PREFACE

It is not an easy task to write a complete history of the Gypsies because the sources are very scattered, and it takes a lot of work to collect them systematically and precisely. That is why I worked for many years until I collected the materials. I would be happy if I achieved my task, at least to some extent.

There are no details about the exact place in Asia from which our compatriots started their trip to Europe. There are, however, indirect data that allow us to establish that with some approximation. Comparing the manners, customs, and way of life of some Indian tribes in general, we can already say with certainty where the Gypsies had come from because these manners, customs, religious and other beliefs have been preserved to this day among our compatriots. Even though everywhere in Europe, our compatriots were a minority element, they did not succumb to assimilation but firmly preserved their national character. Other nations were unable to make any impact on the spirit of our compatriots. The majority of the Gypsies converted to Islam and others to Christianity [1]. The Apostles and the Imams spread their religious enlightenment to our tribe, among others, which from times immemorial had its own written history whose origins are lost in the Biblical legend of the Flood and Noah’s Ark that had stopped on Mount Ararat.

Regardless of whether they were free or enslaved, our compatriots’ way of life and national character remained intact. They followed their customs, religious rites and national epic with amazing stamina, even though they went through burning hardship.

States emerged and disintegrated. Some peoples merged with others, adopting the language of one people and the state system of another. Our people, however, did not merge with others and remained as they had been when they left India. What must be strongly emphasised is the fact that our people never waged wars of conquest. They lived in peaceful co-existence with all nations. Settling in a country, our compatriots devoted themselves to peaceful and creative work. For centuries, we had lived amongst peasants and citizens in different countries, and our metal products brought benefits to them, especially to the peasants. In Europe, we found the wooden plough and made an iron tip on it that made it easier for the farmers to cultivate the land. Our compatriots made horseshoes for cattle, made various household tools such as axes, hoes, adzes, etc. We were the first to import bronze into Europe and begin its processing [2]. Gypsies were mainly engaged in tinsmithing, mining, comb-making, and basket-making, and they were one of the most active traders in metal products. They also made copper cauldrons and sold them to towns and villages. What makes the Gypsies distinctive is their peaceful spirit. They never fought wars of conquest; they were and remained peaceful and loyal citizens of the countries in which they lived. What is most characteristic of our compatriots, however, is their musical talent. Unattainable are also the Gypsy dances. The original music of the Gypsies is so powerful and captivating that even now, it is sought and listened to with great interest by all nations of the world. Our national songs inspired great composers and gave them a foundation on which they built their musical creations. There is almost no nation in the world that possesses songs as pleasing to the soul as the Gypsy songs.

My compatriots, who had heard from me the history of our tribe many times, insisted that I should write everything that I had learned from our centenarians and collect it in one book so that everyone could be enlightened about our history. Initially, I thought to do this only for Bulgaria, but when I started looking for and collecting materials, I realised that it would be better to expand my idea and give historical data about the Gypsies throughout Europe. This idea came to my mind one winter a few years ago during an incidental meeting at the Sofia train station. I had gone to the station to see a friend who had to leave for the countryside that evening. I was looking for him to borrow some money as I had no job and did not have a penny in my pocket. I was quite dispirited that I did not find him because I was hoping that he could and would help me with a small loan to meet my basic household needs. At home, my children were expecting me hoping that I would make them happy upon my return. The cold north wind was blowing relentlessly, and I felt as if a heavy stone was pressing my soul. Freezing on the platform, desperate that I had not found my friend, I walked to the station buffet to warm up. But what could I do at the buffet without a penny in my pocket? Deep in thought, I leaned against a pillar, and my eyes filled with tears. I was taken away by heavy thoughts. I did not even notice the excitement of the people on the platform at the arrival of the conventional train from Istanbul. Distracted and indifferent while watching the crowd, I took myself back to 1929 when I returned from Istanbul. I hesitantly headed for the exit. I raised my hands to warm them with the breath of my mouth and accidentally pushed a citizen who was coming out of the buffet at that moment. I was just about to say the usual “Sorry” when I recognised one of my very close friends.

“Oh, Ramcho …”

And he called at me in a low voice.

“Oh, Pasha …”

We greeted each other warmly and kissed brotherly.

We started a conversation on various topics, and soon we came to our favourite topic about our organisation, which took care of the cultural and educational enlightenment of the Gypsy tribe. We imperceptibly moved on to an episode from the last World War, when a large number of enemies were stationed against our army unit. In the trench, there were several of us -- Ramcho, Emcho, Bilalov, Naydo, Raycho, Bilal, Asen and Palyacho, as well as the writer of these lines. At one point, we noticed that a shadow was moving towards us from the opposite side. Ramcho was the first to open fire, and I followed him while Emcho, Bilalov, Naydo, Raycho and Palyacho loaded the bombs. The enemy’s grenades started falling around us. At one point, Emin stood up and threw several bombs whose terrible crash tore the darkness of the night. An enemy grenade fell nearby and threw soil on us. We shook off and noticed that Emin was lying, squirming, and soon he started screaming in pain. I approached him and saw that he was wounded in the right leg above the knee. A strong stream of blood rushed from the wound. I called Bilalov, and we quickly bandaged the wounded comrade with a clean towel, which I tore from one of my shirts which I was carrying in my backpack. Emin was lifted and taken to the rear.

We gathered again and continued our conversation on the issue of organising our Gypsy minority. We always discussed at length this topic in our meetings, and my friends asked me to promise that if one day I returned home alive and well, I would write the history of the Gypsies as it was passed down from centenarian to centenarian, from father to son and from grandfather to grandson. I made a commitment because I realised that it would be good to gather all the materials on the history of the Gypsy minority in one book. I worked for many years because my task was not easy. I leave it for my readers to determine whether I have succeeded with this task.

I have taken all information in my current work from foreign and Bulgarian authors as well as from legends and myths that I struggled to assess so that they have real value. I have also used our national folklore – tales, songs, proverbs, riddles, customs, religious rites, and manners. I tried to give credibility to the information so that my work would be a real source tomorrow for those who would try to write something about the life of the Gypsy tribe. If I succeed in this task, I will be very happy. I have fulfilled my duty as much as my ability and knowledge allowed me.

The author

TO LOVE AND TO PRESERVE OUR NATIVE LANGUAGE

The Gypsy language … It had come to us through the centuries – a lighthouse and a sword, sharpened and hardened in struggles, in spiritual battles. It is the shining shield of their thought.

Oh, you are beautiful, our native Gypsy language. You reflect the spirit, kindness, and nobility of our people, their temperament and life, their sense of simplicity and grace. You are playful, like the Gypsy songs, agile and lively like the Gypsy dances. Through you, oh sweet native Gypsy language, we dream, through you we express our deepest feelings, through you we love and adorn our beloved with the most tender names. You can encompass our whole life, all our reveries, dreams, and deeds.

You have gathered the charms of our original homeland India; the silence and the magical beauty of the jungles; the cheerful noise of the mountain streams; the quiet serenity of the lakes; the wonderful songs of the majestic forests; the azure of the transparent sky of India.

You are filled with the warmth of the south. But you, oh sweet native Gypsy language, also bear the harshness of the north.

The history of the Gypsy language is glorious, majestic, and enlightening because it is seven thousand years’ old and although it was not written, it survived extinction. It is full of examples of the highest patriotism.

Solely through you, oh glorious native language, have we preserved our national identity. Solely through you did we glorify the name of the Gypsies throughout the world because through you, oh kind and dear native language, we captured the soul of mankind, singing our Gypsy songs with their unsurpassed beauty. Anyone who has heard our songs could never forget them because they are graceful, playful, cheerful, and lively, just as the Gypsy people themselves.

Language is the pride of every nation. It is one of its hallmarks and a celebration of the nation’s cultural development. The love for the native language is an integral part of the patriotic upbringing of the people. And that is why our patriotic feelings oblige us to love and preserve our wonderful native language.

CHAPTER I THE ORIGINAL HOMELAND

Until recently, there were different opinions regarding our original homeland. Some claimed that it was India; others, that we had moved with the troops of Genghis Khan; and still others, that our origins should be sought in Egypt. It is interesting that each statement has its reason and arguments. The lack of clarity on this issue, is due to the lack of a Gypsy script. Our tribe did not leave written heritage to draw information from and to guide us to the acceptance of one of the three theories above. However, thanks to Gypsyology scholars, our origins have gradually become clear. Now, it can be stated with certainty that our tribe came from distant India. Prior to this determination, there were two opinions that competed for plausibility. One was that of Benaventura Vulcania (who died in 1614) who claimed that our origin was from Egypt, and the other was that of the German linguist A. F. Pott [Pott, 1845], who claimed, and rightly so, that the Gypsy origin was from India. As of now, Pott’s theory is considered the most positive because he found that the Gypsy language is closely related to the Sanskrit language. That this is the case is proven by the language of the Gypsies from Sofia, which has a striking affinity with the Old, Middle and New Indian languages. Pott’s claim is supported by the fact that some customs of the Gypsies from the recent past showed similarities with [those of] some of the tribes of India. For example, Gypsies had until recently the custom of vowing their newborn children to one another, i.e., they were engaged while still in diapers – something that still exists today in some Indian tribes. Indians also have the custom of making freckles on their foreheads. This custom has been preserved to this day among the Gypsies in Bulgaria and in Europe. In some Indian tribes, until today, weddings last for three days. It was the same in our country until a few years ago. Other arguments in support of Pott’s theory can be found in the similarities of the Gypsy way of life as a whole as well as in the similarities with the Indian tribal names. The Italian name of the Gypsies is Zingaro, which is very similar to the name of a tribe on the river Ind – Changer, a wandering tribe. Already Pliny [the Elder] was familiar with the existence of the tribe Singe, Singane, Singani at the mouth of the same river, and with Chingaleze or Lingaleze on the island of Ceylon [3].

A comparison is drawn between the Indian castes Paris – the poor, the Armenian name for Gypsies Posha, and the Georgian Bosha, a despised, mixed caste with great musical inclinations, which we observe in all Gypsy tribes. All of this, no doubt, comes in an obvious way to confirm that Pott’s theory of our origin is the most plausible. Indeed, the Gypsy language has some linguistic differences with the language of the Indian tribes. This circumstance, however, can in no way undermine Pott’s theory because we must bear in mind the fact that thousands of years had passed since our emigration from India. We, unfortunately, have not lived as a compact group, at the same place; we did not have a Gypsy script; and finally, no matter how much we preserved our language, we did not shield it from some influences by the peoples among whom we lived temporarily or permanently; it is irrelevant. This is the explanation for the linguistic differences with some Indian tribes.

CHAPTER II IMMIGRATION FROM INDIA

There are no precise and clear data from which to judge at least the approximate date of the immigration of the Gypsies from India. The information is quite contradictory, and anyone who takes a certain position on this issue does not provide convincing arguments. However, comparing the different opinions, one can come to some conclusions, at least approximately. The German, Hasse [Hasse, 1803], believes that we arrived in the south-eastern parts of Europe around the 5th century BC. The best Gypsyologist, Pott, however, believes that the Gypsies did not arrive in Europe before the 15th century because he considers all the data in this regard to be insufficiently convincing. He claims that the country they certainly passed through is Iran. Miklosich thinks that the Gypsies came to Europe around the 10th century. His assertion is based on linguistic and grammatical considerations. However, when he learned that the Gypsies had certainly lived here since the 7th century, he assumed that the immigration could have taken place earlier.

The Czech, P. J. Ješina [Ješina, 1886], insists that the Gypsy musicians moved from India to Persia around 420 AD and from there to Phrygia and Lycaonia in the 7th and 8th centuries.

There is evidence suggesting positively that the immigration of the Gypsies from India did not happen all at once. Another part of the Gypsies is known to have left their Indian homeland in the 13th century when Genghis Khan marched there. These Gypsies, according to Ješina, passed by the Black Sea and entered Moldavia and Wallachia, from where in the 14th century, they conquered Thessaly, Epirus, and Corfu. Here, as almost everywhere, they won the love of the local population so that Thessaly began to be called Great Wallachia.

Quite implausibly, some believe that the Gypsies immigrated from their original homeland of India by sea. In support of this view, an archbishop from York drew attention to the pirates, the Chingalezes of Ceylon, and the Sinds of the Sindhu River. He believes that the Gypsies left India by sea, heading to the east coast of Africa, to the Red Sea and Egypt, and from there scattered to the north and west. As much as we have reason to consider this view, we must refrain from accepting it as truthful because the observation of the spiritual aspirations of the Gypsies never revealed anywhere, even the slightest aspiration to the sea. Nevertheless, the Gypsies are known everywhere as honest and hard-working people without an affinity for adventure and piracy. In those times, when the emigration of the Gypsies took place, the transportation of such large masses of people required a large fleet, the existence of which in that epoch is out of the question. To transport 50–60,000 Gypsies by sea, a huge navy would be needed to carry not only the people but also the provisions needed for such a long sea voyage. On this basis, we will have to reject the opinion that the Gypsies emigrated by sea.

The Dutch scholar J. de Goeje [de Goeje, 1903] asserts that the Gypsies immigrated to Egypt, or to the west in general, through the Arab countries. Miklosich, while opposing such a view, acknowledged J. de Goeje’s thesis. Among the numerous words that J. de Goeje translated from Arabic was the word muhto which means suitcase (chest) for the Gypsies from Sofia.

Bonaventura Vulcanius’ [Vulcanius, 1597] theory about the Egyptian origins of the Gypsies has already been abandoned. He relied on the language, and his translation from, for example, the Nubian language, i.e. the Coptic language, found that the words were closely related to the respective Gypsy words. For example, the Nubian dad – father, the Gypsy dad – in the same sense; yag – fire, in Gypsy language yag also means fire. From this, Vulcanius concluded that the Copts and the Gypsies were one and the same people and that their homeland was Egypt. Later on, however, a basic study found that the “Nubian” words that were studied were not used by the Copts but by the Gypsies in the land of the Copts. Another reason to believe that the Gypsies came from Egypt is the name of the Gypsies which reminds us of the Egyptian people – for example, the Bulgarian Agupti, Guptsi. This assertion is objected on the grounds that no words in the Gypsy language are related to the Coptic language. The origins of our name may be related to the fact that the Gypsies had stayed in Egypt for some time.

Some others point to the similarities in the life of the Gypsies and the Egyptians. For example, in the Holy Scripture it is stated: “I (God) will scatter the Egyptians among all nations; I will scatter them in various lands”. Proponents of the theory of the Indian origin of the Gypsies argue that the similarity in everyday life is not reliable proof, while the similarity of words in the Gypsy language and in the ancient Egyptian language could be just a game of chance.

Jacob Goar [4] believes that Egypt was only a station for the Gypsies during their immigration from India to Europe, but it is not in any way, nor could it be, their homeland. In this sense, there is a message from Vulcanius, which says that in the 15th century, the “Nubians”, i.e. the Gypsies, moved from “lower Egypt”, through Asia Minor, the Bosphorus, and reached as far as the Thrace and the lands around the Danube. The most authoritative Gypsyologist, Pott, however, believes that the Gypsy language does not give reliable and positive evidence that it resembles the Egyptian language. He also claims that the theory of the Egyptian origin of the Gypsies did not originate from the Gypsies themselves but was adopted by them.

According to the Indian theory of the origin of the Gypsies, on their way to Europe, they probably passed through Iran. This is what Pott concluded on the basis of the Gypsy language in which he established many elements of the Iranian languages: Old Bactrian, Persian, Afghan, Kurdish and Ossetian.

The Gypsies from Sofia, with some linguistic peculiarities, confirm Pott’s opinion.

The residence of the Gypsies in Mesopotamia is presumed, especially recently, but it has not been unequivocally established. According to those who support Pott’s theory, the Gypsies, in their wanderings from India to Europe, remained in Armenia for a longer time [5]. And for this theory, there are some linguistic data from the Gypsies in Sofia. For example, in Gypsy vogi means soul, godi – mind, brain, and in Armenian it is vozhi, ozhi. In Gypsy tagar [means] king, in Armenian [it is] tagavor; in Gypsy gras means horse, in Armenian, it is grast; and others.

It is believed that in the 7th century, the Gypsies moved from Armenia to Byzantium where we already find written data about them. The information refers to the period from the 7th to the 13th century. Thus, under Emperor Nikephoros (802–811), the Gypsies, as can be seen, paid attention to themselves; under Michael (811–113), the Gypsies were exiled; while under Michael II (820–829), the Gypsies, on the contrary, gained influence even in the imperial court. After that time, there is no information about the Gypsies in Byzantium.

Information about the residence of the Gypsies on the island of Crete has been preserved. Here, they were met by a Franciscan monk in 1322. They were a wandering tribe and considered themselves of the Ham kin; they had tents (çadır), in the Arabic model, which served as their home. They professed the Greek Orthodox faith.

From the same period, there is information about Gypsies on the island of Cyprus, who were known under the name of kilindzhiridis – masters of swords, and also on the island of Rhodes – kalaidzhii (tinsmiths).

Interestingly, although disputed, is the information that the Balkan Gypsies were known mainly as blacksmiths. It is also claimed that they have something in common with the old metallurgists in the Aegean Sea basin.

CHAPTER III THE GYPSIES ON THE BALKAN PENINSULA

The Gypsies moved to the lands of the Balkan Peninsula probably, in the distant past. There is some confirmation of Miklosich’s opinion about the migration of the Gypsies from Greece to western and northern Europe.

The borrowings in the Gypsy language from ancient Greek, and especially from modern Greek, have been studied by Pott and Miklosich. Miklosich, for example, lists 20–30 borrowed words that he has found in most Gypsy dialects in Europe. He has also noted the influence of Greek grammar on the Gypsy language.

A Gypsy, who has been a prisoner of war in Greece during the First World War, believes that the Gypsy language in Thessaloniki is an “old Gypsy” language.

Linguistically, the dialect of the Gypsies in Sofia is close to Miklosich’s Greek-Gypsy language, but it is not far from the Czech-Gypsy language.

An edict of the Wallachian voivode, Mircea, from 1370, mentions Atsigani, who were given under the authority of the monastery of St Anthony in Voditsi.

There are also Atsigani in the Peloponnese [peninsula]; in 1398, the Venetian Governor of the city confirmed their privileges that had been granted by his predecessors.

A document by Catherine of Valois (1346) mentions Vageniti on the island of Corfu. Under Vageniti, it seems, would have to be understood Gypsies, who later, in 1370 and 1373, moved from the peninsula to the island of Corfu and, at the end of the 14th century, formed the nucleus of a piece of property, designated in 1386 as Feodum Atsiganorum.

All these sources do not refer to the Gypsies as newcomers in the [Peloponnese] peninsula but as sedentary inhabitants, serfs or people with certain privileges. However, when exactly did the Gypsies come to the Balkan Peninsula, from where and in which country first, these questions cannot be answered accurately and positively.

Paul Bataillard thinks that they first came to Moldova, Wallachia, Bulgaria and apparently to eastern Hungary, but does not say any date. Ješina holds the same opinion, adding that [from] Wallachia, they invaded the Peloponnese, Epirus, and Corfu in the 14th century, apparently influenced by the above-mentioned information about the island.

Miklosich, probably influenced by linguistic considerations, believes that the country in which the Gypsies first arrived was Greece, or rather Byzantium, where the Gypsies were known as early as the 7th century. It was not possible to consider another Balkan country because, in this case, it would have been difficult to explain the huge influence of the Greek language on the more recent Gypsy language. The Slavic borrowings in the Gypsy language, which are 649 words according to Miklosich, did not give complete proof that the Gypsies had borrowed from the Bulgarians, for example, because there was no specific Bulgarian connotation in these borrowings. The loan words were also found in Romanian, and one possibility is that the Gypsies borrowed them from that language.

The following circumstance is also important in determining when the Gypsies came to the Balkan Peninsula and whether they had been for a long time in the Balkan countries: the Gypsies have their names for almost all Balkan peoples, while the Turks, for example, have only one word – raya. The Gypsy word das means Bulgarian, balamo – means Greek, Gadjo – means Romanian [6], khorakhai – means Turk, chindi-chibengoro (with severed tongue) – means Albanian. There are also special relations between the Gypsies and the Balkan peoples: among Greeks, and especially among Romanians, the Gypsy feels at home; they are indifferent to the Turk; the Albanian is disgusting to him. There are also Gypsy local names: Anatolate – Asia Minor, Poravdi – the Bosphorus, Kalo-Deryav – Black Sea, Parni-Deryav – the Aegean Sea, Tuna – the Danube, Polina – Constantinople, Moldova – Moldova and others. Sofia, for the Gypsies is a bari dis (big city), Bulgaria – Daskanipe, but almost never used. The Gypsies treat Bulgarians as masters nowadays. They have a vague idea about the Wallachia: they often compare their language with vlaxich/s/ski, which seems to be not so much Wallachian but a name like pavazas, burgudzhides, yerlides. When it comes to the settlement of the Gypsies on the Balkan Peninsula, one should not forget the existing belief among the Gypsies themselves that they came here, supposedly brought by Genghis Khan. There are almost no Romanian elements in the Sofia Gypsy dialect; instead, there are many Turkish ones, which are also used to some extent in the Bulgarian vernacular.

CHAPTER IV SETTLEMENT OF THE GYPSIES IN BULGARIA

What has been said so far about the settlement of the Gypsies on the Balkan Peninsula also applies to a large extent to Bulgaria. In this respect, of relevance is the information about the island of Corfu, according to which in 1370 and 1373 the Gypsies moved to the island from the neighbouring Slavic-Bulgarian region of Vagenecia.

Vulcanius claims that in the middle of the 15th century the Gypsies were expelled from Egypt, and they invaded Bulgaria. This information we put in question because the data on it is not definite.

Gypsy legends hold that the Gypsies came to Bulgaria almost simultaneously with the fall of Bulgaria under Turkish slavery. As this information has not been confirmed either, we consider it doubtful. In this respect, however, there is preserved information about the Gypsies from 1606 in the Vlach-Bulgarian charters, issued by [Yuriy] Venelin [Венелин, 1840]: atsigani, tsigani [i.e. Gypsies]. Later, already in the 18th century, the Gypsies are mentioned in the history of Father Paisius [7]. He considers that their origin is from the Hamites tribe of Canaan. It seems that Paisius probably knew about the Egyptian theory, whether directly from Vulcanius or indirectly. Soon after our national historian Paisius, the Englishman William Marsden [Marsden, 1875] compiled a small dictionary of the Gypsies in general in the then-Turkish empire.

The Franciscan Pizzicannella [8] gave information about the life of the Gypsies in the village of Ladzhene, Svishtov region, in 1825. They lived among Paulicians [Roman Catholics], Orthodox and Turks and practised mainly magic. This was the main occupation of the Gypsy women, who, together with their husbands, took care of earning money for their families. The Gypsy women carried around iron and copper products made by themselves and their husbands, as well as copper cauldrons. The Gypsy men themselves dealt mainly with blacksmithing and were of great benefit for the local Bulgarian agricultural population. They made hoes, iron elements for the wooden ploughs, and axes.

In more recent times, we already have written sources about the Gypsies in Bulgaria. For example, we have information about the Ottoman Gypsies in Mihail Kogălniceanu [Kogalnitchan, 1837], Ami Boué [Boué, 1840] and others. Linguistic and other folklore materials about the Thracian Gypsies were published in 1870 by the Greek A. G. Paspati [Paspati, 1870]. We have an ethnographic essay on the Gypsies in Bulgaria published by our compatriot S. P. A. Borov in the Constantinople Bulgarian magazine Chitalishte [Боров, 1870].

From what was left about the Gypsies by our national historian, Paisius, we see that he was a supporter of the theory of the Egyptian origin, while Borov supports Pott’s theory of the Indian origin of the Gypsies. From these two comparisons, we can conclude that Bulgarian Gypsyology goes hand in hand with European.

Borov writes that “The Gypsies in Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria were settled near the big cities and villages, or they were travellers. In Wallachia and European Turkey, the Gypsies are Christians, while another part of them are Muslims. In Bulgaria, the Christian Gypsies wrote in Bulgarian letters, read in Bulgarian and were settled.”

This is a very interesting finding about the influence of the Bulgarian language at a time when the Bulgarians themselves were in slavery. This information, given to us by Borov, should be deepened and studied to clarify the extent of this influence.

Felix Kanitz [Kanitz, 1882–1887] gives us many interesting data about the Muslim Gypsies in Northern Bulgaria, again in ethnographic terms. He claims that there was a significant number of Gypsies in Bulgaria, around the Danube. He also claims that the Gypsies must have been in these lands for centuries. If we accept this statement of the Austrian Felix Kanitz as true, we will have to reject resolutely the theory that the Gypsies settled in our country almost simultaneously with the fall of Bulgaria under Turkish slavery. In all probability, Kanitz is right because, given the information about the presence of the Gypsies in the 7th century in Byzantium, it is obvious that from there, they could easily move to Bulgaria. It is not possible to believe that when they came to Istanbul, the Gypsies finally stopped here and did not take to the north again, to the Danube. This eternally mobile and tireless tribe would not stay in one place at that time. In smaller or larger groups, the Gypsies moved all over Europe, and in the early days of their resettlement, they did not settle for a long time almost anywhere. From this finding, we can draw the conclusion that since we know positively that the Gypsies were in Istanbul in the 7th century, we have every reason to assume that they could and did penetrate Bulgaria at the same time. So, for the settlement of the Gypsies in Bulgaria, we can say that they were here at the same time at which they were in Byzantium, i.e. in the 7th century. Starting from here, we can now definitely oppose the theory that the Gypsies resided in Bulgaria almost simultaneously with its fall under Turkish slavery. It is obvious that the Gypsies moved to Bulgaria much earlier, and from here, they continued their journey to the north and westwards to Europe. Perhaps, Bulgaria was for the Gypsies, like Egypt, a temporary station through which they passed and travelled further to Europe. Naturally, not all Gypsies who came to Bulgaria left it to continue their journey to Europe. Many of them stayed here and remained forever. This was undoubtedly influenced by the fact that they found here primitive farming, they found the wooden plough. For them as blacksmiths, there was a wide room for earning their livelihood, and they stayed in Bulgaria, probably welcomed with joy by the locals for whom the Gypsies were of great benefit because they made many of their agricultural tools. This explanation could be accepted because it corresponds to the then economic situation of Bulgaria.

Figures for the Gypsies in Bulgaria are given by St. Zahariev [Захариев, 1870]. They pertain to the first years after our liberation from Turkish slavery [9]. K. Jireček [Иречек, 1876] also gives us [figures] about the Gypsies in Bulgaria in the first years after the liberation.

In 1912, on the other hand, the British Bible Society published the Gospel in Bulgarian-Gypsy language, which appears to be in the Lom-Gypsy dialect, with a Latin transcription. This translation by an unknown author [10], is used today in the Lom region, and partly in the Kotel region. The publication of that Gospel [11] in the Gypsy-Bulgarian language marked the beginning of the Gypsy written works in Bulgaria, a fact that is known by few.

Subsequently, after the liberation, many works have been written about the Gypsies in Bulgaria.

There were explorations focused specifically on the language of the Bulgarian Gypsies. In this respect, the first one was Prof. St. Mladenov [in] Introduction in the General Linguistics [12].

