dient more
likely to recommend them to the favor of Ecclesiastics; or better
concerted for taking advantage of the superstitious credulity of the
people, and, at the same time, for securing to themselves the
gratification of their own nomadic propensities. So complete was the
deception they practised, that we find they wandered up and down in
France, under the eye of magistracy, not for seven only, but for more
than a hundred years, without molestation.

In 1561, the edict of the States of Orleans directed their expulsion by
fire and sword; yet in 1612, they had increased to such a degree, that
there was another order for their total extermination. Notwithstanding
this severity, in 1671 they were again spread over the kingdom, as
appears in the letters of the Marchioness de Sevigne to her friends, and
the Countess Grignan, in nine volumes, translated from the last Paris
edition: "Bohemians travel up and down the Provinces of France, and get
their living by dancing, showing postures, and telling fortunes; but
chiefly by pilfering, &c."

It is remarkable, that in all countries, they professed to be Egyptians;
but the representation is not only refuted by Bellonius, but by later
writers, who assert, that the "few who are to be found in _Egypt_, wander
about as strangers _there_, and form a distinct people."

As historians admit that the greatest numbers of them are to be found in
Turkey, and south of Constantinople, there is reason to apprehend they
had a passage through that country. If many of them did not visit Egypt
previously to their arrival in Europe, they probably wished to avail
themselves of the reputation the Egyptians had acquired in occult
sciences, that they might practise with greater success, the arts to
which they had been previously accustomed, and the practice of which is
common in various parts of Asia. In other respects the habits of Egypt
were very dissimilar to theirs.

We find by the reports on the first question put by the Circular,
mentioned in Section IX. that "all Gypsies in this country suppose the
first of them came from Egypt;" and this idea is confirmed by many
circumstances that have been brought into view in the course of this
work. In addition it may be observed, that before the discovery of the
passage to India, by the Cape of Good Hope, all the productions of the
east, that were distributed in Europe, came to Egyptian ports. Hence we
have many concurring testimonies, which ren