d-washers in Transylvania and the Banat, pay four guilders
annually in gold dust. The tribute collected in Wallachia and Moldavia
does not go into the public treasury, but belongs to the Princesses for
pin-money.

The consort of the Wallachian Hospodar, Stephen Rakowitza, in the year
1764, received from her Rudars, being two hundred and forty in number,
twelve hundred and fifty-four drachms. The gold-washers in the Banat and
Transylvania, dispose of their shares at the Royal Redemption-Office, in
Zalatuya. The earnings of these people vary with time, and at different
places; during heavy rains and floods they are usually most successful.
The Transylvanian rivers yield the most gold. It is said, all the rivers
and brooks which the rain forms, produce gold; of these the river
Aranyasch is the richest; insomuch, that Historians have compared it to
the Tagus and Pactolus.

_Grellmann_.

In Travels through the Banat of Temeswar, Transylvania, and Hungary, in
the year 1770, described in a series of letters to Professor Ferber, on
the mines and mountains of these different countries, by Baron Inigo
Born, Counsellor of the Royal Mines, in Bohemia, page 76, is the
following account:

"Observations on the Gold-washings, in the Banat, by Counsellor Koezian.
Translated by R. E. Ruspe.

"After the several natural advantages of the _Temeswar Banat_, some of
its rivers are known to yield gold dust; I could not neglect the object
when I travelled in these parts.

"The gold-washing in the Banat, is properly the business of the Gypsies,
_Zigeuner_, and left, as it were, to this poor people, as an exclusive
trade. This laid me under the necessity of applying to them for
instruction.

"The river Nera, in Almash, carries gold dust; and seemed to me the
fittest for my purpose; accordingly I caused some Gypsies, reputed to be
skilful, to make a washing, near a village called Boshowitz; and I saw
with pleasure, that with much dexterity, and in a few minutes time, they
cleared in the trough, the value of some groshes of gold: they showed me
likewise among their gold dust, some pieces of remarkable bigness."

It has been stated, that when Gypsies first arrived in Europe, they had
leaders and chiefs to conduct their various tribes in their migrations.

Grellmann says, this was necessary, not only to facilitate their progress
through different countries and quarters of th