observe certain principles of what has been termed "wild justice,"
having their king or queen as the case may be, and to such self-elected
control only do they yield obedience. The men, like the women, affect
gaudy colors, and both toss their loose, ragged garments about them
after a graceful style all their own. The bronzed features, profuse
black hair, and very dark eyes of these gypsies, often render them
strikingly handsome; and when this dangerous heritage falls to the share
of the young women, it often leads to experiences too tragic to record.
Many of the men wear embroidered velvet jackets, with hanging silver
buttons, like a Basque postilion, and add a scarlet sash about the
waist, the legs being bound up in sheep's skins with fancy-colored
ribbons, and the feet covered with crude sandals,--altogether quite a
theatrical costume.

Gypsies worship high colors and cheap jewelry, and would spend their
last farthing for either, though the question of whence the next meal
was to come from might be an unsolved problem. They roam idly about the
grounds of the Alhambra, but are not permitted to enter its walls, and
no exterior picture of the structure would be true which did not
introduce one or more of them in the foreground. Strangers generally
visit their quarters in the valley, and for their entertainment they
dance, tell fortunes, play tricks, and, if possible, steal from them.
Indeed it is hardly safe, without an experienced guide, to go among
them. Their domestic life is represented to be of so objectionable a
character that it will not bear discussing. Gypsies will not work unless
driven to do so by absolute want, but necessity sometimes compels them;
and so occasionally they may be found manipulating the waters of the
swift-running Darro for gold, which is often found in paying quantities.
There is a local jeweler within the precincts of the Alhambra who makes
the gold from this stream into mementos, which are a favorite investment
with visitors, in the form of pins and brooches. The river Darro rises
in a rocky gorge of the neighboring mountains, and comes tumbling down
the valley within a stone's-throw of the gypsies' cave-dwellings, thence
flows through the town, and is joined by the Xenil on the plain of
Granada.

Close by the Alhambra, indeed almost within the walls, we visited the
delightful villa of Madame Calderon de la Barca, who was once a resident
of Boston, and who was well known and highly esteem