Concluding the chapter on the settlement of the Gypsies on the Balkan Peninsula, I believe that the Gypsies moved to the Balkan Peninsula almost simultaneously with their arrival in Byzantium, that is, around the 7th century. All other theories, however widespread, are untrue. It is difficult to believe that, given the fact that there were Gypsies in Byzantium as early as the 7th century, they did not continue north to the Balkans immediately afterwards. This vigorous tribe that would not settle for long almost anywhere at that time, could not have settled permanently in Byzantium without making excursions to other countries, especially to the nearby Balkan Peninsula. And when they came here, on the Balkan Peninsula, and especially in Bulgaria, they found the promised land in which the locals had primitive farming. They then began to forge farming tools and were of great benefit to the local population, which in turn welcomed them warmly because the Gypsy blacksmiths made their work easier.

CHAPTER V INFLUENCE OF BULGARIAN ON THE GYPSY LANGUAGE

The numerous borrowings from the Bulgarian language in the Gypsy language fall into two groups. One group contains words that have probably penetrated more recently. These are, for example: bregos – бряг (shore), prahos – прах (dust), orlos – орел (eagle), makos – мак (poppy), paltos – палто (cloth), bikos – бик (bull), platos – плат (cloth), svetos – свят (world), koliba – колиба (hut), chavka – чавка (jackdaw), kana – кана (jug), lopata – лопата (shovel), masa – маса (table), boya – боя (paint) and much more.

The other group contains words with a Bulgarian element, words that are more or less Gypsyfied. For example: pishime – written, zagradime – enclosed, krastime – baptised, pozhaltisaylo – yellowed, sluchisaylo – happened, kupate – together, and the like.

The large number of Bulgarian loan words in the Gypsy language, especially from the vernacular, testifies to the strong influence that the Bulgarian language had on the Gypsy, and more specifically, on the dialect of the Sofia Gypsies. There is, by the way, a reverse effect, of course, to a lesser extent.

Information about the Gypsies from Sofia is available from K. Jireček in his travel notes from Bulgaria 1878–1884. According to him, they lived in small houses, outside the city, along the road to Lom, today’s Grobarska Street. In Bulgarian, they called themselves tsigani, in Turkish çingene, and earlier – kıbt (gyupti). Most of them were Muslims and spoke Indian language. They were engaged in blacksmithing, pottering and music-making. On holidays and official celebrations, along with the Bulgarian and Jewish craftsmen, there were also Gypsies, always with a red flag [13]. Most of them were Muslims, but their religious notions were not clear. They celebrated St George’s Day and St Basil’s Day very festively, and they also celebrated the God-Bearer [Theotokos], although they professed the Muslim religion.

We can judge about the extent to which the Bulgarian language has influenced the Gypsy language by the fact that when the Gypsies speak, a Bulgarian who listens can guess the meaning of half out of a dozen words and their speech becomes almost understandable. This is due to the great closeness that existed between the Bulgarians and the Gypsies and their almost friendly relations. The Bulgarian peasant farmer was grateful to the Gypsies for making tools and baskets for him; for shoeing his cattle; for supplying him with copper cauldrons; for making spindles and spoons; and treated them friendly. The Gypsies, on their part, had rightly assessed the fact that they found a livelihood in Bulgaria; they were grateful to the Bulgarians, and thus a friendship was established. In addition, due to the democratic nature of the Bulgarians in general, the Gypsies were placed here at almost the same level, socially almost no difference was felt, at least as far as this applies to the two nations themselves, and especially to the Bulgarian people.

CHAPTER VI RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

The Gypsies profess mainly two religions – Muslim and Christian. Undoubtedly, the Muslim one is predominant. They came Muslims and Christians from their original homeland India. It is true that many of them were baptised here, in the states where they settled to live forever, but they practised these two religions while they were in India. Their religious concepts are not very clear even for themselves. As we mentioned above, the Gypsies celebrate, and very festively, St Basil’s Day, St George’s Day, the God-bearer.

They did and have been doing until today the so-called peperuda to stop the drought and bring rain [14].

They strongly believe in ghosts, talasami [goblins]. The national Gypsy folklore, especially their tales, are full of samodivi [fairies], zmeyove [dragons], talasami [Goblins], etc. [15]. They believe in the rebirth of the soul, even though they are Muslims. Those Gypsies who are Christians, bury the dead in a Christian way, in a coffin. In Muslim burials, the corpse of the deceased is wrapped in a white cloth [16]. They put stones on the graves that are usually without an inscription, although inscriptions tend to appear of late [17].

Neither Muslims nor Christians do attend mosques and churches. They have a Gypsy Imam (called Hodja) who performs their marriages or attends funerals, but there is no Christian priest. The Hodja performs the so-called syunet [circumcision] [18] for 10–12 year-old boys.

CHAPTER VII SOFIA GYPSIES

K. Jireček says that during his trip around Bulgaria, he saw Gypsies near Sofia, living in small houses. Some of them had pitched tents that served as their homes. These tents were usually set up by the travelling Gypsies in spring and summer on the meadows near Sofia. In 1880 their number was 788, and in 1920 – 2,664 according to nationality, and 2,582 according to language.

The first mention of the Gypsies as inhabitants of Sofia dates from 1571. According to Jireček, they came to the Balkan Peninsula from India through Egypt, in the first half of the 14th century.

The Sofia Gypsies are not called Gyuptsi anymore; this name is used for the Macedonian Gypsies.

The Gypsies of Sofia do not use Tsigani as their tribal name. They say, “Our name is Roma”. It feels as if they find something undesirable, even offensive, in the term Tsigani. And this is exactly how it shouldn’t be. We, the Gypsies, have no reasons to be ashamed of our name because we have not tarnished it with anything. The Gypsy people are hardworking, peaceful, and progressive; they work hard and are not ashamed of doing any honest work that would ensure the livelihood of their family. The Gypsy is curious, naturally musical, and if so far he has not moved forward with other nations towards progress and civilisation, this is due to the situation in which our people have lived for so many years. In capitalist and bourgeois settings, the Gypsy had indisputably slavish conditions. Like the Bulgarian workers themselves, the Gypsies were subjected to cruel and ruthless exploitation. In this situation, although the Gypsies had the sympathy of the people, they were subjected to real discrimination by the bourgeois government, although according to the constitution they were equal citizens of the country. Naturally, in such situation, they were not able to unfold their national genius in its true breadth and power. The bright mind, the unbreakable vitality, and the cheerful disposition of the Gypsies are elements that open up an easy way to progress for them. In addition, their almost unmatched diligence enables the Gypsies to get involved in all areas of work. Gypsies have a tender attachment to their family, which is usually a numerous one. They have many children and caring for them takes up valuable time that they might otherwise devote to some cultural aspirations. And this is especially noticeable after the historical changes in Bulgaria after September 9, 1944. It is no longer a rare phenomenon to meet on the streets children, young and old Gypsies with books for reading in their hands.

Undoubtedly, the Gypsies in Bulgaria had given many valuable contributions, which, unfortunately, were not published in the press or made public by word of mouth so far. Even before the liberation of Bulgaria, the Gypsies, and especially the Orthodox ones, had made a great contribution to the national liberation movement of Bulgaria. During the establishment of the revolutionary secret liberation committees, Vasil Levski, Hadzhi Dimitar, Panayot Hitov, Georgi S. Rakovski and others, found great acceptance and protection from the Gypsy Orthodox minorities. It has been proven that when Vasil Levski came to Sliven to meet with members of the Secret Revolutionary Committee in the city, he slept over in a Gypsy house. The supporters of Panayot Hitov in the Sliven Balkan mountain were Orthodox Gypsies who had a sincere and deep commitment to the liberation movement. And Georgi S. Rakovski found refuge, protection, and faithful accomplices in the Kotel Balkan mountain among the Orthodox Gypsies. Hadzhi Dimitar was a close friend of the Orthodox Gypsies in Sliven and went to collect firewood with them in the Balkan mountain. We will talk about this activity of the Gypsies in a special chapter.

The Gypsy blacksmiths in Sofia have the name burgudzhides, and the tinsmiths – pavazi. Both the burgudzhis and the pavazis seem different in language from the real Sofia Gypsies who also call themselves yerlides.

The Sofia Gypsies lived in the past and continue living to date, mainly on Zhdanov Street [19], on the main Tatarli Street and on its sections. In this place are nestled their small but tidy houses. It seems that in the past there were no other artisan shops except the farriers. Most of the Gypsies from Sofia work as bearers. Some of them are shoeblacks, but there are also merchants. However, they had, albeit rarely, a cart and horses. In the past, there were Gypsies with carts and horses who led a nomadic life, but gradually, over time, they settled with the rest of the Gypsies and stopped their chergarstvo [i.e. nomadism]. The term chergarstvo comes from the fact that travelling Gypsies made tents out of chergi [rugs]. In the Gypsy neighbourhood, the people speak Bulgarian, Turkish and Gypsy languages. The Gypsy language is spoken almost exclusively by women who are not very sociable; the Bulgarian language is very well-known, even by children, and only the older Gypsies speak Turkish. “We are karmakarashık [i.e. mixed]”, the Gypsies themselves explain their ethnographic origins. This was, of course, years ago. Now the Gypsies have their own national language, their own national honour. Their children study in high schools and universities along with the Bulgarian youth. Officially, the Sofia Gypsies are Muslims, although Christianity is making serious conquests among them. For example, there are families in which the parents are Muslim, while their children are baptised Christians. In general, the Sofia Gypsies are at a crossroads. The men, who took part in the last war, noticeably have something like Bulgarian nationalism.

During and after the liberation, the Sofia Gypsies occupied the following neighbourhoods in Sofia:

1. Chaush-pasha mahala with about 60 houses in the today’s area between St Sofia church and the former State Printing House.

2. Sheh-mahala also numbered about 60 houses, the inhabitants of which were mostly musicians. It was located in today’s Slaveykov Square, as well as around the neighbouring streets.

3. Chukur-mahala with about 50 Gypsy straw houses. This mahala [neighbourhood] was mainly engaged in blacksmithing and tinsmithing. It was located in today’s Georgi Dimitrov Square.

4. Mahala Hadji Manov’s bridge, which had about 40 houses, was located in the area of the today’s Lion Bridge. The population in it was engaged in blacksmithing and served the citizens and peasants with their metal products.

Prof. Ishirkov says that, according to all sources, the population of Sofia at the time of the liberation was very diverse. Apart from the native Bulgarians, there were also many Jews, Gypsies, Turks, and others.

In 1837, the French traveller, Ami Boué, counted about five thousand houses with a population of about twenty thousand inhabitants. The streets of Sofia were narrow and very crooked, but that did not prevent him from predicting the future of the city, which was the crossroad of more than six roads.

On January 1, 1881, the first census took place in Sofia. According to it, the population was about 21,000, including the garrison.

The composition of the population by ethnicity was the following: Bulgarians – 14,000; Jews – 4,274; Gypsies (Muslims) – 1,258; Gypsies (Christians) – 788; Turks – 535.

With this composition of the population, it is obvious that the Gypsies were able to serve very well citizens and peasants alike.

Our compatriots made mainly the following agricultural tools: ploughs, ploughshares, sickles, axes, adzes, hoes, and many other agricultural equipments. They were also very successful in assembling the iron parts of the carts. They made cart axles and other iron items. Some of the more famous masters in this field at that time were the following: Tossen, Becho, Kine, Rustem, Tule.

The master Bashko proved to be an artistic master of the bridles and stirrups, who, after making the mentioned objects, tinned them, and they looked as if they were made of silver.

Several of our compatriots proved to be masters of hand-made horseshoes: Salcho Durov, Yusein, Monge, Rashid and others.

Today, our compatriot Ali Saliev Bozhkov is a famous orthopaedist.

And in terms of the good workmanship of oxen’s hand-made horseshoes, distinguished were: Mato, Zinko and others.

During the construction of new railways in the young Bulgarian state, after the liberation, our compatriots also took an active part, and some of whom showed such dexterity and knowledge that they were awarded. These are Kurtish Kalendarov, Mahmud Pashov [20], Yashar Baryamov and some others.

Our compatriots dealt with various crafts. For example, they made handmade shoe pliers, grater sheets, hand hammers and scissors. In this area, distinguished were the following masters: Ali Ahmedov and Dumir Rustemov.

Our famous musicians from 50–60 years ago, who entertained Sofia, were the following: Kanbur Murat, with his orchestra; Gyoko Baryam, Denko, Vule, Mele, Enken, Ismail, Yashar and Kurtish.

Karlo [Aliev], on the other hand, became extremely famous, as he was one of the first to play Bulgarian folk songs on Radio Sofia.

In 1908, in Sofia, several persons were distinguished as clarinet players: Lolo, Demir Cholaka and Yashar.

Ibrahim was distinguished as a great flugelhorn artist.

In Sliven, Vratsa, Belogradchik, Kula, Kotel and Lyaskovets, our compatriots managed to create very good orchestras.

In Plovdiv, Kolarovgrad [today Shumen], and Pazardzhik are the best Alaturka orchestras.

With the naming of our compatriots, distinguished craftsmen and artists-musicians mentioned above, we want to point out that the Gypsies in Bulgaria have made every effort to catch up in every respect with their compatriots from other countries. They tried not to lag behind their compatriots in other countries.

In 1882, according to the regulation plan of Sofia, the Sofia City Municipal Council decided to move the Gypsy minority from all mahalas to one common neighbourhood, located in the area of today’s customs office, next to Kozloduy Street. In 1906, i.e. 24 years later, due to the increased needs of the Bulgarian Railways, the Sofia Municipal Council decided to relocate the Gypsy population to another common neighbourhood, which today is called Konyovitsa, located between Konstantin Velichkov Street, Ilyu Voyvoda Street, Zhdanov Street and Dr Kalnikov Street. There, the Gypsy population was divided into eight units; families were provided with yards of 200 square meters and with notarial deeds for them, on condition that they paid back the property in the course of one year at the price of 0.80 levs per square meter. Each unit consisted of 50–60 houses. Due to the increase of the Gypsy population, in 1929, the Sofia Municipal Council had to buy plots in the following neighbourhoods:

1. [Fakulteta] – under the faculty in Suhodolska River (3rd District) [21].

2. Boyana Meadows in 4th District, this is currently Emil Markov neighbourhood [22].

3. Slatina (5th District) [23].

About 10,000 Gypsies currently live in Sofia. Their main occupations are bearers, cart drivers, shoeblacks, blacksmiths, traders, and employees of various public departments and enterprises.

CHAPTER VIII THE NUMBER OF GYPSIES IN BULGARIA AND WORLDWIDE

The number of Gypsy minority in Bulgaria is about three hundred thousand people [24]. They are scattered in all towns and villages of the republic. The biggest number of Gypsies live in Sliven, almost equal to the number of the Bulgarian population. There are about 12,000 Gypsies there, almost all of whom are Christians. After [the town of Sliven], a large compact group of Gypsies lives in Sofia, where their number is, as we said previously, about 10,000.

In 1935, the number of Gypsies worldwide was about 5,000,000. This information is published in the Encyclopaedia Der Gross Brockhaus in Leipzig, Germany.

Given the fertility of our compatriots, we believe that the number of Gypsies worldwide has long exceeded five million.

CHAPTER IX SLIVEN GYPSIES

There are about 12,000 Gypsies in Sliven. In their larger part, they are Orthodox. They are employed mostly in industry and have proven to be exceptionally capable and fast-learning workers. Many of them are involved in various enterprises and their work is highly valued. Sliven Gypsies, and especially the Orthodox ones, have a high patriotic sentiment and are at the forefront of the progressive citizenry. In the liberation struggles before 1878 and in those before 1944, the Sliven Gypsies made high-cost sacrifices.

The Sliven Gypsies, and especially the Orthodox ones, were one of the most active allies of the fighters for national liberation in the formation of revolutionary committees before the liberation from Turkish slavery. It is known for certain that Vasil Levski often spent the night in a local Gypsy’s house when he stayed in Sliven. Panayot Hitov’s supporters in the Sliven Balkan mountains were Orthodox Gypsies. Georgi S. Rakovski was sheltered by Orthodox Gypsies in the forests of the Kotel Balkan mountains. Older people said that Hadzhi Dimitar was friends with the Sliven Gypsies and often went with them to collect firewood in the mountains.

Everything said so far makes it clear that the Gypsy minority in Sliven was highly patriotic people imbued with a revolutionary spirit.

After the liberation, a large number of the Sliven Gypsies, perhaps the majority, had progressive socialist views and strongly supported the struggle of the working class for our liberation from capitalist exploitation. The success of the Workers’ Party [25] in Sliven in elections before September 9, 1944, was largely due to the support that the Gypsy minority gave to the Party.

After the invasion of the German invaders in Bulgaria, when the partisan groups appeared and the resistance movement in Bulgaria began [26], the Sliven Gypsies sided with the resistance and made any effort to support the partisan struggle. They sheltered partisans, and some of them joined the partisan units. The partisan struggle in the Sliven Balkan mountains would have been almost impossible had they not found the unreserved support of the Gypsy minorities, both in the towns and in the villages. The Gypsy minorities supported the liberation struggles wholeheartedly, and anyone contributed as they could. They were couriers and carried valuable ammunition for the partisans, messages, and orders from the centre and warned whenever police launched raids against the people’s sons who hid in the mountains to fight against the German invaders and the ruling bourgeois class at home. In this regard, the Sliven Gypsies created monuments of unprecedented heroism, self-denial, devotion to the national liberation movement and great sacrifices. They also showed great vigilance and ingenuity, tracking the routes of the police that attacked the people’s sons who fought in the mountains. Thanks to this activity of the Gypsy minorities from Sliven and the Sliven villages, many important fighters of the liberation struggle were saved. In this respect, the Gypsy minorities from Sliven and the region made a valuable contribution to the resistance movement as factory workers; they also participated in the sabotage operations, organised support for the partisans with funds and provisions, and supported political prisoners and concentration camp inmates. In short, they were actively involved in the struggle and did not give up until they brought the battle to a successful and victorious end.

CHAPTER X CULTURAL, PATRIOTIC AND REVOLUTIONARY EVENTS OF THE GYPSIES

The cultural, patriotic and revolutionary manifestations of the Gypsy minorities are indisputable, both before and after the people’s victory of the September 9, 1944.

Even before the Liberation, the Gypsies made a great contribution to the national liberation movement. When the revolutionary committees were set up with the task to organise the Bulgarian people and the other poor classes in the struggle for liberation from Turkish oppression, the Gypsies were always at the forefront of this struggle. Along with their Bulgarian brothers, they worked relentlessly to raise the revolutionary spirit of the masses.

When the Russian troops entered Bulgaria to liberate their younger brethren from slavery, the Gypsies also took an active part in the war [27]. More than 80 Orthodox Gypsies from the regions of Sliven, Kotel and Elena, who unfortunately did not call themselves Gypsies but Bulgarians because they were Orthodox, took part in the Battle of Shipka. After the liberation, these Gypsies broke away from the environment of their people; they became friends with Bulgarians, started marrying Bulgarian women and calling themselves Bulgarians. Great persons originated from them. After the liberation struggle of September 9, 1944, which ended with full victory of the workers, many people from the ranks of the Gypsy minorities rose to high positions. Some became officers, others participated in the leadership of enterprises that they ran with great professionalism, still others headed institutions with great organisational tact and skill.

Gypsies also took part in the Serbo-Bulgarian war in 1885. Here, they showed miracles of heroism. Many of the Gypsies were awarded orders of bravery for their heroic deeds at Slivnitsa, Dragoman, Tri ushi and elsewhere. Most of these Gypsy heroes remained modest Bulgarian citizens, who never made a profit from their heroic actions. They did not seek rewards, and when they returned home alive and well, they devoted themselves to their peaceful occupations.

In 1912–1913, more than 4,000 Gypsy volunteers enlisted in the army to fight in the Balkan War. Most of them were included in the Third Balkan Division and in the Sixth Bdin Division. Most of them came from the following districts: Sliven, Kotel, Elena, Polyanovgrad (Karnobat), Lom, Vidin, Kulata, Oryahovo, and Vratsa. There were also Gypsy volunteers from Tarnovo and Gorno-Oryahovitsa districts. They fought heroically, and some of them laid their bones for the freedom of Bulgaria. The then army commanders, Generals Mihail Savov, Radko Dimitriev and the Governor of Lozengrad, General Georgi Vazov, referred to the Gypsy volunteer groups, which were mixed with the Bulgarian ones, as the elite troops of the Bulgarian volunteer units because of their heroism.

Sanitary Colonel, D. Dagorov, said in his report that during the outbreak of major epidemics at the front such as plague and cholera, which were then the biggest enemy of the Bulgarian army, the Gypsy volunteers were least affected because they were resilient, which is why they gave the lowest percentage of casualties and resisted the front against the enemy. The same sanitary colonel referred to them as “Balkan Prussians and Japanese” in his report. He called the white Gypsies “Prussians” and the black ones “Japanese”. What motivated the young Gypsies to volunteer in 1912, was solely their strong love for their homeland and desire to support the liberation struggle of the Bulgarian people, which had risen to salvage their brothers from the oppressive Turkish slavery in Trace, an area populated for the most part by Bulgarians at that time. In this war, for the honour and glory of the Gypsy minorities, no one resorted to desertion, betrayal or deception; actively and with incredible heroism, they threw themselves into the war to defend the interests of the Bulgarian people and Bulgaria. After the end of the war, many of them were awarded orders of bravery; with their inborn modesty, they never sought benefits from the state but were devoted to peaceful and creative work. All Gypsy minorities, Orthodox and Muslim, took part in the War of 1915–1918 [28] and fought bravely and devotedly on all fronts. In his report to Ferdinand, the then Commander-in-Chief, General Zhekov, said that of all the minorities who took part in the war, the most courageous was the Gypsy minority, which showed no weakness and was always strong-willed and firm in the struggle. They were unpretentious and modest fighters who had only one goal – to be good soldiers. No petitions were made for them to be released from the front or to receive any other privileges, as other minorities did. They have always been on the front line of the battle.

Apart from their patriotic actions, the Gypsy minorities also had indisputable merits in the creation of the workers’ trade union movement. In 1903, the late socialist leader Georgi Kirkov, who laid the foundations of the socialist movement in Sliven, worked mostly among the Gypsy minority, most of whom were textile workers. Georgi Kirkov found an enthusiastic and great reception among the Gypsy minorities who actively supported the socialist movement. In the elections for MPs in 1905, Georgi Kirkov was elected Member of Parliament, with the dedicated and loyal support of the Gypsy minorities from Sliven. In 1908, in the elections for municipal councillors, 100 % of the Gypsies voted for the socialist candidate for municipal councillor, Georgi Kirkov’s student and Orthodox Gypsy, Nikola Kochev. Subsequently, Nikola Kochev became a member of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Workers’ Trade Union. He died in 1923 in the town of Sliven. His followers were Gypsy combatants, loyal and devoted to socialism: Vasil Chakmakov, Georgi Zhelezchev, Nikola Terzobaliev and others. The latter is still alive and is a member of the Central Council of the General Workers’ Professional Union. The Gypsies were at the forefront of the competition for MPs, district councillors and municipal councillors not only in Sliven but almost throughout Bulgaria and especially in Kotel, Polyanovgrad (Karnobat), Plovdiv, Popovo, Ruse, Gorna-Oryahovitsa, Lom and [Veliko] Tarnovo.

In 1918, a Gypsy woman was killed in the women’s revolution in Sliven [29], while at the rally in Sofia in 1919, a Gypsy man was killed on the crossing of Kiril and Metodiy Street and Slivnitsa Boulevard [30].

One of the great Gypsies who played a major role in the Karnobat region, and who was wholeheartedly committed to the communist movement, was the prominent Zhelyu Koev, from the Galata neighbourhood in Karnobat. He had a high school education and as an enlightened man he had great influence on the Gypsy minority not only in Karnobat, but in the whole Burgas district. Thanks to his efforts and devotion to the Party, he managed to integrate into the Party the entire Gypsy minority. He was also an army reserve officer.

The Gypsies had an outstanding contribution to the Great September Uprising in 1923. The struggle of the Gypsy minority from the Lom district, including the village of Mladenovo [31], the town of Lom itself, Metkovets, Brusartsi and others, will be remembered for generations. During these memorable days, the Gypsy minorities threw themselves into the fight against fascism with unprecedented heroism and fearlessness. The Gypsies from the Berkovitsa region, as well as the Gypsy minorities from the Mihaylovgrad district, were no less heroic during these events. Many of these Gypsy combatants were mercilessly killed by the raging fascism after the uprising was put down, while others emigrated. Those who failed to emigrate were thrown into prisons.

In 1923, the Communist Party prevailed in the elections for municipal councillors in the capital. The bourgeoisie was hoping to grab by force the votes of the Gypsies, but these hopes were severely crushed because the Gypsy minority in Sofia overwhelmingly supported the Communist Party.

In February 1940, in the elections for the 25th Ordinary National Assembly, all minorities were intimidated into voting for the fascist candidates. Other minorities, and especially the Jews, were really scared and voted for the fascist General Lazarov. However, the Gypsy minority was not afraid of these fascist threats and supported the Communist Party’s candidate Dr Lyuben Dyukmendzhiev, who was eventually elected, to the great surprise of the ruling fascist clique. The Gypsy minority also supported the Party’s candidate, Dr Nikola Sakarov, who was also elected.

In all elections during the fascist regime, the Gypsies overwhelmingly supported the Labour Bloc’s candidates [32]. This is also what the Gypsies in Plovdiv did in 1938, resolutely supporting and electing the communist candidate Todor M. Samodumov.

From what has been said till now, it is clear that the Gypsy minority has always been on the side of the Party. They consider the Communist Party as their own and closest to their interests; they see it as their sole protector and patron, and that’s why they wholeheartedly supported the Party in the past in all its struggles. The Gypsy minority is progressive in spirit. It serves the Party with love and faithful devotion because they know that it is the only one that honestly caters for their interests.

Apart from merit, however, we must sincerely and honestly admit that the Gypsy minority also makes mistakes which they must eliminate once and for all, and sooner rather than later. They need to become aware of their mistakes, acknowledge these mistakes and take on a new path that would secure their cultural growth.

These mistakes are not insignificant, and their elimination requires, above all, a deep awareness of the Gypsies themselves in order to overcome and eliminate them. One of these mistakes is that some of the Gypsies, and unfortunately, they are not few, are not involved in socially useful work but are prone to nomadism, vagrancy and petty theft. In the new situation which has been established in our country, this will be eliminated soon because the factors which secure for the Gypsies, as well as for all citizens and workers in the republic, the right to work, are all present. The second mistake, which in the new political and economic situation will inevitably be eliminated, is that the Gypsies did not aspire to education. This is gradually being removed because we already witness that the Gypsies are becoming educated. They attend libraries in big numbers, where they find books to read, and take them from the community centres to read at home.

The other part of the Gypsies, those who are Orthodox, live a totally sedentary life; they are also extremely hardworking, and earn their livelihood solely by work.

The first textile workers in Sliven and Gabrovo were Gypsies. The Gypsies are also good farmers, excellent blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and horse-shoe makers.

