SOCIALITS SOCIALITY OF BRUTES. $183 LETTER LXVI. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. - SELBORNE, August 15, 1775. DEAR SIR, There is a wonderful spirit of sociality in the brute creation, independent of sexual attachment: the congregating of gregarious birds in the winter is a remarkable instance. Many horses, though quiet with company, will not stay one minute in a field by themselves; the strongest fences cannot restrain them. My neighbour's horse will not only not stay by himself abroad, but he will not bear to be left alone in a strange stable, without discovering the utmost impatience, and endeavouring to break the rack and manger with his fore feet. He has been known to leap out at a stable window, through which dung was thrown, after company; and yet, in other respects, is remarkably quiet. Oxen and cows will not fatten by themselves; but will neglect the finest pasture that is not recommended by society. It would be needless to instance in sheep, which constantly flock together. * *There were two Hanoverian horses, which had assisted in drawing the same gun during the whole Peninsular War, in the German brigade of artillery. One of them met his death in an engagement; after which the survivor was picqueted as usual, and his food was brought to him. He refused to eat, and kept constantly turning his head round to look for his companion, and sometimes calling him by a neigh. Every care was taken, and all means that could be thought of were adopted, to make him eat, but without effect. Other horses surrounded him on all sides, but he paid no attention to them; his whole demeanour indicated the deepest sorrow, and he died from hunger, not having tasted a bit from the time his companion fell. Lord Kaimes relates a circumstance of a canary which fell dead in singing to his mate, while in the act of incubation. The female quitted her nest, and finding him dead, rejected all food, and died by his side. Mr Charles Hall, of Englishbatch, had a beagle bitch which suckled a kitten, to whom she shewed the most devoted attachment. "M. Antoine," says Professor Rennie, "relates the following anecdote of a lapwing which a clergyman kept in his garden: - It lived chiefly on insects, but, as the winter drew on, these failed, and necessity compelled the poor bird to approach the house, from which it had previously remained at a wary distance; and a servant, hearing its feeble cry, as if it were asking charity, opened for it the door of the back kitchen. It did not venture far at first, but it became daily more familiar and imboldened as the cold increased, till at length it actually entered the kitchen, though already occupied by a dog and a cat. By degrees it at But this propensity seems not to be confined to animals of the same species; for we know a doe, still alive, that was brought up from a little fawn with a dairy of cows; with them it goes afield, and with them it returns to the yard. The dogs of the house take no notice of this deer, being used to her; but, if strange dogs come by, a chase ensues; while the master smiles to see his favourite securely leading her pursuers over hedge, or gate, or stile, till she returns to the cows, who, with fierce lowings, and menacing horns, drive the assailants quite out of the pasture. Even great disparity of kind and size does not always prevent social advances and mutual fellowship. For a very intelligent and observant person has assured me, that, in the former part of his life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time to have but one solitary hen. These two incongruous animals spent much of their time together, in a lonely orchard, where they saw no creature but each other. By degrees, an apparent regard began to take place between these two sequestered individuals. The fowl would approach the quadruped with notes of complacency, rubbing herself gently against his legs; while the horse would look down with satisfaction, and move with the greatest caution and circum. spection, lest he should trample on his diminutive companion. Thus, by mutual good offices, each seemed to console the vacant hours of the other; so that Milton, when he puts the length came to so good an understanding with these animals, that it entered regularly at nightfall, and established itself at the chimney corner, where it remained snugly beside them for the night; but, as soon as the warmth of spring returned, it preferred roosting in the garden, though it resumed its place at the chimney corner the ensuing winter. Instead of being afraid of its two old acquaintances, the dog and the cat, it now treated them as inferiors, and arrogated to itself the place which it had previously obtained by humble solicitation. This interesting pet was at last choked by a bone which it had swallowed." The following singular presentiment in a goose is related by Mr C. A. Brew, of Ennis::- "An old goose, that had been for a fortnight hatching in a farmer's kitchen, was perceived on a sudden to be taken violently ill. She soon after left the nest, and repaired to an outhouse, where there was a young goose of the past year, which she brought with her into the kitchen. The young one immediately scrambled into the old one's nest, sat, hatched, and afterwards brought up the brood. The old goose, as soon as the young one had taken her place, sat down by the side of the nest, and shortly after died. As the young goose had never been in the habit of entering the kitchen before, it would be difficult to account for this fact, except by supposing that the old one had some way of communicating her anxieties, which the other was perfectly able to understand."