all lands. Perhaps he is happiest in his account
of the Spanish Gypsy woman. "Their women," he says, "sell poultry and
old rags.... and find in interpreting dreams, in philter selling, and
in fortune-telling the most lucrative industries. They sing, and play
various instruments, accompanying the music with the most voluptuous
and licentious dances and attitudes; but woe to the man who would obtain
from these Bayaderes any boon beyond their provocative exhibition. From
the Indus to Gibraltar, the contrast of obscenity in language and
in songs with corporal chastity has ever been a distinctive
characteristic.... Gypsy marriages, like those of the high caste Hindus,
entail ruinous expense; the revelry lasts three days, the 'Gentile' is
freely invited, and the profusion of meats and drinks often makes the
bridgegroom a debtor for life. The Spanish Gypsies are remarkable for
beauty in early youth; for magnificent eyes and hair, regular features,
light and well-knit figures. Their locks, like the Hindus, are
lamp black, and without a sign of wave: [559] and they preserve the
characteristic eye. I have often remarked its fixity and brilliance,
which flashes like phosphoric light, the gleam which in some eyes
denotes madness. I have also noticed the 'far-off look' which seems to
gaze at something beyond you and the alternation from the fixed stare to
a glazing or filming of the pupil." [560]

This peculiarity of the gypsy's eyes, Burton had himself, for which
reason alone, some writers, as we have already observed, have claimed
him for the tribe. But he shared other peculiarities with them. For
example, there was his extraordinary restlessness--a restlessness which
prevented him from every settling long in any one place. Then, like
the gypsies, he had an intense horror of a corpse--even of pictures of
corpses. Though brave to temerity he avoided churchyards, and feared
"the phosphorescence of the dead." Many of his letters testify to his
keen interest in the race. For example, he tells Mr. J. Pincherle,
author of a Romani version of Solomon's Song, [561] the whole story of
his wife and Hagar Burton. In 1888 he joined the newly-founded "Gypsy
Lore Society," and in a letter to Mr. David MacRitchie (13th May 1888)
he says in reference to the Society's Journal: "Very glad to see that
you write 'Gypsy.' I would not subscribe to 'Gipsy.'" In later letters
he expresses his appreciation of Mr. MacRitchie's article "The Gypsies
of India