[Illustration:  Fig. 368.—­Jewish Ceremony before the Ark.—­Fac-simile of a woodcut printed at Troyes.]

Gipsies, Tramps, Beggars, and Cours des Miracles.

First Appearance of Gipsies in the West.—­Gipsies in Paris.—­Manners and Customs of these Wandering Tribes.—­Tricks of Captain Charles.—­Gipsies expelled by Royal Edict.—­Language of Gipsies.—­The Kingdom of Slang.—­The Great Coesre, Chief of the Vagrants; his Vassals and Subjects.—­Divisions of the Slang People; its Decay and the Causes thereof.—­Cours des Miracles.—­The Camp of Rognes.—­Cunning Language, or Slang.—­Foreign Rogues, Thieves, and Pickpockets.

In the year 1417 the inhabitants of the countries situated near the mouth of the Elbe were disturbed by the arrival of strangers, whose manners and appearance were far from pre-possessing.  These strange travellers took a course thence towards the Teutonic Hanse, starting from Luneburg:  they subsequently proceeded to Hamburg, and then, going from east to west along the Baltic, they visited the free towns of Lubeck, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, and Greifswald.

These new visitors, known in Europe under the names of Zingari, Cigani, Gipsies, Gitanos, Egyptians, or Bohemians, but who, in their own language, called themselves Romi, or gens maries, numbered about three hundred men and women, besides the children, who were very numerous.  They divided themselves into seven bands, all of which followed the same track.  Very dirty, excessively ugly, and remarkable for their dark complexions, these people had for their leaders a duke and a count, as they were called, who were superbly dressed, and to whom they acknowledged allegiance.  Some of them rode on horseback, whilst others went on foot.  The women and children travelled on beasts of burden and in waggons (Fig. 369).  If we are to believe their own story, their wandering life was caused by their return to Paganism after having been previously converted to the Christian faith, and, as a punishment for their sin, they were to continue their adventurous course for a period of seven years.  They showed letters of recommendation from various princes, among others from Sigismund, King of the Romans, and these letters, whether authentic or false, procured for them a welcome wherever they went.  They encamped in the fields at night, because the habit they indulged in of stealing everything for which they had a fancy, caused them to fear being disturbed in the towns.  It was not long, however, before many of them were arrested and put to death for theft, when the rest speedily decamped.

[Illustration:  Fig. 369.—­Gipsies on the March.—­Fifteenth Century Piece of old Tapestry in the Chateau d’Effiat, contributed by M.A.  Jubinal.]