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The origin of gypsies brings to mind images of nomadic suspicious bands of bohemian people traveling the back roads of America "playing cons" on naive people or joining carnivals as "hawkers" and fortune tellers. They were the people who wore colorful clothes, funny' hats and had lots of jewelry adorning wrists, fingers and their necks. These were the guys who wore earrings before it was hip' to do so.

I always found them fascinating and wondered, where did these wanderers dressed in such outlandish clothing (people grandmothers warned their children to beware of) come from? Who were these interesting "pilgrims", always in constant flight across the byways and highways of Europe and North America?

There are many urban legends and colorful tales depicting the origin of gypsies. Movies have depicted them as mysterious, cunning, and nefarious bands of people always living on the "edge". They have never been accepted into the general culture of any society, nor do they really want to assimilate. The "Roma", as they refer to themselves, are a proud diverse gathering of people, whose origin is shrouded in oral legends and biased history text. Scattered over the world it is believed there are over 12 millions gypsies worldwide living on the outer boundaries of various nations.

When I was a teenager my family knew an elderly woman who had settled in an old migrant house on the edge of my grandparent's farm. Most everyone believed the old gypsy fortune-teller woman had the "power" (Gaje in Gypsy language) even other gypsies were careful around her. When I visited the farm, in the summer, my braver cousins and I would go and visit the old gypsy woman.

Our Grandma would send us with supplies for old woman (sugar, rye wheat, corn meal and molasses). In exchange, the strange old seer would tell us stories about her life and her people. We listened intently to them as she entertained us and at times sent shivers down our spines with her tales.

The following is what she told us about where she and her people came from:

"We come from the places far east of the great river", she said proudly.

We settled in around her chair and listened intently to the old woman wrapped in colorful scarves tell her story. She never failed to have fascinating tales to tell and we were a curious audience eager to listen with imaginations that stored the tales for later playtimes, when we would become gypsies.

"My people were tradesmen along the ancient trade routes to the East. Yes, we were wanderers

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