The Gypsies ... The fourth edition ... enlarged

Front matter

THE GYPSIES. SHEFFIELD . PRINTED BY WHITAKER AND CO. ■ • * MM^/^ -^JyixO^A A-A^j THE GYPSIES: THEIR ORIGIN, CONTINUANCE, AND DESTINATION; OR, THE SEALED BOOK OPENED. THE FIFTH EDITION, GREATLY ENLARGED. BY SAMUEL ROBERTS. " Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."— 2 Peter i., 21. «' Shut up the words and seal the book even unto the end." — Daniel xn., 4. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 184*2. DEDICATION. With fervent gratitude to Almighty God, — being now entering on my Eightieth Year, — I Dedicate this Fifth Edition of the GYPSIES, to my Four dear CHILD REN, who, through half that period, have been to me a constant source of comfort and blessings. Believing, as I do, that my object in the Work has been the discovery and dissemination of TRUTH; I trust that they will never, either on this, or any other occasion, need to shrink from acknowledging the Author as their Father.

SAML. ROBERTS. Park Grange, April, 1842. CONTENTS. Page. Original Preface ... ... ... ... ... ... v Preface to the 4th edition ... ... ... .. ... vii Introduction to 4th edition ... ... ... ... ... ix Preface to the 5th edition ... ... ... ... ... xxi The Ancient Egyptians ... ... ... ... ... 41 The Gypsies ... ... . . ... ... ... 54 Modern Egypt ... ... ... ... ... ... 71 English Gypsies ... ... ... ... ... ... 82 The Jews ; their dispersion and restoration ... ... ... 132 The Jews ; as connected with the Gypsies ... ... ... 145 The Parallel Miracles ... ... ... ... ... 171 Extinction of States ... ... ... ... ... 191 The Gypsy Family ... .. .. ... ... ... 201 The Expelled Egyptians, or Gypsies, discovered as ancient inhabitants of Mexico ... ... .. ... ... 210 Ancient Ruins in Central America ... ... ... ... 235 Extracts from Mr. Borrow's Zincali ... ... ... ... 242 Borrows, on the Language of the Gypsies ... ... ... 272 Parallel Miracles (Second Part) ... ... ... ... 284 Summary ... ' ... ... ... ... ••• ••• ORIGIN.AL

Preface

. ** O for a Lodge in the vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumours of oppression and deceit, Of successful and unsuccessful war,' Might never reach me morel my ear is pain'd, My soul is sick with every day's report Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fiU'd." Cowper. " Search the Scripture." — John v 39. The reader of the following work will please to keep con stantly in mind that the principal object in view, is to prove, what I think, no one, when he has read it, will venture to deny — that the Gypsies are the descendants of the ancient Egyptians, decreed, by the fiat of the Almighty, as pro claimed by his three great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, to be dispersed for a certain period, in the wildernesses and open fields, of almost all nations, and to be then gathered to their native land, and taught, under a Saviour and a Great One, to know the Lord.

However interesting all else relating to this singular people may be, it is as nothing in respect to the great and novel truth which I have undertaken to prove. It is of no importance, as re gards that fact, whether the people, while in that dispersed state, are respectable or depraved. If, under such circumstances, they are even moderately orderly, it must be suits

PREFACE.

. VI prising, and can only be accounted for, by its being as mi raculous an ordainment as that which decreed their dis persion and final restoration. Being ordained to remain an almost proscribed people, an alien race, in every land, a certain degree of orderly conduct was essential to their being at all tolerated. That, I believe, they will be found generally to have possessed. But what I wish to impress upon the reader is, that their conduct, whatever it may be proved to be, does not affect the truth, which it is my object to establish. Of the Gypsies, as of all other people, there, of course, will be found both good and bad — much may be said for, and much against them. My own opinion is, that their conduct, on the whole, is so exceedingly superior to whatever could possibly be expected from persons, situated as they have been, during so many ages, that nothing less than Divine controul could have so retained them.

Surely, it could make nothing against the miraculous retention of the Jewish people in their dispersed state, that their conduct was not altogether such as could be wished ; neither does it make anything against it, that some few of them have joined Christian societies ; neither does the forsaking of their wandering life by a few of the Gypsies, disprove the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning them ; on the contrary, such few and unimportant exceptions only serve to establish the general ordainment the more strongly. In conclusion, I have only to request the perusal of the following pages, with a mind as free as possible from prejudice, and with a strong desire to be convinced of the truth. If that truth prove to be, what I am endeavouring to establish, it is one of the most surprising, interesting, and important discoveries— as regards Divine ordainments —in the general history of mankind, that has been brought to light during the Christian era.

FOURTH EDITION. Since the publication of the former Editions of this work, the particulars of the discoveries in the kingdom of Mexico have come to my knowledge, of such an extraordinary, im portant, nature — so bearing on the subject of this publica tion, and so strengthening the conclusion to which I had before come respecting the Origin, Continuance, and Des tination of the Gypsies, as to add wonderfully to the in terest which that subject was before calculated to excite. My decided opinion is, that this discovery, united, as it now appears to be, in all its interesting, detached parts, into a most important whole, and continuing one of the most singularly important people that ever inhabited this earth, from the earliest period of society to the present time, and, by prophecies, to the end of the world, is the greatest that has come to light during the last eighteen hundred years.

The elucidation of the important question respecting the early peopling of the world after the flood, which it affords, cannot but claim attention. While the tracing of the two predicted unbroken chains of Jews and Egyptians running almost unknown to each other, as fore told — the one in the cities, and the other in the open fields — in spite of persecution, is not only an astonishing fulfil ment of what the " Holy men of old declared when they were moved by the Holy Ghost," but also a strong confir mation of the Scripture history.