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The Zincali-Part8_George Borrow(1803-1881)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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of hunting when he thought proper. As the ground which he hunted

over was not his own, he incurred some danger of coming in contact



with the lord of the soil, attended, perhaps, by his armed

followers. There is a tradition (rather apocryphal, it is true),



that a Gitano chief, once pursuing this amusement, was encountered

by a real Count, who is styled Count Pepe. An engagement ensued



between the two parties, which ended in the Gypsies being worsted,

and their chief left dying on the field. The slain chief leaves a



son, who, at the instigation of his mother, steals the infant heir

of his father's enemy, who, reared up amongst the Gypsies, becomes



a chief, and, in process of time, hunting over the same ground,

slays Count Pepe in the very spot where the blood of the Gypsy had



been poured out. This tradition is alluded to in the following

stanza:-



'I have a gallant mare in stall;

My mother gave that mare



That I might seek Count Pepe's hall

And steal his son and heir.'



Martin Del Rio, in his TRACTATUS DE MAGIA, speaks of the Gypsies

and their Counts to the following effect: 'When, in the year 1584,



I was marching in Spain with the regiment, a multitude of these

wretches were infesting the fields. It happened that the feast of



Corpus Domini was being celebrated, and they requested to be

admitted into the town, that they might dance in honour of the



sacrifice, as was customary; they did so, but about midday a great

tumult arose owing to the many thefts which the women committed,



whereupon they fled out of the suburbs, and assembled about St.

Mark's, the magnificentmansion and hospital of the knights of St.



James, where the ministers of justice attempting to seize them were

repulsed by force of arms; nevertheless, all of a sudden, and I



know not how, everything was hushed up. At this time they had a

Count, a fellow who spoke the Castilian idiom with as much purity



as if he had been a native of Toledo; he was acquainted with all

the ports of Spain, and all the difficult and broken ground of the



provinces. He knew the exact strength of every city, and who were

the principal people in each, and the exact amount of their



property; there was nothing relating to the state, however secret,

that he was not acquainted with; nor did he make a mystery of his



knowledge, but publicly boasted of it.'

From the passage quoted above, we learn that the Gitanos in the



ancient times were considered as foreigners who prowled about the

country; indeed, in many of the laws which at various times have



been promulgated against them, they are spoken of as Egyptians, and

as such commanded to leave Spain, and return to their native



country; at one time they undoubtedly were foreigners in Spain,

foreigners by birth, foreigners by language but at the time they



are mentioned by the worthy Del Rio, they were certainly not

entitled to the appellation. True it is that they spoke a language



amongst themselves, unintelligible to the rest of the Spaniards,

from whom they differed considerably in feature and complexion, as



they still do; but if being born in a country, and being bred

there, constitute a right to be considered a native of that



country, they had as much claim to the appellation of Spaniards as

the worthy author himself. Del Rio mentions, as a remarkable



circumstance, the fact of the Gypsy Count speaking Castilian with

as much purity as a native of Toledo, whereas it is by no means



improbable that the individual in question was a native of that

town; but the truth is, at the time we are speaking of, they were



generally believed to be not only foreigners, but by means of

sorcery to have acquired the power of speaking all languages with



equal facility; and Del Rio, who was a believer in magic, and wrote




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