In the past, the Gypsies were also very good horse traders and were called dzhambazi. Due to the new economic system, this craft is gradually disappearing, and Gypsy traders are looking for new forms of labour. They started working in the factories, the plants, and the cooperatives; in the villages they are members of the agricultural cooperatives, where along with the Bulgarians, they work on the vast economic units. This collective work will further strengthen the ties between Gypsies and Bulgarians and will create brotherly relations between them, side by side, laying the foundations of the new socialist edifice in our country.

They are also good miners. Many Gypsies work in all the mines of the Balkan Mountains, and they are considered to be among the very good miners. In this respect, they are unsurpassed as workers in the Rhodope basin at Madan, Rudozem and others, who have done for centuries; now that the Madan basin has grown and developed to such proportions, the Gypsies have found a large field for their labour and their love of mining.

The favourite profession of the Gypsies, which very much corresponds to their inclinations, is a musician. And this is not only in Bulgaria but all over the world. Gypsy musicians are greeted with great interest everywhere, and their music concerts are attended in large numbers.

After the people’s victory on September 9, 1944, dozens of Gypsy amateur groups were formed in our country; they travel across the country bringing pleasure, delight, and amazement to their listeners. The amateur Gypsy groups spread the unsurpassed beauty of Gypsy dances, called kyuchetsi, they present plays and organise wrestling fights, which attract thousands of spectators. Through these amateur groups, the Gypsies contribute to the spiritual growth of their listeners as well as their own cultural and educational growth. The people’s government shows affection for these Gypsy amateur groups and makes great sacrifices to secure support for their progress.

In the last 20 years, the Gypsies have brought great benefits to the national economy. In all parts of the country, and especially in large industrial cities, all members of Gypsy families – men, the elderly, women and children, are involved in the collection of waste, such as rags, glass, bones, old tires, hardware, paper waste and other valuable waste materials. These waste materials are processed and from them new products are obtained, which are absolutely necessary for our economic growth. In times of war and in times of an economic embargo, these waste materials bring great benefits to our national economy, supporting our industry and crafts. Two-thirds of these waste materials are being collected exclusively by the Gypsy minorities and they secure hundreds of millions of benefits for our national economy. The collection of waste material is a big challenge for the people’s government, because the waste material provides us with items for which we would otherwise have to pay valuable foreign currency in order to import them from abroad.

Not minor is the Gypsies’ contribution for collecting herbs for export. The majority of herbal collectors in our country are Gypsy men, Gypsy women and Gypsy children who, with their activity, bring great benefit to our state economy. By exporting herbs, we earn valuable foreign currency, which we need so much when buying other items needed for our industry and occupations. Organised at the village cooperatives [33], the regional cooperative unions, and the Central Cooperative Union, the Gypsies diligently carried out all their tasks. With the care of the people’s government, especially the young Gypsies, dedicate to socially useful work by collecting waste and herbs, thus contributing enormously to the consolidation of our national economy. The collection of herbs and waste has an educational role for the Gypsies, because, through the socially useful work, which earned their livelihood, especially the young people, gave up heft, drunkenness, gambling and debauchery, and set out on a new path, the path of the working people which is glorious for every honest person.

Whereas in the past, the private buyers of waste and herbs exploited the Gypsies and purchased the waste and herbs they collected at insignificant prices, now, under the people’s government, they are protected from any kind of exploitation.

CHAPTER XI GYPSY MUSIC

If there is one thing that the Gypsies should be most proud of, it is the Gypsy music. The Gypsies have an innate talent for music. They are great masters of all musical instruments. In many ways, they are true virtuosos of various instruments. They are equally good as violinists as clarinettists, flugelhornists, flautists, accordionists, etc. They are truly great Masters of Music. They often play without music notation, only by ear, and yet their performance is so accurate and true that it is simply amazing.

Imre Magyar’s famous Hungarian Gypsy orchestras, consisting of 60 people, mostly a string orchestra, spread the fame of the Gypsies not only in Hungary but also abroad and there is not a single major European stage on which Imre Magyar did not perform. He raised the Gypsy music to such a level that his orchestra became a favourite throughout Europe.

And we have other master musicians who cannot be forgotten. However, we will talk about them in another chapter of our book.

The innate musical talent of the Gypsies is so great that it is enough for a Gypsy child to hear a song only once and they can immediately reproduce without mistakes.

All Gypsyologists who study the history of the Gypsies, searching for their origins, unanimously concluded that the Gypsies were a people with innate musical inclinations that no other nation had. In this regard, they assert that the Gypsies are of Indian origin, because there were tribes with innate, astonishing, musical inclinations.

That is why we believe that the Gypsy minorities should not look lightly and indifferently at the musical talent of young people but they should encourage them decisively, and make them learn and develop their talent in its true breadth. The Gypsy minorities and their organisations have a duty, an imperative duty, to urgently find these young people, and give them all kinds of material and spiritual support to encourage them to develop their talent. In such cases, they can turn to the People’s government, which would give them all the facilities and comprehensive support in this regard. The musical talents of the Gypsy youths should not be allowed to perish without being utilised.

CHAPTER XII GYPSY DANCES

Along with the Gypsy songs, there are also Gypsy dances. They are also world-famous and are watched with great interest by connoisseurs. Their dances are lively, cheerful, voluptuous. The Gypsy dance, called kyuchek, is especially famous. It is a voluptuous dance, through which the dancing Gypsy woman expresses various voluptuous scenes, in which, however, there is no cynicism, but real plasticity.

The Gypsies do not have their own folk horo dances. They dance a lot, and love the horo dances, but they usually dance the horo dances of the countries where they live. They bring in the horo dances vivacity and temperament because the Gypsies perform them with their innate liveliness and add their Gypsy temperament and character.

On the other hand, they have special elements in their Gypsy dance kyuchek, which they call “throwing a gyubek”. These are especially beautiful, flexible, and virtuoso curves, which make the kyuchek dance infinitely interesting, juicy, and insatiably beautiful.

The Gypsies have the so called “peperuda [butterfly]” ritual in dry weather. The peperuda’s girlfriends sprinkle her with water and the wet girl, covered with flowers, performs a dance praying for God’s mercy for rain. The people who had superstitions in the past, liked the peperuda ritual; they would welcome the dancers with love and treat them with foods, which the peperuda performers would eat afterwards. [34]. After the dance, they would gather and make a little mu-man, which they would bury to appease the Gods [35].

CHAPTER XIII AGUPTI BLACKSMITHS IN THE TOWN OF MADAN

The Gypsies, known as Agupti, live in the Rhodope region and until recently they lived in the town of Madan.

When they came to Madan and whether they are from the same group of Gypsies who settled in Macedonia allegedly in the 15th century, cannot be said with certainty.

The fact that in the Rhodope region they are called Agupti and in Macedonia – Gyuptsi, speaks in favour of the opinion that the Gypsies from Macedonia and those from Madan are of the same group. The similar names suggest some historical proximity.

The time of the Gypsy settlement in the Rhodopes can be established with positivity after a complete and comprehensive study of the history of the Gypsies in our country, their material and spiritual culture.

A complete, historical, ethnographic and linguistic study of the Muslim Gypsies in the town of Madan, and in the Rhodope region in general, would probably lead us to interesting conclusions, relevant to other important issues from the distant past of the Rhodope region.

This task has gained relevance today, when this area of the Rhodope region, and precisely this population, are being decisively transformed.

If we assume that the migration of the Gypsies to Bulgaria dates back long before the 15th century, we will have to accept that the Gypsies Agupti came to the Rhodope region before that time. The fact that an Agupti’s legend holds that they were brought to the Rhodopes as captives by the Romans to cultivate the mines in this area also confirms our view about the earlier settlement of the Gypsies in the Rhodopes. These hypotheses, however, are not yet supported by research and we cannot accept them as true without verification. Our only clue is the name of the Rhodope Gypsies, who are called Agupti (Egyptians).

Here, for the first time, we come across materials dealing with the main occupation of the Gypsies – blacksmithing. The research on blacksmithing among the Gypsies can lead to interesting and important conclusions about the emergence and development of blacksmithing in general in our country.

The Gypsies who lived for centuries in the Middle Rhodopes and dealt exclusively with blacksmithing, are called Agupti, similarly to those in Macedonia, Gyuptsi.

It should be strongly emphasised that the Gypsies themselves associated their origins with some Egyptian slaves brought to these lands before Roman times, in connection with the processing of metals, mainly lead and iron. Whether this is a plausible story or rather some propaganda among the Gypsies themselves will have to be studied and researched. It is a fact, however, that they differ both anthropologically and in everyday life from both the Christians and Muslim Bulgarians. The Agupti do not mix with them even though the Bulgarians speak the same ancient Rhodope dialect as the Agupti themselves.

Their origin aside, these ancient settlers of the Rhodope region had the same political destiny as the population of today’s Bulgarian lands. They became ‘Slavs’ and after about a century, when the Turks invaded and occupied the Balkan Peninsula, they converted to Islam and became so committed to their new religion that no one could dissuade them that they are the most faithful Muslims and the most righteous followers of the “din Islam” [36].

Nowhere else in the Rhodope region but in Madan, Agupti blacksmiths are concentrated in such big numbers. This fact about Madan, which was until recently a quiet Bulgarian village, mostly Muslim, and now it is one of the centres of the Rhodope mining basin, deserves an additional discussion.

There was human settlement in Madan already in ancient times. Many mining traces, probably left by the Romans, tell us about it. Many legends have remained since then.

For example, Nikola K. Varadinov said, “I have heard that once upon a time, long time ago, when the Romans brought the blacksmiths to Madan to work the ores of “Pachinsko” [locality], there was a large factory for lead smelting. The bellows of the factory was very large, comprising 40 buffalo skins, and it was made by the Agupti – the Gypsies themselves who mostly worked in the factory. Other foundry tools were also discovered in this place.”

From the time of Christianity, before the Bulgarian population was converted to Islam, many Christian relics and memories have been preserved. Many ruins of churches and chapels can still be seen in the vicinity of Madan. The population still tells Christian legends from the time of the conversion to Islam. A living memory from the Christian era are the numerous names of places and neighbourhoods with purely Bulgarian Christian names.

According to legends and memories of old people, 200–250 years ago Madan had a much larger population than the population recorded before September 9, 1944. The centre of the village then was not today’s market (Oryaha), but the place where the school is, the current premises of the District People’s Council. Old people say even today that there was a “plague” in Madan three times: around 1750, around 1800 and around 1836–1838. The third “plague” was the most devastating and claimed the biggest number of victims. The population was so frightened by the plague, which killed “both young and old”, that people did not dare to visit their former neighbours, who had settled across from them on the slopes, and communicated with each other by shouting and knocking on boards.

It was not only the plague that reduced Madan’s population. At the end of the 18th century, Mehmed Sinap raged in the Rhodope region and set on fire all the villages that did not obey him. Madan was not spared, and was burned. Part of its inhabitants were killed, the others fled to the mountains.

The conversion to Islam of the Bulgarian population of Madan, the attack and destruction of the place by Mehmed Sinap, and the outbreak of the “third plague” (around 1840), all took place in a short period of time. These three crucial events for the once large population of Madan were the reason why the population fled, scattered in 19 settlements, and sought refuge elsewhere.

The conversion of Madan’s inhabitants to Islam took place much later than the mass conversion to Islam of the population in the other villages (1655–1661). Madan’s inhabitants were converted to Islam mainly in the second half of the 18th century with great resistance on their part. Some fled far from their homeland, already terribly ruined; a larger part went to today’s Devin district and, together with other settlers from the Aegean Sea, mostly from Drama, gave rise to today’s village Shiroka Laka; while a third group was hiding for a long time in near and far places and forests.

Again, according to stories of old people, Madan had a very developed industry by 1850. There were about 150 workshops working with hydropower. These workshops produced various types of rifles (tyufetsi), knives and especially karakulatsi (large knives with black bone handles), mills for coffee and black pepper, hoes, shovels, nails, various types of knives, wrought iron bells (tatralki), and large wrought iron bells (tyumbeltsi), which were much needed for sheep-breeding and other agricultural tools. Until then, Madan was the industrial centre of the Middle Rhodopes. Today, only the memories of these industries have remained. By 1933, only the Zaimovi family, father, and son, from the Karyak mahala, dealt with it.

Against the background of Madan’s history as a flourishing production centre in the first half of the 19th century, the fact that must be emphasised is that the main workers in this Rhodope’s industrial centre were the Gypsies. They were excellent craftsmen and the main driving force of the production process at that time. Both the foundries and the workshops for rifles, knives, hoes, shovels, nails, and wrought iron small and big bells were occupied mainly by Gypsies. Their products were made and spread on all corners of the then-vast Turkish Empire – south to the Aegean Sea and north to the Danube. Experienced and skilled workers in the industry, the Gypsies have played a major role in the prosperity and development of the town of Madan. They also prepared weapons for the Wallachian army because the fame of the Gypsies as weapon masters transcended the borders of the Turkish Empire.

The afuz [37] Salihmed Gerchekov, a native of the village of Elhovets (Enuzdere), Rudozem municipality, and Imam in the town of Madan, tells the following about the industry in Madan and the vocations of the population by 1850:

In Madan, a hundred years ago, many rifles and knives were made and sold to the Bulgarian population in old Bulgaria: in Sofia, Ruse, Varna and Vidin, on the opposite corner. The weapons were transported by a dozen mules and sold on the market within one hour. The Bulgarians bought it for the uprisings. I heard this from the old ones: from Mollahmed Ushev, from the mahala of Ardashla (Maglishta), and from Hasan Ushev, from the same mahala who died at the age of 110. At a young age, Hasan Ushev himself brought rifles and knives to old Bulgaria to sell them to the Bulgarians for the uprisings. Then they made mills for coffee. They wove different fabrics and sold them in Thessaloniki, Drama, Kavala. The fur was bought from the Aegean Sea as well as from here. And there were a lot of goats here then.

The population, which was mainly Agupti, worked also in agriculture, but rarely; they sowed rye and maize. They were engaged in cattle breeding – sheep, goats, cows, mules. That was a hundred years ago.

Until the September 9, 1944, the population of Madan, which was majority Gypsies, was engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding and wage labour at the mines of the then Granostoid Company.

It is interesting to note, comparing the current size of the workforce in the Rhodope Basin, particularly in Madan, that until August 1, 1934, 80 Bulgarian Muslims worked in Granostoid Company, and after that August 1, there were 300 Muslims, mostly Agupti.

When we talk about Madan, about the inhabitants, about their occupations and their livelihood, we will have to focus on blacksmithing in the first place.

Until today, there are about 40 families of blacksmiths or about 200 people in Madan. They make a living mainly from blacksmithing, although they have small property -- one or two acres of weak, infertile land.

The Agupti blacksmiths live together, grouped in a neighbourhood located on a sunny hill facing the East. At the top of this hill chaotically perched are their huts, and at the bottom are their workshops, which form a whole bazaar, now mockingly called “the industrial neighbourhood”.

The blacksmith’s shop resembles a simple hut built with chatvo (plastered fence, covered with stone slabs (tikli). The blacksmith’s workshop is usually 2 to 4 meters wide and 4 to 6 meters long. The workshops have no ceiling. They only have a roof. The doors are usually only on the West side. In most workshops, there is a “window” next to the door, i.e., an opening with a shutter. On the opposite side, usually in the East, there is one large hole (with a shutter) or two smaller ones. These windows do not have glass as they are not adapted for it, and are closed with wooden shutters. The workshops are not always covered with stone plates. Some of them are covered with planks, others – with various tins and boards, while some others – with straw.

The population of the Rhodope mountains calls these workshops kuzni [smithies]. That is also how the blacksmiths themselves call their workshops.

The interior of the workshop is also very simple. On the southeast side, in the corner, is usually the odzhak [fireplace], which occupies about a third and sometimes half of the workshop. The odzhak consists of bellows, an anvil, and a pit. The pit is a small trap with almost square dimensions: 50 by 60 cm deep and with the same width. The odzhak does not always have a pit. It is needed when the odzhak in the workshop is at the level of the ground. This way, the master does not have to bend too much when working on the anvil. In some smithies, such as those in Ustovo, where the odzhaks are built about one meter above the ground, there are no “pits”. The pits are probably an indication of the antiquity of the blacksmith’s trade, of course, in the Rhodope region.

The most important tools in the blacksmith’s workshop are:

The anvil, which is called by the Turkish name yorz.

The bellows, which blacksmiths call meh. It was aysıy in the old time. In old times, it was also called kyuryuk, in Turkish.

Some of the blacksmiths make their own bellows, but most of them order from local bellow masters.

Pliers, which are of several types: straight and curved, small and large. In most cases, blacksmiths make them themselves, but mostly they are bought ready from the market.

Scissors for cutting iron. The masters make them themselves too. They are made of steel; they are 30–32 cm long and 5–6 cm wide. They weigh about 2 kilograms.

Tongs. It is used for making nails. It is 21 to 24 cm long.

Gvozdilnitsa, or as blacksmiths call it mohtach, is the most important tool in making nails. The gvozdilnitsa is 25 to 30 cm long and weighs about one kilogram. It has the shape of a pipe. It is perforated at the twisted end. On the front part, where the nail is placed, the hole is wider, and on the other side it is smaller.

A small anvil (small yors) and a chopper. At the lower end of the ordinary anvil, the blacksmiths place a small steel rectangle, 3 to 5 cm long, 1 to 1.5 cm wide and up to 2 cm high. This device is called a small anvil (small yors) because the nail is hammered on it.

Chopper. Next to the “small anvil”, the blacksmiths put a blade with the same length of the small anvil, but sharp – 1 mm. The blade is made of steel and is called sechilka [chopper] because the nails are cut on it.

Big hammer.

Small hammer.

Baksiya, a hammet with which axes are made.

A very large hammer with which the apprentice stands against the master.

A cutter, used to cut iron.

A small hammer with which the master hits.

Proboy, with which hole openings are made.

Nail pliers.

Extinguisher – a whisk with an iron rod. It is an iron whisk that ends in one of its ends with a vice. The length of the whole extinguisher is 25–36 cm.

Different types of rasps. They are used for sharpening axes, carpenters, hoes, knives, etc.

Gribach – an iron shovel. It is used for clearing fire.

Water trough filled with water for hardening the products.

In addition to the tools listed above, a blacksmith’s workshop has other secondary tools and accessories, such as drills, various brooms, augers, shovels, coal cans, small hammers, etc.

CHAPTER XIV BLACKSMITH’S WORKS AND THEIR MANUFACTURING

1. Nails (gozde). Used for livestock shoeing.

The nails are one of the most characteristic works and they give a “look” to the blacksmith’s trade of the Rhodope Agupti – Gypsies.

2. Hoes or motıki, as the locals call them. They are made mostly in the spring, when the hard work begins, which is impossible without a hoe. There is no other tool in the agricultural work of the Rhodope population as necessary as the hoe. The Rhodope soil also contributes to this: on the one hand it is poor and sandy, and on the other hand it is steep, a plough cannot pass through it and therefore the soil is dug up and generally worked exclusively with a hoe, by hand.

3. Axes. The axe is the most needed blacksmith’s work at any time of the year, especially in the autumn, when firewood should be secured for the winter and the leaves should be cut for the cattle.

The axes are usually made by two masters: one who works and directs, and the other who performs – he is the chikidzhiya – a worker who turns a big hammer.

The process of making the axe is the same as with the hoe, only it is slower. In one day, two masters can make two to three axes.

4. Horseshoes. Other blacksmith’s works, which are very popular among the Rhodope population, are the horseshoes or, as the blacksmiths – Agupti call them, petali.

The blacksmiths Agupti work mainly the following three types of petali:

a) petali for donkeys which usually have the following dimensions: length 7–8 cm and width 5.5–6 cm. These horseshoes have two holes on each side for shoeing.

b) petali for mules. The usual length of these horseshoes is 10–12 cm and their width is 7.5–8.5 cm; the horseshoes for mules have six holes – three on each side.

c) petali for horses. They are wider than those of the donkeys and the mules. And they have six holes – three on each side. In the middle they have a hole 7–10 mm wide in diameter, which serves to “ventilate” the dead part of the hoof, in order not to become hot in the summer.

5. Ploughshares. In spring and autumn, the Agupti-blacksmiths also make ploughshares for the ploughs. They are mostly made of steel, called chilik.

In addition to the most important blacksmith’s works, the master blacksmiths Agupti also make smaller objects such as: shovels for kneading trough; door latches; wide nails for decorating doors; various trivets and chains for cooking, trestles for lining wood (jack-horses); long nails (Agupi’s nails) – in the past, used for nailing beams in house construction; various types of rings (for children’s swings), for hanging meat and other objects; large rings for ploughs, rings for scythes and various other small and large devices related to agriculture, sock-breading, crafts and everyday life.

CHAPTER XV LEGENDS ABOUT THE AGUPTI’S ORIGIN AND STATE

The blacksmiths Agupti are very rich in legends, tales, proverbs, and sayings, which are primarily related to their past, crafts and life.

The Agupti from the Rhodope mountains tell, for example, the following legend about the Agupti, about their former state and king, “It has been a long time ago – the old people tell it as a dream. The Agupti from Masır (Egypt) had a big and strong state. Firvalyu ruled, an evil and mean king. Everyone screamed, cried and ran away from him. Even the unborn children were screaming. He tortured his people. But Allah punished him, took his soul, and put him in hell. Our Agupte are also from this offspring.”

There are many legends about the Agupti’s origin:

a) “The Agupte – Egyptians. They brought them from Masır (Egypt) to these places. They were brought from Arabia. After the breakdown of the Roman state, they remained here and have worked as blacksmiths ever since. From Egyptians they became Agupti.”

b) “The Romans conquered Egypt. The Agupti were brought as slaves by the Romans. This was many years ago, long before the emergence of Islam … They are very emotional. They explode suddenly. Their blood is not like ours … They are smart people. Smarter than the Jews. They are very capable working with iron – they have no equal. They can work in factories …”

c) “Old times. We learned the craft from our fathers, they from theirs. That is how we found it and that is how we will leave it. Our people have come here a long time ago, it was like a dream. They were brought from Egypt.”

d) “We are Egyptians. When the Egyptians fought in this place, they brought us and put us here and there to guard, as soldiers.”

e) “As we hear from old people – we are from Egypt. We moved from there. We were brought in Roman times.”

f) “We are Egyptians, an old tribe. The Romans brought us.”

This legend has passed down to the Christian population too:

a) “The Agupti, these are the oldest inhabitants of Madan, and they themselves say this, I have asked them many times why they are called Agupte, and they answer that their ancestors and grandfathers were from Egypt. And since then, they have been practising this craft, blacksmithing. They are honest people, hardworking. They work from morning till night. There were no lies or thefts from them. This is about the past when Madan was a village and there were no outsiders yet.”

b) “The Agupti are remnants of Egyptian troops brought from Egypt to fight in Greece and along Bulgaria’s southern borders.”

CHAPTER XVI BLACKSMITHING IS FROM GOD

There are many legends about the Agupti, about their origin, date of settlement in Bulgaria and in the Balkan Peninsula, as well as about their main craft, blacksmithing. The following tales, which the Agupti blacksmiths tell, come to show us the affection and hope they have for their craft:

Our craft, blacksmithing, is the most important and without it nothing can happen. Therefore, before the world was created, God created our craft, because nails are needed everywhere for hammering and for building. Shovels and hoes are needed to dig and plough the ground. Petali are needed to shoe the animals. Axes are needed to cut wood. Adzes are needed to make barrels and build houses. Knives are needed for everything. God left blacksmithing as a gift to man. Nothing can happen without blacksmithing.

Our craft does not make a person rich, but it does not leave them hungry. Put the copper vessel on the fire and the hominy will come. Our craft is blessed by God because you only rely on your own hands.

CHAPTER XVII AGUPTI’S WAY OF LIFE AND CULTURE

The Agupti blacksmiths not only sing ancient Bulgarian songs but also speak the same Rhodope dialect as the local Bulgarian Muslim population, the only difference being that they pronounce the words more protractedly, more slowly.

Although the blacksmiths have had a sedentary life for centuries, their material culture differs significantly from that of the local population. It is at a far lower level than that of the Bulgarian Muslims. The reasons for this are many: poor financial situation, lagging cultural development, the absence of whatsoever appropriate attitude on the part of the state before the September 9, 1944, religious fanaticism, and others.

“Everything is weak in our people. I do not remember an old person from us. One has tuberculosis, another one has pleurisy, and they all die early. When I was young, our house had no ceiling and no roof. At night, we watched the sky and the stars through the roof, and in the morning – the daybreak. We all die young. Here, I suffer from heart issues. You will rarely see one of us who is older than 70 years.”

The Agupti’s households are poor.

Their food is weak, insufficient, and poorly prepared. Therefore, along with the care for improving their material conditions, there is a need to increase their domestic and material culture.

Before September 9, 1944, illiteracy was high, especially among the older Agupti. Now, it almost does not exist.

They live well with the local Bulgarian Muslim population. In family law relations, they have preserved their racial purity. The blacksmiths Agupti from Madan, as well as from the other Rhodope villages, marry mainly within their group. If a boy or a girl cannot find a suitable partner in Madan, they resort to the small tribal groups in the village of Srednogortsi (Totoklu), the village of Smilyan, Smolyan region, the village of Beli Izvor, Ardino region and others.

If the candidate for marriage cannot find a spouse among them either, they turn their feelings and attention to the local Bulgarian Muslim population. But the young Agupti man meets strong resistance here. Fanaticism and prejudice, for many centuries, have undoubtedly done their part. No matter how friendly they had lived for centuries and are still living with fellow men, the Bulgarian Muslims in Madan and the nearby Rhodope villages do not want to marry the Agupti. It is very rare for a young and beautiful Bulgarian Muslim girl to agree to marry an Agupti boy. If this happened sometimes, albeit in exceptional cases, the Agupti would be very happy and would make fun of the Bulgarian Muslims. It happens, however, that sometimes a widowed woman or a maiden who is not young and has a serious physical disability, decides to take a companion from among the Agupti blacksmiths. Even in these occasions, however, marriages between Bulgarians and Agupti are very rare. Only one Bulgarian Muslim woman from the village of Varbina (Syudzhuk), Ardino region, has agreed in the recent years to take an Agupti man as her husband.

Talking about family and marital relations, it is noteworthy that until now, the Agupti have not given any of their girls to marry a Bulgarian Muslim.

The difference that is made between the blacksmith Agupti and the local Bulgarian population is noticeable not only in the family law relations but also in the funeral, i.e., in the cemetery. No matter how diligently the Agupti blacksmiths practice Islam, and even though they do not have their own separate cemeteries (mezarlık), they are buried in the same cemetery, but at one end.

In principle, the wedding of the Agupti is a religious Muslim wedding. When marrying, especially when the bride is from another village, the Agupti like to go to the wedding with horses or mules. If the wedding guests do not have their own livestock, and in most cases they do not, then they hire it from someone else. The bride also rides a horse. Her horse must be a white one, led by her father. At wedding ceremonies, they like to shoot, especially when they lead the bride and approach the boy’s village.

