of the fair of Landit, as went from
Paris, St. Denis, and elsewhere, to see these strangers. Almost all of
them had their ears pierced, and in each one or two silver rings, which in
their country, they said, was a mark of nobility. The men were very
swarthy, with curly hair; the women were very ugly, and extremely dark,
with long black hair, like a horse's tail; their only garment being an old
rug tied round the shoulder by a strip of cloth or a bit of rope (Fig.
371). Amongst them were several fortune-tellers, who, by looking into
people's hands, told them what had happened or what was to happen to them,
and by this means often did a good deal to sow discord in families. What
was worse, either by magic, by Satanic agency, or by sleight of hand, they
managed to empty people's purses whilst talking to them.... So, at least,
every one said. At last accounts respecting them reached the ears of the
Bishop of Paris. He went to them with a Franciscan friar, called Le Petit
Jacobin, who, by the bishop's order, delivered an earnest address to them,
and excommunicated all those who had anything to do with them, or who had
their fortunes told. He further advised the gipsies to go away, and, on
the festival of Notre-Dame, they departed for Pontoise."

[Illustration: Fig. 371.--A Gipsy Family.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the
"Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552.]

Here, again, the gipsies somewhat varied their story. They said that they
were originally Christians; but that, in consequence of an invasion by the
Saracens, they had been forced to renounce their religion; that, at a
subsequent period, powerful monarchs had come to free them from the yoke
of the infidels, and had decreed that, as a punishment to them for having
renounced the Christian faith, they should not be allowed to return to
their country before they had obtained permission from the Pope. They
stated that the Holy Father, to whom they had gone to confess their sins,
had then ordered them to wander about the world for seven years, without
sleeping in beds, at the same time giving direction to every bishop and
every priest whom they met to offer them ten livres; a direction which the
abbots and bishops were in no hurry to obey. These strange pilgrims stated
that they had been only five years on the road when they arrived in Paris.

Enough has been said to show that, although the object of their long
pilgrimage was ostensibly a pious one, the