Research Items

Abstract

GYPSY MARRIAGE.-Mr. T. W. Thompson, in a continuation of his study of gypsy marriage in England, in pt. 4 of vol. 6, Ser. 3, of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, deals principally with the question of permanence and divorce. A number of temporary unions are recorded. These lasted for varying periods from a few days or weeks to six months, a year, or even two years. In effect, these seem to have been trial marriages; though the Heron family seems to have been peculiar in this respect and deliberately to have taken their wives on trial, which as a premeditated act can be paralleled in a few cases only in other families. It is suggested, however, that this postponement of the marriage rite may have been a survival of the practice among German gypsies whereby marriages were not ratified by the Hauptmann until they had been in force for two years, during which period the bridegroom had to serve his father-in-law. There is no evidence that service in return for a bride ever existed in England. Marital fidelity after a settled marriage seems to have been more or less the rule, at any rate among the women. Some, however, had a regular succession of lovers or husbands. Among the men the patrilineal Herons claimed to have the right to occasional intimacy with gypsy women, though allowing their wives no liberties. Unfaithful wives were punished by stripping naked, when they were sometimes tied up and whipped or chased round a field; mutilation, such as nose slitting or cutting off an ear, was sometimes practised. Among English gypsies divorce was purely informal; but the Scottish gypsies parted with a good deal of ceremony. A century ago the woman received a token made of cast iron with a mark on it resembling the character T, and she was never permitted to marry again. If she did she was liable to the extreme penalty; she was tied to a stake with an iron chain and beaten to death.