BBC Romany Gypsies

LIFE ON THE ROAD AGAIN

ROMANY RAMBLES | George and Frank are proud Romany Gypsies

There is a group of people living in the south east who have a unique history. Unfortunately this also includes discrimination and persecution. Inside Out's Paul Ross joins a modern-day Romany Gypsy family as they go on the road.
Frank and Prissy Ball are Romany Gypsies.
They have lived on and off the roads most of their lives, ending up in a chalet on a Gypsy site in Gravesend.
When their home burned down, they reluctantly moved into a council house eight years ago, even though they aren't very happy here.

Despite having settled in a house, the Gypsy way of life beckons

Frank says "It's got comforts but I'd rather be back to my old life. It seems strange to say it but, sometimes it feels like a prison."
Simon Evans is a Gypsy historian. He says that nowadays the majority of Gypsies are settled, living in houses rather than caravans.
"People who have been sheltered by brick and mortar find it hard to understand how travellers growing up in a small caravan would feel claustrophobic in a bigger house."

Gypsies and travellers

There is an important distinction between travellers and Gypsies.
There are the Romany travellers, the Gypsies, and then there are the Travellers, who are either traditional or new. The New Travellers are those who chose the nomadic lifestyle.

Taking to road means taking everything - even the goat!

Romany travellers come with a rich cultural heritage, and with a language of their own, the Romas are an acknowledged ethnic minority.
The traveller identity centres on the nomadic lifestyle, living on traveller sites around the country.
Traditionally, Gypsies worked at seasonal farm work, picking fruit, flowers or hops. They also worked as knife-sharpeners, pot-menders and basket-makers.
They followed a well-established route, returning at regular intervals depending on the kind of service they provided. A peg-maker might return sooner than a knife-sharpener as the knives outlived the pegs.
Frank's cousin George Harber lives with his family in West Kingsdown in East Kent.

Romany heritage

Like Frank, the Harber family are now settled and live in a house, but the Romany heritage is important to George.
"My parents were brought up in a caravan, or wagon, called vardos in Romany."
Frank owns two vardos and has been working on restoring them for the last year or so. It's been hard work.

Horse trading is a traditional Gypsy occupation

Like every summer, Frank and George are taking their families, wagons and horses and going on the road.
This time they are all heading for the village of Shipbourne, just north of Tonbridge in Kent. Here they set camp on a large common, perfect for Frank and George's purposes.
Problem is though that the common, although called so, is privately owned, so they are in fact trespassing.
Frank and George are used to getting visits from the police wherever they go.
"It don't normally take long until the police turn up and say you're not welcome. We tend to beg for an extra day or two and then we move somewhere else."

Part of the Kentish heritage

Discrimination and persecution has followed Gypsies since time began. The first written record of Gypsies in this country was in 1505.
Their exotic appearance - with dark skin and colourful clothes - it was believed they came from Egypt.
Is it thought that's where the name Gypsies come from, Egyptians was shortened to 'gyptians which eventually became Gypsies.
Evidence show that Gypsies probably came to the British Isles from Asia and the Middle East via Europe.

Frank has restored this 107-year-old vardo

The Romany language stems from Sanskrit, an Indian language spoken on the Indian subcontinent in the ninth century.
Anglo-Roma Gypsies are now recognised as an ethnic minority under the Race Relation Act.
Simon Evans tells us about the history of the Gypsies in the area.
"The Romany Gypsies represent the largest ethnic minority in Kent and the South East counties.
"The Romany culture is intrinsically part of the Kentish culture, it's one of the things that define the place."

Centuries in the area - still not part of society

Despite being a great asset to the region, travellers and Gypsies are still persecuted and the camp set up on the common in Shipbourne is soon visited by the local police again.
"They come to send us a message that they are watching us."
Travellers have always been on the fringes of society.
Most villagers in Shipbrough aren't that bothered with the travellers' visit to the common, although some tell us privately that they've always hated the Gypsies.
"Do you understand why people object to you", Paul asks.

"The best thing about this life is, you wake up in the morning and you feel free - you've only got one door and you've only got one way to walk and that's outside."

Frank Ball

George can't understand it.
"Thing is, we've been doing this all our lives, and if people aren't used to us now, that's their hardship."
For Frank and George and their families this is more than just a way of life, this is their heritage.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southeast/series6/gypsy_travels.shtml

Dr. Benjamin Carson Addresses National Prayer Breakfast, Criticizes Obamacare

Dr. Benjamin Carson Addresses National Prayer Breakfast, Criticizes Obamacare

Gypsy Lore

A friend sent this and I thought some of you might find it interesting!  If you know the secrets, I hope you share. 

