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The Zincali-Part13_George Borrow(1803-1881)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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foolish, false, vain, scandalous, futile, superstitious practice,

smelling much of divinery and a pact with the devil.'



Then, after mentioning a number of erudite and enlightened men of

the three learned professions, who have written against such absurd



superstitions, amongst whom he cites Martin Del Rio, he falls foul

of the Gypsy wives in this manner: 'A practice turned to profit by



the wives of that rabble of abandoned miscreants whom the Italians

call Cingari, the Latins Egyptians, and we Gitanos, who,



notwithstanding that they are sent by the Turks into Spain for the

purpose of acting as spies upon the Christian religion, pretend



that they are wandering over the world in fulfilment of a penance

enjoined upon them, part of which penance seems to be the living by



fraud and imposition.' And shortly afterwards he remarks: 'Nor do

they derive any authority for such a practice from those words in



Exodus, (24) "et quasi signum in manu tua," as that passage does

not treat of chiromancy, but of the festival of unleavened bread;



the observance of which, in order that it might be memorable to the

Hebrews, the sacredhistorian said should be as a sign upon the



hand; a metaphor derived from those who, when they wish to remember

anything, tie a thread round their finger, or put a ring upon it;



and still less I ween does that chapter of Job (25) speak in their

favour, where is written, "Qui in manu hominis signat, ut norint



omnes opera sua," because the divine power is meant thereby which

is preached to those here below: for the hand is intended for



power and magnitude, Exod. chap. xiv., (26) or stands for free

will, which is placed in a man's hand, that is, in his power.



Wisdom, chap. xxxvi. "In manibus abscondit lucem," (27) etc. etc.

etc.



No, no, good Torreblanca, we know perfectly well that the witch-

wives of Multan, who for the last four hundred years have been



running about Spain and other countries, telling fortunes by the

hand, and deriving good profit from the same, are not countenanced



in such a practice by the sacredvolume; we yield as little credit

to their chiromancy as we do to that which you call the true and



catholic, and believe that the lines of the hand have as little

connection with the events of life as with the liver and stomach,



notwithstanding Aristotle, who you forget was a heathen, and knew

as little and cared as little for the Scriptures as the Gitanos,



whether male or female, who little reck what sanction any of their

practices may receive from authority, whether divine or human, if



the pursuitenable them to provide sufficient for the existence,

however poor and miserable, of their families and themselves.



A very singular kind of women are the Gitanas, far more remarkable

in most points than their husbands, in whose pursuits of low



cheating and petty robbery there is little capable of exciting much

interest; but if there be one being in the world who, more than



another, deserves the title of sorceress (and where do you find a

word of greater romance and more thrilling interest?), it is the



Gypsy female in the prime and vigour of her age and ripeness of her

understanding - the Gypsy wife, the mother of two or three



children. Mention to me a point of devilry with which that woman

is not acquainted. She can at any time, when it suits her, show



herself as expert a jockey as her husband, and he appears to

advantage in no other character, and is only eloquent when



descanting on the merits of some particular animal; but she can do

much more: she is a prophetess, though she believes not in



prophecy; she is a physician, though she will not taste her own

philtres; she is a procuress, though she is not to be procured; she



is a singer of obscene songs, though she will suffer no obscene

hand to touch her; and though no one is more tenacious of the



little she possesses, she is a cutpurse and a shop-lifter whenever

opportunity shall offer.



In all times, since we have known anything of these women, they

have been addicted to and famous for fortune-telling; indeed, it is



their only ostensible means of livelihood, though they have various

others which they pursue more secretly. Where and how they first



learned the practice we know not; they may have brought it with

them from the East, or they may have adopted it, which is less






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