Further, the said Mr. Griselini, in order to render his system the more plausible, has made use of certain expedients at the expense of truth; and, in spite of all experience to the contrary, so modelled the properties of the Gipseys, as to give them the appearance of complete Egyptians. He makes them by nature inclined to melancholy; whereas their dispositions have not the least tincture of it: they are described as most conscientiously, nay rather superstitiously, attached to religious customs; and yet, according to the universal testimony of other observers of these people, they are totally indifferent as to every thing connected with religion. He says, they are adverse to eating onions; and as for beans, they abhor them: whereas Sulzer was a witness how much they liked the flavour of both. By proceeding in this manner, every thing may be made to answer all purposes. But woe to the records and histories which are used in this manner!
It will be seen, from what has been said on the subject, that the supposed Egyptian descent of the Gipseys is very far from being proved; notwithstanding it was formerly so generally credited, and even is to this day. Arguing on the supposition that they originated from Egypt, care was taken to inform us what kind of people they had been in that country. It is very confidently related, and to our great edification, that their forefathers were the same sorcerers who, in the presence of Pharaoh, imitated Moses’s miracles: moreover, that the Egyptian king set these people as taskmasters over the children of Israel, in order to render their labour the more grievous: and finally, that these were the very murderers employed by the inhuman Herod, to carry into effect his cruel decree respecting the children of Bethlehem. This kind of dreaming has been carried still further; it having been calculated to what degree of indolence these people had accustomed themselves in Egypt, living by the labour and sweat of others. Afterwards, when, contrary to expectation, the Children of Israel escaped from their servitude, the lucrative employment of these overseers, of course, had an end: instead of reconciling themselves to any kind of labour, they rather chose to decamp, with goods, wives, and children, from Egypt, in hopes, by cunning and fraud, to procure an easier subsistence in foreign countries. They pursued this shameful course of life through the following centuries; and have, at last, pushed their excursions into our territories.