ld have to lay that night. It was a
cold, wintry, drizzling afternoon, and how it was to get dry was a puzzle
to me. A Gipsy woman, named Hearn, said to me a few days ago, in answer
to some conversation relating to their dirty habits; "The reason for the
Gipsies not washing themselves oftener was on account of their catching
cold after each time they washed." She "only washed herself once in a
fortnight, and she was almost sure to catch cold after it." In some
things the real old Gipsies are very particular, _i.e._, they will on no
account take their food out of cups, saucers, or basins, that have been
washed in the same pansions in which their linen has been washed; so
sensitive are they on this point that if they found out that by an
accident this custom had been transgressed they would immediately break
the vessel to pieces. This is a custom picked up by the Gipsies among
the Jews in their wandering from India through the Holy Land. Another
practice they adopt in common with the Jews is, swearing or taking oaths
over their dead relations. The customs, practices, and words picked up
by them during their wanderings have added to their mystification. While
they will respect certain delicacy observed among the Jews, they will eat
pork, the most detestable of all food in the eyes of the Israelites, and
will even pay a greater price for it than for beef or mutton. An
Englishwoman, who had married a Gipsy named Smith, told me very recently,
in presence of her mother-in-law and another woman, that she had seen her
husband eat a small plate of cooked snails as a dainty. While the
daughter-in-law was telling me this, the old Gipsy mother-in-law, with
one foot in the grave, not far from Mary's Place, near the Potteries,
Notting Hill, was trying to make me believe what a choice dish there was
in store for me if I would allow her to cook me a hedgehog. She said I
should "find it nicer than the finest rabbit or pheasant I had ever
tasted." The fine, old, Gipsy woman, as regards her appearance, although
suffering from congestion of lungs and inflammation, and expecting every
moment to be her last, would joke and make fun as if nothing was the
matter with her. When I questioned her upon the sin of lying, she said,
"If the dear Lord spares me, I shall tell lies again. I could not get on
without it; how could I? I could not sell my things without lies." She
was rather severe, and this was a pleasing feature in the old wom