liness, there are
many to be found, whose extraction is not at all discernible in their
colour; though they had, probably, remained to the age of twelve or
fourteen years under the care of their filthy parents.

A Gypsey considers a covering for the head as useless, and if he does not
obtain socks, which the female Gypsies in Moldavia and Wallachia knit
with wooden needles for the feet, he winds rags about them, which are
laid aside in summer. He is not better furnished with linen, as the
women neither spin, sew, nor wash. But this inattention is not from
indifference about dress; on the contrary, they are particularly fond of
clothes, which have been worn by people of distinction. The following,
which appeared in the Imperial Gazette, is very much to the purpose:
"Notwithstanding these people are so wretched, that they have nothing but
rags to cover them, which do not at all fit, and are scarcely sufficient
to hide their nakedness; yet they betray their foolish taste, and vain
ostentation, whenever they have in opportunity." The women are as fond
of dress as the men, and equally expose themselves to the ridicule of the
considerate and reflecting part of mankind.

They are remarkable not only in hanging their ragged clothes about them
instead of garments, according to the Eastern custom; but their whole
arrangement is singular. Several of their leaders have horses, asses, or
mules with them, on which they load their tents and effects, with their
whole family also. They have likewise dogs in their train, with which
Krantz asserts they are used illegally, to destroy game; but probably the
dogs are not kept so much for that purpose, as to take fowls and geese.

One strange peculiarity in the ideas of Gypsies we have hitherto forborn
to mention, but, disgusting as the task of recording it way be, it is so
well authenticated, as to have excited the notice of the Hungarian
Legislature; and as it will be found to have some reference to the origin
of this singular race of human beings, it must not be withheld from
public view. The greatest luxury to them is, when they can procure a
roast of cattle that have died of any distemper: to eat their fill of
such a meal, is to them the height of epicurism. When any person
censures their taste, or shows surprise at it, they say: "The flesh of a
beast which God kills, must be better than that of one killed by the hand
of man." They therefore embrace every opportunity of obtaini