The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume II Part 23

CHAPTER XIII

Of Gypsies.

Great wonder it is not we are to seek in the original of _aethiopians_ and natural Negroes, being also at a loss concerning the Original of Gypsies and counterfeit Moors, observable in many parts of _Europe_, _Asia_, and _Africa_.

[Sidenote: _Opinions concerning the original of Gypsies._]

Common opinion deriveth them from _Egypt_, and from thence they derive themselves, according to their own account hereof, as _Munster_ discovered in the letters and pa.s.s which they obtained from _Sigismund_ the Emperour; that they first came out of lesser _Egypt_, that having defected from the Christian rule, and relapsed unto Pagan rites, some of every family were enjoyned this penance to wander about the world; or as _Aventinus_ delivereth, they pretend for this vagabond course, a judgement of G.o.d upon their fore-fathers, who refused to entertain the Virgin _Mary_ and Jesus, when she fled into their Country.

Which account notwithstanding is of little probability: for the generall stream of writers, who enquire into their originall, insist not upon this; and are so little satisfied in their descent from _Egypt_, that they deduce them from several other nations [SN: _Fernand. de Cordua didascal. multipl._]: _Polydore Virgil_ accounting them originally _Syrians_, _Philippus Bergomas_ fetcheth them from _Chaldaea_, _aeneas Sylvius_ from some part of _Tartary_, _Bellonius_ no further then _Walachia_ and _Bulgaria_, nor _Aventinus_ then the confines of _Hungaria_.

That they are no _Egyptians_, _Bellonius_ [SN: Observat. l. 2.] maketh evident: who met great droves of Gypsies in _Egypt_, about Gran Cairo, Mataerea, and the villages on the banks of _Nilus_, who notwithstanding were accounted strangers unto that Nation, and wanderers from foreign parts, even as they are esteemed with us.

[Sidenote: _Gypsies first known in Germany._]

That they came not out of _Egypt_ is also probable, because their first appearance was in _Germany_, since the year 1400, nor were they observed before in other parts of _Europe_, as is deducible from _Munster_, _Genebrard_, _Crantsius_ and _Ortilius_.

But that they first set out not far from _Germany_, is also probable from their language, which was the Sclavonian tongue; and when they wandred afterward into _France_, they were commonly called _Bohemians_, which name is still retained for Gypsies. And therefore when _Crantsius_ delivereth, they first appeared about the Baltick Sea, when _Bellonius_ deriveth them from _Bulgaria_ and _Walachia_, and others from about _Hungaria_, they speak not repugnantly hereto: for the language of those Nations was Sclavonian, at least some dialect thereof.

[Sidenote: _What use the Grand Signior maketh of Gypsies._]

But of what nation soever they were at first, they are now almost of all; a.s.sociating unto them some of every country where they wander: when they will be lost, or whether at all again, is not without some doubt: for unsetled nations have out-lasted others of fixed habitations: and though Gypsies have been banished by most Christian Princes, yet have they found some countenance from the great Turk, who suffereth them to live and maintain publick Stews near the Imperial City in _Pera_ [SN: Bellon. observat. l. 2.], of whom he often maketh a politick advantage, imploying them as spies into other nations, under which t.i.tle they were banished by _Charles_ the fift.

CHAPTER XIV

Of some others.

We commonly accuse the phancies of elder times in the improper figures of heaven a.s.signed unto Constellations, which do not seem to answer them, either in Greek or Barbarick Spheres: yet equall incongruities have been commonly committed by Geographers and Historians, in the figurall resemblances of several regions on earth; While by _Livy_ and _Julius, Rusticus_ the Island of _Britain_ is made to resemble a long dish or two-edged ax; _Italy_ by _Numatia.n.u.s_ to be like an Oak-leaf: and _Spain_ an Ox-hide; while the phancy of _Strabo_ makes the habitated earth like a cloak, and _Dionysius Afer_ will have it like a sling: with many others observable in good writers [SN: Tacit. de vita Jul. Agric.], yet not made out from the letter or signification; acquitting Astronomy in their figures of the Zodiack: wherein they are not justified unto strict resemblances, but rather made out from the effects of Sun or Moon in these several portions of heaven, or from peculiar influences of those constellations, which some way make good their names. [SN: Junctin. in Sph. l. de Sacro bosco cap. 2.]

