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GYPSIES.

Cilicians, Mesopotamians, Assyrians, Ethiopians, and do not disdain to adorn themselves with Moors, Armenians, Manichæans, Banditti, and Ger- even dubious trinkets and fine garments in a man Jews. More recently, they were, on account of forward state of decay; but they always arrange the name of Zingari or Zingani—probably a corruptheir clothes, however poor, with great taste. Of tion from their own name Sinte (from Ind), by which they are known in many countries of Europe brought in connection with the Sigynnai, a people of Median origin, settled on the Danube, mentioned by Herodotus; with the Sigynni of Strabo, in the Caucasus; with the Usbecks, and a host of other tribes known and unknown. Again, their name has been derived from one Zinganeus, who, in 1517, when they had long been known as Zingani, fled with his followers to escape the vengeance of Selim. The now recognised theory of their Indian origin, proved incontestably by their language, was first positively advanced by Rüdiger in 1782; and in his track followed, with more or less successcollecting, comparing, or arranging new and old linguistic materials-Grellmann, Alter, Seetzen, Pottinger, Hoyland, Puchmayer, Ouseley, Danilowicz, Bischoff, Domeny de Rienzi, Graffunder, Borrow, Richardson, Bishop Heber, and many others. But the facile princeps of all Gypsologists is Professor Pott of Halle, whose Zigeunersprache (1844 -1845) is the most wonderfully thorough and exhaustive book ever written on this subject of gypsies and their language.

This their language, then-a daughter of the old Sanscrit-has, besides giving the only real clue to their origin, also shed some rays over the dark period between their first emigration and their appearance in Europe. Originally the distinct mode of speech of a single and special border tribe of Northern India, it has, during the many wanderings of the race, appropriated words from every country through which they passed; while, on the other hand, it lost many of its own words, and still more of its own inherent power and elegance, and much also of its resemblance to its mother and sisters. These adopted foreign words, their respective number, and their more or less corrupted state, point plainly to the gypsies having passed first into Persia, to their having remained there for a considerable time, to their having then wended their way to some Greek country, perhaps Asia Minor (the designations for 7, 8, and 9 being still Greek), and to their descent thence into Hungary, Cyprus, &c.

But their language also (Romany Tschib), though split into different dialects, has also remained almost the only tie which binds the widely-scattered nomad members together. Those of their branches who for centuries have had no intercourse with each other, would, although the strange elements in the other's speech would be incomprehensible to them, yet recognise each other at once by certain words and formulas indelibly written in the memory of the whole race. The outward appearance of the gypsies, who have been pronounced by competent writers to be one of the handsomest races of humanity, varies in some degree according to the climate under which they are born and in which they ream. Their chief characteristics, however, remain everywhere the same: tawniness of skin; slightly projecting, but agreeably formed cheek-bones; long hair, of the colour and lustre of coal; large black eyes, exquisitely shaped mouths, ruddy lips, teeth of a dazzling whiteness, slenderness and agility of limb, expressive features, and well-proportioned, often elegant build. Their women are, indeed, exquisitely beautiful when young, but they lose their good-looks at a very early period, partly on account of the squalor of their habits, and partly from their unsettled and precarious life. Like children, they are fond of showy colours in dress, |

