nd having
been taught by her the unique capabilities of that rarely seen
instrument, she soon learnt the art of fascinating her Welsh patrons
by the strange, wild strains she could draw from it. This obsolete
six-stringed instrument (with two of the strings reaching beyond the
key-board, used as drones and struck by the thumb, the bow only being
used on the other four, and a bridge placed, not at right angles to
the sides of the instrument, but in an oblique direction), though in
some important respects inferior to the violin, is in other respects
superior to it. Heard among the peaks of Snowdon, as I heard them
during our search for Winifred, the notes of the crwth have a
wonderful wildness and pathos. It is supposed to have the power of
drawing the spirits when a maiden sings to its accompaniment a
mysterious old Cymric song or incantation.

Among her own people it was as a seeress, as an adept in the real
dukkering--the dukkering for the Romanies, as distinguished from the
false dukkering, the dukkering for the Gorgios--that Sinfi's fame was
great. She had travelled over nearly all England--wherever, in short,
there were horse-fairs--and was familiar with London, where in the
studios of artists she was in request as a face model of
extraordinary value. Nor were these all the characteristics that
distinguished her from the common herd of Romany chies: she was one
of the few Gypsies of either sex who could speak with equal fluency
both the English and Welsh Romanes, and she was in the habit
sometimes of mixing the two dialects in a most singular way. Though
she had lived much in Wales, and had a passionate love of Snowdon,
she belonged to a famous branch of the Lovells whose haunt had for
ages been in Wales and also the East Midlands, and she had caught
entirely the accent of that district.

Among artists in London, as I afterwards learnt, she often went by
the playful name of 'Lady Sinfi Lovell,' for the following reason:

She was extremely proud, and believed the 'Kaulo Camloes' to
represent the aristocracy not only of the Gypsies, but of the world.
Moreover, she had of late been brought into close contact with a
certain travelling band of Hungarian Gypsy-musicians, who visited
England some time ago. Intercourse with these had fostered her pride
in a curious manner. The musicians are the most intelligent and most
widely-travelled not only of the Hungarian Gypsies, but of all the
Romany race. They are darker than