Langunge and Version. — The Gypsies call their lan- guage Rommany, and modern pliilological resc::rcl> es prove that it belongs to the Sanscrit family. It has doubtless received additions and modifications from the languages of the countries in wliich the race has sojourned, yet it is still so nearly the same with mod- ern Hindustanee that a Gypsy can readily understand a person speaking in that dialect — a fact which tends to verify the statements made as to the zealous care with wliich the Gypsies have cherished their ancestral tongue. Mr. George Borrow, who devoted himself to the study of their language and life, translated the while of tlie New Testament into the Spanish dialect of Rommany, and in 1838 printed at Madrid 500 cop- ies of the Gospel of Luke, in the translation of which, as far as the eighth chaptsr, he had been assisted by Gypsies. This version was found to be perfectly in- telligible to tlie Gitanos, and copies were eagerly sought after by them, not, jNIr. Borrow thinks, because of the truths it contained, but from a desire to sec and road their broken jargon in print. He remarks: "The
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only words of assent I ever obtained, and tliat rather of a ne{:ative kind, were tlie following from the mouth of a woman : ' Brother, you tell us strange things, tiiough perhaps you do not lie ; a month since I would sooner have believed these tales than that this day I should see one who could write Itonimanj'.' " The fdllowing specimen of the version is from Bagster's Bible of every Land, p. Ill— Luke vi, 27-29 : " 27 Tami penelo a sangue sos lo Junelais : Camelad a jires dasch- manuces, querelad mistos a junos sos camelan sangue chore. 2S Majarad a junos sos zermanelan a sangue, y manguelad a Debel por junos sos araquerelan san- gue ehoro ! '-'J Y a 6 sos curare tucue andro yeque mejilla, dinle tambien a aver. Y a 6 sos nicobelare tucue o uchardo, na 6 inipidas lliguerar tambien a furi." For further information on the Gypsies and their language, see the following works : Peyssonel, Observations historiques et geographlques sur les peuples bnrhares qui ont habite les bords du Danube et du Pont- Euxin (Paris, 1765, 4to) ; Pray, A nnales regum Hunga- ricc ad annum Ckr. MDLXIV deducti (Vienna, 176'J^ 70, 5 pts. fol.) ; Grellman, Ilistorische Versuch ither die Zigeuncr (2d ed. Gottingen, 1787 ; English translation by Roper, Lond. 1787, 4to) ; Bischoff, Deutch-Zigeuner- isches Wurterbuch (Ilmenau, 1827); Kogalmichan, Es- quisse sur Vkistoire, les Maws et la langue des Cigains (Berlin, 1837) ; Predari, Origine e vicende dei Zingari (Milan, 1841) ; Pott, Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien (Halle, 1844-45, 2 vols. 8vo — "the most wonderfully thorough and exh:.ustive book ever written on the subject of the Gypsies and their language'') ; Von Heister, Ethnographie und geschichtliche Notizen uber die Zigeuner (Konigsberg, 1842) ; Bataillard, De I'appari- iion et de la dispersion des Bohemiens en Europe (in 5th vol. of the Biblloth'eque de Vecole de Chartres, 1844 ; Bohtlingk, Die Sjwache der Zigeuner in Eussland (St. Petersburg, 1852); Borrow, The Zincali (London and N. York); Bagster's Bihle of every Land (Lond. u. d.), p. 111-13; Simson, .4 HiMory of the Gipsies (N.York and Lond. 1866, 12mo); Roberts, Gypsies, their Origin, Continuance, etc. (Lond. 8vo) ; Brand, Popular Antiq- uities (Lond. 1842, 3 vols, post 8vo), iii, 45-53 ; Thos. Browne, Works (London, 1852, Bohn's ed.), ii, 204-6; Chambers, Cyckpcvdia, s. v. ; Nejo American Cyclopce- dia, viii, 012 sq. (J. W. M.)
Gyrovagi, wand'.ring monies. The monasticism of Occidental Europe at an early period took the form of common life in monasteries. Ascetics and hermits were gradually obliged to connect themselves with their brethren settled in convents. Many of them, howev- er, unwilling to submit to conventional discipline, trav- elled from place to place, from convent to convent, from abbey to abbey, being entertained a few days at each I)lace, in consequence of the general rule of hospitality in viij;or in all convents, but evading all propositions tending to render their stay a permanent one. When they had gone over their whole circuit they began it anew, and from this habit received the name of Gyre- vagi. Isidore of Seville gave this name also to the Cir- cumctUiones (q. v.). These wandering monks were the pests of the convents, introducing gossip and vice wher- ever tliey went. Vainlj' did Augustine, in De Opere Mo- nachorum, c. 28, and Cassian, Collatio 18, declare them- selves strongly against these vagrant monks. Bene- dict wrote his rules expressly (cap. i) in view of the Sarabaites and G3'rovagi, whom he seems to have been the first to mention by that name in writing. Colum- banus and Isidore of Seville (^[)e eccl. s. officiis, lib. ii, c. 15), in the 7th century, also censured the degenerac}' of monacliism ; but it required the rule of Benedict, in the 8tli century, and the efforts of Charlemagne, Louis tile Pious, and Benedict of Anianc, to bind tlie Western monks firmly to regular conventional life, thus putting an end to the race of homeless, wandering monks. The later memlicant orders are, to a certain extent; a repro- duction of them. The name Gyrovagi has also been applied to unsettled, travelling members of the Roman