which, after receding a little to make room for this grassy retreat,
closed in again upon the current, and prevented all _easy_ entrance or
escape. Soon after Mungo's arrival, he discovered a large kettle,
boiling and bubbling, in a crevice of the cliff, suspended from a
transverse beam; and beheld around it, now that a parcel of sticks and
dry leaves were kindled, a most picturesque and motley group--women,
children, men, boys, and lasses, of all hues, aspects, and sizes, were
scattered about in profusion; and, as the flame flashed back from the
red sandstone of the linn, their faces glared on Mungo with a demoniac
expression. It seemed the very picture of Pandemonium; and yet the
hearty laugh, the bold oath, and the occasional inquiry, bespoke the
inhabitants to be at least one remove from devils. Mungo was desired to
rest him and his load on the apron of the rock, and compelled, without a
nay-say, to unstrap his pack, and expose his goods, not (seemingly) for
sale, but for plunder. This was not the way, assuredly, to turn the
penny to advantage, but what can one say, "_durum telum
necessitas?_"--there was no avoiding the spoliation. To be sure, the
king, or leader of the gipsy tribe--amounting probably to not less than
forty or fifty persons--hinted in his ear that he should not be a loser
at last; but, in the meantime, to his no small mortification, he saw his
shawls, napkins, stockings, and waistcoat-pieces, making the round of
the company without ceremony, and forgetting, like the dove from the
ark, to return whence they had fled. The pack having been thus
ransacked, and the pot having given audible intimation for some time of
its preparatory doings, the king--for such he was--the notorious Donald
Faa, with his three sons, Duncan, Cuthbert, and _Donnert_ Davie,
together with the king's fair daughter, Helen Yetholm Faa, squatted down
on the grass, and without the help of forks, made a hearty meal on
hares, chickens, turkeys, geese, and half-a-dozen brace of partridges,
which might have rejoiced the heart even of a Dominie Sampson. The other
members of the community seemed to acknowledge the deputed authority of
a young man of good features, and an athletic and genteel appearance,
who went by the name of the Squire. After _eating_ had had its fair
share of devoted and unremitted attention, a barrel, of considerable
dimensions, began to make its way downward from amidst the recesses of
this water-worn and excavated roc