ful-looking water, with an overhanging bank, and on the bank I
found the patteran, which directed me to proceed along the bank towards
the east; and I followed my husband's patteran towards the east, and
before I had gone half a mile, I came to a place where I saw the bank had
given way, and fallen into the deep water. Without paying much heed, I
passed on, and presently came to a public-house, not far from the water,
and I entered the public-house to get a little beer, and perhaps to tell
a dukkerin, for I saw a great many people about the door; and, when I
entered, I found there was what they calls an inquest being held upon a
body in that house, and the jury had just risen to go and look at the
body; and being a woman, and having a curiosity, I thought I would go
with them, and so I did; and no sooner did I see the body than I knew it
to be my husband's; it was much swelled and altered, but I knew it partly
by the clothes, and partly by a mark on the forehead, and I cried out,
'It is my husband's body,' and I fell down in a fit, and the fit that
time, brother, was not a seeming one."

"Dear me," I, "how terrible! but tell me, Ursula, how did your husband
come by his death?"

"The bank, overhanging the deep water, gave way under him, brother, and
he was drowned; for, like most of our people, he could not swim, or only
a little. The body, after it had been in the water a long time, came up
of itself, and was found floating. Well, brother, when the people of the
neighbourhood found that I was the wife of the drowned man, they were
very kind to me, and made a subscription for me, with which, after having
seen my husband buried, I returned the way I had come, till I met Jasper
and his people, and with them I have travelled ever since: I was very
melancholy for a long time, I assure you, brother; for the death of my
husband preyed very much upon my mind."

"His death was certainly a very shocking one, Ursula; but, really, if he
had died a natural one, you could scarcely have regretted it, for he
appears to have treated you barbarously."

"Women must bear, brother; and, barring that he kicked and beat me, and
drove me out to tell dukkerin when I could scarcely stand, he was not a
bad husband. A man, by gypsy law, brother, is allowed to kick and beat
his wife, and to bury her alive, if he thinks proper. I am a gypsy, and
have nothing to say against the law."

"But what has Mikailia Chikno to say about it?"

"She i