Which notwithstanding being now authentick by prescription, may be retained in their naked acceptions, and names translated from substances known on earth. And therefore the learned _Hevelius_ in his accurate Selenography, or description of the Moon, hath well translated the known appellations of Regions, Seas and Mountains, unto the parts of that Luminary: and rather then use invented names or humane denominations, with witty congruity hath placed _Mount Sinai_, _Taurus_, _Maeotis Palus_, the Mediterranean Sea, _Mauritania_, _Sicily_ and _Asia_ Minor in the Moon.

More hardly can we find the Hebrew letters in the heavens, made out of the greater and lesser Stars which put together do make up words, wherein Cabalisticall Speculators conceive they read the events of future things [SN: _The Cabala of the Stars._]; and how from the Stars in the head of _Medusa_, to make out the word _Charab_; and thereby desolation presignified unto _Greece_ or _Javan_, numerally characterized in that word, requireth no rigid reader. [SN: Greffarel _out of R._ Chomer.]

It is not easie to reconcile the different accounts of longitude, while in modern tables the hundred and eighty degree is more then thirty degrees beyond that part, where _Ptolomy_ placeth an 180. Nor will the wider and more Western term of Longitude, from whence the Moderns begin their commensuration, sufficiently salve the difference. [SN: Athan.

Kircher. in promio.] The ancients began the measure of Longitude from the fortunate Islands or Canaries, the Moderns from the Azores or Islands of S. _Michael_; but since the Azores are but fifteen degrees more West, why the Moderns should reckon 180, where _Ptolomy_ accounteth above 220, or though they take in 15 degrees at the West, why they should reckon 30 at the East, beyond the same measure, is yet to be determined; nor would it be much advantaged, if we should conceive that the compute of _Ptolomy_ were not so agreeable unto the Canaries, as the Hesperides or Islands of _Cabo Verde_. [SN: Robertus Hues de globis.]

[Sidenote: _When the Moon will be seen on the first day of the change._]

[Sidenote: _Why the Sun is seen after it is set, or naturally under the Horizon._]

Whether the compute of moneths from the first appearance of the Moon, which divers nations have followed, be not a more perturbed way, then that which accounts from the conjunction, may seem of reasonable doubt [SN: Hevel. Selenog. cap. 9.]; not only from the uncertainty of its appearance in foul and cloudy weather, but unequal time in any; that is sooner or later, according as the Moon shall be in the signs of long descention, as _Pisces_, _Aries_, _Taurus_, in the Perigeum or swiftest motion, and in the Northern Lat.i.tude: whereby sometimes it may be seen the very day of the change, as will observably happen 1654, in the moneths of April and May? or whether also the compute of the day be exactly made, from the visible arising or setting of the Sun, because the Sun is sometimes naturally set, and under the Horizon, when visibly it is above it; from the causes of refraction, and such as make us behold a piece of silver in a basin, when water is put upon it, which we could not discover before, as under the verge thereof.

Whether the globe of the earth be but a point, in respect of the Stars and Firmament, or how if the rayes thereof do fall upon a point, they are received in such variety of Angles, appearing greater or lesser from differences of refraction?

[Sidenote: _To what the motion of the Heavens serveth_, Met. Lib.]

Whether if the motion of the Heavens should cease a while, all things would instantly perish? and whether this a.s.sertion doth not make the frame of sublunary things to hold too loose a dependency upon the first and conserving cause? at least impute too much unto the motion of the heavens, whose eminent activities are by heat, light and influence, the motion it self being barren, or chiefly serving for the due application of celestial virtues unto sublunary bodies as _Cabeus_ hath learnedly observed?

Whether Comets or blazing Stars be generally of such terrible effects, as elder times have conceived them; for since it is found that many, from whence these predictions are drawn, have been above the Moon; why they may not be qualified from their positions, and aspects which they hold with stars of favourable natures; or why since they may be conceived to arise from the effluviums of other Stars, they may not retain the benignity of their Originals; or since the natures of the fixed Stars are astrologically differenced by the Planets, and are esteemed Martial or Jovial, according to the colours whereby they answer these Planets; why although the red Comets do carry the portensions of Mars, the brightly-white should not be of the Influence of Jupiter or Venus, answerably unto _Cor Scorpii_ and Arcturus, is not absurd to doubt.