their other qualities, their manners and customs, we can only say that they were, and still are, supposed to be cowardly, revengeful, and treacherous; that they allow themselves to be used as spies, are the associates of robbers and thieves, and that their women, chaste themselves, ply all sorts of questionable trades, chiefly selling poisons, and acting as go-betweens. It is further said that their language has no word for God, immortality, soul-that, in fact, they have no religion whatever; that their marriages, contracted very early, are not binding; that they were, or are, wont to eat their parents; and that they are altogether a very criminal race. How much of all these charges is more founded on fact than their intercourse with demons, for which they have been so dastardly slaughtered in former days, we are not able to decide; certain it is, however, that their ethical code differs most essentially from that of other people (Gorgio), whom they despise on account of their childish credulity and brutal cruelty. They have proved themselves, on several occasions, bold and courageous as lions, but they prefer running away to fighting the battles of the foreigners; and it is also agreed on all hands, that they are passionately attached to their relations; that they are fatalists, and have a sort of fetichism or pantheism, though its peculiar form has never been revealed by them to any inquisitive tourist. At the same time, they belong outwardly to the religion of every country which they happen to inhabit, and repeat the process of baptism as often as they can, with a view, as some have it, to the presents of godfathers and godmothers. They believe in a metempsychosis or transmigration of souls, and refrain for that reason from eating certain animals (eels, &c.), although, generally, they are anything but choice in their food. They are dirty, lazy, fond of drinking and smoking. Their talent for music is remarkable in the extreme; their ears seize, and their instruments reproduce, after the first hearing, the most difficult and complicated pieces, even entire symphonies. Many famous artists (Kecskemecz, Bunks, &c.) have issued from their ranks; and their own melodies sounding over the wide Hungarian pushtas, the steppes of Russia, or through the streets of Jassy, are not easily forgotten. Some of them have indeed become the much-valued property of other nations, or are embodied in some of our favourite operas. No less wonderful is the grace and charm of their wild dances. Altogether, the gypsies are one of the most gifted races, the lost geniuses, so to say, of humanity. The real truth about them, their traditions, and religion, will, we fear, be ever kept a secret. The statement of Borrow, who has lived so long among them, that their entire catechism is summed up in the three precepts: Be true to your people be faithful to your husbands-and never pay any debts except those owing to your own kindred,' must, we fear, be received with the same degree of caution which, we are sorry to say, has to be applied to many other statements about their manners and customs contained in his otherwise useful Gypsies in Spain. The incredibly absurd descriptions of the Jewish marriage-ceremonies, about which we do possess the fullest and most authoritative information, given there as a counterpart to those of the gypsies, show plainly how easily and abundantly his good natured credulity must have been worked upon.

The increase of population, and the growth of

GYPSUM-GYR-FALCON.

culture all over Europe, are their worst enemies. in the water of springs; it is scarcely more soluble Their forests are cut down, their heaths enclosed, in boiling water or in acids. To this solubility in the houses are pushed right into their commons; water, although so slight, must be ascribed the and the easy and remunerative belief in their secret arts is waning more and more. It is doubtful, indeed, whether they will, as a separate race, survive many more centuries in Europe. Their numbers at this moment are stated so very differently, that we would fain caution the reader against an implicit belief in the following figures, which we extract from the comparatively most reliable authorities in Hungary, 140,000; in Transylvania and the Principalities, 162,000; Spain, 40,000; England and Scotland, 18,000 (their chief families in these countries being the Royal Lees, the Stanleys, Coopers, Hernes, Smiths, Lovells, &c.); Poland, 2000; Russia, 10,000; Germany, France, and Italy, 40,000; Norway, 1500. Altogether, including those in Turkey and in Asia and Africa (their sojourn in Mexico is questionable), they are computed at about five millions (Rienzi). A small portion only of these occupies as a body fixed habitations in Hungary and Transylvania, where they are agriculturists and goldwashers; and in the Principalities, where they live in a kind of serfdom, and are divided into four different classes-Rudari or Aurari (gold-seekers), Ursari (bear-leaders), Lingurari (manufacturers of and dealers in wooden spoons, mouse-traps, &c.); and Lafessi (masons, smiths, tinkers, &c.). All the rest lead a roaming life, live in kennels and under tents from one end of the year to the other, gaining their scanty livelihood, like their forefathers, as best they can, fearing and detesting nothing so much as a fixed and continuous occupation, which would take them away from their free mountains, their plains and woods, the sun, the stars, and the winds.' The following is a specimen of their language in the form of a short improvised stanza:

Poraquel luchipen abajo
Abillela un balichoró,
Abillela á goli goli,
Ustilame Caloró.

There runs a swine down yonder hill
As fast as e'er he can,

And as he runs, he crieth still:
'Come steal me, gypsy man.'

