woman stood by the dresser, much resembling him in feature, with
the same hair and complexion, but with more intelligence in her

eyes than the man, who looked heavy and dogged. A dark woman, whom
I subsequently discovered to be lame, sat in a corner, and two or

three swarthy girls, from fifteen to eighteen years of age, were
flitting about the room. I also observed a wicked-looking boy, who

might have been called handsome, had not one of his eyes been
injured. 'Jews,' said I, in Moorish, to Hayim, as I glanced at

these people and about the room; 'these are not Jews, but children
of the Dar-bushi-fal.'

'List to the Corahai,' said the tall woman, in broken Gypsy slang,
'hear how they jabber (hunelad como chamulian), truly we will make

them pay for the noise they raise in the house.' Then coming up to
me, she demanded with a shout, fearing otherwise that I should not

understand, whether I would not wish to see the room where I was to
sleep. I nodded: whereupon she led me out upon a back terrace,

and opening the door of a small room, of which there were three,
asked me if it would suit. 'Perfectly,' said I, and returned with

her to the kitchen.
'O, what a handsome face! what a royal person!' exclaimed the whole

family as I returned, in Spanish, but in the whining, canting tones
peculiar to the Gypsies, when they are bent on victimising. 'A

more ugly Busno it has never been our chance to see,' said the same
voices in the next breath, speaking in the jargon of the tribe.

'Won't your Moorish Royalty please to eat something?' said the tall
hag. 'We have nothing in the house; but I will run out and buy a

fowl, which I hope may prove a royal peacock to nourish and
strengthen you.' 'I hope it may turn to drow in your entrails,'

she muttered to the rest in Gypsy. She then ran down, and in a
minute returned with an old hen, which, on my arrival, I had

observed below in the stable. 'See this beautiful fowl,' said she,
'I have been running over all Tarifa to procure it for your

kingship; trouble enough I have had to obtain it, and dear enough
it has cost me. I will now cut its throat.' 'Before you kill it,'

said I, 'I should wish to know what you paid for it, that there may
be no dispute about it in the account.' 'Two dollars I paid for

it, most valorous and handsome sir; two dollars it cost me, out of
my own quisobi - out of my own little purse.' I saw it was high

time to put an end to these zalamerias, and therefore exclaimed in
Gitano, 'You mean two brujis (reals), O mother of all the witches,

and that is twelve cuartos more than it is worth.' 'Ay Dios mio,
whom have we here?' exclaimed the females. 'One,' I replied, 'who

knows you well and all your ways. Speak! am I to have the hen for
two reals? if not, I shall leave the house this moment.' 'O yes,

to be sure, brother, and for nothing if you wish it,' said the tall
woman, in natural and quite altered tones; 'but why did you enter

the house speaking in Corahai like a Bengui? We thought you a
Busno, but we now see that you are of our religion; pray sit down

and tell us where you have been.' . .
MYSELF. - 'Now, my good people, since I have answered your

questions, it is but right that you should answer some of mine;
pray who are you? and how happens it that you are keeping this

inn?'
GYPSY HAG. - 'Verily, brother, we can scarcely tell you who we are.

All we know of ourselves is, that we keep this inn, to our trouble
and sorrow, and that our parents kept it before us; we were all

born in this house, where I suppose we shall die.'
MYSELF. - 'Who is the master of the house, and whose are these

children?'
GYPSY HAG. - 'The master of the house is the fool, my brother, who

stands before you without saying a word; to him belong these
children, and the cripple in the chair is his wife, and my cousin.

He has also two sons who are grown-up men; one is a chumajarri
(shoemaker), and the other serves a tanner.'

MYSELF. - 'Is it not contrary to the law of the Cales to follow
such trades?'

GYPSY HAG. - 'We know of no law, and little of the Cales
themselves. Ours is the only Calo family in Tarifa, and we never

left it in our lives, except occasionally to go on the smuggling
lay to Gibraltar. True it is that the Cales, when they visit

Tarifa, put up at our house, sometimes to our cost. There was one
Rafael, son of the rich Fruto of Cordova, here last summer, to buy

up horses, and he departed a baria and a half in our debt; however,
I do not grudge it him, for he is a handsome and clever Chabo - a

fellow of many capacities. There was more than one Busno had cause
to rue his coming to Tarifa.'

MYSELF. - 'Do you live on good terms with the Busne of Tarifa?'
GYPSY HAG. - 'Brother, we live on the best terms with the Busne of

Tarifa; especially with the errays. The first people in Tarifa
come to this house, to have their baji told by the cripple in the

chair and by myself. I know not how it is, but we are more
considered by the grandees than the poor, who hate and loathe us.

When my first and only infant died, for I have been married, the
child of one of the principal people was put to me to nurse, but I

hated it for its white blood, as you may well believe. It never
throve, for I did it a private mischief, and though it grew up and

is now a youth, it is - mad.'
MYSELF. - 'With whom will your brother's children marry? You say

there are no Gypsies here.'
GYPSY HAG. - 'Ay de mi, hermano! It is that which grieves me. I

would rather see them sold to the Moors than married to the Busne.
When Rafael was here he wished to persuade the chumajarri to

accompany him to Cordova, and promised to provide for him, and to
find him a wife among the Callees of that town; but the faint heart

would not, though I myself begged him to comply. As for the
curtidor (tanner), he goes every night to the house of a Busnee;

and once, when I reproached him with it, he threatened to marry
her. I intend to take my knife, and to wait behind the door in the

dark, and when she comes out to gash her over the eyes. I trow he
will have little desire to wed with her then.'

MYSELF. - 'Do many Busne from the country put up at this house?'
GYPSY HAG. - 'Not so many as formerly, brother; the labourers from

the Campo say that we are all thieves; and that it is impossible
for any one but a Calo to enter this house without having the shirt

stripped from his back. They go to the houses of their
acquaintance in the town, for they fear to enter these doors. I

scarcely know why, for my brother is the veriest fool in Tarifa.
Were it not for his face, I should say that he is no Chabo, for he

cannot speak, and permits every chance to slip through his fingers.
Many a good mule and borrico have gone out of the stable below,

which he might have secured, had he but tongue enough to have
cozened the owners. But he is a fool, as I said before; he cannot

speak, and is no Chabo.'
How far the person in question, who sat all the while smoking his

pipe, with the most unperturbed tranquillity, deserved the
character bestowed upon him by his sister, will presently appear.

It is not my intention to describe here all the strange things I
both saw and heard in this Gypsy inn. Several Gypsies arrived from

the country during the six days that I spent within its walls; one
of them, a man, from Moron, was received with particular

cordiality, he having a son, whom he was thinking of betrothing to
one of the Gypsy daughters. Some females of quality likewise

visited the house to gossip, like true Andalusians. It was
singular to observe the behaviour of the Gypsies to these people,

especially that of the remarkable woman, some of whose conversation
I have given above. She whined, she canted, she blessed, she

talked of beauty of colour, of eyes, of eyebrows, and pestanas
(eyelids), and of hearts which were aching for such and such a