nless we refer
to the original use of that word, and call all heathens that dwell on
the heath. I assert that they are Europeans, and one of the results of
the religious wars of the fifteenth century. Bohemia is the land of
their origin; and when we consider that one of the most enlightened
nations of Europe has called them Bohemians for four hundred years, it
is remarkable that that name has been so little considered in attempts
to penetrate this mystery. John Ziska or Tschischka, the greatest of the
Hussite leaders, in the brave struggle of that sect against the Roman
Church, is the man who may be looked upon as the father of the race.
Though a clumsy attempt to pronounce Tschischka by a foreign tongue
might well result in something farther from it than Gypsy, there is,
perhaps, nothing in that resemblance. The word _gypsy_, which is only
the English name for this remarkable people, is, no doubt, a consequence
of the ancient error that called them Egyptians; but it is odd to see
English writers using the resemblance between those words as an argument
in favor of that origin, and thus endeavoring to perpetuate error by
the results of error.

Ziska became prominent as a leader in the year 1418, and in that year
was authorized to raise forces. Probably he had been busy in that way
even earlier; and so, from the first, secrecy and deception would have
been necessary in the organization of his innumerable small bodies, so
suddenly made one great body when he extorted the royal authority. He
carried on hostilities with great success until his death in 1424. By
this event, the Hussites were divided into three bodies, one of which
was called the Orphans, or orphan children of Ziska. These dwelt in
their camps in the open country, and were under a vow never again to
sleep beneath a roof. They also refused obedience to any sovereign.
Driven out of Bohemia in the disasters to which the death of Ziska led
the way, and still more effectually driven out in the expatriation of
all non-Catholics, the whole sect became fugitives and wanderers; and it
is easy to see what kind of wanderers the "Orphans" particularly would
be, with their wagon-camps and their oath against houses.

It is a remarkable coincidence, (if it shall prove to be no more,) that
the Gypsies, a race of wanderers, peculiar by reason of the very
characteristic that would have resulted from the Hussite oath, made
their first appearance in Europe at this very period,--