It is

GYPSUM, a mineral consisting essentially of sulphate of lime and water, the proportions of its constituents being lime, 32-56; sulphuric acid, 46.51; water, 20-93. It is very widely diffused, occurs in great abundance in many parts of the world, and is found in rocks and strata geologically very different, as in transition rocks, in secondary and in tertiary formations. It often occurs in nests or kidney-shaped masses in clay or marl. found above chalk in many places, and large quantities of it are quarried in some parts of England from the red marl immediately above the great bed of rock-salt. It sometimes occurs in beds many feet thick. It is transparent or opaque, white, yellowish-white or gray, or even yellow, red, brown, or black, according to its purity of chemical composition or the quantity and nature of impurities present. It is also compact, fibrous, foliated, or earthy; sometimes crystallised in six-sided prisms or in lenses. Twin crystals are frequent. It is easily broken, scratched, and cut. Before the blowpipe, it becomes opaque, if not already so, and fuses into a white enamel. The water which it contains is driven off by a heat of about 272° F., and it is then easily reduced to powder, in which state it is well known as Plaster of Paris. Unburned G. is tough, and not easily reduced to powder. G. is soluble in cold water, to the extent of about one part in 461, and is a frequent ingredient

value of G. as a manure; the further chemical explanation of which, however, still remains to be ascertained, although theories have been proposed by Sir Humphry Davy and by Liebig, the former supposing the G. to act chiefly by itself, becoming the nutriment of the crops to which it is most beneficially applied; the latter supposing it to act chiefly by fixing the ammonia of the atmosphere and conveying it to their roots. As a manure, G. is more extensively used in some parts of the continent of Europe and of North America than of Britain. In North America, it is reduced to a fine powder by mills, in order to be used as a manure, for much of its value depends on the fineness of trituration. To clover crops, the application of G. is particularly beneficial, and although it does not produce much benefit in its direct application to grain crops, yet in an alternation of wheat and clover, the crop of wheat is larger because of the liberal supply of this mineral manure to the clover. An excess of G., however, is prejudicial, as has been found in some parts of England, where the subsoil containing it in great quantity has been rashly brought up by the plough.-G., deprived of its water by burning, and reduced to powder, forms a paste which almost immediately sets, or becomes firm and solid, when mixed with its own bulk of water; hence the great use of Plaster of Paris for making casts and cornices. But if the G. is burned at too great a heat, it refuses to set, and the powder of the mineral called Anhydrite, which is an anhydrous sulphate of lime, has not the property of setting.-One of the finest varieties of uncrystallised and untransparent G. is Alabaster (q. v.)-Satin Spar is a beautiful fibrous variety of G., exhibiting a fine play of light, and employed for necklaces, inlaid-work, and other ornamental purposes, but having the disadvantage of being easily scratched.

GYRATION, CENTRE OF. See CENTRE OF GYRATION.

GYR-FALCON, or JER-FALCON (Falco gyrfalco or F. Islandicus), a species of Falcon (q. v.) of large size, the female, which is the largest,

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GYRINUS GYULA.

brown centre, until aged birds are almost pure white. It is rarely seen in Britain, and very rarely in the southern parts of the island, but inhabits all the very cold northern parts of the world. It was formerly in high esteem for falconry, and was procured at great expense from Iceland and Norway. It is sometimes called ICELAND FALCON, and sometimes GREENLAND FALCON.

GYRI'NUS, a Linnæan genus of coleopterous insects, now constituting a family, Gyrinida, closely allied to Dytiscida, or Water Beetles (see DYTISCUS), but differing in having the antennæ very short, the two fore-legs long and stretching forward like

Gyrinus natator.

arms, the other legs very short and comparatively broad. The eyes are divided by horny processes, so that each of them almost becomes two. The body is oval, as in the Dytiscide. The Gyrinida are very generally characterised by metallic brilliancy of colour. They are mostly small insects. They fly well, swim and dive well, spend the winter in the mud at the bottom of ponds, and in spring and summer may be seen swimming very actively on the surface of the water, ready to dive on the slightest alarm. In diving, they carry down with them a bright bubble of air. They generally swim in little parties, seeming to chase each other in circles, whence their French name, Tourniquets, and

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their English name, Whirligigs. They feed on smaller aquatic animals, which they seize in their gyrations. They deposit their eggs on the leaves of aquatic plants. Their larvæ are aquatic, having their bodies composed of thirteen deeply divided rings, of which three bear the feet, and the rest bear filaments probably serving as organs of respiration. The most common British species is Gyrinus natator, a smooth shining blackish insect, three lines long.

