The Knickerbocker/Volume 1/Number 1/Gipseys of Granada
GIPSEYS OF GRANADA.
From an Unpublished Work.
Cervantes begins his beautiful novel of the Gitanilla, in which he illustrates the pranks of the Gipseys, with the following not very flattering exordium: "It would seem that the Gitanos and Gitanas were solely born into the world to fill the station of thieves. They are brought up among thieves; they study the profession of thieves, and finally end by becoming thieves, the most current and thorough-paced on the face of the earth." The history of our species furnishes no study more singular than that of this unaccountable race, which, emigrating from the east, overran the whole of Europe, and pushed its way onward, not by the force of the sword, but by begging and stealing; and at the same time that they conformed in some particulars of dress, manners, customs, and religion, to the countries in which they settled, in others retained every where a common character, common propensities, and common occupations.
The Gipseys are found in no part of Spain except Andalusia, which, in their soft and lisping Spanish, they call la tierra de Dios—la tierra de Maria Santisima—the land of God-—he land of the most holy Virgin. They either live in the ruinous purlieus of the great cities, or else wander from place to place, the women carrying their children naked, slung from their shoulders, or dangling with one arm around them upon their hips. In Andalusia, as elsewhere, they gain their bread by tinkering, stealing, and fortune telling; and preserve the common tradition of an Egyptian descent. It is in Granada, however, that they most abound, just as the skippers are found in greatest numbers in the best cheese. They have their habitations in the caves of the Albaycin, where they practice little arts in lock and spoon making and basket work, their commodities having the common reputation of being worthless and catch-penny. To vend them, they take their stations in the Vivarambla, where they may always be seen seated at the shady side of the square, and never shifting their births until from shaving their favorite water dogs, of which there is one in almost every family; and I have often been amused at seeing the four paws of one of these animals, as he impatiently submitted submitted to this process of decoration, held by as many young Gipseys in as many different directions, whilst the old crone their mother divested him of his fleece. These people are almost universally tall and well made, their figures and carriage having in a rare degree the air of freedom and unconstraint. The women are very beautiful, their features, as well as those of the men, being very regular; with an Asiatic complexion and cast of countenance; long, straight, and very black hair; full dark eyes, and teeth of pearly whiteness. They are all fond of appearing in the worn out finery of the Andalusian dandies, and have a taste for elegance, though it be even in rags. Their pranks are often exhibited on the Spanish stage to the great delight of the audience, who receive their quaint practical jokes and less innocent rogueries with the greatest glee. Indeed they have the character of being a light hearted and happy race, and, notwithstanding their vicious propensities, are looked on with an extra share of that indulgence which is extended to vagrants of all classes in Spain.
There is much in the cast of countenance, complexion, and unfettered conformation of these Gipseys, in connection with their mendicant air and the distinctness of their appearance, character, and sympathies, from those of the Spaniards around them, to remind an American of the vagrant Indians whom he has seen loitering about the frontier settlements of his native country. The Gipseys of Spain do not, however, excite the same sympathy as our unhappy aborigines. They came to that country of their own accord, and with a view to better their condition, bringing their vices with them, and making them instrumental to self support and to the preservation of their identity. But the Indians, instead of dispossessing, are the dispossessed; their degradation, instead of being derived from their savage state, has supplanted the wild virtues that adorned it, and is at once the result of civilized encroachment and the efficient cause of their ruin.
It was in order to see something of the domestic economy of this strange race, of whom we daily met many in the streets of Granada, that we one morning took a walk to the caves of the Albaycin, where they have their subterranean habitations. Crossing the ravine of the Daro, and passing through the more populous portion of the Albaycin, whose houses are often incorporated with the ruins of walls, that mark the gradual expansion of Granada, as it augmented its population in the days of the Saracens, we began at length to ascend the more precipitous portion of the rival mountain, where it looks towards the valley of the Daro and the fortress of the Alhambra. The Albaycin may be called the rival of the Alhambra, not only from its position immediately opposite, the two mountains being drawn up on either side of the Daro, and frowning upon each other, the Pillars of Hercules in miniature; but because in Moorish days it was crowned with a fortress of nearly equal strength, which sometimes arrayed itself in hostility. When two kings reigned not only in the same kingdom, but in the single city of Granada, it was the fortress of the Albaycin that formed the court and strong hold of Beabdil el Chico. Of this fortress scarce a vestige now remains; it doubtless dates its demolition from the period when, after the conquest, the Moriscos were compelled to take up their abode within the precincts of the Albaycin.
