Roms of England, have been regarded almost in the light
of a cannibal for cooking the latter animal and preferring it to
hotchiwitchu barbecued, or ragout of boror. 'You are but half Rommany,
brother,' they would say, 'and you feed gorgiko-nes (like a Gentile),
even as you talk. Tchachipen (in truth), if we did not know you to be of
the Mecralliskoe rat (royal blood) of Pharaoh, we should be justified in
driving you forth as a juggel-mush (dog man), one more fitted to keep
company with wild beasts and Gorgios than gentle Rommanys.'

* * * * *

One fact has always struck us with particular force in the history of
these people, namely, that Gitanismo--which means Gypsy villainy of every
description--flourished and knew nothing of decay so long as the laws
recommended and enjoined measures the most harsh and severe for the
suppression of the Gypsy sect; the palmy days of Gitanismo were those in
which the caste was proscribed, and its members, in the event of
renouncing their Gypsy habits, had nothing farther to expect than the
occupation of tilling the earth, a dull hopeless toil; then it was that
the Gitanos paid tribute to the inferior ministers of justice, and were
engaged in illicit connection with those of higher station and by such
means baffled the law, whose vengeance rarely fell upon their heads; and
then it was that they bid it open defiance, retiring to the deserts and
mountains, and living in wild independence by rapine and shedding of
blood; for as the law then stood they would lose all by resigning their
Gitanismo, whereas by clinging to it they lived either in the
independence so dear to them, or beneath the protection of their
confederates. It would appear that in proportion as the law was harsh
and severe, so was the Gitano bold and secure.

* * * * *

Many of them reside in caves scooped in the sides of the ravines which
lead to the higher regions of the Alpujarras, on a skirt of which stands
Granada. A common occupation of the Gitanos of Granada is working in
iron, and it is not unfrequent to find these caves tenanted by Gypsy
smiths and their families, who ply the hammer and forge in the bowels of
the earth. To one standing at the mouth of the cave, especially at
night, they afford a picturesque spectacle. Gathered round the forge,
their bronzed and naked bodies, illuminated by the flame, appear like
figures of demons, while the cave, with its flinty sides and uneven roof,
blackened by the cha