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Some Special Interests => Travelling People => Topic started by: Romany Knaves on Saturday 08 June 13 16:08 BST (UK)

Title: French Romany [Manus]
Post by: Romany Knaves on Saturday 08 June 13 16:08 BST (UK)
Gypsies of France call themselves Penanciers the Romany of central Europe call themselves Sinti a term used since the 17th century for reasons unknown they were originally called Manus,French Romany still call themselves Manus or Manouche "Romany word meaning human being" French gorgios for a long time called them Bohemians as it was said that they had arrived via Hungry {Gabor} they occupied the forests of Lorraine and Alsace [Alsatia original name] and travelled the departments of Brittany and Normandy and up into the mountains of Auvergne here they called themselves Perigourdines,traditional songs were accompanied by a tambourine rather than a fiddle and a Monkey as a fellow traveller was also common if a fellow Manus was at deaths door they would hold a live bird at their mouth and once they had expired would release ther bird into the air they had been noted in many early French newspapers as fortune tellers,vagabonds and thieves the men of dark complextion with curly black hair the woman dark skinned with many scars across their face's they were also poorly clothed compared to other Gypsies across Europe that had been recorded through the 17-1800's.