— ED. following sentiment in the mouth of Adam, seems to be somewhat mistaken : Much less can bird with beast, or fish with fowl, LETTER LXVII. TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. SELBORNE, October 2, 1775. DEAR SIR,- We have two gangs, or hordes of gipsies, which infest the south and west of England, and come round in their circuit two or three times in the year. One of these tribes calls itself by the noble name of Stanley, of which I have nothing particular to say; but the other is distinguished by an appellative somewhat remarkable. As far as their harsh gibberish can be understood, they seem to say that the name of their clan is Curleople: now the termination of this word is apparently Grecian; and, as Mezeray and the gravest historians all agree that these vagrants did certainly migrate from Egypt and the East, two or three centuries ago,* and so The gipsies first attracted notice in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and, within a few years afterwards, they had spread themselves all over the Continent. The earliest mention which is made of them was in the years 1414 and 1417, when they were observed in Germany. In 1418, they were found in Switzerland; in 1422, in Italy; and, in 1427, they are mentioned as having been seen in the neighbourhood of Paris, and about the same time in Spain. In England they were not known till some time after. One remarkable part of their history is, their continuing the same unsettled mode of life, and rigidly keeping apart from all other people. It is impossible to find a greater similarity in the traits of character, and the manners exhibited by different tribes of the same family, than that which is observable amongst the gipsies of the different countries of Europe, under whatever appellation they are known. The habits of the cygani of Hungary, the gitano of Spain, the zigenners of Transylvania, the zingari of Italy, the bohemien of France, the gipsy of England, and the tinkler of Scotland, are identical; whether we regard their physical distinction, or their mode of subsistence. Their features and complexion mark them of eastern origin. Grellman thinks them Hindoos of the lowest class; and a comparison of the language of that people with a list of about four hundred words possessed by him goes far to prove a national connection. There is, besides, some striking coincidences in the construction of the languages. He attributes their appearance to the cruel war of devastation carried on by Timur-Beg in 1408-9, and supposes them to be fugitives from their native land, and that they passed through the desert of Persia, and along the Gulf of Persia, through Arabia Petrea, over the Isthmus of Suez, into spread by degrees over Europe, may not this family name, a little corrupted, be the very name they brought with them Egypt, and, entering Europe from thence, have brought with them the name Egyptians, which has been corrupted in England into gipsies. This opinion seems to have been early entertained, but soon forgotten; for we find that Hieronymus Foroliviensis, in the nineteenth volume of Muratori, says, that, on the 7th day of August, A.D. 1432, two hundred of the cingari came to his native town, and halted there two days on their journey to Rome, and that some of them said they came from India— "et, ut audivi, aliqui dicebant quod erant Indiâ." Munster, who, in 1524, conversed with one of the cingari, found that his belief was, the tribe had come from that country. The Abbé Dubois says, that in every country of the Peninsula, great numbers of families are to be found, whose ancestors were obliged to emigrate thither in times of trouble or famine from their native land, and to establish themselves amongst strangers. But the most remarkable feature in their history is, that these colonists preserve their own language, from generation to generation, as well as their national peculiarities. Many families might be pointed out who have continued four or five hundred years in particular districts without approximating in the least to the manners, fashions, or language, of the tribes among whom they have been naturalized. Leaving this species of evidence, we shall proceed to one which seems to afford more conclusive proofs than any other of the Hindoo origin of the gipsies; namely, a short vocabulary of words, collected from the gipsy of England, the giatano of Spain, and the cygani of Hungary; and if we make allowance for the corruptions, which must necessarily have crept in amongst people wandering through countries whose language was not only distinct from their own, but also unconnected with each other, we shall not wonder at the slight difference, seeing the great variety of provincial dialect spoken even in Britain itself: Besides these, we may mention, that the gipsies use the word banduk, for a musket, which, in the Hindoo, is bundooq; and kahngeree English, cangri Spanish, and kahngeri Hungarian, all signify church. Could a from the Levant? It would be matter of some curiosity could one meet with an intelligent person among them, to inquire whether, in their jargon, they still retain any Greek words: the Greek radicals will appear in hand, foot, head, water, earth, &c. It is possible, that, amidst their cant and corrupted dialect, many mutilated remains of their native language might still be discovered. With regard to those peculiar people, the gipsies, one thing is very remarkable, and especially as they came from warmer climates; and that is, that while other beggars lodge in barns, stables, and cow-houses, these sturdy savages seem to pride themselves in braving the severities of winter, and in living sub dio the whole year round. Last September was as wet a month as ever was known; and yet, during those deluges, did a young gipsy girl lie in the midst of one of our hop-gardens, on the cold ground, with nothing over her but a piece of a blanket, extended on a few hazel rods bent hoop fashion, and stuck into the earth at each end, in circumstances too trying for a cow in the same condition: yet within this garden there was a large hop-kiln, into the chambers of which she might have retired, had she thought shelter an object worthy her attention. Europe itself, it seems, cannot set bounds to the rovings of these vagabonds; for Mr Bell, in his return from Peking, met a gang of these people on the confines of Tartary, who were endeavouring to penetrate those deserts, and try their fortune in China.* Gipsies are called in French, Bohemiens; in Italian and modern Greek, Zingani. vocabulary be formed of the dialect used by gipsies, the era and route by which they entered Europe might possibly be traced by an ingenious linguist. Ludolf, in the seventeenth century, collected from certain wandering tribes, which he met in Æthiopia and Nubia, a vocabulary of thiry-eight words. These were so fortunately selected, that a counterpart has, in almost every instance, offered itself, both from the language of Hindostan, and from that of the European gipsy. This fact recalls an observation made by Sir William Jones, though it may bear but little upon the question that the ancient Egyptian and Sanscrit are probably the same. ED. * See Bell's Travels in China. |