As we went on ascending, the streets of the Albaycin passed gradually into zig-zag pathways winding their way up the acclivity; and the houses rising above each other along the hill side, gave place to eaves artificially hollowed beneath the surface of the earth. The whole superior part of the mountain was perforated like a honeycomb, and contained within its bowels a numerous population, of which, however, none of the ordinary indications could be discovered, except the wreaths of thin smoke which rose in every direction, curling among the prickly-pear bushes, which covered the whole surface, and furnished food to the poor inhabitants who lived below. At one of the first caves we managed an invitation to walk in, by asking a decent old woman for some water. When within the door, and we began to recover our sight, we found ourselves in an apartment of regular figure, and wanting in none of the comforts of life. A fire-place stood in front of the entrance, its chimney being perforated upwards through the rock. On the right was the door of the principal bed-room; it had a circular window or loop hole, was very clean and neat, and was ornamented with crosses, artificial flowers, and rude paintings of the saints. There were other apartments penetrating farther into the recesses of the mountain, and which received no light from without; these served for sleeping chambers and store rooms. The rock here, like that of the adjoining mountain, which contains the Mazmorras, is of a soft nature and is easily cut, but hardens by exposure to the air. The caves that are hewn in it are more comfortable than the ordinary habitations of the poor, keep out the weather effectually, and being less subject to changes of temperature, are comparatively warm in winter and cool in summer.
Taking leave of our old woman and her cave, we proceed- ed eastward along the acclivity, until we found ourselves among the more wretched of these subterranean dwellings, the fit abode of Gipseys, vagabonds, and robbers. Having singled out one which we supposed to belong to the first of these honorable classes, from a group of tawny and more than half naked children, whom we found at their gambols before the door, we took the liberty of entering it, after the utterance of an ave maria purisima. We found no one within but a young Gipsey girl, seated on the stone floor, surrounded by a litter of straw, which she was sleepily weaving into braid for a bonnet. Beside her was a wild, shaggy dog, which, like those of our Indians, seemed to have adapted himself to the strange life of his masters, and gone back to his original and wolf-like condition. The dog is an accommodating animal; not only in manners, habits, and character, but even in appearance, he learns to assimilate himself to his owner. The dog of a prince takes something of a prince's pomposity; the butcher's dog shares in the butcher's fierceness; the dog of a thief may be easily known by his skulking, hang-gallows air; and that of the poor beggar learns to look as humble and imploring as his master. The theory may fail as often as any other theory; but at all events it applied to the treacherous cur, who now growled at our intrusion, until it was sanctioned by his mistress; when, though he ceased his menacings, he took his station beside her, and still kept a watchful and lowering eye upon us. The young women too seemed embarrassed by our presence; and when we would have had our fortunes told by her, she pleaded ignorance, bade us come when her mother should be there, and appeared willing to be rid of us. Ere we relieved her of our presence, we had time to remark that, though neither very clean nor very tidy, she was yet pretty as Preciosa herself. Her features were regular and expressive, with glowing eyes, and a form finely moulded and unperverted by artificial embarrassments. She had moreover a modest look, and seemed to justify the idea, that chastity could exist, as it is said to do, in so humble and unfettered a condition. Indeed, whatever may be the vices of the Spanish Gipseys, Cervantes tells us that they respect this virtue both in their wives and damsels, forming none but permanent connexions, which, though not sanctioned by matrimony, are only broken by common consent. He gives them credit too for assuming, in an eminent degree towards each other, the laws and obligations of friendship. They do not take the trouble to pursue crimes committed among them before the tribunals of the country; but, like many others in Spain who are not Gipseys, execute justice on their own account.