Because of the centuries-old coexistence with the Bulgarian Muslims, who in their way of life and culture have preserved many Christian features and peculiarities, the Agupti have taken some rituals from the Bulgarian wedding. For example, when taking the girl from her father’s house, the boy’s relatives sing, “Get up and startle, mother of the maiden, because we’ve got your girl” [in Bulgarian].

The wife addresses her husband as chileku [man], while the husband calls his wife babitse [Grandma], no matter how long they were married. Even if they got married the day before, the husband still addresses his wife with babitse.

Family law relationships are not very sophisticated. Of course, this depends on many factors, their poor culture and poor financial situation, in the first place. It should be noted that spouses often quarrel and abandon each other once or twice, and then reunite again. Nevertheless, it should be noted that there are also exemplary families, and they are not uncommon.

What must be highly emphasised here is the extreme diligence of the Agupti blacksmiths. Besides, they are impeccably honest. This can be seen both in their actions as masters (they sell all works very cheaply) and in their daily lives.

In their daily needs, they do not demand much, they are satisfied with little, and they are not greedy at all.

CHAPTER XVIII THE AGUPTI’S MERITS

As traditional founders, who once dug and smelted the ore, and their descendants are now skilled blacksmiths, the Agupti have had and still have an undeniable contribution to the creation of the material culture of the Rhodope region in the past. There was a time when the population not only in the Rhodope region but also in the entire Thracian plain, relied on their supply of agricultural tools. With axes, hoes, ploughshares, nails, wedges, and other economic and handicraft tools, they supplied the Rhodope region almost regularly until the First World War, and the appearance of the factory production of some of the above tools.

Even during the World War, when European factories manufactured military production and horseshoes did not reach the Rhodope region, Agupti blacksmiths supplied horseshoes and wedges to almost all southern Bulgaria. The distributor of this “smithing production” was then the “cooperative” of the old Aguptin, Hasan Hasanov Dzhilyanov.

The old Agupti are very religious. They follow the precepts of Islam with great fanaticism. They do not miss a single prayer in the Mosque.

For their religious holidays – Sheker Bayram and Kurban Bayram [38] – they keep one, two, three rams for kurbanlok, for sacrifice. The kurbanlok is slaughtered, both for the health of the living, and for the souls of the dead.

The Agupti slaughter kurbanlok also for the health of their wives.

As we have said, the Agupti are excellent masters and have no equals in this respect. These abilities are generally recognised. Had young Agupti blacksmiths been qualified in special technical schools and mining colleges, they would have been excellent technicians and first-class mining workers.

We cannot omit noting, however, that even now many young Agupti work in the mines and are excellent miners.

The merits of the Agupti blacksmiths, as well as of the Gypsy blacksmiths in general in Bulgaria, in supporting agriculture, cattle breeding, etc. are indisputable. Their economic activity has contributed immensely to the easier cultivation of the land and to the increase of the yield.

The axes made by them, played a huge role in the timber industry and this merit must be universally acknowledged.

As regards cattle breeding, without their horseshoes or as they call them petali, the cattle, both in the Rhodope region and in the whole country, would be in a miserable condition.

CHAPTER XIX THE SAMOKOV GYPSIES

The Samokov Gypsies, like the Agupti blacksmiths from the Rhodope region, are mostly founders and blacksmiths. Both the Agupti blacksmiths and the Samokov Gypsies are extremely skilled founders and blacksmiths. Their ironworks were famous and in-demand across the country.

They made anvils, which they cast themselves, each one weighing from 20 to 100 kg. They sent the anvils to be sold all over the country. Their works were highly valued in their time because they were artfully crafted, durable and very cheap.

Apart from anvils, the Samokov Gypsies also made other iron works, such as hoes, sickles, axes, ploughshares, iron ploughs, horseshoes for horses, oxen, donkeys, and various other iron works, which were of high quality and were in-demand in the whole country.

Their most masterly work, however, were the horse-nails, or as they called them, mıhya. The cattle were shod with these first-class horse-nails and the nails were famous for their durability. The skilful and masterful creation of horse-nails earned the good name of the Samokov Gypsies, and their anvils certainly confirmed it.

In the primitive setting in which they cast and forged their hundred-pound anvils, it took great skillfulness to perform this difficult task and produce high-quality anvils, the durability of which was recognised by all blacksmith masters. With their ironworks, the Samokov Gypsies have left a deep mark as excellent founders and blacksmiths.

Their location in the middle of the country, in Samokov, allowed them to expand their trade to the south – to Тhrace, and to the north – to the Danubian plain and Dobrudja. Therefore, their role in developing and facilitating agriculture and cattle breeding in these areas is of undeniable importance. From this point of view, they undoubtedly have great merits in strengthening agriculture, cattle breeding, and timber-industry.

The Samokov Gypsies also had shops where they sold their ironworks.

The most famous masters, whose names are still remembered in Samokov, were Usta Ali, Usta Pehlivan.

CHAPTER XX THE PLOVDIV GYPSIES

Plovdiv has the biggest number of Gypsies. Here, they form the most compact minority group. According to the latest census, there are about 18,000 Gypsies in Plovdiv.

Here, as in the whole country, they are mostly blacksmiths. Like the Samokov Gypsies, they also make various agricultural tools, such as hoes, sickles, ploughshares, axes, as well as horseshoes for horses, oxen and donkeys, nails for them and the famous Gypsy nails. The Gypsy blacksmiths from Plovdiv were also famous as masters of blacksmithing.

Under the new conditions, however, with the emergence of competition from the factory production of the above agricultural tools, the Gypsies had to reorganise themselves to meet the new demands of life and to provide for themselves and for their families. Because of this, they gradually abandoned their small iron and crafts workshops and went to work in the tobacco industry, in plants, factories, craft and production cooperatives, and agricultural cooperatives.

Back in these days, when factory production was still unknown in our country, the Gypsy blacksmiths in Plovdiv had their small iron and craft shops, which were mostly on the hill Bunardzhik and there they made, in addition to agricultural tools, the famous awls (chisels) for pavement, in the Izida quarry.

The Plovdiv Gypsies, like the Samokov ones, also had their own shops in which they sold their works.

Like the Samokov Gypsies, and the Agupti in Madan, the Plovdiv Gypsies also have great merits for the rapid development of agriculture, cattle breeding, and logging in our country.

They were also skilled craftsmen and their good reputation transcended the boundaries of Plovdiv.

In political and social terms, the Plovdiv Gypsies have always followed the progressive political trends in our country, and in the first place, the Communist Party. With the emergence of socialism in our country, they were the first to join its ranks, and despite all the threats, pressure and promises of the bourgeois and fascist governments in our country, they have remained loyal supporters of the Communist Party to this day. With their flexible minds and intuition for the right decisions, the Plovdiv Gypsies as well as the Gypsies throughout the country, realised that the Communist Party was their only faithful defender and therefore wholeheartedly supported it until its complete victory on September 9, 1944.

CHAPTER XXI THE GYPSIES ALONG THE DANUBE

The Danubian Gypsies inhabit the towns of Vidin, Lom, Oryahovo, Nikopol, Svishtov, Ruse, Tutrakan and Silistra. They live both in the cities and in the villages along the Danube.

There were Gypsy blacksmiths here as well, but their number was not as large as in Madan, Samokov, Plovdiv, Sofia, Pleven, Pazardzhik and elsewhere. Many of the Danubian Gypsies, and especially those who inhabited the villages, were engaged in agriculture; some were working their small fields, while most of them were hired as agricultural workers. This was the occupation of most of the Gypsy women. The Gypsy women performed small services to the population, for which they received flour, vegetables, cheese, etc.

The Gypsy men, who lived in the cities along the Danube, usually had one craft, porters. They earned their living mainly as porters at ports and railway stations. The younger men, who lived in cities, were also shoeblacks. They are porters and shoeblacks in the cities even now.

Many of the Gypsies along the Danube, who practised the porter’s occupation, were socially insured and organised at the time, and today they receive pensions and have stopped working. They are especially grateful to the People’s Government, which secured them in old age by granting them a pension.

Here, there were also Gypsy blacksmiths, and especially in the villages, however, their number was small. Nevertheless, they gave a big support to the population by supplying them with agricultural tools, and especially by repairing the latter.

By religion, the Danubian Gypsies are mostly Muslims, but there are also Christians, significantly smaller in number. They are not fanatics in their religious beliefs.

After September 9, 1944, the Gypsies, both in the cities and in the villages, entered the agricultural cooperatives and, along with the Bulgarians, were active cooperative workers.

The Danubian Gypsies, perhaps due to the good livelihood they had as porters, are culturally at a higher level than, for example, the Madan Gypsies. They have nice, albeit small, but neat houses in which they maintain very good cleanliness. Therefore, when the Gypsies celebrate their religious holidays – St George’s Day, St Basil’s Day and the God-bearer, the Bulgarians visit their houses quite commonly and they stay there for lunch or dinner. The same is observed at the Gypsy weddings. The latter never take place without visits by Bulgarian men and women.

It is noteworthy, as a characteristic and beneficial fact, that after September 9, 1944, the interest among the Gypsies in education has increased, especially among the youth. It is not uncommon, for example, to meet almost every day, young Gypsies on the streets of the city with books in their hands, which they have borrowed from local community centres. They are among the very good clients of the community centres.

Their children, on the other hand, attend the schools where the Bulgarian children study.

The Danubian Gypsies are renowned as hardworking and honest people. That is why the population loves them very much.

The Danubian Gypsies, like the rest of their compatriots all over the world, are musical. There is almost no town along the Danube, and in the larger Danubian villages, without musical bands. In addition to the purely Gypsy music groups, in many places, Gypsy musicians make music together with Bulgarian musicians.

After September 9, 1944, many of the young Gypsies graduated from high schools and entered government offices and cooperatives, where they proved to be good workers.

Politically and socially, the Danubian Gypsies have progressive views.

During the People Uprising in 1923, the Gypsies of Lom were at the forefront of the uprising and many of them fell from the bullets of the fascists.

CHAPTER XXII GYPSY CAULDRON-MAKERS AND TINSMITHS

Some of the Gypsies, in addition to blacksmithing, were also engaged in making copper cauldrons, which they sold to the population in towns and villages. These cauldrons were handmade; they were very strong because they were wrought, not extruded, and were preferred by many people. In addition to cauldrons, they made pots, pans, coffee pots and many other copper products and cutlery.

They also tinned these copper products. Tinning took place either in the small tinsmith workshops, which were in the homes of the tinsmiths or in the homes of the clients themselves.

Some of the masters worth mentioning, who have proven themselves to be great in their craft, and whose names are remembered by the generations, are Dimir, Murat, Osman and Yashar. These masters left many worthy successors, who to this day successfully continue their craft.

The Gypsy blacksmiths, coppersmiths and tinsmiths usually worked in their workshops with their whole families. All family members helped with the work. Women had the task of selling the works of their husbands, and they often collected orders for new work.

CHAPTER XXIII ARTISTIC-CULTURAL WORK

The first manifestations of artistic, cultural, and musical work took place in 1902, in Sofia. Our talented musicians and artists then organised an art theatre and performed several plays with great success, including Ibish Aga, Kuklik, Leblebizhi and others. These plays were very successful, and this success greatly encouraged the initiators to continue this work. Outstanding were several of our compatriots: Amet (Babushka), Muto (Koko), Aisha, Ali (the Rabbit), Dzhemila and Akila, and the violinist Yanchev was no less successful. During the Bayram, Ramadan and other religious and patriotic holidays, they performed artistic programmes almost every night, which were a great success.

During the Turkish occupation, our compatriots had become very famous for the special tricks they performed like walking on a rope known as ibzhanbaz. In addition, our compatriots performed various scenes during the holidays, and during these parties our compatriot Dingel Ahmed excelled the most.

They made the performances in the present-day Lozenets area, by the river, where there were many willows, and around the Roman Wall, which was then called the Namazyah, where the hadjis went to pray after their return from the hadj pilgrimage.

The talented Hungarian Gypsy violinist, Oskar Egon Halmi, played in Rodopi pub fifty years ago; the orchestra of the Serbian Gypsy Vuleto played in other restaurants; and all this is described in the book by Georgi Kanazirski-Verin, entitled Sofia 50 Years Ago [Каназирски-Верин, 1947].

It is obvious that the cultural awakening among the Gypsy minority began more than half a century ago, but due to the specific living conditions of the Gypsies, they could not develop and engage in activities with results. Cruelly exploited and totally discriminated against, despite the legal requirements of the Tarnovo constitution providing that all Bulgarian citizens are equal, the Gypsies could not develop their theatrical, musical, and artistic geniuses in their breadth. Crushed under pressure to think every day and hour about their livelihoods, they abandoned these cultural aspirations in order to meet the basic needs of their families.

It was only after the people’s victory on September 9, 1944, that the Gypsies were liberated from oppression and discrimination, and devoted themselves to the mainstream culture, and theatrical, musical, and educational activities in general. In our country, since September 9, 1944, many Gypsy amateur groups were created, the success of which is undoubtedly great. They are moving only forward, and we have every reason to hope and believe that these groups will grow into real cultural centres opening space for the Gypsies to develop their talents. In this respect, they have the full support – moral and material, of the people’s government.

CHAPTER XXIV EDUCATIONAL WORK

The Gypsy students, before the Liberation and soon after that, even up to 1905, used to study in Sofia in the Turkish school whose moalim (principal) used to be Osman Efendi. More than a hundred Gypsy pupils used to study in this school, five of which were sent to study with a scholarship at the University of Istanbul [39] by the Turkish Religious Council. Their names were: Kocho Ramadanov, Malik Omerov, Sadik Sefidov and Ibrahim Kokov.

In 1905, due to the expulsion of the Turkish population from Sofia and Bulgaria, the number of Turkish students decreased and those who remained were mainly the children of our compatriots. The members of the new Turkish Board of Trustees who were angry about this fact, closed the school and our children massively went to the Bulgarian schools in 1906. After September 9, 1944, on the initiative of our organisation, a Committee was founded, which asked the People’s authorities to build a separate school. The Committee was composed by the following people: Shaban Yushniev, Meto Bilalov, Demcho Blagoev and the then Member of Parliament Shakir Pashev. The members of the Committee managed to explain our need for a Gypsy school, and as a result, our People’s authorities built a separate, new school. The newspaper Rabotnichesko delo, issue 263, published on November 10, 1948, informed about the launching of the first Gypsy school. The description is accompanied by a photograph which shows how the then Member of Parliament from the Gypsy minority, Shakir Pashev, turns the first sod.

In 1906, the newly created Gypsy gymnastic societies, performed day and evening programs and organised excursions to Knyazhevo and Vrazhdebna.

According to our social order, and similarly to the European Gypsy minority groups, we had a leader, called Muhtar (Cheribashiya), who represented the Gypsy minority in front of the official authorities [40]. The Cheribashia was elected voluntarily, and he made sure that the moral norms and order were observed by the population.

In 1919, after they came back from the war, the Gypsies gathered in a meeting in which we already had young, intelligent people; during a stormy meeting the aforementioned elders (cheribashii) were ousted and replaced by Committees with five to seven members which represented the Gypsy minority in front of the authorities and cared after the re-education of the minority. The committees were composed of a President, a Secretary, and Members. Besides the committees, there were also associations for the support of the socially weak which had existed since old times. These were called ‘londzhi’ [41]. The latter continued their work. They helped those who are most in need while alive and in cases of death. Each londzha was composed of between 30 and 50 members. They used to organise outings in Knyazhevo (Bali Efendi, Bali Baba) [42] and other places, where they organised musical parties with horo and other dances throughout the day. The leaders of the londzhi were called Usta Bashi and Egit Bashi.

In 1920, the Gypsy youth substituted these londzhi with associations, which were managed also in a new, modern way. Their management was composed of a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Members of the Managing Board, while their statutes were approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. These Committees had the same task as the londzhi – to give out aid and to be vigilant in preserving good morals.

CHAPTER XXV EGYPT

Having talked so much in this book about Egypt and India, I cannot resist be it a cursory description of these two wonderful countries, which raised disputes with regard to the origins of the Gypsies.

For Egypt, I will give excerpts from the wonderful travelogue of Totyu Belchev Days and Nights by the Nile: A History Lesson, published in newspaper Otechestven front:

“I crossed far and wide a dozen of countries; I learned about the way of life and culture, the achievements and struggles of many people, but what I learned and saw near the Nile, I had never met anywhere. It grabs the person, conquers them with terrible force, excites them and gives them no peace, clenches their fists in an angry protest against colonialism and the enslavers who made millions of people live in indescribable conditions.

The Egyptians, who in ancient times stopped in north-eastern Africa between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the east, have a millennial history. They sought happiness in the spills of the full river Nile, which in summer, due to the melting ice and heavy rains in the mountains from which it springs and in its upstream, comes out of its bed and floods with its murky waters thousands of acres and sands for hundreds of miles, before flowing into the sea not far from Alexandria. The Nile silts are blessed – lush greenery gushes as the river recedes, and the people who survived the floods, swarming like ants, gather rich harvests – up to three, and sometimes four per year. And if the Egyptians still live in bad conditions, we cannot blame them or their present leaders, who are searching a way to a better future and have fought life-and-death battles against barbaric colonialism.

Egyptian history is full of lessons. Let’s turn some of its pages.

In the middle of the fourth millennium BC, Egypt was formed as a slave-owning state. Already in ancient times, the country became a centre of highly developed science, art, construction equipment and music. The flourishing of the Egyptian material and spiritual culture in ancient times is evidenced by the preserved pyramids, sphinxes, obelisks, parchments, various handicrafts of ivory, stone, gold, silver, wood, etc. It is not only these works that fascinate our contemporary fellow men. Many centuries ago, the Egyptians created the mummies with remarkable mastery, that inspires and delights the visitors to the museum of Cairo, who cannot take their eyes off the man-made monuments of the ancient Egyptian civilisation, savagely crushed by the “civilisation” of the colonialists, who trampled in the mud the flowers of the once flourishing culture. The Egyptian people are especially proud when they talk about the historical monuments in Giza, Luxor, and Cairo. Many of them are from the time of Ramses II, Cheops and other pharaohs. The ancient ruins are still carefully preserved to tell to the generations what Egypt had been before it lost, towards the beginning of our era, its power and independence.

Dressed in their old Egyptian costume, the dry, tall cicerone from the luxurious Luxor Hotel takes us a long way between the obelisks dotted with arabesques and the ancient 17–18-meter-high columns of Luxor historical monuments. His olive-black eyes now gleamed with joy, now sparkled with hatred as he spoke of the bright days of his people’s lives or the gloomy, long years of bloody colonial oppression. The hours passed imperceptibly; countless electric lights started shining on the Luxor. The great river, which had witnessed so many events, was slowly dragging its waters to cut through the sands of the Libyan desert, before reaching the Mediterranean Sea. And Mahmoud went on talking and talking … As if every corner, every stone became a living thing who spoke about the days and nights along the Nile, by the date palms, by the dunes in the desert, on the banks of the Suez Canal, and about the short-lived joy of the Egyptian past. About the days and nights in the impenetrable darkness of long slavery.

In 332 BC, Alexander the Great’s hordes occupied the country with bloody battles, and after that, it fell under Roman rule for three centuries. In the middle of the 7th century, Egypt entered the Arab Caliphate after the conquest by the Arabs, who assimilated the ancient Egyptians, and the latter accepted Islam and the Arabic language. In 1517, in the hands of Ottoman Turkey, Egypt was turned for about 500 years into an Ottoman province, oppressed and plundered, just like our homeland during the five-century Turkish yoke. The terrible Turkish plunder ruined the Egyptian peasants and Egyptian agriculture, which perished soon afterwards. The irrigation system was destroyed, the cultivated areas were limited, the crafts declined, and the trade was ruined. The unbridled Ottoman cruelty and exploitation led the Egyptians to poverty and disbelief, which other people rarely experienced. Death by malnutrition and unbearable slavery reigned in the Nile Valley, and Egypt’s population quickly began to decrease. People died like flies – without care from anywhere – in darkness and ignorance. For centuries, they lived in holes dug in the ground which was thrown away during the digging of the irrigation canals; in roofless huts; under the open sky; without a loaf of bread all day, ragged, skinny, deadened by incurable stomach, lung and skin diseases. Misery and destitution, which one cannot imagine that ever existed or still exist; misery and destitution in front of which the heart’s rhythm breaks; misery and destitution that leaves you breathless. This misery and destitution pushed the population to rise in uprisings for freedom and independence.

And that was not enough. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the European coloniser set foot on Egyptian soil. Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Egypt in 1798. At the foot of the hills of the low Mokattam Mountains, from which the city of Cairo begins, rises the Citadel with its majestic fortress walls and the mosque, built 148 years ago. Traces from the cannonballs of Napoleon’s troops, who captured the Egyptians, can still be seen on the walls. And something else reminds of those times: the clock tower donated by Bonaparte, stolen from who knows which other enslaved country, and brought here as a sign of “mercy” and “friendship” by the conqueror, who seized the wealth of the country. The people, however, did not reconcile with the French rule and after years of hard and fierce struggles, they forced them to leave the borders of Egypt. England’s attempts to settle in the Nile Valley in 1807 were unsuccessful.

The Western colonisers, who knew Egypt’s price as the centre of Europe’s roads to Asia and Africa, did not give up their intentions to conquer it. The rich country of the Egyptians, located around the stream and delta of the water-full river Nile, would not escape the dangers. The colonisers knew about Egypt’s favourable climate conditions, about its natural resources, about the infinitely cheap labour, which they could find there for processing cotton, wheat, corn, rice, sugar cane, legumes (beans, peas, etc.), tangerines, oranges, bananas, and many other agricultural fruits that the country is famous for. Their wolfish appetite was aroused by the deposits of oil, iron ore, lead, zinc, nickel, tungsten, gold, and marble in the earth, which bespoke innumerable gains and made the thieves of the peoples’ happiness rub their hands in delight. Why should it matter that a few thousand years before our era, one of the first hearths of human civilization went ablaze in Egypt, a country of world importance then?

After all, the interests of the colonisers suggested that the country must be conquered in order to exploit its people and its enormous wealth, to plunder with impunity, to suck its life juices.

And as they could not enter through the doors, they crept in through the window. British merchants, using the Treaty of Turkey imposed in 1838, flooded all the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including Egypt, with goods, suffocating the nascent Egyptian national industry. Assisted by Turkey, the English bourgeoisie gradually conquered all branches of the Egyptian economy. Seizing the lands of the Egyptians, the colonisers imposed enslaving loans on the country and that is how the influence of foreign capital, mainly French and English, became dominant.

The struggle for colonies and sea routes between England and France became extremely fierce at the end of the 18th century, as a result of which France lost its possessions in India, in the western hemisphere, and decided to replace this loss by strengthening its position in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. As early as the occupation of Egypt by Napoleon’s troops (1798–1801), the French developed a plan to dig the Suez Canal, but their expulsion thwarted their intentions.

In 1802, Egypt again fell under the vassal dependence of Turkey. Anarchy and economic decline began to reign in the country; violent peasant uprisings broke out; and the starving people rose to fight for bread and independence. A few years later, in 1805, the Turkish sultan’s representative in Egypt received the title of pasha and became a full-fledged unlimited ruler of the country, which was turned into an absolute feudal state of large landowners. Taxation and other reforms deepened the enslavement of the population.

Our footsteps echo on the stone courtyards; the alabaster-lined walls of the mosque; in the rooms of Mohammed Ali’s harem of more than 150 women; in the ceremonial hall with antique chests and carpets from ancient times; between the columns of the Citadel. In front of us are Hindus who have come to see the sights of Cairo. We stop in front of every corner to hear the explanations of our companion Georgi Isaevich (one of the four Isaevich brothers who came here from Bulgaria 25–30 years ago), who knows every important area of the city, and the streets which he walked many times. In the ceremonial hall of the mosque, built by Mohammed Ali, with its minarets in the Mokattam Hills towering above the other mosques, Bai Georgi stops us to recall what happened to the Mamluks, the rulers of the districts.

[…]

The years were flying by, the slavery continued … Mohammed Ali, who ruled Egypt after 1805, contrary to what has been previously stated, did not feel he had solid ground under his feet and cunningly decided to get rid of the Mamluk tribal chiefs. At the opening of the mosque in the Citadel, he invited all the Mamluk feudal lords, gathered them in the ceremonial hall, and when they were waiting for his appearance, tough executioners with yataghans jumped out of the chests, and began a slaughter in which 365 people died and only one managed to escape. The land of the Mamluk feudal lords was confiscated by Mohammed Ali. Since then, he had suddenly become incredibly rich. At the same time, the extermination of all Mamluks continued. Having settled his accounts in this way, he created a European-style army and navy, and fought for a long time.

The blood and tears of those years had not yet dried, when in 1854, the French capitalists, through the French General Consul in Alexandria, F. Lesseps succeeded in concluding a concession agreement with Egypt for the construction of the 168 km long Suez Canal, with a width on its surface of 80–135 meters, and at the bottom 45–100 metres, and depth of 11–12, meters, which connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. The Egyptian viceroy from 1822 to 1863, Said Pasha (Mohamed) after whom was named the town of Port Said at the entrance to the Suez Canal, became a shareholder in the so-called stock company Universal Company of the Maritime Canal of Suez. Under the terms of the concession, Egypt provided the company with the land through which the canal would pass free of charge and, most importantly, undertook to give the company, free of charge, four-fifths of all workers needed to dig the canal. The tragedy of the Egyptians became enormous. Under unbearable weather conditions, under the scorching sun, hungry, often without a drop of water, all day in arid, completely uninhabited areas, 40,000 people, mostly ragged and skinny peasants, began slave labour on the facilities of the canal. Separated from their families, who were brought to the sites to evade heavy taxes and other levies, the fellahs and the other martyrs of the Suez Canal died of starvation and illnesses on the routes of the canal. No wonder that 120,000 Egyptians left their bones fighting with the sands, rocks, and land under harsh conditions, digging the Suez Canal, which has brought the colonisers billions in profits since those days.

If the traveller set foot on Egyptian soil, they would learn what the suffering was, how widespread the poverty was, while on the bones of the Egyptian people, the Suez Canal stretched from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea to shorten the way for the colonizers’ ships carrying goods from distant Asian, African, and other coasts.

A black, pitch-dark night fell over the land of the freedom-loving Egyptian people – the night of ruthless and cruel barbaric colonial exploitation. The defeats of the past are still visible, and they have left their mark on the days and nights along the Nile.

The government is making efforts to erase them; the people struggle to overcome their backwardness and to come out on a straight road; to live more humanely because they have the right to do so. But is it easy to recover the economy which was robbed for centuries, and the people who were oppressed for hundreds of years, groaning under the yoke and scythe of more than one enslaver?

It takes an enormous effort by the population and a heavy strain on the resources of the state to move the country uphill.

We detest imperialism and colonial slavery, which is shameful for mankind, and which many peoples are courageously fighting to overthrow. However, we could hardly perceive the hatred of the Arab peoples and other oppressed peoples towards imperialism and the colonizers.

