But it is not sufficient that the Egyptian descent of these people is entirely destitute of proof; on the other side, the most positive proof is to be found to contradict it. Their language differs entirely from the Coptic; and their customs, as Ahasuerus Fritsch has remarked, are diametrically opposite to the Egyptian. To these facts must be added that weighty circumstance, of their wandering about like strangers in Egypt, where they form a distinct people; as not only Bellonius, but many later writers assure us. Muratori, therefore, is not in the wrong, when he thinks it ridiculous to account them Egyptians—people having no better authority for this belief, than their own unsupported opinion.
Thus, then, stands the argument, as well with respect to the derivation of the Gipseys in general, as in regard to the Egyptian descent of them in particular. While many men, and among these some very respectable for their learning, declare the origin of these people to remain an unsolved riddle, the opinion that they were not originally from Egypt, will, it is thought, by the contents of this and the foregoing chapter, be thoroughly confirmed. Notwithstanding the innumerable researches, the Gipseys still remain unacknowledged inmates in Europe.
It may nevertheless be doubted whether Swinburne is quite right, in asserting it to be impossible ever to find out the real home of these strangers. After so many unsuccessful endeavours, it is not without apprehension, though with the best-founded hope, we venture on another trial.
IT is justly asserted, that one of the most infallible methods of determining the origin of these people with certainty, would be the discovery of a country where their language was in common use. The first and most necessary examination here, therefore, will be, to find out the part of the globe in which the Gipseys’ language is that of the natives: and this country is no other than Hindostan. But before we endeavour to prove this assertion, by a comparison of the Hindostan and Gipsey languages, it will be proper to premise something, which will serve as an introduction of considerable weight. It is an article of intelligence, to be found in the Vienna Gazette, and comes from a Captain Szekely von Doba, a man who was thinking of nothing less than of searching for the Gipseys and their language in the East Indies.