Gypsies have no settled abode, and never dwell in cities. They live in huts, or even in excavations of the earth, generally on the side of a hillock, that has a south ern exposure. A roof is formed of rafters, overlaid with turf, and a woollen cloth is often drawn across the aper ture left for a door. Some of the more miserable only shelter themselves in forests, or bchind hedges, in the warmer climates. A fire occupies the middle of the hut, around which the children lie naked ; and indeed the whole tribe, although delighting in finery, go very scantily clothed. But if a single gaudy article can be obtained, the rest is disregarded ; whence a man is sometimes seen on the continent in an old red silk coat, or a woman adorned with glaring ribbons, while their other apparel consists of rags. Linen is a scarce commodity among them, for the females can neither sew nor spin.
None of the gypsies are agriculturisl'... Where they have, by unusual fortune, and by abandoning their no madic life, become proprietors of spots of ground, the cultivation of it is left to others. Their own professions are, sold washing in Hungary, at which they are very ex pert, farriery, rude occupations in smith work, and, in Britain, they are fur the most part employed in the low est branches of that art. Their tools and materials arc alike indifferent. Nothing is done but on a small scale ; and it is observed, that the artificer always sits down cross-legged to his work, which is considered as deno ting the eastern origin of his race. They were formerly employed abroad in the execution of criminals; wherein they displayed a skill in the art of torturing their fellow creatures, corresponding with their own innate pusillani mity. Many dealt in horses, but they practised such in genious deceptions, and to so great an extent, that a royal ordinance prohibited this part of their profession. Their females form a considerable portion of the dan cing girls of India. They combine music with their allure ments ; and most of them, both in that peninsula and Turkey, as likewise in Spain, subsist oir the wages of prostitution. Every where the character of their dances is the same ; and, in one of them called Maguin dry is prohibited under severe penalties. The men and women sometimes bring forward dramatic exhibitions, for the performance of which Illey are called before the houses of the wealthy. The women,-as is well known, pretend to skill in divination, and tell the fortunes of the cre dulous from palmistry, physiognomy, or moles on the skin ; hence the origin of the beautiful engraving of La Zingara. So long ago as the year 1531, we find an Eng
lish statute narrating, " that before this time many outlandish people, calling themselves Egyptians, using no craft nor feat of merchandize, have come into this realm, and gone from shirt to shire, and plaee to place.
in great companies, and used great, crafty, and subtile means to deceive the people, bearing them in hand, that they, by palmistry, could tell men and women's fortunes, and so, many times by craft and subtilty, have deceived the people of their money, and also have committed many heinous felonies and robberies, to the great hurt and de ceit of the people they have come among. It is singular, that at Tobolsk in Siberia, their practice and professions are the same. " They watch every traveller," according to Commodore Billings, " and pretend to explain the mys teries of futurity by palmistry or physiognomy. The peasant dreads their power, and, from motives of fear, contributes to their support, lest they should spoil his cattle or horses." Thus, in the western parts of Europe, and the eastern parts of Asia, at an interval of nearly three centuries, the gypsies are distinguished by corresponding features, scarcely modified by the people among whom they seek an asylum.
This tribe is utterly unacquainted with science and lite rature. The scanty knowledge of their forefathers re mains with them unimproved. A few of those in Spain, however, pretend to knowledge in medicine or surgery ; and the females in the neighbourhood of Calcutta visit that and other towns, and prescribe for the complaints of their own sex. They have no settled principles ofreli gion; they are Turks with Turks, and Christians with Christians. It does not appear that they celebrate any re ligious rites, or entertain the'common sentiments of man kind in regard to a future life, or places of reward and punishment. The son of a more civilzied Transylvanian gypsey having died at school, and being about to receive Christian burial, the officiating priest inquired, whether the survivors believed that the deceased would rise again at the last " Strange supposition !" they answered, " to conceive that a carcase, a lifeless corpse, should be reanimated, and rise again; it is no more likely to happen, in our opinion, than to the horse we flayed a few days ago.'' Their children, however, are circumcised in 'I ur key, and baptised in Europe.