Romani lore

Life in all its glory is keeping me busy right now, which leaves me little time to update this site. However, there are those glorious times when, without searching for it, you stumble across another fascinating helping of folklore and custom.

On this particular occasion I was sorting through some books and found a couple of book on Gypsies that I had inherited from my grandmother, both written in the early 1970s. I use the term gypsy simply because it is used in the title of each book, and not for any derogatory reason. I certainly learned a lot about Romani culture that I did not know before, and the book I chose to read was definitely sympathetic to the culture, beliefs and rights of travelling peoples. I'm only sorry that it took me the best part of four or five years before I got around to reading it - the other one is now waiting its turn in the pile of unreads.

Anyway, to the point. Among many aspects of history and culture I learnt from the book, there were a couple of interesting points of folklore and tradition that I thought worth sharing. I've no ideas whether the book is still widely available, but I will provide relevant details as I have them, and paraphrase liberally. If you can find the book, it is a very interesting read:

Astrology
Astrology was invented by three wise men. Two were shepherds and one was a Romani Chal [a tru-blooded Romani man]. That is why Gypsy's have always been important in the world of duckering [fortune telling].
this extract was taken from an interview with Prince Nathaniel Petralengro Lee, in Jeremy Sandford's book Gypsys (Abacus Books, ISBN: 0349131201. 1975 edition).

Spirit and the nature of good and evil
Everybody has a good spirit and an evil spirit. It's in our minds. Spirit is in our mind and actions are controlled by the spirit. A Romany Chal is not afraid to die, because they believe that the life we are living is a dream and that the real life starts when we're dead, when the spirit leaves the body.
this extract was taken from an interview with Prince Nathaniel Petralengro Lee, in Jeremy Sandford's book Gypsys (Abacus Books, ISBN: 0349131201. 1975 edition).

Find out more:

• Gypsys by Jeremy Sandford. Published by Abacus Books (ISBN: 03491312010)
• A useful website: http://www.geocities.com/~Patrin/tradition.htm