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The Zincali-Part10_George Borrow(1803-1881)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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word and gesture, in dance and in song, than the Gitanas; but there



they stop: and so of old, if their titled visitors presumed to

seek for more, an unsheathed dagger or gleaming knife speedily



repulsed those who expected that the gem most dear amongst the sect

of the Roma was within the reach of a Busno.



Such visitors, however, were always encouraged to a certain point,

and by this and various other means the Gitanos acquired



connections which frequently stood them in good stead in the hour

of need. What availed it to the honest labourers of the



neighbourhood, or the citizens of the town, to make complaints to

the corregidor concerning the thefts and frauds committed by the



Gitanos, when perhaps the sons of that very corregidor frequented

the nightly dances at the Gitaneria, and were deeply enamoured with



some of the dark-eyed singing-girls? What availed making

complaints, when perhaps a Gypsy sibyl, the mother of those very



girls, had free admission to the house of the corregidor at all

times and seasons, and spaed the good fortune to his daughters,



promising them counts and dukes, and Andalusian knights in

marriage, or prepared philtres for his lady by which she was always



to reign supreme in the affections of her husband? And, above all,

what availed it to the plundered party to complain that his mule or



horse had been stolen, when the Gitano robber, perhaps the husband

of the sibyl and the father of the black-eyed Gitanillas, was at



that moment actually in treaty with my lord the corregidor himself

for supplying him with some splendid thick-maned, long-tailed steed



at a small price, to be obtained, as the reader may well suppose,

by an infraction of the laws? The favour and protection which the



Gitanos experienced from people of high rank is alluded to in the

Spanish laws, and can only be accounted for by the motives above



detailed.

The Gitanerias were soon considered as public nuisances, on which



account the Gitanos were forbidden to live together in particular

parts of the town, to hold meetings, and even to intermarry with



each other; yet it does not appear that the Gitanerias were ever

suppressed by the arm of the law, as many still exist where these



singular beings 'marry and are given in marriage,' and meet

together to discuss their affairs, which, in their opinion, never



flourish unless those of their fellow-creatures suffer. So much

for the Gitanerias, or Gypsy colonies in the towns of Spain.



CHAPTER V

'LOS Gitanos son muy malos! - the Gypsies are very bad people,'



said the Spaniards of old times. They are cheats; they are

highwaymen; they practise sorcery; and, lest the catalogue of their



offences should be incomplete, a formalcharge of cannibalism was

brought against them. Cheats they have always been, and



highwaymen, and if not sorcerers, they have always done their best

to merit that appellation, by arrogating to themselves supernatural



powers; but that they were addicted to cannibalism is a matter not

so easily proved.



Their principal accuser was Don Juan de Quinones, who, in the work

from which we have already had occasion to quote, gives several



anecdotes illustrative of their cannibal propensities. Most of

these anecdotes, however, are so highly absurd, that none but the



very credulous could ever have vouchsafed them the slightest

credit. This author is particularly fond of speaking of a certain



juez, or judge, called Don Martin Fajardo, who seems to have been

an arrant Gypsy-hunter, and was probably a member of the ancient



family of the Fajardos, which still flourishes in Estremadura, and

with individuals of which we are acquainted. So it came to pass



that this personage was, in the year 1629, at Jaraicejo, in

Estremadura, or, as it is written in the little book in question,



Zaraizejo, in the capacity of judge; a zealous one he undoubtedly

was.



A very strange place is this same Jaraicejo, a small ruinous town




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