GY'ROMANCY (gyros, a circle, and manteia, prophecy) was a method of divination by means of a circle, and was generally performed in the following manner: the soothsayer described a circle, and marked it all round with letters; then he commenced to walk round the circle, repeating his incantations, and at the places where he stopped the letters were carefully noted, and by the interpretation put upon these letters, the answer of the god was obtained.

GYRO'PHORA. See TRIPE DE ROCHE.

GY'ROSCOPE, an instrument invented by M. Foucault to render palpable to the eye the earth's rotation. Its success depends on the principle, that if a mass be set in rotation freely in space, it will, unless disturbed or constrained, preserve absolutely the plane of its rotation, and will, to effect this, even overcome slight obstacles. In the gyroscope, a heavy ring of metal is almost freely suspended by mechanical contrivances, after having communicated to it, before being set in its frame, a very rapid motion; and to maintain itself in the plane of its rotation, while the earth in revolving on its axis turns round the whole mechanism, it causes a graduated slip to move round under a telescope placed in position, and so renders the earth's motion palpable to the eye.

GYU'LA, a town of Hungary, in the county of Bekes-Csanad, is situated on the White Körös, which divides it into the German and Hungarian quarters, 30 miles north of the town of Arad. The trade is chiefly in cattle. Pop. 15,350.

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H

THE eighth letter in the English alphabet, belongs to the order of gutturals, and is a mere attenuation of the sound indicated by the Greek and the German (and Scotch) ch. The tendency of guttural sounds to become lighter and lighter, and at last disappear, is strikingly seen in tracing the history of the letter h. The form of the character corresponds to the Phoenician or Hebrew cheth () and the Greek eta (H, probably at one time pronounced heta), which denoted originally the syllable che. The Greeks dropped the guttural part of the sound, and took the character to mark the vowel e, while in the Latin alphabet it was taken to mark the (faint aspirated) guttural. That the sound of h in Latin must have been faint, is proved by the fact, that many words were written indifferently with or without an h; as honustus or onustus; aheneus or aëneus. In the languages derived from the Latin, the force of h has almost disappeared. It is retained in French as a character, but is scarcely heard in pronunciation. The Italian language altogether ignores the character. In Spanish, it has taken the place in many cases of the Latin f, as hijo = Lat. filius, a son; humoso = fumosus, smoky.

In the languages of the Gothic stock, h often represents the hard guttural sound of k or c. See letter C. This substitution, and the subsequent disappearing of h, especially before r and l, have completely disguised the relationship of many words which are yet of the same root: e. g., Eng. raw; Ang.-Sax. hreaw; Lat. cru-or, blood, cru-dus, bloody,

raw.

The natural tendency in English, as in other tongues, is to attenuate the sound of, and altogether eliminate it. This tendency is strongest among the illiterate, who are unrestrained by the presence of the written character; and accordingly to drop one's h's' (e. g., am for ham) is a sign of the want of education and of vulgarity. The perversity of putting h where it ought not to be (e. g., heggs for eggs), is not easily accounted for.

The Germans use the letter H, in their musical notation, for the same note which we call B, while they call our B flat simply B; possibly from the flat seventh being more nearly related to C, as a fundamental note, than B natural the sharp seventh is, which they designate H. Thus,