[…]

When I set foot on Egyptian soil for about a month during these years, the root of evil, which infuriated the Arab peoples to the bottom of their hearts, flashed naked in front of me. From Upper Egypt, along the Nile and through the deserts, I reached Lower Egypt, descended from the Red Sea along the Suez Canal, and set foot on the Mediterranean coast of Alexandria, from where I returned after a short stay along the straight as a string road through the Cairo desert.

I enjoyed the ancient Greek culture, whose monuments are preserved in Cairo, Luxor, Giza with the majestic Pyramid of Cheops and its two cousins; the miracle of Egypt, the 73 meters long sphinx, carved from stone, stretching its huge torso on the sands, which has endured the storms of the desert and the bloody invasions.”

CHAPTER XXVI INDIA. THE ROAD THROUGH THE MILLENNIA

We give the present notes on India from the book of the Austrian Harry Sichrovski, who has lived in India for many years and knows it intimately.

India, which occupies a key position in Asia, is getting closer to the centre of the world events day by day. However, very little is known in Europe about this huge country, and even that little knowledge often has nothing to do with reality. [44]

The author of this book has lived in India for many years. He is a young Austrian who has personally come to know the colourful mix of peoples there as well as the social relations in this subcontinent.

In connection with his book, a contemporary Indian writer wrote to the author the following:

A deep-rooted belief and a traditional legend exist in Europe, and they are limited to several fantastic concepts: fabulously rich maharajas, also fabulously beautiful bayaderki [Shamakhi dancers], the hunting of tigers and elephants, snake tamers, rope players, yogis and fakirs who sleep on nails, and finally mystical, mysterious rites and customs, and a deep, abyss-like, unknowable soul that an ordinary mortal does not hope to reveal. This is the veil that traditions, biased reports, and sensational journalism have thrown at my homeland. Your book will show what treasures of culture and knowledge India has given to the world, how its people actually live, what path its history has taken, what is the significance of the religion and the nationalities, and what is the state of other problems that are abundant in India and waiting for a solution. I am sure that the light you spread about India and its place in the modern world will help dispel the darkness and tear the veil.

Yours sincerely: Mulk Raj Anand. [45]

Indian history begins in the dark and passes a long way through thickets, forests, and jungles, through the darkness that has not been completely penetrated today by the light of research. There is not much information about the prehistoric people in India. Parts of the petrified jaw of the Sivapithecus, an extinct ape that lived 20 million years ago in the forests of the southern slopes of the Himalayas, have been found in the rocks of Sivalik Hill in Kashmir and Bilaspur. Fossils of the Dryopithecus (an ape living in the trees, a monkey of the oak forests) reveal characteristics which are similar to the humans. Fossil cranial types with a wide nose, a slightly protruding face, a strongly reclining forehead, and protruding bones under the eyebrows have been found from the Older and Younger Stone Ages. This Aditanalur man, as he is called by his whereabouts, does not resemble the Negroid Grimaldi man of France and the African Bushman. The discovery of tools made of flint, quartzite, basalt, and hardened lava, as well as engravings, carvings on the rocks and drawings on the caves (by the way, images of a rhino and a giraffe), allows us to conclude that the settling in India by prehistoric people occurred about 400,000 years ago. Between that period and the appearance of certain tribes, there are big gaps in the research. The descendants of the oldest inhabitants of India are considered to be the tribes of Mon-Khmer, Munda, Santal, Naga, and others. Later came the Dravidians, whose descendants today are the South Indian peoples of Telegu, Tamil, Malayali, and Kannadiga. And finally came those who decisively influenced the fate of India and perhaps half the world, the Aryans.

Where did the Aryans come from? Opinions vary widely.

From Siberia?

From the Volga region?

From Persia?

An Indian nationalist was trying to prove that the ancestral home of the Aryans was the Arctic.

It is more likely that the Aryans had no homeland but lived scattered across the European steppe from where they emigrated to Europe, Asia Minor, and India. This process must have lasted from 3,000 to 1,000 years before our era.

Why did the Aryans move?

They were probably forced to do so by some natural disaster, perhaps by a flood. Besides, as nomads, they had to look for new pastures, new food. Maybe they were driven out by enemy tribes. That is how they came in small and larger groups with their entire families, not as conquerors but as vagrants and settlers in Kashmir, Punjab and through the Khyber passage.

Over time, due to rapid reproduction and environmental exhaustion, the tribe was not able to find conditions for life in its previous habitat. In search of new places to live, one part separated, a new tribe emerged and developed new habits, manners, and a different language. It happened that natural disasters, droughts and floods destroyed the food, livestock, and household goods of the tribe. With this, new factors came in the primitive society – the war, the struggle for water, for cattle, for pastures. The wandering horde attacked other clans in order to secure the conditions of life it needed but had lost; or after a long journey, the tribe finally found a comfortable pasture or a hunting ground, which had already been inhabited by others and thus it set out to conquer the land.

The pastoral tribes separated from the rest of the barbarians: this was the first great social division of labour. The pastoral tribes not only produced more means of subsistence than the other barbarians, but they were also different. They had not only milk, dairy products, and meat in larger quantities, but also hides, wool, fur and yarns and fabrics (which have been increasing along with the mass of raw material). That’s how regular exchange became possible for the first time.

The second great division of labour occurred when agriculture was separated from crafts. In India, the first artisans were the foundry workers, who mined and processed copper, tin, bronze, and weavers.

With the increase of goods and the complexity of the social production process, the social division of labour also expanded. There was a need for people to deal with rites and prayers, with predicting the time and the future, and with healing the sick.

There was a need for strong, battle-tested men to take on the constant protection of the community.

This is how the castes of the Brahmins (the priests) and that of Kshatriya (soldiers) originated, while all the others – the peasants, the craftsmen, the stockbreeders – represented the caste Visha (later Vaishya). The captives, who served as lawless helpers in agriculture, cattle breeding, crafts, etc., formed the fourth caste Shudra (the slaves).

Around the same time, when Attila’s hordes invaded the Roman Empire, India experienced its first Hun invasion. The Huns, also a nomadic tribe from Central Asia, flooded all of North and Central India. For fifty years, India was under the rule of the Hun king Toramana and his son Mihirakula.

The Huns were followed by Harsha-Vardhana, who founded one more time an empire from the Ganges to the Kathiawar Peninsula. He remained in history as one of the last rulers before the great Muslim invasions and as the last significant Buddhist king of India.

A new historical period began in India after Harsha’s death. Arab tribes attacked and occupied Sindh. They brought Islam within India’s borders for the first time. Once again, the South Indian states stood out at the forefront of historical events. The most beautiful and richest of the colonies of these countries was today’s Indochina.

About 1000 AD, Mahmoud of Ghazni invaded Afghanistan with fire and a sword and conquered Punjab. In Somnath, 50,000 people fled to the temple, hoping that the gods would not abandon them and make some miracle. However, their hopes were in vain. They were all killed. Mahmud’s hordes were Turkish-Mongol tribes from Central Asia. The living conditions in these steppes determined the history and customs of their inhabitants. They were mainly shepherds, nomads, whose economic bases were the flocks of horses, sheep, and camels. Along with this, hunting played a big role, while agriculture – almost none. The blacksmith occupies the first place among the craftsmen. The search for comfortable pastures was the main concern of the tribe; the horse, as a means of transport, was man’s most important companion.

This nomadic economic form did not allow the formation of larger social communities. The norm was the small independent community, which comprised only one tribe.

CHAPTER XXVII THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOCIETY EGIPET [EGYPT] AND ITS MERGING WITH THE COMMUNIST PARTY

The Society Egipet [Egypt] was founded in Sofia in 1919. A major part of the Gypsy intelligentsia and all progressive youth were members of the Society. The task of the society was to raise the cultural and educational level of its members and of the Gypsy minority itself, and most of all – to work for the political and civic awakening of the Gypsy minority. This work was extremely hard because the backwardness of the Gypsies in every respect was a generally acknowledged fact. With great enthusiasm, the society’s initiators got ready for work. Through lectures, personal conversations, excursions, etc., the aim was to persuade the Gypsy minority to adopt a more cultured life. And much has been done in that respect, too.

A few months after the formation of the Society Egipet, following a decision of the General Assembly, with great enthusiasm and political consciousness, the members made a decision to merge the society into the Communist Party (formerly ‘Narrow Socialists’) [43]. On the day of the merger, a solemn assembly took place; among the invited were Dr Valcho Ivanov, secretary of the third district, attorney Dr Alexander Lambrev, and others. The merging of the Society Egipet into the Party took place in the most solemn setting, in the club of the society, at 51 Tatarli Street.

At the time of the merging, the management of the organisation consisted of the following nine members: Assen Totev, Shakir Pashev, Yusein Bilalov, Mancho Shakirov, Mustava Saidiev, Demir Yasharov, Mancho Arifov, Ali Yasharov and Ramcho Shakirov. The last three are now dead.

In its initial composition, the society comprised about 50 members.

In 1920, the society, which was already fully incorporated into the Communist Party, was provided with a wine-red flag that was safely kept by Comrade Yusein Bilalov. Carrying the flag, the society members departed from the club on 25 Tatarli Street, passed through the streets of Sofia and headed to the Party’s regional club on Tsar Simeon Street, where the then-young railwayman Shakir Pashev gave a speech.

Carrying the same flag, the society participated in the manifestation on the 1st of May, passing through the whole city.

When the founder of Communism in Bulgaria, Grandfather Dimitar Blagoev, died on May 7, 1924, most of the Gypsy minority participated in the funeral of the beloved leader of the workers’ movement in Bulgaria. Gypsy tobacco-workers wore and handed over giant wreaths of real flowers that they laid on the grave of the unforgettable and beloved Grandfather Blagoev.

All Gypsies at the funeral were dressed in national Gypsy clothes, shalwars.

CHAPTER XXVIII STRUGGLES FOR CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

At a meeting in 1921, the progressive youth decided to set up a committee with the task of securing political and civic rights for the Gypsy minority. Despite the constitutional provisions, [Prime-Minister Petko] Karavelov, who was dissatisfied with the Gypsy minority because they had not supported him but had given their support to [Vasil] Radoslavov, deprived the Gypsies of their electoral rights. Karavelov’s blatantly unconstitutional act was received with pain by the Gypsy minority, who believed that he had no reason to do that [44].

Considering the numerous youths who took part in the 1915–1918 war and those who left their bones across the Balkan Peninsula, the Gypsy minority felt that there was every reason to claim equality before the laws of the country. The Prime Minister then was Aleksandar Stamboliyski.

The elected Committee members included Yusein Balilov, Shakir Pashev, Rashid Mehmedov, Redzheb Yuseinov, Muto Bialov, Yusuf Mehmedov, Bilal Osanov.

Shortly after it was set up, the Committee appeared before Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski, who listened intently to the Committee’s requests and then promised that these rights would be granted. He kept his promise. At the first meeting of the next National Assembly, he submitted a proposal for the restitution of the voting rights of the Gypsies and with the support of the Communist MPs, the law was passed [in 1923] [Дневник, 1923].

In 1925, the Gypsy minority elected a school Board of Trustees, consisting of President Rashid Mehmedov, Vice-President Redzheb Yuseinov and Secretary Shakir Pashev; Members: Mustafa Enkekov, Malik Omerov. The school Board of Trustees was approved by the Sofia municipality, but the Turkish religious community, which was required by law to guarantee for the school board, refused to do so. The Muslim Gypsies at that time fought to have the right to be elected to the Waqf Board of Trustees [45]. The statute of the Muslim community required the presence of 40 families as a condition for the Gypsies to have the right to elect, and since the Gypsies did not fulfil this condition, the Muslim community did not agree once again. This action on the part of the Muslim community has greatly aroused the Gypsy minority. All Gypsies united and soon obtained certificates from Sofia municipality for more than 40 families that they are Mohamedans and that they are Turks. The Muslim community, however, resisted and did not want to acknowledge the certificates as credible. The struggle reached the Supreme Administrative Court, but here again the case was decided in favour of the Muslim religious community. The Gypsies were left with undisputed documents that they are Turks.

Once, before elections, Nikola Mushinov appointed a three-member commission including Yusein Papukchiev, president; Hyusein Bilalov, Secretary and Malik Eminov, Member. After the elections, however, there was no chance for this commission to take their place because Shumkov, Nikola Mushanov’s private secretary, had issued an order preventing the aforementioned three-member commission to take over the responsibility of the Waqf Board of Trustees from the old members; as is also now, the few Turks who had remained, prevailed over the majority [46].

The Gypsy minority has not despaired even this time, and they devoted themselves to organisational life. As a consequence, on May 7, 1929, the first organisation of the Gypsy minority in Sofia was founded, which united all former societies (londzhi) in the Istikbal (Future) organisation, which had the significant, for that time, number of 1,500 members, with President Yusuf Mehmedov and Secretary, Shakir Pashev, and Member, Yusein Bilalov.

In that same year, the Association Vzaimopomosht (Mutual Aid) was founded, with President Rashid Mehmedov, whose members were part of the former londzhi. Thus, the Gypsy minority created two large organisations – Istikbal and Vzaimopomosht.

Besides these two large organisations, the Gypsies also had other professional associations of blacksmiths, tinsmiths, and traders who were members of Istikbal.

There were also youth cultural and educational associations with very progressive trends: the Society Naangle [Forward] [47] and the Sports society Egipet [Egypt]

In 1930, the progressive youth united the two large organisations of the Gypsy minority in one single organisation, called ‘Istikbal’ (Future), with President Shakir Pashev, two Vice-Presidents, namely: Redzheb Yuseinov and Rashid Mehmedov and Secretary: Ahmed Sotirov and Ramcho Shakirov, and Members: Yusein Bialov, Emin Eminov, Raycho Kochev and others.

In 1931, following the proposal of the President of the organisation, Shakir Pashev, a decision was made for the publication of a Gypsy newspaper, entitled Terbie (Upbringing). His first editor was Shakir Pashev. The newspaper had distribution throughout the country. For that purpose, many people were organised in Vratsa, Lom, Oryahovo, Pleven, Plovdiv, Kyustendil, Stara Zagora, Rousse, Shumen, Burgas, Pernik, Sliven and in many villages.

The task of both the united organisation Istikbal and the newspaper Terbie was the upbringing and the enlightenment of the Gypsy population in Bulgaria through culture and education.

On May 7, 1932, the First Gypsy Conference took place at Mezdra station. This Conference was held thanks to the initiative of the Gypsy organisation in Vratsa. Organisers of the Conference were our compatriots Nikola Palashev and Sando Ibrov. Delegates from the whole Vratsa region, including from the villages, were present. Mihailovgrad, Oryahovo and the villages around it, Byala-Slatina, Pleven, Lom, Cherven-bryag and Sofia were also presented here. The Sofia delegation was headed by the President of organisation Istikbal in Sofia – Shakir Pashev, and also included Emin Eminov, Naydo Yasharov and Ali Yasharov. The conference took place near the Mezdra fortress, and it decided that all Gypsies in Bulgaria should be led by the organisation Istikbal. It was also decided that the Istikbal’s organ, the newspaper Terbie, would spread as an enlightening beam to the last Gypsy hut in Bulgaria.

On May 7, 1934, a wreath was laid at the tomb of the deceased activist of the organisation, Redzheb Yuseinov, who had generously contributed to the school and to the Gypsy children. He was Vice-President of the Gypsy organisation for a long time. He was born on May 10, 1879 and died on December 30, 1933. On behalf of the leadership of the organisation, Shakir Pashev and the Secretary Ramcho Shakirov joined the ceremony and made a short speech. Since then, on May 7th the Gypsy minority paid tribute to the honoured Gypsy activist, Redzheb Yuseinov, at his grave.

The Istikbal cultural and educational organisation became a legal representative of the Gypsy minority in Bulgaria. The organisation kept a register for the births and deaths only for Sofia. It had its own funeral car. Istikbal issued official notices for our compatriots, without which the Sofia Municipality did not issue the necessary certificates. The organisation used to present to the municipality a list of poor Gypsy families based on which the families received material assistance.

In short, Istikbal played the role of the only official institution representing the Gypsy minority before the legal authorities in Sofia.

The newspaper Terbie, on the other hand, played the role of an educator of the Gypsy minority. Its task was to raise the cultural and educational level of the Gypsies, to work towards their political and civil education, and to guide the Gypsy minority towards progressive political ideas, which guarantee the equality of all nations in the country. This task was executed with passion and enthusiasm and the leadership of the newspaper was truly happy when they found out that the newspaper was raising the level of the Gypsies in all aspects. Hyusein A. Bilalov was one of the closest associates in the newspaper and he was in the Editorial Board. He was really enthusiastic, he loved the newspaper and with his work he was the right arm of the editor, Shakir Pashev. Both of them, joining forces, and wasting no time, energy, and money, made concerted efforts to improve the pages of the newspaper and make it lively, luscious and interesting for its readers. They were aware that a newspaper could become attractive for the readers when it advocates for their material well-being as well as when it reflects their thoughts, desires, aims and ideals. In that respect, they made anything possible to satisfy the numerous requirements of their readers. Also, they were proud because Terbie was the first newspaper in Europe which was published with the goal of raising the cultural and educational level of the Gypsy minority. Before the creation of the newspaper Terbie and long after that, nowhere in Europe there was a newspaper for the Gypsy minorities [48]. That was a huge advantage for the Bulgarian Gypsies, and the newspaper initiators, especially the Editorial Board, took justified pride in this fact.

In its columns, the newspaper reflected the everyday concerns of the Gypsy minority; it covered the comprehensive and fruitful work of the organisation Istikbal; reflected the realities of the other Gypsy organisations – those of the youth, of their sports clubs, of the craftsmen; and communicated all events which took place in the lives of the Gypsy minority. It encouraged the young and enthusiastic Gypsies to improve as much as possible their cultural and educational level; it worked tirelessly towards the overall development of the Gypsy minority; it encouraged the people for progressive political and civil activities; it fought against prejudices, rigid and dying traditions, and in that respect, it had an undoubted success. For example, it was at the forefront in the fight for the abandonment of the feredzhe [49] and shalwars, and in that respect, it helped the struggles of the organisation Istikbal. Looking at the fruits of its work, the Editorial Board was happy because there was consent that without cultural and educational development of the Gypsy minority, without abandoning the harmful, rigid prejudices, superstitions and norms, a nation cannot make progress. The editorial board was aware that, above all, the Gypsy minority had to get rid of all harmful prejudices, and take a new road towards re-education, to accept the new progressive political and civil ideas; and in a word, to be in harmony with all other civilised nations.

The newspaper Terbie was published in the Bulgarian language.

By a decision of the first national Gypsy conference in Bulgaria, which took place at the Mezdra station, near the fortress, on the initiative of the Gypsy minority in Vratsa, the newspaper Terbie was declared the newspaper of the Gypsy minority in Bulgaria. The Conference recommended that it should reach even the last Gypsy hut in order to work for the re-education of the minority. The Conference also decided that the Sofia organisation Istikbal should be representative of all Gypsies in the country.

The newspaper Terbie was welcomed with exaltation, enthusiasm and unheard excitement, by the Gypsies from Sofia and from the country alike. It was in demand. Everybody promoted it. Each Gypsy and especially the youth, became a promoter for the widespread distribution of the newspaper among the Gypsy minority. The pride and happiness of the Bulgarian Gypsies were for a true reason because the newspaper Terbie was the first newspaper in Europe, which was issued on behalf of the Gypsy minority. It was a pride for the Gypsies themselves and even more so for its initiators. Shakir Pashev, who was among the first people to come up with the idea of the Gypsy newspaper in Bulgaria and his first assistant Hyusein A. Bilalov, had all the reasons to be happy that their idea was welcomed with such excitement by their compatriots. They made every effort to improve the content of the newspaper so that it became a true educator of their compatriots. Whether they were successful with this task remains to be judged by those who assess the results from the newspaper. As for the initiators, they fulfilled their obligation towards their nation.

The fact that the demand for the newspaper increased each day; the fact that everybody was eager to regularly receive it, shows us how relevant the idea of issuing a Gypsy newspaper has been.

The results from the educational role of the newspaper, as well as the results from the work of the organisation Istikbal soon became obvious. There was no doubt about the role and influence of the newspaper Terbie and the organisation Istikbal.

The editor of the newspaper, Shakir Pashev, and his first assistant Hyusein A. Bilalov invested all their energy, desire, strength, and knowledge to fulfil the tasks of the newspaper. They worked with youthful enthusiasm and with the belief that their deed was right. They did their best to raise the patriotic feeling of the Gypsy minority, but they did not aim to foster chauvinistic and ignorant fanaticism; through the columns of the newspaper, they propagated that all people and nations are brothers, that there is space for everyone on the earth and under the sun, to live in peace and understanding.

The newspaper Terbie truly raised the national patriotic feeling of the Gypsy minority, but it fought resolutely and convincingly against its chauvinistic feelings. The newspaper was working towards an enlightened patriotism and stood against uneducated fanaticism and chauvinism.

In that respect, too, the newspaper Terbie was a standard of a truly progressive democratic organ whose task was to spread love, not divisiveness among people. It was against the brotherly humiliating wars – it was for peace and understanding between all nations in the world. The main stimulus of the newspaper Terbie was the love between people and the understanding between the nations. It was a firm enemy of the hatred between people and the animosity between the nations. With these main slogans, which were embedded in its program, the newspaper was welcomed with joy by all, and especially by the Gypsy minority.

That is why its success was so big.

CHAPTER XXIX HABITS AND CUSTOMS, AND THE FIGHT AGAINST THE HARMFUL ONES

Up until 1920, the Gypsies used to have marriage customs, which were harmful, often quite offensive for the girl and very harmful for the creation of truly happy Gypsy families. That was the custom Baba-hak [50], according to which the boy’s parents had to make a costly payment to the father of the girl in order to consent to the marriage. This harmful and utterly offensive custom had to be eliminated by all means as it created motivation for making marriages based not on love and mutual attraction, but marriages in which the young bridegroom, through bidding, could dissuade a girl from marrying the one, whom she truly loved. This Baba-ak (father’s merit) was undoubtedly a remnant of the times when women were traded as a commodity, like cattle, for example. This anachronism and harmful custom had to be abolished by all means, and the organisation Istikbal as well as the newspaper Terbie resolutely revolted against it. The struggle was not easy, because the biases and the stubbornness, especially of the elderly, were not easy to overcome. Nevertheless, with systematic explanatory work, both in general meetings and in domestic and personal conversations, this custom was slowly wiped out opening the gates for the creation of a truly happy Gypsy family.

With the abolition of this custom, divorces in the Gypsy families have greatly diminished, because the marriages were no longer based on interest but on attraction. Strengthening the family, which is the basic unit of every nation, means strengthening of the nation itself. In this respect, the fight of the organisation Istikbal and the newspaper Terbie against the abusive Baba-ak custom will have to be judged correctly and fairly; they should be applauded with the achievement of a true national victory for the Gypsy family, with great difficulty and in the face of serious resistance. The Baba-ak custom, involved money giving, and in kind gifts such as clothes, shoes, cows, rams, flour, etc. The young girl was sold as mere cattle, and the bargaining for her was done without asking her whether she was attracted to the bridegroom who was offering a rich ransom. In this way, familymaking had nothing to do with mutual attraction; the families were an artificial construction that disintegrated at the slightest collision. That is why the struggle of both the organisation Istikbal and the newspaper Terbie was just, because it aimed to create a true relationship based on mutual love, attraction and understanding so that the Gypsy family would not fall apart with the slightest problem. With this, the struggle of the organisation Istikbal and the newspaper Terbie gained the significance of a huge national benefit.

Weddings once lasted for four days (from Tuesday to Friday). This custom, however, was increasingly vanishing because of the new economic situation. Nothing justified the custom of having four-day weddings, wasting a lot of means for celebrations, exhausting both the young family and their relatives by four-day fests, and being forced to seek money for the most urgent family and domestic needs a few days after the wedding was over. The unimaginable costs of these weddings often deprived young families of the opportunity to furnish their places and have normal living conditions in their homes. This tradition, against which the Organisation conducted explanatory work, gradually, by virtue of the circumstances, became obsolete, and today’s weddings last one day.

In the weddings, the new family received gifts from their close relatives, usually rams, wine, rakiya. This custom still exists today, but it has changed and the young spouses receive as gifts various kinds of household goods such as cauldrons, pots, jugs, wardrobes, buffets, etc., things that their new life requires.

It was also common for the bride to put on white cream as makeup and stick various ornaments on it. The girl’s face was covered in a thick layer so that it could hold the decorations glued to it. Some makeup artists (called teleziyki) used to apply on white cream other colours, and special pellets (called pulcheta).

Muslim Gypsies carried out their marriage ceremonies at home, with an Imam, and the Orthodox Gypsies carried out theirs in the Orthodox Church without making up the bride. After the ceremony, the customs were the same as with the Muslim Gypsies.

When there was a serious confrontation in the family, a special department of the organisation Istikbal intervened to settle the dispute. This department was called the Conciliation Council of the Gypsy Minority. It managed to settle the controversial issues and bring peace and reassurance to the family in most of cases. Based on this, we can see how comprehensive and fruitful the activities of the organisation Istikbal were.

When we talk about the activities of the organisation, we have to note the huge work that Hyusein A. Bialalov did in it. He was the secretary of the organisation and took care of its multifaceted activities. He was the soul of the organisation because he was absorbed exclusively by its multifaceted work. He kept the registers of the organisation and issued the notices that we mentioned above, without which the Sofia Municipality did not issue any certificates to the Gypsies.

The organisation Istikbal had a weekly conference of each group separately, which discussed the enlightening of the Gypsy minority and its cultural, political and social rise. These conferences also led a systematic struggle against the shalwars, which were soon removed from the Gypsy minority. In addition, the Istikbal organised […] [51]

Another custom, existing among the Gypsies, is the so-called syunet – circumcision. The young boys, when they reach a certain age, are circumcised in a special solemn ceremony that resembles very much that of weddings. A specially trained barber performed the circumcision.

The organisation Istikbal had a comprehensive activity. In its educational work, it managed to eliminate many unnecessary and even harmful and expensive customs.

On the insistence of the organisation Istikbal, the makeup at the bride’s marriage was abolished, and Baba-ak was also removed. Weddings became more modest. People can understand these gains, if they realise the harm of all these customs.

Shalwars have ceased to be the daily clothing of the female Gypsies; they have remained a museum item and are worn only on special occasions when the national character of a party has to be emphasised.

CHAPTER XXX HOLIDAYS

Legend has it that soon after the Gypsies moved to Europe, on a cold winter night, when there was no food in the Gypsy tents and there was no opportunity to get it from anywhere, incidentally, frozen wild geese came in large numbers around the Gypsy tents. It was as if the Gods had sent these frozen wild geese to feed their starving followers. According to the legend, this happened on St Basil’s Day and that is why it has become a national traditional Gypsy holiday since then. Unlike the Bulgarians, the Gypsies celebrate St Basil’s Day for three days instead of one. During this time, the geese are cooked and roasted. All relatives and friends go to visit each other “za proshka” [for forgiveness] while bringing with them rakiya; their hosts serve roasted or cooked goose, and lots of wine and rakiya. This tradition is still alive today although the conditions have changed significantly.

The other Gypsy national traditional holiday is Hederlez.

