in appearance but in their phlegm, fanaticism and
rapacity. Such of our readers as have travelled in Southern Europe must
have frequently encountered these Bohemians, who come from no one knows
where only to disappear again like the swallows at the approach of
winter.

Their language is a mixture of the Spanish and the Sclavonic. Some
jabber a little French. The men are generally athletic, very dark
complexioned and have strong, energetic features, wavy hair and sonorous
voices. The women, when young, are remarkably beautiful; but like all
who lead an exposed and migratory life, they become hideous before they
are thirty. They live in families or tribes, each family consisting of
fifteen or twenty members, and obeying the orders of the oldest woman,
who is dignified by the title of queen, and from whose decisions there
is no appeal, though she, in turn, owes allegiance to one great queen.
These Bohemians are tolerated in the countries through which they pass;
but people seldom enter into any closer relations with them than are
necessary to effect the purchase of a horse or mule, or to obtain a
prediction concerning the future. They know the feeling of repulsion
they inspire, so they seldom approach thickly settled districts, and
only the women and children venture into the villages to solicit alms.

It was to this race that Tiepoletta belonged; and though the color of
her hair, the delicacy of her features and the fairness of her skin did
not accord with her supposed origin, her memory hinted at nothing that
did not harmonize with what had been told her concerning her parentage.
It is not the aim of this story to investigate the truth or the falsity
of this assertion. That Tiepoletta had Bohemian blood in her veins; that
she had, as a child, been stolen from her friends; that she was the
fruit of some mysterious love affair; all these hypotheses were equally
plausible, but there was nothing to prove that the first was not the
true one, nor had her imagination ever engaged in a search for any
other; but the people of her tribe seemed to suspect that she was of
different blood, for they evidently regarded her with aversion.
Preserved from the pernicious counsels and examples of those around her
by some secret instinct, she had remained pure. With the aid of a book
picked up on the roadside, she had learned to read and to speak a few
French words. This was more than enough to convince her companions that
she was haughty