Horváth Attila – Solymos Ede szerk.: Cumania 2. Ethnographia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1974)

J. Vorák: Kolompár Kálmánné kiskunhalasi cigányasszony kézimunkái

pital meant a luxury and comfort unimaginable up to that time. Her memories of the hospital: „Everything was white and clean, they gave a lot to eat, one could go to the garden. The doctors and the nurses were all very kind. In the room there was a patient, I asked her to write a letter to the Mácsais and Doc Laci. When 1 became a convalescent patient I went to the town, bought linen and a needle and coloured thread and then sewed the cloth for Patrika in the hospital. I stitched her luck into it so that they should be happy with Coc Laci." Mrs. Kolompár recovered and was discharged from the hospital. The day before Patricia Macsai's wedding Mrs. Kolompár turned up at the Mácsai house with the cloth. She handed it over saynig that she had made it for the young couple so that they have luck, she did stitch luck into the cloth. The Mácsais tried to give her money, — this time Mrs. Kolompár refused to take anything. Dr. Ákos Janó, director of our Museum at that time, recommended Mrs. Kolompár's cloth to my particular attention. I tried to find some material analogous with it in our ethnographic literature. Not even mention of gipsy women's embroidery I could find in it. Neither had we knowledge of such in Kiskunhalas up to that time apart from the stringing of glass-beads as charms and the „zsaba" (zhaba), pockets bound to the waist and worn on the left side over the skirt. (Pig. 2.) Commissioned by the Museum of Ethnography, Kamill Erdős the thoroughly grounded and unselfish researcher of the gipsies of Hungary did fieldwork at the Cserepes gipsy row in Kiskunhalas in 1961. On the occasion of this second-last collecting tour he strove to acquire in the first place the tools and products of gipsy metal-working of Kiskunhalas. Requested by our Museum, he helped us at the same time in purchasing articles of clothing of our Kiskunhalas gipsy women. During his stay here, he spent his days in Cserepes from morning till late at night. Availing ourselves of Erdős's knowledge of the gipsy language and of the fact that he associated with the gipsies (who are mistrustful to any stranger) as a guest received with unimpaired heartiness and as a good friend, we went with him quite a number of times. Erdős visited every house in Cserepes. Apart from the strings of beads and the already mentioned gipsy pockets he could not find any other products of handicraft or embroideries made by gipsy women either. Among others, Kamill Erdős was of the opinion that Cserepes gipsies of Kiskunhalas „ . . . were tinkers (Gurvár; Pódozóvo: Kolompár). They can be considered one of the most primitive groups of the gipsies living in Hungary. They speak the Gurvár gipsy idiom. In Kiskunhalas they live in the area named Cserepes (at present: Haragos square), numbering about 250 persons. In 1910 they all used to live still in tents, winter and summer alike. Even in 1919 they had but 4 small houses.

1 Mrs. Kálmán Kolompár was born of parents living in a tent. To the best of her recollection, there were only two hovels in the settlement when she was a little girl: one of them belonged to the „vajda" (gipsy chief). As soon as spring had come and the weather was turning warmer, all people of the gipsy row rose and set off: they roamed. Her father was a gipsy blacksmith, a tinker — each summer the whole family accompanied him. But her mother knew how to sew, a skill possessed by none of the gipsy women of the row at that time. The exceptional character of the cloth having come into the property of the Museum made indispensable a closer acquaintance with the person who produced it. I had to take into account the fact that Mrs. Kolompár was a fortune-teller by cards and a palmist. It is inseparable from her profession that when drawing her conclusions from anyone s behaviour, from a chance remark, she has at all times an answer in reserve of which she thinks that it will be most favourably received. At the same time I had to accept that with the cloth made for Patricia Mácsai she wanted to give proof of her gratitude and that she meant the present as a token of her affection and gave it with the best intentions. Neither could we have any doubt whatsoever that she drew and embroidered the cloth herself in actual truth. The mere circumstance that any of the Kiskunhalas gipsy women drew and embroidered in a however poor quality could be enough to draw our attention to her. However, there was also a further question: did 1 Kamill ERDŐS: Metal-working gipsies — NÉ (Ethn. Gazette) XLIV. 1962. pp. 289—290. — About the „oláh" (vlach) gipsies of Hungary see also Kamill ERDŐS : The Gipsies of Hungary (Tribes, Clans), NK (Ethn. Journal) III.

1958. pp.152

—170. He later modified to some degree this definition by tribes of the gipsies in Hungary. However, this does not affect his statements made about the Kiskunhalas gipsies. 170