During this holiday, the Gypsies slaughter a lamb for a sacrifice. This holiday coincides with the Christian holiday St George’s Day. This holiday is also celebrated for three days, unlike the Bulgarian one. On this holiday, people make great feasts, parties, and horo dances. There are solemn celebrations; no one does any works; and everybody enjoys the parties and visits relatives and friends.

The other Gypsy holiday is Meerem. It is celebrated in a similar solemn way, on August 28, and it coincides with the Christian holiday of the Gods’ Mother.

According to the Muslim religion, the Gypsies have two major holidays, which are also celebrated for three days: Ramadan Baryam and Kurban Baryam [52].

During these holidays, especially on St Basil’s Day and St George’s Day, Gypsy families are visited by many Bulgarian families who stay for lunch at the Gypsy homes, have fun with them, dance horo, etc. This shows the close relationship between Bulgarians and Gypsies and also their mutual respect and esteem.

CHAPTER XXXI THE GYPSY HOUSE OF CULTURE IN SOFIA

In 1906, the Sofia Municipality granted the Gypsy minority two hundred square meters of space for building a Public Cultural House of the Gypsies in Sofia.

This gift inspired the entire Gypsy minority in Sofia to proceed faster with the construction of the Public Cultural Gypsy House. Everybody got down to work, and everybody helped as they could in the building of the House. Indeed, thanks to these efforts, the public house of culture was built on 175 Naycho Tsanov Street, exclusively with the resources, efforts, and labour of the Gypsies.

Subsequently, the organisation Istikbal accommodated 5–6 homeless old Gypsies in this building until 1934.

In June 1934, the organisation Istikbal was dissolved by a written order; its publication, the newspaper Terbie was suspended [53].

The same thing happened with all political parties in Bulgaria as well.

On March 6, 1936, the sanitary authorities blocked the Gypsy neighbourhood because there was a false allegation about an epidemic among the Gypsies, which later turned out to be a lie. Although the sanitary authorities provided food to the people in the locked-out neighbourhood, the blockade did not appeal to the Gypsies, and they set up a committee in order to lift it. Members of the Committee included: Shakir Pashev, Ahmed Sotirov, Hyusein A. Bilalov, Emin Eminov, Raicho Kochev, Shakir Mestamov, Ismail Shakirov (Tolio), Yashar Mustafov, Nayde Yasharov, Asan Osmanov, Muto Bilalov, Asan Osmanov, and others who, after long negotiations managed to favourably settle the issue and the blockade was lifted.

The committee also arranged for the compensation of those Gypsies who, due to the blockade, had lost their wages. The state paid them their lost wages.

CHAPTER XXXII THE FIRST GYPSY BALL IN SOFIA

On March 3, 1938 [54], the Gypsy minority organised the first Gypsy ball in Sofia with oriental Gypsy musical performances and scenes from One Thousand and One Nights at the City Casino. Citizens from Sofia who visited this first of its kind Gypsy ball, continuously acclaimed all the performances in the superb programme and were amazed by the gifted Gypsy artists and musicians.

The Bulgarian newspapers did not miss this first cultural event and came out with enthusiastic articles and comments about the Ball, writing extraordinary praises for both the artists and the musicians.

The author of the artistic plays and scenes from One Thousand and One Nights was Shakir Pashev, Director was Emin Eminov, and the ballet master, Hyusein A. Bilalov.

This first Gypsy ball marked the beginning of the Gypsy minority theatrical performances. It was our first, albeit timid, step towards a cultural expression in which we could demonstrate the gifts of the Gypsies.

The warm reception by the audience and the press in Sofia gave us the courage to continue this tradition, which we have commenced and which, for our joy and pride, has turned out to be so successful.

CHAPTER XXXIII THE RESTORATION OF THE GYPSY ORGANISATION IN SOFIA

In 1945, when people had their freedoms restored, the Gypsy minority, on the initiative of the dissolved organisation Istikbal, convened a large meeting on March 6th, at 18 Tatarli Street. This was a constitutive meeting, which unanimously decided that the organisation of the [Gypsy] minority should be restored in order to continue the enlightenment of the latter.

The meeting unanimously elected the following leadership of the organisation: President – Shakir Pashev, Vice-President – Ramcho Kochev and Bilal Osmanov, Treasurer – Demir Rustemov, Secretary – Tair Selimov, Members: Emin Eminov, Hyusein A. Bilalov, Sulyo Metkov, Resho Demirov, Ramcho Totev, Demcho Blagoev, Naydo Yasharov, Asan Osmanov (Palyacho), Asan Somanov, Ismail Shakirov, Shakir Meshanov, Ali Mehmedov, Izet Salchov, Tseko Nikolov.

The organisation involved about 3,000 members.

The leadership established local organisations in all neighbourhoods, which held regular meetings and conferences. The task of these meetings was to work more and more persistently for the comprehensive cultural, educational, political and social rise of the Gypsy minority.

After the People’s Victory of September 9, 1944, new bright horizons of full political, cultural, and national freedom opened for both the Bulgarian people and the Gypsy minority. The Gypsy minority enthusiastically congratulated the People’s victory because it opened the doors of freedom, previously tightly locked for them. With the Victory of September 9, 1944, the discrimination against the Gypsy minority, previously imposed by the bourgeois-fascist governments, was abolished. The wide route for cultural and educational work was open for the Gypsy minority, and it did not hesitate to take full advantage of it. The amateur artistic and musical groups which were created all over the country, were accepted everywhere with great interest, general approval, and enthusiasm.

Due to the rightful leadership of the organisation, which strictly observed the material and cultural-educational interests of the Gypsy minority, and persistently took care for the enlightenment of the people, a meeting in 1946 made a decision to extend the organisation’s term without new elections. With this act, the assembly demonstrated its satisfaction with the work of the committee and, thanking it for its work until that moment, continued its mandate emphasising the trust for this committee among the Gypsy circles.

At this meeting it was also decided to resume publishing a Gypsy newspaper with the title Romano esi (Gypsy Voice). At the same meeting, an editorial committee was elected with the task to make the newspaper, to organise its distribution among the Gypsy minority, to inform them about all political and cultural events, both inside and outside the country, without giving up the task of enlightening the Gypsy minority. Shakir Pashev was elected editor of the newspaper, and members of the editorial committee included: Sulyo Metkov, Tair Salimov, Mustafa Aliev, Hyusein A. Bilalov and others.

The assembly decided to convene a general Gypsy national conference in Sofia on May 2, 1948. The conference was convened, and it took place on the appointed date in the hall of Vasil Levski school, on Dimitar Petkov Blvd., with the participation of representatives of the Fatherland Front -- comrade Georgi Dimitrov’s secretary, Pachevski; MP Yanko Petkov; Dobri Bodurov; and other public figures.

Greetings on behalf of the Armenians and the Jews in Bulgaria were addressed at the conference. They were accepted with great joy. It was obvious that the discrimination against the Gypsies was eliminated and thrown into the archives from where it would never come out again.

Delegates and guests of the conference took part in the May 1st manifestation.

The conference decided that the leadership of the Sofia organisation should operate as the Central Initiative Committee of the Gypsy Minority in Bulgaria and elected Mustafa Aliev as the first secretary of the Committee. The conference made this decision in accordance with Circular Letter No. 18 of the Fatherland Front.

After this conference, other organisations of the Gypsy minorities were formed in the country and they convened their own regional and district conferences, which were attended by representatives from Sofia almost every time.

The conference that took place on May 2, 1948, played the role of a congress of the Gypsy minorities in Bulgaria and will be remembered by all those who took part in it as well as by the Gypsy minorities in general.

It marked the beginning of a new organisational life, which aimed to do persistent and devoted efforts for the enlightenment of the Gypsies in the country and for their cultural-educational and political-social development.

CHAPTER XXXIV CREATION OF THE PHARAOHS ART AND MUSICAL COLLECTIVE

In 1945, Shakir Pashev gave the initiative and provided material assistance for the creation of the artistic and musical collective called The Pharaohs.

The enthusiasm for this collective was indescribable, especially among the younger Gypsies. With joy and great enthusiasm, they joined the collective and everyone tried to be as helpful as they could. Musicians, artists, dancers – all of them were full of enthusiasm and determined to demonstrate the Gypsy talent. They developed their talents and everyone who participated in the team made sure to uphold their reputation, guarding against the slightest frivolousness that could damage the name and honour of the collective. Everyone did their best to safeguard and increase their reputation. And indeed, the collective became famous; the Bulgarian public greeted it with astonishment and surprise and at the same time with joy and enthusiasm. Praise and encouragement came from everywhere, and everyone wanted to guide the collective along a truly artistic path so that it could fulfil its tasks. Distortion was inadmissible.

The collective worked tirelessly. Everyone was aware that the theatre and the music would contribute to the cultural and educational rise of the Gypsy minority. And because of this, everyone worked with love, selflessly, putting all their efforts into their work. This activity of the members of the collective gave brilliant results: the Bulgarian public welcomed the performances of the ensemble with great interest and could not find words to express their admiration of the artistic play and the magnificent musical performance.

Everyone gave a great reception to the two performances of the collective in Slavyanska beseda community centre.

In addition, the team visited wounded soldiers from the Fatherland War in schools and hospitals. The soldiers joyfully greeted these performances and applauded them constantly.

The two performances in Slavyanska beseda community centre were an unprecedented and surprising success. These two performances are unforgettable and everyone will remember them; they demonstrated the capabilities of the Gypsy.

The collective performed in schools and hospitals where soldiers in the Fatherland War were treated, hoping to bring a little joy to the soldiers’ souls and hearts. The performances were expected, welcomed, and sent away from the wounded soldiers with joy and true satisfaction. The soldiers appreciated the masterful artistic and musical performance and applauded unceasingly.

The Gypsy minority both in Sofia and in the whole country appreciated the activities of the collective because it raised the national feeling of the minority and strengthened the awareness that when the Gypsy has freedom, they can develop their power and show their worth, which until recently no one thought the Gypsies possess.

CHAPTER XXXV THE CREATION OF THE THEATRE ROMA

The Member of Parliament, Shakir Pashev, gave the initiative for the establishment of the Theatre Roma. The theatre, however, needed funds. Shakir Pashev met with the parliamentary committee and comrade Georgi Dimitrov, and after making the case for the establishment of a Gypsy theatre, Pashev asked for a subsidy from the state to furnish and develop it. Both the parliamentary committee and comrade G. Dimitrov immediately responded to the request of MP Shakir Pashev and the National Assembly unanimously granted the amount of two million levs subsidy to the theatre. When Shakir Pashev announced the subsidy at a meeting, the whole minority enthusiastically applauded the Government, and nominated their own people to manage the theatre. They were Emin Eminov, Neno Shakirov Pashev and Sulyo Metkov.

The reformed Theatre Roma performed Gypsy Rhapsody by Al[exander] Girginov with great success [55]. Everyone was delighted with the unprecedented success of the theatre and the performance of that play.

The newspaper Otechestven front, issue No. 1147 of May 28, 1948, made a detailed report of the premiere and gave very good reviews. It was obvious that everyone was delighted with the performance of the play and publicly expressed their enthusiasm. The newspaper described the premiere in detail and gave excellent reviews of the performance.

Young Gypsy women, men, and talented musicians performed all roles. The artists performed their roles very well, with full awareness of the artistic play. For the most part, illiterate, they memorised their roles and played without prompters. This fact made obvious, even to the biggest sceptics, that the Gypsy man and the Gypsy woman are capable of great deeds as long as they have the opportunity to express freely their gifts and talents. The musical performance was simply virtuoso because if there is one thing that the Gypsy soul likes, it is undoubtedly the music.

Under unceasing applause, to the delight and astonishment of the Sofia audience, the Theatre Roma made its performances with great success in May and June 1948. The performances were a real celebration for the Gypsy minority; they could not have been pleased more with their compatriots, who had demonstrated the Gypsy abilities and gifts so well.

On July 6, 1948, the Theatre Roma started a country tour in response to invitations from all over the country. It visited the following cities: Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Yambol, Sliven, Burgas, Kolarovgrad [today Shumen], Tolbuhin [today Dobrich] and Varna. Everywhere the Theatre Roma invoked only admiration and amazement. Everyone admitted their surprise by the highly artistic performance. The audience welcomed this Gypsy cultural, artistic, and musical show with enthusiasm everywhere.

The performances of the Theatre Roma actors and musicians fully justified the government subsidy.

Undoubtedly, Ali Metov stood out among the best male actors, and Asiba Alieva, among our best female actors.

The best musicians in the Theatre Roma were Peyu Budakov, Yashar Agaliev and Iraim Chinchiliev.

These artists and musicians brought fame not only for themselves but also for the Gypsy minority. With their artistic performance, with masterful musical performance, our artists and musicians affirmed the fame of the Gypsy minority for high artistic and musical gifts. When we talk about them, we should express not only gratitude but also warm praise.

CHAPTER XXXVI SINGERS IN RADIO BROADCASTS

We cannot fail to point out the names of our good singers, such as Gugulya and Amida Shakova, who sang on the radio. They usually sing the songs of our famous composer Yashar Malikov, which are also on gramophone records and are often broadcast on the radio, and which everyone listens to with pleasure and delight.

In 1946 and 1948, on Vasilyovden (St Basil’s Day), the orchestra of Yashar Malikov with Asiba Hyuseinova and Metova performed great musical shows on Radio Sofia.

The programmes were preceded by a short speech by the then MP Shakir Pashev, as well as by Hyusein Bilalov.

The performances of the Theatre Roma will be remembered and cherished, especially by the Gypsy minority. They were, in fact, a great cultural celebration for the minority, which, after so much oppression and discrimination, finally received the opportunity to express freely its great and undeniable talents. The Gypsy minority owes this jubilation exclusively to the people’s Government and the Communist Party because without them these gifts would have remained suppressed and dormant in the souls and hearts of every Gypsy man and every Gypsy woman. The monstrous and unjustified discrimination against the Gypsy minority was eliminated once and for all, and the Gypsy minority has got open doors for cultural growth and artistic and musical creativity. That is exactly why every Gypsy man and woman carries in their souls and hearts a warm and unquenchable gratitude to the people’s Government and the Bulgarian Communist Party.

CHAPTER XXXVII SPARKS OF DISSATISFACTION AND A SEVERANCE ATTEMPT

Despite the enthusiasm of the Gypsy minority; despite the exaltation with the activities of the amateur artistic and musical collective; despite the wonderful work of the Gypsy organisation, which established itself as a true official representative of the minority; and despite the endless successes of the Theatre Roma, some members of the minority, unfortunately young ones, expressed dissatisfaction with these activities, pretending to have a higher culture. Their behaviour undermined the general enthusiasm and planted a bomb under the feet of this activity threatening to destroy everything created so far with so much effort.

In July 1950, on the insistence of the dissatisfied young people, and in order to prevent the division in our circles, the Sofia organisation and the Central Committee of all organisations were handed over to these dissatisfied young people. The same, of course, happened with the Theatre Roma.

Without any reason, these young people rushed to give a new name to the newspaper, now entitled Nevo drom (New Way), despite the will of the conference of May 2, 1948. This newspaper published only three issues because the leadership and the Editorial Board lost the sympathy of the minority from Sofia and the whole country.

The Central Committee was headed by Nikola Terzobaliev and Tair Selimov.

Demcho Blagoev led the Sofia organisation, and Lyubomir (Mustafa) Aliev and Sulyo Metkov became the leaders of the Theatre Roma.

The mentioned new leaders failed to cope with the public work among our compatriots as a result of which, our organisation, along with the theatre, ceased their activities.

In this way, young people, driven by personal rather than social ambitions, ruined a deed that had taken so many sleepless nights and exertion to succeed.

This was, and will remain, a dark spot in the history of the Gypsy organisation and the Theatre Roma; it is also a lesson for those who envy others for their work, but once they take their place, are unable to sustain their predecessors’ work and to achieve success.

CHAPTER XXXVIII REVIVAL OF THE AMATEUR ARTISTIC AND MUSICAL COLLECTIVE

It took six full years of oblivion and indifference for the cultural and educational work among the minority, before the amateur artistic and musical collective Roma resumed its old but proven path towards progress and creativity. In 1956, with the help of the old leadership of the organisation, an amateur artistic collective for music, songs and dances was created under the leadership of Yashar Malikov [56]. He began working with the familiar old enthusiasm and ardour.

Our compatriots Sabria Nenova Pasheva and Asiba as well as our well-known and beloved artist Ali Metov distinguished themselves as its champions.

Speaking of this activity, we cannot miss the name of our first playwright from Pleven, Mustafa Aliev [57], who staged the play Koshtana [58] in Sofia.

Other compatriots who already had higher education were the following:

Demir Aliev, who graduated in Russian philology and is a teacher at the first Gypsy school, named after Makarenko, in Sofia.

The son of Dankolov from Samokov graduated in medicine.

Asan, from the village of Chorlovo, Lom region, graduated in engineering.

Bena Minova, who has been studying medicine for three years now, and Asen Demirev.

There are many more of our youth, men and women, who pursue their education and who will be tomorrow’s pride of the Gypsy minority.

In 1958, our compatriots Sabria Nenova Pasheva and Asiba Ilieva, together with our compatriot Ibro Lolov, visited Germany at the Leipzig fair and performed Gypsy dances before the Germans with great success, energetically applauded by the audience. They stayed there for a whole month.

The cultural activities of our compatriots have become increasingly important. They are enrolled and study in all secondary and graduate schools, and we firmly believe that it won’t be long before the intelligentsia would flood our circles and start leading the minority on new paths of genuine culture, progress, and prosperity.

CHAPTER XL GYPSY COMMUNITY CENTRE IN SOFIA AND ITS TASKS

Today, the Gypsy Community Centre 9th September, located in the Gypsy House of Culture, has a good library, which is widely used by all our compatriots from Sofia. The primary concern of the community centre is the enlightenment of the Gypsy minority. It does a great job in that direction. Through discussions, personal meetings, through the amateur artistic collective, through the theatre, etc., the management of the community centre makes great efforts to raise the Gypsy minority in Sofia to a higher cultural level. And we can state, with joy and pride, that the efforts of the community centre management are not in vain.

We should note that in 1956 a delegation of MPs from the People’s Republic of China visited our House of Culture and expressed interest in our lives because our people are one of the oldest nations in the world. We learned from them that our compatriots in China are called Chi.

The Gypsy House of Culture in Sofia is a centre where each of our compatriots feels at home.

The large number of books that our community centre owns is widely read by our minority. You will often see in the community centre our compatriots who have come to get books, to exchange thoughts on the books they have read, to draw conclusions from them and to recommend each other a good read. This creates close brotherly relations between them and brings them closer to each other. The Gypsy House of Culture, created with so much effort, now plays the role assigned to it – to educate and enlighten, and to do everything possible for the cultural rise of the Gypsy minority and for fostering brotherhood relations among the Gypsies.

The rehearsals of the theatre, of the amateur artistic and musical collective, and the meetings of the Gypsy organisation all take place in the community centre.

CHAPTER XLI GYPSY SCHOOLS IN SOFIA AND IN THE PROVINCE

In Sofia, there are currently two Gypsy schools, called First and Second, which educate 1,200 Gypsy children. In the Emil Markov neighbourhood, there was a Gypsy class in the Bulgarian school; and there was another Gypsy class in the Bulgarian school in the Slatina neighbourhood. Apart from Sofia, there are Gypsy schools in the following towns in the country:

In Stara Zagora, we have a separate school in the Chadar Mogila neighbourhood.

In Nova Zagora, we have a Gypsy school and a community centre.

In Vidin, Berkovitsa, and Kyustendil we have separate schools.

In the latter city, the school was built in 1957.

There are Turkish schools for Gypsies in Plovdiv, Ruse, Varna and Pazardzhik. In these cities, the Gypsies are trying hard to pass for Turks.

There is a Gypsy school in Sliven.

In Sliven, Yambol and other places, where our compatriots study in Bulgarian schools, they want to pass for Bulgarians.

The People’s Gypsy Community Centre 9th September in Sofia selected an Editorial Board that publishes the newspaper Neve Roma (New Gypsies). The composition of the editorial board is as follows: Sulyo Metkov, Yashar Al. Saliev, Shakir M. Pashev, Tair Selimov, Asan Demirov, Bena Minova and Yashar Malikov.

From year to year, the number of our children attending various schools is increasing. They study in high schools, in various types of technical schools and the [Sofia] University, and we can realistically expect that it won’t be long, only about ten years, before our minority would be enriched with an intelligentsia that would push its development in cultural terms far ahead.

CHAPTER XLII HISTORY OF THE GYPSY MINORITY ACCORDING TO FOREIGN AUTHORS

The Gypsies are a nomadic people scattered throughout all European countries, in western Asia and Siberia, in northern Africa, in Egypt and mainly Algeria, in America, and even in Australia.

Accurate data on the number of Gypsies outside Europe, or even in Europe, cannot be provided because the data from official statistics is often contradictory and unreliable.

Nevertheless, the number of Gypsies worldwide is estimated at approximately 5,000,000. This figure, however, is approximate, and we cannot accept it as reliable.

The Gypsies have kept their old characteristics despite the different circumstances in which they were placed. In this respect, the Gypsies, like the Jews, have not lost their characteristic national features, customs and manners and have not succumbed to assimilation.

CHAPTER XLIII NAMES BY WHICH THE GYPSIES ARE KNOWN

They are known mainly by two names according to one or another heritage. The first group, which comprises the majority of the Gypsies in Europe and includes the compact masses living on the Balkan Peninsula, Romania and extending to Germany and Italy, is known as Atsigani, which sometimes changes to Çingene in Turkey and Greece; Цигани in Bulgaria; Țigani in Romania; Czigany in Hungary; Zigeuner in Germany; and Zingari in Italy.

The other name by which the Gypsies are better known in the Еast is the Egyptians.

In England, the Gypsies are called Gypsy, probably named after Mount Gyp in the Peloponnese, Greece, where a large tribe used to live long before moving to England.

In some German documents, they are called Aegypter, and in Spanish – Gitano; in modern Greek – Gyptos. They are also known by the terms Pharaohs in Romania and Faraonepek in Hungary (or the people of the Pharaoh), which are variations related to their residence in Egypt.

The habit of attributing Egyptian origins to this people, known for possessing magical powers, had lasted for a long time.

The name Egyptians come from a strange tale that the Gypsies spread when they appeared in Western Europe. They said they had come from a small country called Little Egypt, which was due to their misconceptions about Egypt, Armenia, or the Peloponnese.

In the Syrian translation of the apocryphal book of Adam, known as The Treasure Cave, which was probably combined in the sixth century, there is a passage: “And they are of the seed of Canaan, as I said, the Egyptians; and of course, they were scattered all over the earth and served as slaves to slaves” (Bezold, p. 25) [59].

Although Canaan is the old name of the old western Palestine, the above quote refers to the Gypsies probably because they lived there for a long time. No other source mentions about the wandering and slavery of the Gypsies. This may have been a legend known in Asia Minor and from there, perhaps, attributed to the Gypsies.

In France, the Gypsies are known as Bohemians, after the old name of today’s Czechia (Bohemia), where they had lived for a long time before going to France. There are other names that are attributed to them, such as Vlachs, Saracens, Hagrites, Nubians and others.

In Germany, quite wrongly and absolutely incorrectly they were originally considered Tatars, although they had nothing to do with this people.

In the beginning, the Gypsies were also called Hеyden, which means unbelievers (non-religious).

As for the origin of the word ‘Atsigan’, Miklosich believes that it came from ‘atinganoi’, a name that originally belonged to a special pagan sect that lived in Asia Minor and was also known as ‘melki-zedekaitos’. The members of this sect followed very strict rules, which in their eyes had been desecrated. That is why they were given the name ‘atinganoi’, which means people who should not be touched by people of other nationalities.

Byzantine historians of the 9th century describe them as fortune-tellers, sorcerers, and snake charmers.

On the question of the origin of the word Gypsy, there is still an unresolved dispute t. Some historians support the aforementioned German author. Others side with Bataillard, a French researcher of the history of the Gypsies. He claims that the Ligurians mentioned by Herodotus, who lived near Masali, used to refer to the merchants as ‘singines’. The Cypriots, however, used this term to name the spears, and since the Gypsies at that time were constant producers of arms and metal products, the term tsigani is of Greek origin because the modern Greek word ‘atsinkanos’ seems to be a translation of ‘sigines’ from the old Empire. The Cypriots refer to the Gypsies as ‘kilindzhirides’, a Turkish word with a Greek ending that cannot mean anything else but sword- makers.

Everything known about the Cabeiri associations [60] in which the Sinti and Siginesti took part is incredibly reminiscent of today’s Gypsy metallurgists. “And don’t the strange Greek prophetesses, the sibyls, resemble the Gypsy fortune-tellers in name and character?” And out of these reflections, Bataillard has built a broader assumption concerning Europe’s prehistoric past.

The European Gypsies, who had left the old Byzantine Empire, travelled west, and settled in Europe, America, and Australia, call themselves Rom while the woman is called Romni. There are many ways to explain the word Rom.

Miklosich attributes it to ‘doma’ and ‘domba’, a low caste in India.

This coincides with the view that the language of the European Gypsies shows great closeness to Hindu tribes such as ‘doms’.

The language of the Gypsies in Europe is in any case closer to that of the farthest part of North-Western India, except for those who stayed only for a short time in this part, such as the Armenian Gypsies, whose language is very close to Hindi.

Most of the Gypsies arrived in Europe speaking a language slightly altered by the tribes through which the ancestors of the Romanian Chali have passed and stayed [61]. Another view, supported by careful phonetic research, is that the language originated in the central group with a clear influence from the north-western group of Sanskrit languages in India.

Gaster [Gaster, 1883] suggests that the Gypsies, who had no home or homeland, because after separating from India, they did not intend to conquer other peoples and therefore did not have political traditions and literature, identified themselves with the people in whose environment they lived and called themselves Rom (Romanoi, Romaion), a name that satisfied their vanity.

This origin of the word explains why it is limited only to Europe.

The Gypsies refer to each other using the name for ‘people’ in their language: Rom, Manush, Gadzho [62].

The names that are very popular and suitable for them are Tsygani and Rom [63].

CHAPTER XLIV HISTORY. APPEARANCE IN EUROPE

The first mass appearance of the Gypsies in Europe cannot be identified before the beginning of the 14th century. They began leaving India several centuries earlier (the year 1000).

The similarity of their language with Hindi led historians to trace the origins of the Gypsies in India.

Dr Kopernicki in Bucharest [64], who managed to collect 20 skulls of Gypsies, found that even today they are completely similar in a positive way to the Hindus, who have a special shape. It should be accepted, according to A. A. Hovelacque [Hovelacque, 1874], that the Gypsy race emerged in India from two groups consisting until today of one fine and one rough model. It is quite possible, however, that they may have mixed in Europe. It remains indisputable that the Gypsy language is related to the seven New Hindu dialects (Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Bengali, Oriya). It does not approximate any of these specifically.

It was difficult to identify the Gypsies with certainty, with one single people from the peoples in present day India.

