Gipsy Life

ose to make proselytes to the Mohammedan faith, it is only natural to suppose that under those circumstances the Gipsies would leave the country to escape the consequences following those calamities, over-populated as it was, numbering close upon 200,000,000 of human beings. I am inclined to think that it Since writing the foregoing concerning Mahmood or Mahmud, I came across the enclosed, taken from an article in the Daily lfevt, January 11,1880, which confirms my statements as regards one of the main causes why the Gipsies or Indians left their native country:? " Ghuznee was the capital of Mahmud of Ghuznee, or Mahmud the Destroyer, as he is known in Eastern story, the first of the Mohammedan conquerors of India, and the only one who had his home in Afghanistan, though he was himself of Turki or Mongol nationality. Seventeen times did he issue forth from his native mountains, spreading fire and sword over the plains of Hindustan, westward as far as the Ganges Valley, and southward to the shore of Gujerat. Seventeen times did he return to Ghuznee laden with the spoil of Rajput kings and the shrines of Hindu pilgrimage. In one of these expeditions his goal was the far-famed temple of Somnauth or Somnauth Patan in Gujerat. Resistance was vain, and equally useless were the tears of the Brahmins, who besought him to take their treasures, but at least spare their idol. With his own hand, and with the mace which is the counterpart of Excalibar in Oriental legend, he smot...