warfare, and not unfrequently under no pretence at all, have

committed the most frightful excesses, plundering and murdering the
defenceless. Such a state of things would have afforded the

Gitanos a favourable opportunity to resume their former kind of
life, and to levy contributions as formerly, wandering about in

bands. Certain it is, however, that they have not sought to repeat
their ancient excesses, takingadvantage of the troubles of the

country; they have gone on, with a few exceptions, quietly pursuing
that part of their system to which they still cling, their

jockeyism, which, though based on fraud and robbery, is far
preferable to wandering brigandage, which necessarily involves the

frequent shedding of blood. Can better proof be adduced, that
Gitanismo owes its decline, in Spain, not to force, not to

persecution, not to any want of opportunity of exercising it, but
to some other cause? - and we repeat that we consider the principal

if not the only cause of the decline of Gitanismo to be the
conferring on the Gitanos the rights and privileges of other

subjects.
We have said that the Gitanos have not much availed themselves of

the permission, which the law grants them, of embarking in various
spheres of life. They remain jockeys, but they have ceased to be

wanderers; and the grand object of the law is accomplished. The
law forbids them to be jockeys, or to follow the trade of trimming

and shearing animals, without some other visible mode of
subsistence. This provision, except in a few isolated instances,

they evade; and the law seeks not, and perhaps wisely, to disturb
them, content with having achieved so much. The chief evils of

Gitanismo which still remain consist in the systematic frauds of
the Gypsy jockeys and the tricks of the women. It is incurring

considerable risk to purchase a horse or a mule, even from the most
respectable Gitano, without a previous knowledge of the animal and

his former possessor, the chances being that it is either diseased
or stolen from a distance. Of the practices of the females,

something will be said in particular in a future chapter.
The Gitanos in general are very poor, a pair of large cachas and

various scissors of a smaller description constituting their whole
capital; occasionally a good hit is made, as they call it, but the

money does not last long, being quickly squandered in feasting and
revelry. He who has habitually in his house a couple of donkeys is

considered a thriving Gitano; there are some, however, who are
wealthy in the strict sense of the word, and carry on a very

extensive trade in horses and mules. These, occasionally, visit
the most distant fairs, traversing the greatest part of Spain.

There is a celebrated cattle-fair held at Leon on St. John's or
Midsummer Day, and on one of these occasions, being present, I

observed a small family of Gitanos, consisting of a man of about
fifty, a female of the same age, and a handsome young Gypsy, who

was their son; they were richly dressed after the Gypsy fashion,
the men wearing zamarras with massy clasps and knobs of silver, and

the woman a species of riding-dress with much gold embroidery, and
having immense gold rings attached to her ears. They came from

Murcia, a distance of one hundred leagues and upwards. Some
merchants, to whom I was recommended, informed me that they had

credit on their house to the amount of twenty thousand dollars.
They experienced rough treatment in the fair, and on a very

singular account: immediately on their appearing on the ground,
the horses in the fair, which, perhaps, amounted to three thousand,

were seized with a sudden and universal panic; it was one of those
strange incidents for which it is difficult to assign a rational

cause; but a panic there was amongst the brutes, and a mighty one;
the horses neighed, screamed, and plunged, endeavouring to escape

in all directions; some appeared absolutely possessed, stamping and
tearing, their manes and tails stiffly erect, like the bristles of

the wild boar - many a rider lost his seat. When the panic had
ceased, and it did cease almost as suddenly as it had arisen, the

Gitanos were forthwith accused as the authors of it; it was said
that they intended to steal the best horses during the confusion,

and the keepers of the ground, assisted by a rabble of chalans, who
had their private reasons for hating the Gitanos, drove them off

the field with sticks and cudgels. So much for having a bad name.
These wealthy Gitanos, when they are not ashamed of their blood or

descent, and are not addicted to proud fancies, or 'barbales,' as
they are called, possess great influence with the rest of their

brethren, almost as much as the rabbins amongst the Jews; their
bidding is considered law, and the other Gitanos are at their

devotion. On the contrary, when they prefer the society of the
Busne to that of their own race, and refuse to assist their less

fortunate brethren in poverty or in prison, they are regarded with
unbounded contempt and abhorrence, as in the case of the rich Gypsy

of Badajoz, and are not unfrequently doomed to destruction: such
characters are mentioned in their couplets:-

'The Gypsy fiend of Manga mead,
Who never gave a straw,

He would destroy, for very greed,
The good Egyptian law.

'The false Juanito day and night
Had best with caution go;

The Gypsy carles of Yeira height
Have sworn to lay him low.'

However some of the Gitanos may complain that there is no longer
union to be found amongst them, there is still much of that fellow-

feeling which springs from a consciousness of proceeding from one
common origin, or, as they love to term it, 'blood.' At present

their system exhibits less of a commonwealth than when they roamed
in bands amongst the wilds, and principally subsisted by foraging,

each individual contributing to the common stock, according to his
success. The interests of individuals are now more distinct, and

that close connection is of course dissolved which existed when
they wandered about, and their dangers, gains, and losses were felt

in common; and it can never be too often repeated that they are no
longer a proscribed race, with no rights nor safety save what they

gained by a close and intimate union. Nevertheless, the Gitano,
though he naturally prefers his own interest to that of his

brother, and envies him his gain when he does not expect to share
in it, is at all times ready to side with him against the Busno,

because the latter is not a Gitano, but of a different blood, and
for no other reason. When one Gitano confides his plans to

another, he is in no fear that they will be betrayed to the Busno,
for whom there is no sympathy, and when a plan is to be executed

which requires co-operation, they seek not the fellowship of the
Busne, but of each other, and if successful, share the gain like

brothers.
As a proof of the fraternal feeling which is not unfrequently

displayed amongst the Gitanos, I shall relate a circumstance which
occurred at Cordova a year or two before I first visited it. One

of the poorest of the Gitanos murdered a Spaniard with the fatal
Manchegan knife; for this crime he was seized, tried, and found

guilty. Blood-shedding in Spain is not looked upon with much
abhorrence, and the life of the culprit is seldom taken, provided

he can offer a bribe sufficient to induce the notary public to
report favourably upon his case; but in this instance money was of

no avail; the murdered individual left behind him powerful friends
and connections, who were determined that justice should take its

course. It was in vain that the Gitanos exerted all their
influence with the authorities in behalf of their comrade, and such

influence was not slight; it was in vain that they offered
extravagant sums that the punishment of death might be commuted to

perpetual slavery in the dreary presidio of Ceuta; I was credibly
informed that one of the richest Gitanos, by name Fruto, offered

for his own share of the ransom the sum of five thousand crowns,
whilst there was not an individual but contributed according to his

means - nought availed, and the Gypsy was executed in the Plaza.
The day before the execution, the Gitanos, perceiving that the fate

of their brother was sealed, one and all quitted Cordova, shutting
up their houses and carrying with them their horses, their mules,