Bataillard claims that it is not possible to track down the traces from their first settlement in southeastern Europe. He mentions a faint trace of them in Mesopotamia. However, he maintains that they had settled, since times immemorial, in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean islands. He is convinced that the Sigines mentioned by Herodotus and these Sinti from the time of Homer were the ancestors of our Gypsies.

Bronze production in Europe is widely recognised today as originating in India. It was introduced gradually through itinerant metalworkers. And it is known, namely, by the shape of the handle, that their producers had small hands.

At least three centuries before history recorded the emigration of the true Gypsies, there were itinerant ironworkers who travelled from one country to another. It is believed that the Gypsies assimilated them and adopted their craft, but Bataillard claims that they were the actual ancestors of our Gypsies.

The name by which the people called the first blacksmiths, ironworkers and street vendors from the East or from Greece, was also attached to the newcomers.

Hopf has proven that the Gypsies were in Corfu 1326 years ago. In 1346, Empress Catherine de Valois gave the governor of the island of Corfu the right to keep under his dependence some wanderers who had arrived from the continent.

They must have settled on the Balkan Peninsula and in the countries north of the Danube, such as Transylvania and Wallachia, quite sometime prior to the end of the 15th century and must have been enslaved like the Gypsies on the island of Corfu in the second half of the 14th century. At that time, there must have been Gypsies settled in Wallachia, who were treated as slaves; and there were newcomer Gypsies who were ironworkers, musicians, dancers, horse sellers, etc., because we find that the Voivode of Moldavia allowed these Gypsies in 1478 “to freely light fires for their smithies”. However, a certain part, perhaps the larger one, fell into slavery and thus, the Gypsies were sold, exchanged, and inherited.

Many of them were tied to the land, and their situation was different from that of the Gypsies who headed west and who did not get the right of permanent residence or home anywhere and were treated very badly, except for a period of a very short time.

Their appearance in the West was first noted by chroniclers in the early 15th century. It is mentioned that in 1414 they were in Hessen. In 1418, they reached Hamburg, in 1419 -- Augsburg, and in 1428, they were already in Switzerland. In 1427, the Gypsies entered France, mainly in Provence. One group is said to have arrived in Bologna in 1422 during a pilgrimage on the way to Rome.

After this first settlement, a second one took place, however, on a larger scale, led by Elder Zumbel [65].

The Gypsies spread throughout Germany, Italy, and France between 1438 and 1512. Probably by the year 1500, they headed towards England.

In Europe, the Gypsies divided into twelve groups. The language of all these groups contains Greek words. It can be inferred from this circumstance that all these twelve groups had the same starting point and that this original centre must have been, as mentioned earlier, some Greek state.

Turkey was another centre from which many Gypsies made their way to Europe. In Turkey, they became mostly Muslims, although there were many Christians among them, who came to Turkey from Greece, where they had converted to Christianity. Of the total number in Turkey at the time (107,000 people), only 2,600 were sedentary. One part of the latter had completely forgotten their native language.

The Romanian Gypsies were the second group. They were more numerous. There were about 300,000 Gypsies there. Their language contains Greek and Slavic elements.

The third group formed in Hungary. Their language testifies about their previous stay in Romania. From Hungary, they scattered to Moravia and Bohemia.

The language of German Gypsies, an addition to Greek, Slavic and Romanian, contains also traces of French and Italian, which shows that many of them were previously in France and Italy.

The language of the Gypsies in Poland (15,000 people) and those in Lithuania (10,000 people) contains elements of Greek, Romanian, Hungarian and German.

The Russian Gypsies, who more than four centuries ago numbered about 48,000, one-third of whom were in Bessarabia, came from Poland except for those from the south, who came straight from Romania.

The Gypsies in southern Italy had lived in a Greek and in a Slavic country.

The Gypsies in Spain have passed through Romania and France. Those in England have travelled through Germany and France.

For all Gypsies, the last stage of their dispersal was Romania, except for those from southern Italy.

Albert Krantz [Krantz, 1580] says that the Gypsies first appeared in Germany in 1417 and they were called Ciani. They had a chief and a few well-dressed horsemen while the others went on foot. The women and children travelled in carriages.

The Gypsies carried letters of trust from Emperor Sigismund and other princes.

They lived carefreely and gathered other homeless people around them. Their wives practised fortune-telling, and Krantz called them in Italian Ciani.

CHAPTER XLV LATER HISTORY

At the end of the 15th century, many countries issued orders obliging the ‘Egyptians’ to go into exile under the threat of death.

They were hanged in Edinburgh in 1611 for disobeying the order and staying in the kingdom, being ‘Egyptians’, and in 1636, in Haddington, orders were issued “to hang Egyptian men, to drawn women, and to beat others with their children until they leave the city and to burn them on the cheeks”.

Burning the sides of their faces and stamping the backs of Gypsy men and women with red-hot iron was a common punishment, which was applied very often and ruthlessly.

In 1692, four Gypsies [in Hungary] were accused of cannibalism; the Inquisition forced them to admit that they had eaten a monk, a pilgrim, and even a woman from their own tribe, and sentenced them to death.

The Gypsies faced persecution, especially in 1725, by the Prussian King Friedrich-Wilhelm, because they did not have their own military organisation and were peaceful in nature. He was the only monarch who did not allow his wife to have a housemaid or a seamstress. He made her cook, wash the dishes, wash the clothes, clean and sew her own clothes and those of her children. He reduced the maintenance of the palace five times compared to his predecessor; in addition, he was very rude to the footmen, beat them with his cane, and never refrained from hitting any of his ministers. Historians of the Great French encyclopaedia characterised him as very limited and stubborn. Upon issuing an order, he would take to the streets to check its execution. All the Germans ran into hiding because he had indeed instilled great fear in them. The Gypsies were the easiest target for his anger.

In 1782 [66], Hungarian Gypsies were accused of similar crimes as in 1692 and when the alleged victims of the alleged murder were not found at the places indicated by the Gypsies, the Gypsies confessed to having “eaten them” after being subjected to torture by stretching.

It goes without saying that they were immediately beheaded or hanged.

Emperor Joseph II (1765–1790), author of one of the first decrees in favour of the Gypsies, appointed an investigation into this case. The investigation established that the Gypsies had not committed any murder and had been the victim of this monstrous accusation. Joseph II’s mother, Maria Theresa, was also favourable to the Gypsies.

In 1904, the Prussian Landtag (State Diet) unanimously accepted the proposal to consider granting permits for peddling to the German Gypsies.

On February 17, 1906, Prussia issued special orders for the persecution of the Gypsies, and a special register in various places in Germany and Austria recorded the origins of Gypsy families with an unidentified place of residence.

In 1907, in Germany, there was a proposal for the persecution of the Gypsies.

In Romania, they were divided mainly into two classes:

First, slaves were tied to the land and deprived of any personal liberty, owned by the nobles, churches or monasteries; and the second class – wanderers.

According to their occupation, they were divided into four classes:

1. Such as Lingurari (those who worked with wood, spoon-makers).

2. Kaldarashi (ironmongers, tinsmiths, blacksmiths, and horse-makers).

3. Ursari (bear leaders) and

4. Rudari (miners), also called Aurari (gold diggers), who extracted gold from the golden sands in Wallachia.

Another group, separate from the previous ones, consisted of Gypsies who are called Laeshi or Vatrashi (settled in one place with a home and a fireplace) [67].

Each tent or Gypsy community was governed by a judge or leader while they were subordinated to the byulyubashi or voivode who, in turn, was under the direct control of the yuzbashi (or governor) appointed by the prince from among his nobles.

The yuzbashiy was responsible for the tax revenues from the Gypsies who were treated as the property of the prince. The soldiers or yuzbashis, who were not Gypsies by origin, often treated the Gypsies cruelly. Slaves could be sold and bought, freely exchanged, or inherited, and were treated like the Negroes in America until 1856, when their freedom in Moldavia was declared.

The abolition of slavery in Hungary and Transylvania, in 1871–1872, also affected the abolition of the slavery of the Gypsies [68].

In 1866, the Gypsies became Romanian citizens. Two years earlier, some had become farmers, but they were not able to work and preserve the land for a long time. Many of them rented their two hectares to Romanian villagers for an annual instalment. In this way, the Gypsies became workers on their former property.

Their inclination for wandering is strong and insurmountable. They were not willing to stay in one place, and that is perhaps the reason why they sold their land or rented it out. This passion among the Gypsies can still be noticed today, although it has already significantly decreased. It could also be noticed that there are Gypsies who settle down permanently when they find a job. They usually live with their families in tents or huts. In these tents or huts, they live half-dressed and raise pigs, and there are mules and donkeys around them. The Gypsies are peaceful by nature, but that does not stop them from exploding easily. However, they are easy to deal with when one treats them humanely and well, especially when they are offered rakiya and small services.

They are a noisy tribe. They speak loudly, and their way of speaking seems like a quarrel to those who listen to them and who do not know them well. They tend to live happy, carefree life. They are satisfied with very little. In addition, they are not very picky about food. They eat whatever they find, but despite their poor diet, they are still a healthy tribe. However, child mortality among them is not small. They have no sense of cleanliness. They do not maintain almost any hygiene, and that is why their morbidity is not small.

Their wives are beautiful, and their dark complexion makes them especially attractive. However, their wives are not sociable and communicate exclusively in the Gypsy language. Due to this circumstance, perhaps, the Gypsy language has been preserved to this day, although they lived in different countries between different peoples and in small groups, which otherwise would lead to their fast assimilation. This could not happen, however, due to the unsociable character of the Gypsy woman and the fact that she preserved the Gypsy language in the family. From this point of view, the Gypsy woman undertook a great role in the preservation of the language and hence – in the preservation of the national identity of the Gypsies. They almost never marry a man from another tribe, although young Gypsy men often marry women from other nations.

Usually, the chief of the Gypsies bargained for them during the grape harvest or the work on the land; he took care of their subsistence, and in the end, he paid the difference in money.

The Gypsies liked to have a chief to lead them, to rule them. People elected and accepted the leader voluntarily. His word was a law for every Gypsy in the group. The Gypsies obeyed the will of the chief even if they were not pleased with some orders. The chief represented his group to the authorities.

In Romania [69], the chief was called vataf. When the severity of the vataf diminished, the whole tribe rose as one; this happened on some Bacchus feasts, especially when the weather portended a storm; the previous chief was replaced and the tribe proceeded immediately with the election of another one who instilled a greater fear in them, as Obédénare [Obédénare, 1875] describes.

The Gypsies are primarily violinists, but they are also engaged in ironwork, blacksmithing, horseshoe-making, making copper cauldrons, making wooden spoons, spindles, baskets, etc. They are cooks, washers of golden sand, and other occupations that are less common among them.

However, what is most attractive for the Gypsy, it is undoubtedly the music. In Romania, Gypsy musicians are mostly violinists, and they are in great demand, both in restaurants and in various family celebrations such as weddings, baptisms, etc. The Gypsy violinists play without notes – by ear, but still, they are great performers of musical pieces. Their music is emotional, warm, and has great depth. Although the Gypsies are, by nature, cheerful and carefree people, their music is sad. The dances of the Gypsy women, on the other hand, are spirited, erotic and cheerful. Gypsy women always dance willingly and are carried away in their dances. They perform usually during home celebrations such as weddings, engagements, baptisms, circumcisions of young people and at their holidays – especially on St Basil’s Day and St George’s Day. When they dance, they play the so-called daare [daire] in the rhythm of the dance. On their hands, they put dzilove that they beat in the rhythm of the dance, and these dzilove create a special liveliness, beauty and plasticity of the dance.

The Gypsies were especially useful in agriculture because long before the establishment of today’s plants and factories, they made all agricultural tools. With this activity, they contributed greatly to simplify the farmers’ work. They made hoes, sickles, iron ploughshares for ploughs, axes, etc. They also repaired these agricultural tools, and made the farmers’ work easier by improving their agricultural tools. In addition, they made horseshoes for horses, cattle, donkeys and mules and thus contributed greatly with their support to cattle breeding and agriculture. By making these agricultural tools, they came in close contact with the rural population and established good, friendly relation with them.

The Gypsies also like to wash sand to extract gold.

Some of the Gypsies are the only great masters of metal spoons, in addition to wooden ones. They also make various pots, pans and krini [bushels]. Some of them are bricklayers. In addition, there is a special group of Gypsies who are masters of copper cauldrons, pans, etc.; usually, women would distribute these cauldrons in Romania and sell them to the public.

As strange as it may sound, the Gypsies were the first workers who made, in those primitive times, the Romanian artillery.

In Romania, they also had superb sergeants in the army. One of them was even promoted to lieutenant for his outstanding activity.

Mention is also made of the son of a Romanian Gypsy cook who had become a physician.

Some Gypsies in Romania are, in addition to coppersmiths, tinsmiths. Coppersmiths make copper candlesticks.

From Turkey, a separate group went to Romania, called Turkiti or Spoitori, who dealt only with tinsmithing. Their migration from Turkey took place in the early 19th century. This group was then about 5,000 people. In winter, these tinsmiths live in huts, which are made deep in the ground. When the weather is favourable, in early spring, they set off to travel with all their accessories in a tall wagon. They settle down in tents near the cities and search for work there.

Women help their husbands by cleaning the pots and pans with sand, before the tinning itself, by rubbing them with their feet.

These Gypsies do not work iron. They are recognised as belonging to the Muslim religion but are essentially without any religion.

Unlike the Gypsies who claim to be Christians, according to Obédénare, they enjoy greater respect because none of them has committed theft. They maintain cleanliness and order which are their usual features. They also elect a chief; they marry only each other and until recently, they have practised circumcision. The young girls marry at the age of 12–13. Then, they take her for a walk around the village in a wagon, her head covered with a veil.

As we mentioned above, they have good music. Their songs resemble the Turkish ones; they perform music with a flute-like instrument and a flattened drum. As we have said already, in 1866, the Romanian Gypsies became Romanian citizens.

We know from Paspati that there are Gypsies in Turkey who married poor Greek girls in the vicinity of Istanbul. These Gypsies once entertained the Turks and Christians at their celebrations, festivities and banquets. The Gypsy nomads deny them.

These unsettled Gypsies could be found especially in the north and mostly in Bosnia. One of their tribes, the tribe of the Zapari, was particularly wild.

They usually bury the dead at night.

Metalworkers, blacksmiths, horseshoe-makers and coppersmiths for the most part, they have a holiday of the copper which seems to be their only distinctive holiday. Gypsies from Asia Minor sometimes come to visit the vicinities of Istanbul to see their compatriots who live here.

On January 6, 1906, the first Gypsy congress in Europe, which took place in Sofia, demanded political rights for the Turkish Gypsies or, as they call them, the Gopti [70].

It seems that the Gypsies in Bulgaria enjoy the best cultural and educational life, because apart from the fact that the first Gypsy Congress took place in Bulgaria, the first Gypsy newspaper in all of Europe was also published here. This shows that the Bulgarian Gypsies are relatively more cultured compared with their compatriots in other European countries, and they are more enterprising; they have a developed socio-political consciousness and an aptitude for public expression.

In Hungary, on the other hand, the Gypsies have a very strong tendency to make tours with all their belongings. In the 19th century, they even went to France, from where they returned only after 2–3 years. They had the best reception during their touring in Romania.

CHAPTER XLVI RELIGION, CUSTOMS AND CHARACTER

The Gypsy religious views are a strange mixture and a variety of local faiths that the Gypsies had embraced everywhere they went, along with some world-famous old superstitions that they share with many other peoples. This uncertainty in religion and in their religious views is characteristic not only of Romanian Gypsies but of all Gypsies in Europe. This impasse explains why they celebrate holidays that are otherwise purely Christian, such as St George’s Day, St Basil’s Day, and God’s Mother, which, of course, they call by other names, but cannot explain why they celebrate.

Among the Greeks, the Gypsies belonged to the Greek Church; among the Muslims, the Gypsies were Muslims; and in Romania, they belonged to the national Church. In Spain and Hungary, most Gypsies are Catholics according to the official faith of the country in which they live.

The Gypsies do not recognise the Ten Commandments.

The Gypsies are very optimistic in life, and they are desperate fatalists.

There is nothing special of Eastern origin in their religious vocabulary.

In general, their beliefs, customs and tales, etc., belong to the common folk works of the countries in which they live, and many of their symbolic expressions find an exact copy in Romanian and modern Greek and are often retold as if they were a translation from these languages.

Despite this religious syncretism and that their language is often a mixture of the language of the country in which they live, the Gypsies have retained their national identity intact and are strictly characteristic as a tribe. No one can deny that. They are not chauvinists, they do not preach any racism, but they strictly preserve their national identity and do not allow their girls to marry youths from another nation. They do this somewhat instinctively, without injecting any national or religious fanaticism into it.

The Gypsy superstitions are widespread. They are afraid of goblins, vampires, mermaids, and ghosts. When they are sick, they would rather see quacksalvers than seek medical help. The only explanation for this is their cultural backwardness. For example, the Gypsies cannot explain where their fear of goblins comes from, etc.

A special phenomenon is observed among the wandering Gypsies: Due to their mobility, they cannot be covered by smallpox vaccinations, which is why we meet many of them with scars on their faces and not a few who lost one and even both of their eyes and remained blind forever because of this insidious disease. This is exactly because they had no vaccination. In Europe, except for the Gypsies, almost no one else suffers from this disease thanks to the vaccine.

The Gypsy nomads practice the old craft, and they are copper-smiths or metalworkers in general. They also make sieves and traps, but in the East, they are rarely horseshoe-makers or horse sellers.

What is their pride, and a deserved one, is their music in which they are unsurpassed. The Gypsy musicians were the troubadours, or the travelling musicians, of Eastern Europe. The great composer Liszt even accredits the origin of Hungarian music to the Gypsies. Perhaps Liszt is right because it is hard to distinguish Gypsy from Hungarian music; there is such a great similarity between them.

The profession of musician has also been very successfully practised in Russia with great benefits. Their musical services were sought all the time for the numerous feasts of the former high society there.

It is the place to note here that the Gypsies have something else to be proud of, and rightly so. The Gypsy women are remarkably beautiful. They have a particularly emotional temperament, they are temperamental, and one can hardly withstand the pressure of their charm. Many Gypsy women became famous as talented singers and married rich people. A Gypsy woman from Moscow, specially gifted with both physical beauty and great voice, became the wife of Prince Galitzin. This allegedly true case was described in detail by Dixon. The charm of the Gypsy woman was so powerful that otherwise strong personalities gave in, abandoning everything in order to win her love.

The situation with the Gypsy women in Spain is the same except that there they are famous dancers; however, they carefully avert any attempt for marriage with rich Spaniards. In his case, they demonstrate nationalism for which there is no explanation.

Somewhat weaker, but similar is the success of the Gypsy women in Egypt.

The Gypsy woman is famous for her mystical practice – fortune-telling, exorcism, etc. She knows the means to hurt and avenge the enemy and to attack the friend. She can break magic done by others. In this direction, too, she is so convincing that naive people cannot resist her exhortations. In this way, the Gypsy woman earns her living and supports her family, to which she feels cordial and firm attachment. She loves her children, and she gives birth to many ones, although she does not show much interest in raising them. She takes care of her child with an instinct, similar, for example, to the animal one, without demonstrating any special cultural or pedagogical aspirations.

In magic, the Gypsy women use either the local language of the population or a slightly changed Romanian or Slavic, or Greek language.

The old Gypsy woman is also known for her skill in telling the future by cards, the well-known Gypsy Tarot.

The Gypsies have a lot of enchanting fairy tales, which are similar in every respect to the popular local tales.

CHAPTER XLVII PHYSICAL FEATURES

The Gypsies are small in stature. Their complexion varies from the black colour of the Arab to the white of the Serb or the Pole. However, there are also white Gypsies, especially in Serbia and Dalmatia, who often cannot be differentiated from the local population except that they are more flexible, more temperamental and more muscular, with a better physique and more agile compared to the plump and phlegmatic Slavs and the mixed Romanian race. They are recognisable by the shimmer of their eyes and the wonderful whiteness of their teeth. Many of them have very good physiques, while others are similar to the mixed races, which is undoubtedly due to their marriage to outcasts from other races.

The Gypsy women are very agile, cheerful and carefree. They love performances and oriental exhibitions. They also love wrestling, which they watch with insatiable joy and attention and which they discuss for a long time afterwards. The Gypsy women love to dress colourfully in fabrics with screaming colours. She loves very much to adorn herself, and she does it with abundance and joy. The favourite colours of the Gypsy woman are red, yellow and green, and these colours are especially preferred by the Gypsy women from the East.

The Gypsy woman also wears a colourful headscarf with which she covers her head. She loves to wear a gold coin around her neck. The Gypsy woman usually wears a festa (skirt), and although many of them are Muslims, they have thrown away their feredzhes long ago. The Gypsy woman is freedom-loving in her spirit; however, she does not allow flirting with her. She maintains her morality when it comes to men of another race, but she is loving and sweet to her countrymen. She is ready to give everything for her love. However, she insists on getting the same in return. She is jealous and vigilantly protects her beloved one from the temptations of other female compatriots.

CHAPTER XLVIII SOCIAL ORGANISATION

There is ample evidence that among the English Gypsies, there were many groups with matriarchy while others with patriarchy.

Their marriage system did not prevent marriages with nieces, granddaughters, or half-sisters, although common kinship was an obstacle for them for many years. Marriages with aunts and nephews are rare. Marriages between cousins, however, are something normal and very common. Marriages with relatives are strictly defined in a material respect. In marriages with female cousins, the one with the uncle from the mother’s side was preferred to that with the uncle from the father’s side.

Polygamy has recently been abandoned, probably due to the new economic structure, which does not allow support for a big number of women.

The sisterhood was respected.

It is usually the rule that the older sister should marry before the younger ones, but sometimes this rule is broken.

At the marriage, the man was supposed to prove his capability, and the woman – her virginity.

The marriage took place with pristavane [71], which was approved at a ceremony by the chief. The ceremony consisted of arms-crossing; or eating a loaf of bread with blood from the couple; or jumping on a branch or broom made of sticks; or jumping on a pair of tongs.

The man picked up the woman and carried her to the tent in his hands, symbolising the perfection and the permanence of the marital union.

These rites could be explained by their similarity to the Indian ones and elsewhere and are partly rites of fertility and protection from misfortune.

Their weddings usually lasted for three or more days. They were accompanied by much noise, fun and big feasts. The whole tribe took part in the wedding celebrations, and they were held in such ways that resulted in the creation of a unique festive character in the Gypsy settlement.

The girl’s father received the so-called Baba-ak in money and other gifts.

CHAPTER XLIX AMERICAN GYPSIES

Even though many of the descendants of the Gypsies who emigrated to America from England, the Netherlands, Germany, and France during the time of colonialism assimilated, in 1928, in America, the number of the Gypsies was probably 50,000 to 100,000, and they were called ‘Roma’. Their number, due to their renowned fertility, is constantly increasing. Most of them went to America in the last quarter of the 19th century. In the United States and Canada, the English Gypsies are pretty numerous, and they differ little from the European ones.

Due to the decline of the horse trade, their main livelihood in America was fortune-telling. Others have established themselves as farm workers, while some sold oilcloths, baskets and old things.

Some Hungarian Gypsy immigrants in America live in homes. These are primarily musicians whose livelihood is secure because their music is highly valued and sought by Americans.

Most of them speak Romanes as their mother tongue.

The largest group could be found in Braddock, Pennsylvania.

It is rare to come across Gypsy violinists from Romania and Russia in America.

The families of Russian, Syrian, Bulgarian and Spanish Gypsies are pretty scattered.

There are mainly two types of Gypsies that are known in America:

The smaller group is Karavachs (black Vlachs) or Bayash (gold washers). They speak the Romani language, which is also the language of the Anglo-American Gypsies. Romanian is their “secret” language, although they lived in Serbia for some time before settling in America. Almost all of them are fortune-tellers.

The second group, which forms the majority of the American Gypsies, due to the lack of a more appropriate term, will be called here ‘Travelling people’. Among themselves, they speak a pure Romani dialect, but the percentage of Romanian words in their vocabulary indicates that they were once in Wallachian countries. They are everywhere from China to Africa, however, not as many as in the United States.

There are many of them in South America.

They are divided into the following tribes:

Machvaia – named after an area in northern Serbia;

Kalderashi – blacksmiths, from their traditional profession;

Rusore, Ungeresore, etc. – related to the countries where they lived before migrating to America.

Despite the slight differences in their dialects and customs, these tribes are homogeneous, and they do not mix with other groups, even with those of the Bayash group.

They have their own court (Romano-Kris), which is run in the same way as the Hindus’ court in India. Taboo (something forbidden) is strictly observed and is punishable by a fine or by expulsion from the tribe (mahrime).

The big silk handkerchief on the head of the married Gypsy woman, the necklaces with gold coins, and the clothes with gay and glaring colours are their distinctive features.

They travel by train or car and make their living on fortune telling, which is done by the Gypsy women. Before that, most of them were blacksmiths. Few of them are professional musicians, although almost all of them are musically inclined and talented musicians. They have managed to preserve tales and songs in their native language. They live in tents in the summer, but when it gets cold, they go to the cities where they live in houses.

The comfortable life there seeks to Americanise them, but like all Romeni, they easily return to their old habits.

CHAPTER L MUSIC

Music is the only art that has been much loved and respected by the Gypsies, who are quite sensitive, full of imagination and inspired by nature. Gypsy music is unsurpassed in its power, appeal, and charm. Often, it is genuine and original and betrays its Eastern origin.

It is difficult to build a theory about Gypsy music because tonal relations barely exist; its modulation is full of fantasy; and the observance of the harmonic rules is a recent practice. One of the peculiarities of their music is the frequent change of the fourth and the minor chord, while the key does not have a determined character. This minor chord, so preferred by the Gypsies, is none other than the Persian, called “oriental in semitones”, however, in reverse order -- it has an augmented fourth, the sixth is diminished, and the seventh is augmented.

Other characteristic features of Bohemian music [72] are its special rhythm and its free decoration – the two four time and the common time are very common.

From an aesthetic point of view, it can be said that Gypsy music is extremely easy-going, with instruments created for bohemian musicians, and especially the violin, along with other instruments, expresses their feelings.

The Bohemian composes all the time; they never review their musical creation and are inclined only to mnemonic rehearsals (those that exercise the memory).

In the various countries where they settled, the Bohemians retained their physical characteristics but not the distinctive features of their art.

Their music has been preserved mostly in Hungary and Bohemia.

Hungarian music was created by the Gypsies, although the vocal element in it is larger than the one in the bohemian music.

Less gifted with vocal cords, the bohemians rarely practised singing. Only a small number of ballads or war songs are mentioned. It seems that nature wanted them to express themselves mainly through instruments. The violin is the most important instrument in Gypsy or in Hungarian orchestras. The conductor is unnecessary, or rather, a violinist replaces him, while the other musicians, their imagination released, follow him without mistakes, if not in detail, then in the general spirit of the piece while they are inspired and guided by his great talent. After the violin, we must mention the zymbola [cymbal], a kind of table streaked with strings, which are struck with wooden hammers.

In its flexibility and imagination, the cymbal rivals the violin. Then come the other violins, the cello, and a few wooden musical instruments.

