of Genesis (ed. Ditmar, 1862) the children of Hagar are called the Chaltsmide—vagrants who wander and cheat and sell bad things with blemishes. The word means iron-workers and is wrongly applied to the Gipsies, but this very testimony is strong in favour of their popular renown as travelling tinkers. And some time before historic proof of the immigration of true Gipsies there had been wayfaring smiths in no good odour with their customers. We cannot doubt that the eastern branch not only took up the crafts of their forerunners but assimilated a goodly number of them into their own ranks. The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes writes (under year 554 in Justinian's reign) of κωμοδρόμοι, vagrants running from village to village; they are the Chaltsmide of the German writers and Ducange's chaudroneurs: that they had something in common with the itinerant pedlars of the dualistic religion of the Balkans is also likely.
In 1424 the settled gipsies of Wallachia were serfs on the land; the nomads were smiths and musicians, soothsayers and horse-dealers. In Moldavia the voivode in 1478 granted not only 'free air and soil to wander about' but 'free fire and iron for their smithy.'[1] These formed two distinct classes in Rumania, the serfs or robi, property of nobles or convents, and the nomads, divided into spoon-makers (lingurari), tinkers, coppersmiths, ironworkers (caldarari), bear-drivers (ursari), miners or gold-washers (rudari or aurari). To-day the nomads still carry on their ancient craft of coppersmiths or workers in metal, making sieves and traps; as farriers or horse-dealers they are less conspicuous. They are still unsurpassed for music and sooth-saying. Everywhere to-day, while the women divine by palmistry and tell fortunes, the men are celebrated as
- ↑ It is curious (but no more) that early writers like Krantz and Crusius do not mention their skill as coppersmiths, farriers or musicians. In 1490 Ladislas Hermanfy leaves a grey carriage horse to his servant Istok, staling that he had bought it from Egypti sive Czyngani.
