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The Zincali-Part14_George Borrow(1803-1881)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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agitation of manner. Her speech, it is true, has been rapid, but

her voice has never been raised to a very high key; but she now



stamps on the ground, and placing her hands on her hips, she moves

quickly to the right and left, advancing and retreating in a



sidelong direction. Her glances become more fierce and fiery, and

her coarse hair stands erect on her head, stiff as the prickles of



the hedgehog; and now she commences clapping her hands, and

uttering words of an unknown tongue, to a strange and uncouth tune.



The tawny bantling seems inspired with the same fiend, and, foaming

at the mouth, utters wild sounds, in imitation of its dam. Still



more rapid become the sidelong movements of the Gitana. Movement!

she springs, she bounds, and at every bound she is a yard above the



ground. She no longer bears the child in her bosom; she plucks it

from thence, and fiercely brandishes it aloft, till at last, with a



yell she tosses it high into the air, like a ball, and then, with

neck and head thrown back, receives it, as it falls, on her hands



and breast, extracting a cry from the terrified beholders. Is it

possible she can be singing? Yes, in the wildest style of her



people; and here is a snatch of the song, in the language of Roma,

which she occasionally screams -



'En los sastos de yesque plai me diquelo,

Doscusanas de sonacai terelo, -



Corojai diquelo abillar,

Y ne asislo chapescar, chapescar.'



'On the top of a mountain I stand,

With a crown of red gold in my hand, -



Wild Moors came trooping o'er the lea,

O how from their fury shall I flee, flee, flee?



O how from their fury shall I flee?'

Such was the Gitana in the days of Ferdinand and Isabella, and much



the same is she now in the days of Isabel and Christina.

Of the Gitanas and their practices I shall have much to say on a



future occasion, when speaking of those of the present time, with

many of whom I have had no little intercourse. All the ancient



Spanish authors who mention these women speak of them in unmeasured

terms of abhorrence, employing against them every abusive word



contained in the language in which they wrote. Amongst other vile

names, they have been called harlots, though perhaps no females on



earth are, and have ever been, more chaste in their own persons,

though at all times willing to encourage licentiousness in others,



from a hope of gain. It is one thing to be a procuress, and

another to be a harlot, though the former has assuredly no reason



to complain if she be confounded with the latter. 'The Gitanas,'

says Doctor Sancho de Moncada, in his discourseconcerning the



Gypsies, which I shall presently lay before the reader, 'are public

harlots, common, as it is said, to all the Gitanos, and with



dances, demeanour, and filthy songs, are the cause of infinite harm

to the souls of the vassals of your Majesty (Philip III.), as it is



notorious what infinite harm they have caused in many honourable

houses. The married women whom they have separated from their



husbands, and the maidens whom they have perverted; and finally, in

the best of these Gitanas, any one may recognise all the signs of a



harlot given by the wise king: "they are gadders about,

whisperers, always unquiet in the places and corners."' (28)



The author of Alonso, (29) he who of all the old Spanish writers

has written most graphically concerning the Gitanos, and I believe



with most correctness, puts the following account of the Gitanas,

and their fortune-telling practices, into the entertaining mouth of



his hero:-

'O how many times did these Gitanas carry me along with them, for



being, after all, women, even they have their fears, and were glad

of me as a protector: and so they went through the neighbouring



villages, and entered the houses a-begging, giving to understand

thereby their poverty and necessity, and then they would call aside



the girls, in order to tell them the buena ventura, and the young

fellows the good luck which they were to enjoy, never failing in



the first place to ask for a cuarto or real, in order to make the

sign of the cross; and with these flattering words, they got as



much as they could, although, it is true, not much in money, as




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