manu
inspectione futura proesagire se fingunt; ut de marsupiis incautorum
nummos corrogent;" which may be thus translated, "Egyptians called by the
French Egyptiens, Bohemiens, vagabonds, soothsayers and fortune-tellers,
who, wandering up and down, pretend to foretel future events from the
inspection of the hand, for the purpose of obtaining money from persons
not careful of their purses, &c."

Grellmann speaks of Gypsies "being numerous in Lorraine and Alsatia,
before the French Revolution, but especially in the forests of Lorraine.
They increased in this district, in consequence of their having been
assiduously looked after in the dominions of the late Duke Deux-Fonts,
and driven from thence; whither his successor would not suffer them to
return. He adds, that an order of the provincial council, held at
Tarragona, in 1591, subjected them to the magistrates, as people "quos
vix constat esse Christianos, nisi ex eorum relatione, cum tamen sint
mendaces, fures, deceptores, et aliis sceleribus multi eorum assueti;" in
English, "who are scarcely allowed to be Christians, except from their
own account of themselves, seeing they are liars, thieves, cheats, and
many of them accustomed to other kinds of wickedness."

Twiss, in his Travels p. 179, gives the following account of them in
Spain: "They are very numerous about, and in, Murcia, Cordova, Codis, and
Ronda. The race of these vagabonds is found in every part of Europe.
The French call them _Bohemiens_, the Italians _Zingari_, the Germans
_Ziegeuners_, the Dutch _Heydenen_, Pagans, the Portuguese _Siganos_, and
the Spaniards _Gitanos_, in Latin, _Cingari_.

"Their language, which is peculiar to themselves, is every where so
similar, that they are undoubtedly all derived from the same source.
They began to appear in Europe in the 15th century, and are probably a
mixture of Egyptians and Ethiopians. The men are all thieves, and the
women libertines. They follow no certain trade, and have no fixed
religion. They do not enter into the order of society, wherein they are
only tolerated. It is supposed there are upwards of forty thousand of
them in Spain; great numbers of them are innkeepers in the villages, and
small towns; and they are every where fortune-tellers.

"In Spain, they are not allowed to possess any lands, nor even to serve
as soldiers. They marry among themselves, stroll in troops, about the
country, and bury their dead under water. Their ignorance prev