Bards - Gypsies

[kyleena of the rom]

Greetings Willow/Zaphira?, from Kyleena,

   My mother, and I (and maybe Aziza) will be in Friday around 2is for the 
Springfaire. We can probably help as much as you need after we get mom's 
tent set up. Tell me more about the horse trading, what are the rules for 
sale? Is the money made to be contributed to anything or are profits our 
own? Are we constructing horses on site, or bringing them? Since I will not 
be merchanting at this event, I offer my services in any horse trading that 
you need done.....
  I will be posting some addresses and infomation on the list in a few 
minutes for Rom info and characteristics. Just off hand, I can tell you that 
they are actually a very generous and giving people. At celebrations, they 
impoverish themselves to lavish wealth on others.  They band together as a 
family would. They have strict laws of cleanliness (the laws of Marime). 
They tend to be superstitious. They are passionate and believe that music 
and dance are the purist form of expression.
   They value and respect age and wisdom above youth and strength. Among 
themselves they have many sad songs to sing, before outsiders they perform 
whatever is popular or to the taste of their audience. They are the reason 
that many folktales and songs were perpetuated instead of lost because they 
kept them alive as they travelled and used them.
   Their actual stories do not always work on modern audiences, so I have 
found that the use of "Time Speak" is more applicable in story telling. Time 
Speak is a Rom characteristic. Since time passes different when you live 
everywhere and nowhere, it easily runs together. I have read an account 
involving an incident with a Scottish king that was a documentably true 
story from a couple of hundred years ago, but was told as if it happened 
yesterday. Therefore, as I find incedents in history that potray Rom ways, I 
tend to turn them into stories--works for me.
   Know too that in Rom story telling, MORE is better than less. Most things 
tend to be much,much bigger than life. And the art of the telling of a tale 
is relished even more than the tale. The teller will play the audience like 
a fine instrument. They can make you cry one minute and laugh the next.
   I've been going through some of my older research today to find all the 
names for you, I'll find them soon. In fact, I have a whole list of men's 
names, but I think you were looking for womens names...
Anyway, I found some more pictures of period costumes,and some references 
that talk about how they costume themselves by "Hanging their bodies like 
Morris-dancers, with bels and other toyes, to intice the coutrey people to 
flocke about them,and to wonder at their fooleries, or rather rancke 
knaueryes.The women as rediculously attire themselves...".
   In attitude, they are standoffish.They frequently camped at the outskirts 
of towns because they believed outsiders to be unclean. "Rom" means man, and 
they believe themselves to be the only ones. They are a proud race, and 
remember that there are numerous accounts of Rom chieftains and Vovoides and 
Dukes who partied as equals in Europes courts. They LIKE to have titles, and 
use them with great relish.
   Some sources also say that they are great believers in Fate. If nothing 
that you do can change the outcome of your life, then perhaps all there is 
left is to live and enjoy it....
   This is getting longer than I intended, and I don't want to be thrown off 
this line, so perhaps we'll call it a day for now. So I'll leave it rest for 
now and catch you later-with more.
                    Sincerely, your Gypsy in Camelot,
                       Kyleena of the Rom



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