y in their cunning and desperate profession, gave the same
cognomen to all and sundry who followed the same mode of life upon the
Borders. One thing is certain, that the name _Faa_ not only was given to
individuals whose surname might be _Fall_, but to the _Winters_ and
_Clarkes_--_id genus omne_--gipsy families well known on the Borders.
Since waste lands, which were their hiding-places and resorts, began to
be cultivated, and especially since the sun of knowledge snuffed out the
taper of superstition and credulity, most of them are beginning to form
a part of society, to learn trades of industry, and live with men. Those
who still prefer their fathers' vagabond mode of life--finding that, in
the northern counties, their old trade of fortune-telling is at a
discount, and that thieving has thinned their tribe and is
dangerous--now follow the more useful and respectable callings of
muggers, besom-makers, and tinkers. I do not know whether, in etiquette,
I ought to give precedence to the besom-maker or tinker; though, as
compared with them, I should certainly suppose that the "muggers" of the
present day belong to the Faa aristocracy; if it be not that they, like
others, derive their nobility from descent of blood rather than weight
of pocket--and that, after all, the mugger with his encampment, his
caravans, horses, crystal, and crockery, is but a mere wealthy plebeian
or _bourgeois_ in the vagrant community.--But to my tale.

On a dark and tempestuous night in the December of 1628, a Faa gang
requested shelter in the out-houses of the laird of Clennel. The laird
himself had retired to rest; and his domestics being fewer in number
than the Faas, feared to refuse them their request.

"Ye shall have up-putting for the night, good neighbours," said Andrew
Smith, who was a sort of major-domo in the laird's household, and he
spoke in a tone of mingled authority and terror. "But, sir," added he,
addressing the chief of the tribe--"I will trust to your honour that ye
will allow none o' your folk to be making free with the kye, or the
sheep, or the poultry--that is, that ye will not allow them to mistake
ony o' them for your own, lest it bring me into trouble. For the laird
has been in a fearful rage at some o' your people lately; and if
onything were to be amissing in the morning, or he kenned that ye had
been here, it might be as meikle as my life is worth."

"Tush, man!" said Willie Faa, the king of the tribe, "ye dree the d