The special Gypsy musical performances are divided into two parts; each of them is formed by two dances, one – slow, the other – lively. The first, called lasan, is very melancholic; the second, called friska, moves from moderato to prestissimo.

In Ukraine, the Gypsies have a significant repertoire of songs of their own, but they also sing Russian folk songs, and their dances are called zhyumki propoki [73].

In Turkey, Moldova and Wallachia, the bohemian art has changed a lot. The energy of the rhythm has deteriorated significantly. The flute plays an important role, and a wind instrument similar to the flute of Pan augments the orchestra.

In Spain, the Gitanos (Gypsies) compose in line with the themes and rhythm of the Spaniards.

The best bohemian musicians are Syukeva, Barlea, Bihari, Syuzor, Badzhar, Sarközi, Kedzhkemeti, Cinka Pana, a cellist who was quite successful in Vienna.

The most famous, however, among all Gypsy musicians was Bihari (1827–1858), who knew how to shine and win the hearts of the audience with both Gypsy and classical music.

Today, in the Soviet Union, Lyalya Chernaya who plays in the State Gypsy Theatre Romen is known as a good actress.

The Gypsies have every reason to be proud of their compatriots Lebedov and Romel [74], who are well-known in the Soviet Union for their stage plays.

CHAPTER LI INFLUENCE OF THE GYPSY MUSIC

Many famous composers, such as Beethoven and Schubert, have used Gypsy music in Bohemian themes to create examples of classical music, which humanity still appreciates with amazement and admiration.

Brahms, on the other hand, created ingeniously supported Gypsy dances.

Franz Liszt, however, was the one who understood them best, reviving the familiar vigour of the music and their vivid, inspiring fantasy. His Hungarian Rhapsodies are unsurpassed, and one of the best that humanity has ever created.

Therefore, Gypsy music, along with Gypsy dance, played a huge role in the development of classical music.

Many classical works and the works of the most ingenious musicians have embedded motifs of the unsurpassed in its power, vitality, and dynamics of Gypsy music.

CHAPTER LII MOVIES ABOUT GYPSY LIFE

The Gypsy life, so cheerful, carefree, and various; full of deep experiences and tender love, has been reflected in many films. Film directors make films about the life of the Gypsies with love because they can free their imagination and unfold it in its breadth.

The life of the Gypsies – eternally wandering, eternally dancing their dances under the open sky, eternally devoted to music, is a prolific source overflowing with lusciousness, life, and sensitivity, which makes the film infinitely interesting.

The exoticism that comes from the Gypsy life; the mysticism with which they explain all things in life; their devotion to the woman they love; their deep superstition and their special religiosity, which is not based on any lasting and healthy traditions, are all elements that make the films infinitely interesting. These themes also enable the director to create in an original way, without norms, because the Gypsy life itself does not recognise any norms.

The wild, passionate love dominates in the Gypsy character; this love knows no boundaries, no limits. The Gypsy loves selflessly, infinitely, and tempestuously. They completely devote themselves and seek complete devotion in return; they would do anything to have their loved one’s full fidelity. Cast in a film, all these experiences make it dynamic, juicy, fresh, mysterious and, therefore, very interesting. That is why the Gypsy life has always been a favourite subject for film-making. There is no slowness and sluggishness in Gypsy life. It is lively, playful, noisy, and cheerful, but it often brings along sorrowful grief for the unattainable, and so much dreamed of, happiness in life. All this, cast in a film, grabs the audience from the first moments and keeps it in a dream until the last moment.

Such films are the French film The White Truck, the Spanish film Carmen, the Czech film My Friend Fabian, the Yugoslav film Koshtana, the Hungarian film Gypsy Baron, the Russian film Gypsies based on the novel of the Russian classical writer A. S. Pushkin, and many others.

CHAPTER LIII GYPSY FOLKLORE TRADITIONS, FAIRY TALES, PROVERBS, SAYINGS AND EXPRESSIONS

The Gypsies have wonderful fairy tales, which they listen with great interest because these stories are full of unexpected fiction, and superstitions and usually have an equally unexpectedly interesting ending.

These tales are told in the evening, by the tent’s fire, under the open starry sky, or at home in wintertime. The old Gypsy men and women fill the long winter nights with long, infinitely interesting, and surprisingly orderly tales about dragons, goblins, mermaids and fairies [75], as well as about the deep but unhappy Gypsy love. These tales are full of mysteries, mysticism, and fearful stories in which a Gypsy was a victim.

Sitting in the corner, the old Gypsy woman would tell stories which she had heard from her mother or father, and then she passed them on to her children and grandchildren. They would listen, be overwhelmed, and try not to miss a single word from their mother or grandmother. These tales are about the son of the king who has fallen in love with the beautiful white Gypsy woman, who, however, has a dear lover whom she cannot replace because she loves him deeply and to whom she remains faithful even when the cruel king’s son, who is not able to achieve his aspirations, severely punishes the stubborn girl. She becomes a victim of the ruthless cruelty of the king’s son but keeps her heart pure and devoted entirely to her beloved.

After the grandmother finished her story, the children kept looking her mouth, their small and bright eyes still longing to hear more.

And the grandmother or mother would begin again, a new tale, “Once upon a time …”.

This is how their stories usually start.

This time she tells the story of the zmey [dragon] who fell in love with the most beautiful Gypsy woman in the tribe and who came every night and secretly sneaked into his beloved’s bed. Every night, the dragon lay down next to her, drank the juiciness of her lips while the girl, dying with fear, stood still and shook under the terrible and insatiable caresses of the dragon. The dragon did that every night until he finally drank the last juice of life from the body of the beautiful young white Gypsy woman who, on the other hand, was afraid to tell her relatives about the dragon’s visits because he threatened to kill her.

And then, one evening, the brother of the unfortunate girl came and accidentally saw the dragon in the bed next to his sister; the blood boiled in her brother’s Gypsy veins, he pulled out a knife and pierced the heart of the insatiable dragon. Black blood gushed out from the dragon, and suddenly, a horrible thunderstorm started raging outside. The relatives of the dragon, who sensed the death of their loved one, got so angry that they sent a terrible storm, which broke the branches of the trees that held their small houses and scattered the cloth sheets of their tent on all sides. Despite everything, the young Gypsy woman was saved. The dragon would no longer come to drink her blood. She slowly recovered and life returned to her. Her beauty was growing until one fine day, she found her beloved with whom she lived happily ever after …

The themes are endless, and the tales are wonderful. Such tales would fill the souls of the children with indignation against the cruel king’s son or the ruthless dragon; their eyes would twinkle with joy when the grandmother told how the brave brother killed the dragon and saved his beloved sister.

The grandmother would start again, “Once upon a time …”.

By this time, however, the children’s heads were drooping, and their eyes were closed because they had fallen asleep. She would get up carefully, put each child to sleep, and then curl up next to them to warm them with her breath and her body …

CHAPTER LIV TALES AND LEGENDS OF THE RHODOPE GYPSIES

[…] [76]

CHAPTER LV SAYINGS

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CHAPTER LVI SONGS

The Muslim blacksmiths – the Agupti, do not have their own songs. They use the songs of the Rhodope population, of the Bulgarian Christians and of the Bulgarian Muslims. During holidays, the Agupti blacksmiths visit each other and there, when they are together, they sing ancient Rhodope songs. Although they do not have their own Gypsy songs, they perform the songs of the Rhodope population so beautifully, so touchingly, with zeal and with temperament, that they captivate the soul of the listener. Musically inclined themselves, true to their Gypsy race, they invest so much liveliness and warmth into the songs that the latter, performed by them, have a charmingly good meaning. The Agupti blacksmiths spend their whole life in misery and hard work; however, they never stop singing. While singing, they express their misfortunes, their sorrows for dear love, or their joy at the little happiness that sometimes shines upon their poor huts. They are happy when they sing the excitement of their souls and hearts, whether sorrow or joy. Their grief is deep because they are sensitive and emotional people. They can best express the thrill in their souls in the song. It is undoubtedly a loss that the Agupti did not create their own songs. Their songs could have guided us to reveal the thoughts, desires, aspirations, and ideals that excite every Gypsy soul. Overworked and worn-out in the recent past, their lives were consumed by the worries of earning a living for their family and they did not have time for creativity. Let us hope that they will fill this void now when a new life has opened for the Gypsy Agupti. This new life is characterised by full equality with all other citizens in the republic; it is free from the offensive and unjustified discrimination to which they were subjected 14 years ago; and the doors of schools and universities are wide open to them. If they manage to do that, let us be sure that their songs would not be inferior to any other song creation. It is because the Gypsies are musical by nature and because mentally, they are not lagging behind any other nation. If until now, the Gypsies felt oppressed and outcast by society, this was not their fault but the fault of those who, until fourteen years ago, had treated them almost on an equal footing with the animals. However, in this new life, they will rise up and stand firmly on their feet; and they will contribute to the common song treasury of the Bulgarian state.

Here, I will present some of the songs that are mostly sung in the Rhodope region by the Gypsy blacksmiths […] [78]. In the evening, when the voice of the Gypsy man and the Gypsy woman echoes over the dark cliffs of the Rhodope mountain and the sounds of their songs are carried from peak to peak, from rock to rock and echo through the valleys, some thrill overtakes everyone and despite their will, they stop to listen, overwhelmed by the fabulously magical performance of these simple but sweet folk motifs. This performance reveals the power and the magical sweetness of the Rhodope folk song. When a Gypsy man or a Gypsy woman performs the song, it sounds a thousand times better because they sing their souls, hearts, thoughts, sadness, or joy – anything that torments, saddens or cheers their souls. That is why when a Gypsy performs a Rhodope song, it sounds incredibly beautiful to us, and we cannot have enough of it.

CHAPTER LVII SONGS BY THE SOFIA GYPSIES AND BY OTHER GYPSIES IN THE COUNTRY

Unlike the Agupti blacksmiths, the Gypsies from Sofia, and those from other parts of the country, have their own songs. This is due to many reasons, but the main one is the fact that the lives of the Gypsies in the country are better and therefore they have more time to think about problems of life, other than making ends meet, as is the case with the Agupti blacksmiths.

That is exactly why the Gypsies in the rest of Bulgaria, although not so widespread, have their own songs.

They also have poets who are not inferior in talent to many of the Bulgarian poets. One of them, and the most prominent, is Usin Kerim, who has created a collection of poems [Керим, 1955] which finds excellent acceptance among all circles. No one who has read the songs of Usin Kerim felt anything but fascination because they are unsurpassed in imagery, in the musicality of the verse, and in the depth of the poetry. They greatly excite the souls of the readers who keep reading them over and over again with pleasure and joy and admire this great native Gypsy talent. Usin Kerim is a rarely gifted poet; his songs are filled with so much vitality and passion, love, and faith in the goodness of people, all of which make his songs such pearls.

[…] [79]

A new phenomenon, unknown to the Gypsies 14 years ago, could recently be noticed among the Gypsies in Sofia, and in Bulgaria in general. This is the aspiration of some Gypsy poets to create their native songs in the Gypsy language. Along with the most talented of them, Usin Kerim, who writes mainly in Bulgarian, the little sparks of new Gypsy poets are visible; they are growing and building the foundations of the native Gypsy song. Such are Angel (Demcho) Blagoev, Shakir Pashev and others. We have every reason to hope that the fertile ground created for the Gypsy minority by the Government of the people will be meaningfully and systematically used to create a genuine Gypsy song.

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A TALE ABOUT THE BELLOWS

In old times, masters of various crafts used to gather for a chat and soon, they would start arguing about who was a greater master. The leatherworker said to the blacksmith that he was a greater master because if he didn’t tan the fur, the blacksmith couldn’t have made the bellows for fanning the fire and heating the iron. The blacksmith got angry and said to the leatherworker that if he took away his tools, the leatherworker would not be able to work on the leather. And so, it went until they became so infuriated that they made a bet. Thus, the blacksmith took all the tools and nails from the leatherworker, and the latter ceased working because he had no tools. The blacksmith, on the other hand, was left without a bellows because the leatherworker took away the tanned fur. The blacksmith started thinking and came up with the following idea: he took the raw furs, dipped them in wax, and thus managed to make new bellows, fan the flames, and forge the hot iron. All the masters gathered to see how the blacksmith made his fur without having proper materials; when the blacksmith told them how he had made his bellows, everybody recognised him as the greatest master of all masters. In addition, the blacksmith began making hoes, iron ploughshares for the wooden ploughs, as well as other agricultural tools such as axes, sickles, etc. That is why the blacksmith was acknowledged as the greatest master by all other master craftsmen.

A TALE ABOUT THE PLIERS

Blacksmiths used to hold the burning iron with their bare hands to forge it. At the time, they did not have pliers, as they did not know about that tool.

At that time, the masters used to have apprentices who, in addition to working in the workshop, worked in the night, bringing food to the master’s house, meat to the master’s wife so that she could cook, water to drink, etc. One day, the master sent an apprentice to bring meat to the master’s home. The custom was to hang the meat on a wooden finger near the front door because by tradition, the apprentice should not see the master’s wife. One day, the apprentice did not find the wooden finger in its usual place and wondered where to hang the meat. At that moment, he noticed a nice golden finger and hung the meat on it. On his way back to the workshop, the apprentice wondered whether that finger belonged to the master’s wife and how beautiful she must have been if she had such beautiful fingers … When he entered the workshop, the apprentice saw that his master was very angry but did not know why. The master was angry because he could no longer hold the iron with his bare hands. He asked himself what sin he had committed that Allah punished him so cruelly to hold the burning iron with his hands. Thinking, the master looked out of his shop where a dog lay with paws crossed. When the master saw the crossed legs of the dog, it immediately occurred to him that he could make iron pliers, like the dog’s crossed legs and hold the iron with them. He immediately got to work and made the pliers that blacksmiths still use to this date [82].

CONCLUSION

We can draw some positive conclusions from what we presented above. We can now take a firm stand on many issues concerning the Gypsies around the world, namely: whether the Gypsies come from, Egypt or India; approximately when they began their journey; how long did it last; did all Gypsies leave their original homeland at once, or in waves and at different times; what was the reason that forced the Gypsies to leave their original homeland and move to Europe, America, Asia Minor, etc.; when did the Gypsies arrive in the Balkan Peninsula and when in Bulgaria; was Egypt the original homeland of the Gypsies or a temporary station; did they pass through Persia, did they settle down there for a long time; what role did they play in the Romanian army; were they the first to import bronze processing in Europe; did the Rhodope Agupti come as slaves, brought by the Romans to cultivate the rich deposits of Madan, or did they come alone, or were they sent here by the Egyptian pharaohs to guard the northern border of the Egyptian state; were they beneficial to the local population with their blacksmithing, making agricultural tools for them; what was the journey of the Gypsies – did they fight with other countries or did they travel peacefully; did the Gypsies ever have conquest goals in their movement towards Europe; for what reason the Gypsies in some countries were put under exceptional laws and ill-treated – was this a matter of prejudice or slander, or was it caused by evil deeds on the part of the Gypsies themselves; where does the innate gift of the Gypsies for music come from; what could explain the Gypsy frivolous and light-hearted worldview; what is the reason for the their discrimination in many countries; are the Gypsies a progressive people in their nature; why the Gypsies were accused of not having aspirations for work; is this prejudice or reality and what is the reason for it; do the Gypsies have vicious tendencies and what are the reasons if they do; whether the Gypsy is capable for science and what conditions would stimulate them to education, good hygiene, cultural rise, and enlightenment in general.

ORIGIN [AND] ORIGINAL HOMELAND

From the data that we presented in our work so far, researched by great scientists, the original homeland of the Gypsies is, undoubtedly, India. The similarity with the customs of some tribes that still live in India, such as the Sanskrit and the tribes living along the Ganges, makes it obvious that the original homeland of the Gypsies is, and this can already be positively confirmed, India. The theory that the Gypsies come from Egypt can no longer withstand even the slightest critique. We can already consider this theory completely irrelevant. Our opinion is that the Gypsies originate from India, and it is their original homeland.

Their journey to Europe began about five thousand years BC. There is evidence for this, as it is known that the Gypsies appeared in Persia and in Egypt five thousand years BC.

The journey of the Gypsies from their original homeland India did not begin and end in one go. We can positively state that they moved out gradually, in groups. It is known that the largest group, consisting of about 300,000 people, was led by Elder Zyumbyul. They set off in groups. The reasons for leaving their original homeland were: sometimes devastating floods, sometimes great droughts, which ended in a long famine among the peoples of India; another part emigrated when Genghis Khan invaded their homeland and ravaged their settlements, enslaving them, taking them in captivity and forcing them to work without being paid.

We can assume that the Gypsies left their original homeland of India because of an epidemic, which at the time had been quite common in India.

The data that we have from Byzantium show that there were Gypsies in Constantinople in the 6th century. Since they were there at that time, it should not be difficult to guess that this, already mobile and unrestrained tribe could not remain permanently fixed in Constantinople and moved north – to the Balkan Peninsula – respectively towards Bulgaria. Therefore, we claim that the Gypsies in Bulgaria, and in the Balkans in general, did not arrive, as claimed by some, together with the Turks, or approximately before or after them, but the Gypsies settled here long before the invasion and the settlement of the Turks on the Balkan Peninsula; the Gypsies had been here for a long time.

We also claim that Egypt, as well as Persia, two of the countries where the Gypsies stayed for a longer period of time, were only temporary stations for the Gypsies from which they moved north, north-east and north-west – to the Balkan Peninsula, Russia and Europe. It can be affirmed that the Gypsies passed through Persia, as the shortest route from India to Russia, as well as through Egypt, as the shortest route to Europe.

After their settlement in Romania, the Gypsies were held in high esteem because they were the main weapon masters who made weapons for the Romanian army. Here, the Gypsies played a great economic role in agriculture because, with their trade as blacksmiths, they made agricultural tools for the Romanian farmers, helping for easier and quicker work with the soil.

Nevertheless, we can already positively say that the appearance of the Gypsies in Europe marked the beginning of bronze processing too. From this, we could judge that the Gypsies were the first to begin bronze processing, which gave a new and strong impetus for the progress of the European peoples. Excellent in the blacksmithing craft, in which the Gypsies demonstrated their national genius, they also proved to be good masters in bronze processing. Here, their art has reached its height; they simply reached perfection. Along with iron processing, they proved to be such complete masters in bronze that they surpassed all others. Undoubtedly, this is a great merit of the Gypsies that no one would dare dispute.

The question also arises: Were the Rhodope Gypsy blacksmiths, known as the Agupti, brought to the Rhodope Mountains by the Romans as slaves to cultivate the rich Rhodope basin, or were they sent there as soldiers by the Egyptian pharaohs to guard the northern borders of the great Egyptian state? In this regard, although we have no certain data, we must assume that they were brought as slaves, together with their families, because it is known that the Gypsies have never been soldiers. Even in their journey to Europe and America, they moved peacefully without fighting, and when they passed through a certain country, they left many of their compatriots, who would dedicate themselves to peaceful and creative work, which provided a livelihood for themselves and their families. That is why, in terms of the question from which state the Gypsies came to the Rhodope region, we are inclined to believe that they were brought there by force as slaves of the Romans. We claim this, although we do not have any certain data about it. This conclusion could be made only by logical reasoning.

The Gypsies have invaluable merits for developing the national livelihood of the local population in all the countries in which they settled and for advancing the agricultural production of these peoples because with their crafts as blacksmiths, they supplied the local population with agricultural tools and made it easier for them to cultivate the land, to raise their income, and hence, to increase their subsistence. They supplied the people with hoes and sickles. They were the first to make the iron ploughshare, which substituted the wooden one; at the time being, this was an economic revolution because, with this iron ploughshare, they not only increased the life of the plough but also helped for a deeper ploughing, and therefore, for higher yields. In addition, by making horseshoes for horses, oxen and donkeys, the Gypsies contributed quite a lot to the consolidation of cattle breeding. In that respect, their merit is undeniably invaluable. By supplying the cattle with horseshoes, the Gypsies protected the animals’ hooves from injury on longer trips and helped them work for a longer time than before.

This also explains the peaceful coexistence of the Gypsies with all the peoples in the places where they settled permanently. They lived in good coexistence with the peoples; because they contended themselves with small incomes and did not aim for large profits, the Gypsies made agricultural tools and horse, ox, and donkey horseshoes accessible to everyone, even to the poorest farmer.

The journey of the Gypsies to Europe during their emigration from their old homeland India was a peaceful one. They moved peacefully. During their travels, they did not fight with any of the nations that they met on their way. On the contrary, they passed through these countries as peaceful travellers, and when some of them found a livelihood in these countries, they abandoned their countrymen, settled down permanently, and left their brethren to continue their journey peacefully and quietly to Europe, Russia, England and even America. The Gypsies never demonstrated ambition for conquest, and they never aspired to get foreign lands. It was enough for them to be accepted in the country they passed through, and for some of them to settle down forever, and that was more than enough for the Gypsies. As soon as they settled in a land, they devoted themselves to peaceful and creative work, without great pretensions, except the desire to find a livelihood for themselves and their families. They were content with just a little, their expectations were not big, and once they found modest means of subsistence in those countries, it was sufficient for them. Although they were good blacksmiths of military equipment, which we know from the fact that they provided weapons forged by themselves to the Romanian army, they never used these weapons for military purposes. They never fought with any nation; instead, they lived peacefully and quietly in the countries through which they passed and in which some of them settled down forever. Besides establishing themselves as craftsmen-blacksmiths in the countries through which they passed and remained, they also participated in the celebrations and festivities of these peoples, entertained them with their innate musical genius, and their dances made these holidays even merrier.

It was once believed that a celebration would lose its cheerfulness and exuberance if the Gypsies did not take part in it with their music and dances. Therefore, they were in great demand and were highly valued. Their songs were attractive to everyone because they have spirit, sweet bliss, playfulness and gaiety as much as deep sadness at times. This great variety of the Gypsy song made them extremely interesting, and that is why the Gypsy musicians were in demand everywhere.

With their songs, independent and carefree life, the Gypsies have given an opportunity and impetus to great musicians to create music, which has not lost any of its charms until today. With their dances, unsurpassed in playfulness, the Gypsies won the hearts of all the peoples whose lands they passed through.

Their breath-taking and cordial love has inspired many great classics to produce novels, short stories, dramas, etc., that, in their artistic sense, have not been surpassed by anyone. Their love is thrilling, pure, and full of deep and heartfelt experiences. The Gypsy man is ready to sacrifice everything, even his life, for his beloved Gypsy woman. For her love, the Gypsy woman is ready to give such emotional gestures that amaze with their originality and sincerity. She would defend her love with passion and may even take revenge – ruthless and cruel, in order to keep her beloved only for herself. This genuine love of the Gypsies has been reproduced in dozens, or hundreds, of works by the old classics and these works have not lost their liveliness, originality and high artistic value until today.

Spending their lives under the open sky, under their tent, which they set up here today and elsewhere tomorrow, close to nature, their love is simple and strong as nature itself. Their love is deep and real because it is cultivated in the bosom of nature; and nature teaches us to be sincere and alienates us from everything that is pretentious, artificial and false. Only in this way can be explained the cordiality, depth and strength of Gypsy love.

Although the Gypsies lived in peaceful and friendly relations with the peoples among whom they settled down, they were often discriminated and severely, heartlessly and ruthlessly persecuted by some ruling circles in various countries. Thus, for example, in Germany, they were outlawed and ruthlessly burned or killed when captured on German soil. The Gypsies have not experienced such cruelty in almost any other country, although they were placed in extremely difficult conditions in various countries. These reactionary circles and governments, contrary to the sentiments of their own peoples who were living in peace and friendship with the Gypsies, persecuted the Gypsies without knowing why and attributed to them acts they had never committed. These reactionary circles created legends about the Gypsies and slandered them in order to have a reason for their persecution. They claimed that the Gypsies ate children, killed the inhabitants of these countries, committed thefts, etc. These things turned out to be fabrications and disgusting slanders, invented with the only purpose to to justify the ruthless and cruel discrimination against the Gypsies and their brutal persecution. The Gypsies, however, did not respond with a vengeance because they did not have such feelings. Painfully, the Gypsies endured all the tortures, and not knowing any other way of resistance, they surrendered to their peaceful, creative aspirations, carrying the pain of their unjust suffering deep in their souls.

The question has been raised what could explain the carelessness of the Gypsies and their light-hearted approach to the problems in life. This seems to be an innate feature of the Gypsies, and it can only be explained by the fact that they had to do little work for their living in their old native India. Under the blessed sun of India, where all kinds of fruit grow and where the game is plentiful, they did not have to work hard to provide for their families because they had almost everything at their disposal. They had plenty of fruit, and the game that supplied them with meat was so much that the Gypsies put little effort into having it on their tables. This is the only explanation for the bohemian, carefree life of the Gypsies. Moreover, they were devoted to their songs, led by their musical genius, and with these songs in their mouths, they survived even the most horrible hardship and times when they could not give even a piece of bread to their children. It is strange, indeed, that thousands of years since they emigrated from their original homeland, they have changed almost nothing in their character. Only recently that there is a new aspiration among the Gypsies to work and reflect on the problems of life. This is explained not only by the influence of the peoples among which the Gypsies have settled but also by the fact that they already have an intelligentsia that has different views and that seriously focuses on the great problems of life. This is especially noticeable in our country, especially after September 9, 1944. Liberated from the discrimination under the bourgeois governments before September 9, 1944, the Gypsies appreciate the benefits they received after September 9, 1944, in our country. That’s why they try to thank the people’s government by contributing with their labour to all areas of economic life, and they stand on an equal footing with the other citizens of the republic in creating goods for the whole nation.

The Gypsies have always been progressive people. They have proven this in various ways so far. They took an active part in our Liberation, and it is known that Vasil Levski, when he was in Sliven, was hiding in Gypsy houses. After the Liberation, and especially after the establishment of a Socialist Party in our country, the Gypsies joined its ranks and supported its cause. In the elections before 9th September, despite attempts to make them vote with threats and bribes, they did not give in; on the contrary, they always supported the Socialist Party and not once were they subjected to persecution by the fascist governments before 9th September.

We can now say with certainty that those who consider that the Gypsies are a nation that does not like to work, have a prejudice, and as such, it does not correspond to the truth. The Gypsies love to work. This could be proven by their activities after September 9, 1944. Placed on an equal footing with everyone else in the republic, the Gypsies happily embraced labour and invested their creative forces in all industrial areas of our economic life.

After the liberation of the Gypsies from total discrimination under the fascist governments in our country, the doors of schools, technical schools and universities were wide open for Gypsy children, and they rushed in eagerly. Today, the Gypsies who have secondary or higher education are not few. They are among the good pupils and students. We already have Gypsy doctors, engineers, technicians in various fields, and officers in the army and in the police, and they are as good, conscientious, and diligent in their professions and with their activities, as other citizens are. The Gypsies already have about 60 schools across the country. They have many amateur groups, both musical and artistic. They are wonderful miners, as well as excellent blacksmiths. They are moving forward and only forward, and the day will not be far off when the Gypsies will not be weaker than any other nation in terms of culture and education. We believe in this firmly and without a shadow of a doubt, and this will happen because the Gypsies possess all the necessary talents.