obscene hobbling verses, put together at the moment. By way of sample take the following couplet:

_Mitidika_, _Mitidika_, _wién üng quátsch_! _Ba nu_, _Ba nu_, _n’ am tsche fátsch_.

This _tsche fátsch_, which should be _tsche se fak_, is a monstrous perversion of language. But the Gipsey wanted a rhyme for _quatsch_; so directly, with a bold poetical licence, he changes the first person of the conjunctive for the third of the indicative mood. Thus this little composition, in question and answer, which should be,

Little one, Little one, come from thence! No, no, no, no, _I have nothing to do_ (_there_).

he changes to, _I have nothing_, _what do you_?

{89} Sulzer, with respect to their timidity, says: “A Gipsey requires to have been a long time in the army before he can meet an enemy’s balls with decent soldier’s resolution; or to be an experienced robber, before he can take a traveller’s purse, without having first, from a bush, either killed or disabled him.” There is a proverb in Transylvania, that “You may drive fifty Gipseys before you with a wet rag.” Thicknesse found the Gipseys exactly the same in Spain.

{89a} There are a number of serious pagination errors in the book. Pages 1–98 are numbered correctly, but what should be page 99 is numbered 89, with the numbering continuing 89–121. Following this the page number changes to 132 and continues 132–179, when it changes to 182, 183, 182 (again), 183, 186, 187, 186 (again), 187 (again), 190, 191, 190 (again), 191 (again), 194 and then normally to the end of the book. In this transcription the page numbers are as per the book.—DP.

{113} _Wilhelm Dilick_, in his _Heszischen Chronik._ Seit 229. beyn Jahr 1414, certainly does say that they arrived during the same year in the Hessian territories; and Fabricius, in _Annalibb. Misn._ says they were driven from Meissen in 1416. But Calvisius contradicts Fabricius, and has corrected his date, putting 1418 for 1416. And with regard to Dilich, there must either have been a mistake in the manuscript from which he composed, or he must have read wrong; there being no mention made of Gipseys in any of the public prints till three years afterwards, viz. 1417. It is absurd to suppose they should remain invisible to every other person both in and out of Germany, at the same time they appeared to the editor of Dilich’s intelligence.

{132} But we have more than circumstantial proof of the existence of these safe-conducts, as besides a later, but here very pertinent, order of the former great Hungarian count Thurzo, given in the year 1616, remarkable for its serious and humane contents, an older one, granted in the earliest age of the Gipseys, is still extant. It is written on paper, and was brought by those who were at Regenspurgh in 1423. Andreas Presbyter copied it into his six-years Journal, which was in the possession of Oefelius.

{137} The eastern division of the present kingdom of Tunis.

{138} Zichen, Zigier, or Zincher, among the ancients, called in the earliest times Achæans, dwelt in the country now inhabited by the Circassians.

{139} The torlaques are Mahometan monks, who, under the pretence of holiness, are guilty of the most flagrant excesses. Bajazet the Second banished them from the Turkish empire in 1494. The kalendars, who are likewise monks, wander about in Heathen, as the Gipsy’s do in Christian, countries. Faquirs are religious fanatics, and rove about in Mahometan and Heathen countries, like the most atrocious robbers and villains. Anquetil says, the Faquirs in India go pilgrimages to Jagrenat, to the amount of several thousand. On their return from 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 honours due to a general. With regard to strolling and thieving, the Faquirs and Gipseys agree exactly. But this proves nothing concerning the extraction of the latter.

{141} The cause of this persecution was a dreadful plague, which, in the year 1348, raged all over Europe. This calamity was attributed to the Jews, who were accused of having poisoned the wells and water-springs, in order to exterminate the Christians. Never did any description of people experience greater oppression and misery than what were suffered by the Jews of that time. All the gaols and prisons were crowded with them; they were put to the rack in every judicial court. The day was scarcely long enough for the execution of the poor condemned wretches; nor were the nights ever dark, by reason of the continual fires which were kept burning every-where, to consume them at the stake. Vast numbers, who had escaped the rigour of the tribunals, fell a sacrifice to popular fury. They were suffocated in bogs, slaughtered like flies, and destroyed by other summary means. There was no distinction made of age or sex: the same unrelenting fate pursued men and women, children and grey-headed, without exception. To all this was added the plague, which attacked the Jews as well as the Christians. Under such circumstances, it is no wonder if such as could escape from a persecution so dreadful, and unmerited, really did secret themselves in the most retired corners.

{154} Sultan Selim had drawn out his troops against Persia, with the determination, if not to conquer the country entirely, at least to do them all the mischief he could; for which reason his tremendous army was already, in 1517, encamped near Aleppo. Gäwri, the Circassian Sultan in Egypt, when he heard of this enterprise, being fearful that after Selim had accomplished his intentions respecting Persia, he might attack him, sent ambassadors, to offer his assistance against the Persians. Selim accepted it, and Gäwri immediately collected his forces. As the two armies lay near each other, it so happened that some Circassians attacked, and plundered, some loaded camels, which were going to Selim’s camp. Selim, who looked upon this as an affront, instantly resolved to leave the Persians quiet for the present, and to draw his sword against his ally. This he accordingly did, and Gäwri, being betrayed by two of his generals, was defeated, and fell in the action. Those who escaped from the battle fled to Kahire, where they related what had passed; and a general assembly being convened, they immediately proceeded to the election of a new king, Tumanbey. He marched to attack Selim once more, was defeated, and having experienced various reverses of fortune, at last fell into his hands. Selim was so charmed with his understanding, that he not only granted him his freedom, but intended to appoint him viceroy over Egypt. However, before this event took place, people began to talk freely concerning their hopes, that when Selim should have withdrawn, Tumanbey, with the remaining Circassians and Arabians, might be able to drive his troops out of Egypt, and reinstate the Circassians in their former dominion. These reports came to Selim’s knowledge; yet his confidence was so great, that he at first did not entertain any suspicion of Tumanbey. But at length, when they continued, and even increased, he ordered the unhappy man to be arrested, and hanged under one of the gates of Kahire. On which occasion, like a true barbarian, he made use of the following words: “How great my favour was towards him, I have sufficiently proved; the effects of his partisans’ conversation, let the wretch himself experience.” With him not only ended the government of the Circassians in Egypt, after it had continued 286 years, but, by command of Selim, they were for several days left to the mercy of their conquerors, who treated them with the greatest cruelty.

{161} Griselini always mistakes Troglodytes for a particular national appellation, which is just as if we were to suppose Nomades to be the name of a people.

{190} For a comparison of the Gipsey language at different periods, see (A), Appendix.