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avenues of trees. Pop. (in 1860) 30,000. H. is the seat of government for the province, and the see of a Catholic bishop. Among its 13 churches, the principal is that known as De Groote or St Bavo's Kerk, which was built in the 15th c., is the largest in Holland, and is specially noted for its lofty tower and its famous organ, constructed by Müller of Amsterdam, which, till recently, was the largest of its kind, having 5000 pipes, 60 stops, and 4 rows of keys. Before the church stands the marble statue of Laurens Coster (q. v.), to whom his countrymen ascribe the invention of printing. Among the buildings worthy of note, we may instance the town-hall, with its fine carvings, formerly the residence of the Counts of Holland; the palace of the states-general; the prison; and the Teyler Institu tion, which is endowed with ample funds for the poor, and has numerous scientific and antiquarian collections. H. has a good gymnasium, numerous academical, scientific, and benevolent institutions, and is also the head-quarters of the Society of National Education, which has here its school for teachers. Although H. is no longer celebrated, as in former times, for its flourishing trade, it still possesses extensive refineries of salt, tanneries, foundries for type of Greek and Hebrew, and various manufactories of silk, linen, and thread, and carries on an extensive trade in flowers and seeds, sending its tulips, hyacinths, and other bulbs to every part of Europe. H. was a flourishing town as early as the 12th c., when it took an important part in the wars between the Hollanders and West Frisians. At the close of the 15th c., it lost all its privileges, and suffered severely during the revolt of the peasantry; and in the following century, during the war of independence, it sided with the allies, and underwent a seven months' siege in 1572-1573, which is unparalleled in the annals of history for the heroism evinced by the citizens, and for the atrocities which, in violation of their faith, the Spaniards perpetrated after the surrender of the city.

HAARLEM LAKE, which is now drained, lay between the towns of Haarlem, Leyden, and Amster dam, and communicated with the Zuider Zee, by a narrow strait called 'Het Y.' Before its thorough drainage (1839-1852), it embraced the four ponds of Haarlem, Leyden, Spieger, and Helle, which, in consequence of an irruption of the sea in the 16th c., when several villages were destroyed, had merged into one vast sheet of water, and in the course of time encroached so far upon the adjacent land as ultimately to cover an area of more than 60,000 acres. The depth did not exceed 15 feet, more than half of which was composed of mud and clay, from which the Dutch prepared, by baking, compact masses known as klinkers,' which were used for purposes of paving. waters of the lake frequently rose during storms to an alarming height, necessitating an enormous annual outlay in keeping the dams and sluices in repair. In consequence of the damage done to the

The

HABAKKUK-HABEAS CORPUS.

cities of Amsterdam and Leyden by an overflow of the lake in 1836, the government entered into a compact with a company of English engineers to drain it. This undertaking was effected by several gigantic steam engines, by which the water was pumped up into a series of canals which had been dug round the circumference of the former area of the lake, and connected with various inlets of the sea. By these means the bed of the lake was left dry, except a channel for the purpose of drainage, and a space of more than 44,000 acres of land reclaimed and drained, at a cost of $80.69 per acre. This has now been divided into farms, and is under tillage or pasturage. See Report of Com. of Agriculture, 1855.

HABA'KKUK (Greek forms, Ambakoum, Abacum, &c.; Latin, Ambacum, Am'acuc, and Abacuc), the eighth of the twelve minor prophets. No account whatever is contained in the book itself either of the events of his life, or even the date when he lived; and the numberless conjectures that have been made respecting him are unworthy of notice.

