Chap. xxx. v. 26.

The reader will at once observe that the apocryphal tale which the
Romas brought into Germany, concerning their origin and wanderings,
agrees in every material point with the sacred prophecy. The
ancient Egyptians were to be driven from their country and
dispersed amongst the nations, for a period of forty years, for
having been the cause of Israel's backsliding, and for not having
known the Lord, - the modern pseudo-Egyptians are to be dispersed
among the nations for seven years, for having denied hospitality to
the Virgin and her child. The prophecy seems only to have been
remodelled for the purpose of suiting the taste of the time; as no
legend possessed much interest in which the Virgin did not figure,
she and her child are here introduced instead of the Israelites,
and the Lord of Heaven offended with the Egyptians; and this legend
appears to have been very well received in Germany, for a time at
least, for, as Aventinus observes, it was esteemed a crime of the
first magnitude to offer any violence to the Egyptian pilgrims, who
were permitted to rob on the highway, to commit larceny, and to
practise every species of imposition with impunity.

The tale, however, of the Romas could hardly have been invented by
themselves, as they were, and still are, utterly unacquainted with
the Scripture; it probably originated amongst the priests and
learned men of the east of Europe, who, startled by the sudden
apparition of bands of people foreign in appearance and language,
skilled in divination and the occult arts, endeavoured to find in
Scripture a clue to such a phenomenon; the result of which was,
that the Romas of Hindustan were suddenly transformed into Egyptian
penitents, a title which they have ever since borne in various