Zigenarnas namn och ursprung

Jag är förvånad över varför man har inte märkt ännu tills idag deras riktiga ursprung. Herodotos i sin historia bok nämner ett folk vid namn Sigynnae. Jag tror de har varit förfäderna till Zigenare (oberörbara) eller romani (ner, förnedrade). Deras både namn har sina rötter i sanskrit: शिखिन् zikhin m. religious mendicant, रोमन् roman n. down.

Berättelsen om dem kommer i Herodotos femte bok:

As regards the region lying north of this country no one can say with any certainty what men inhabit it. It appears that you no sooner cross the Ister than you enter on an interminable wilderness. The only people of whom I can hear as dwelling beyond the Ister are the race named Sigynnae, who wear, they say, a dress like the Medes, and have horses which are covered entirely with a coat of shaggy hair, five fingers in length. They are a small breed, flat-nosed, and not strong enough to bear men on their backs; but when yoked to chariots, they are among the swiftest known, which is the reason why the people of that country use chariots. Their borders reach down almost to the Eneti upon the Adriatic Sea, and they call themselves colonists of the Medes; but how they can be colonists of the Medes I for my part cannot imagine. Still nothing is impossible in the long lapse of ages. Sigynnae is the name which the Ligurians who dwell above Massilia give to traders, while among the Cyprians the word means spears.