person detaining him in custody, by which he was enjoined to bring up the body of the prisoner, with the warrant of commitment, that the court might judge of its sufficiency, and remand the party, admit him to bail, or discharge him, according to the nature of the charge. This writ issued of right, and could not be refused by the court.' The Great Charter, as Professor Creasy sums up this part of its substance, 'contained two great principles. First, that no man shall be imprisoned on mere general grounds of suspicion, or for an indefinite period, at the discretion or caprice of the executive power; but that imprisonment shall be only inflicted as the result of a legal trial and sentence, or for the purpose of keeping in safe custody, when necessary, an tried on that charge. Secondly, that, as a general accused person on a definite charge, until he can be rule, every person accused of a criminal offence shall have the question of his guilt or innocence determined by a free jury of his fellow-countrymen, and not by any nominee of the government.' And 'Blackstone, with great spirit, thus discourses on the social In turning to the book itself, we find him, first of and political effects of this feature of the British all, bewailing the general corruption of his people, constitution (1 Bl. Com. 135): 'Of great importance and prophesying the speedy vengeance of God by to the public is the preservation of this personal the hand of the Chaldeans. These, however, shall, liberty, for if once it were left in the power of when they have fulfilled the divine wrath, perish any, the highest, magistrate to imprison arbitrarily suddenly themselves, because of their own iniquities; whomever he or his officers thought proper, there and the prophet winds up with thanks for this would soon be an end of all other rights and immu just retribution. It is evident from this that H.nities. Some have thought that unjust attacks, must have lived at a late period, about the time of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion; but whether he wrote, as the rabbinical traditions suppose-at the time of Manasseh, or as others (Keil, Davidson, Delitzsch) assume, at the early time of Josiah, or, finally, in the days of Jehoiakim, according to Ewald, Rosenmüller, Knobel, Meyer, De Wette, Hitzig, Stähelin, are points upon which we cannot enter. We must not omit to mention here, that the various chapters have also been supposed to have been written under different successive kings (Rosenmüller, Kalminsky, &c.); but the unity of the whole book is so obvious, that this notion has been almost unanimously rejected.

Critics have, in all times, been unanimous in their praise of the style of this prophetic composition. It ranks, indeed, for grandeur and sublimity of conception, for vigour and fervour of expression, for gorgeousness of imagery, for melody of language, among the very first productions of sacred literature. It is more especially the peculiar strophic arrangement of the second chapter, with its awful four 'woes' denounced against the Chaldeans, and above all, that matchless Pindaric Ode,' as Ewald calls the third chapter, which have challenged universal

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attention and admiration.

HA'BEAS CO'RPUS, WRIT OF, a writ directed by courts of law or equity to produce the body of a person illegally detained, and to state the reasons of such detention, so that the court may judge of their sufficiency. This writ is one of the chief guards of English liberty, and the envy of foreign nations, being one of the best securities against tyranny ever devised. It is often erroneously supposed that this efficacious protection of personal freedom was first bestowed by the statute of 31 Ch. II. c. 2, called the Habeas Corpus Act. But the true foundation of that act, as well as of many other cardinal principles of the English constitution, is to be found in the Great Charter, or Magna Charta, of which Hallam (1 Const. Hist. 16) observes: 'No freeman could be detained in prison except upon a criminal charge on conviction, or for a civil debt. In the former case, it was always in his power to demand of the Court of King's Bench a writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, directed to the

even upon life or property, at the arbitrary will of the magistrate are less dangerous to the commonwealth, than such as are made upon the personal liberty of the subject. To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of of the person by secretly hurrying him to jail, where tyranny throughout the kingdom; but confinement his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dansometimes, when the state is in real danger, even gerous engine of arbitrary government. And yet, this may be a necessary measure. But the happiness of our constitution is, that it is not left to the executive power to determine when the danger of the state is so great as to render this measure expedient, for it is the parliament only or legislative power that, whenever it sees proper, can authorise the crown, by suspending the Habeas Corpus Act for a short and limited time, to imprison suspected persons, without giving any reason for so doing.' 31 Ch. II. c. 2, therefore did not introduce any new The Habeas Corpus Act, which was passed in principle, but merely defined with greater precision and detail the appropriate remedies, in consequence of the frivolous objections made by the judges in the preceding reign. The substance of these details is as follows: Where any person is committed and charged with crime, the lord chancellor or any of the judges may, unless there has been great delay in application, issue the writ, and order the person to be brought up and discharged with or without bail. The writ is to be obeyed more or less promptly according to the distance, but in no case must the delay exceed twenty days. Any officer or keeper neglecting to deliver a copy of the warrant of commitment, or shifting the prisoner to another custody without cause, shall forfeit £100, and for the second offence £200, and be disabled to hold office. No person once delivered by habeas corpus shall be recommitted for the same offence under a penalty of £500. Every person committed for treason or felony may insist on being tried at the next assizes, or admitted to bail, unless the crown witnesses cannot be ready in that time; and if not tried at the second assizes or

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