 

There is a secret method by which certain persons are supposed to be able to acquire power over hard-to-manage horses.  As is well known to students of Gypsy lore, Gypsies are reputed to be in possession of some secret by which they can render vicious horses entirely tame.

Opinions are divided as to whether this secret consists of the application of a certain scent or balm to the horse's muzzle, or whispering into its ear a spell or incantation.  It has been claimed that the Gypsy horse charmer applies anise seed to the nose of the animal.

Horse whispering has also been popular among many other peoples. The antiquary William Camden, in his recital of Irish superstitions, states, "It is by no means allowable to praise a horse or any other animal unless you say 'God save him.'  If any mischance befalls a horse in three days after, they find out the person who commended him, that he may whisper the Lord's Prayer in his right ear."

It was said by Con Sullivan, a famous Irish horse-whisperer of the eighteenth century, that practitioners of the art could not explain their power.  This was affirmed by those who practiced it in South America, where a couple of men could tame half a dozen wild horses in three days.  The same art was widely practiced in Hungary and Bohemia, and it was from a Bohemian Gypsy that a family in the county of Cork claimed to hold a secret by which the wildest or most vicious horse could be tamed.  For generations this secret was regularly transmitted as a parting legacy at the time of death from the father to the eldest son.

Throughout the north of Scotland there are members of a secret society for breaking in difficult horses, which is believed to be called the Horseman's Society and which purports to trace its origin to the Dark Ages.  Only those who gain their livelihood by the care and management of horses are admitted, and the more affluent and better educated are jealously excluded.  Many farmers entertain a prejudice against the members of the society, but they are forced to admit that they are always very capable in managing their teams and can perform services that would otherwise require calling in a veterinary surgeon.  They are usually skilled in the knowledge of herbs and medicinal plants, and a great deal of folklore surrounds them.  It is stated that they hold their meetings at night in the clear moonlight, going through various equestrian performances with horses borrowed for the occasion from their masters' stables.

There is also said to be an inner circle in the society in which the black art and all the spells and charms of witchcraft are studied.  Members of the inner circle are said to be able to smite horses and cattle with mysterious sickness, and even cast spells over human beings. One local writer stated that the inner circle of the horsemen employ hypnotic influence both on men and animals, as it is said certain North American Indians and some of the jungle tribes of Hindustan do.

On one occasion the services of the famous Con Sullivan were requisitioned by Colonel Westenra (afterward earl of Rosmore), who possessed a racehorse called Rainbow.  The horse was savage and would attack any jockey courageous enough to mount him by seizing him by the leg with his teeth and dragging him from the saddle.  A friend of the colonel's told him that he knew a person who could cure Rainbow, and a wager of £1,000 was laid on the matter.  Sullivan, who was known throughout the countryside as "the Whisperer", was sent for.  After being shut up alone with the animal for a quarter of an hour, he gave the signal to admit those who had been waiting on the result.  When they entered, they found the horse extended on his back, playing like a kitten with Sullivan, who was quietly sitting by him, but both horse and operator appeared exhausted, and the latter had to be revived with brandy. The horse was perfectly tame and gentle from that day on.

Another savage horse, named King Pippin, took an entire night to cure, but in the morning he was seen following Sullivan like a dog, lying down at the word of command, and permitting any person to put his hand into his mouth.  Shortly afterward he won a race at the Curragh.

Sullivan's statement that the successful whisperer is not acquainted with the secret of his own power may well be true.  As Elihu Rich (in E. Smedley's The Occult Sciences, 1855) states, "The reason is obvious.  A force proceeding immediately from the will or the instinctive life would be impaired by reflection in the understanding and broken up or at least diminished by one half.  The violent trembling of the animal under this operation is like the creaking and shivering of the tables before they begin to 'tip', and indicates a moral or nervous force acting physically, by projection perhaps from the spirit of the operator.  None of these cases are, after all, more wonderful than the movement of our own limbs and bodies by mental force, for how does it move them with such ease?  And may not the same power that places its strong but invisible little fingers on every point of our muscular frames, stretch its myriad arms a little further into the sphere around us, and operate by the same laws, and with as much ease, on the stalwartt frame of a horse?"