of the same metal. Their plate is by no means paltry. Of course considerable property in plate is not very generally possessed by them.

The Gipsies of this country are very punctual in paying their debts. All the shop-keepers, with whom they deal in these parts, have declared, that they are some of their best and most honest customers. For the payment of a debt which is owing to one of their own people, the time and place are appointed by them, and should the debtor disappoint the creditor, he is liable by their law of honour to pay double the amount he owes; and he must pay it by personal servitude, if he cannot with money, if he wish to be considered by his friends honest and respectable. They call this law pizharris.

There are few of these unhappy people that can either read or write. Yet a regular and frequent correspondence is kept up between the members of families who have had the least advantage of the sort; and those who have had no advantages whatever, correspond through the kindness of friends who write for them. Numerous are the letters which they receive from their relatives in New South Wales, to which Colony so many hundreds of this unsettled race have been transported. Their letters are usually left at one particular post-office, in the districts where they travel; and should such letters not be called for during a long period, they are usually kept by the post-master, who is sure they will be claimed, sooner or later. A long journey will be no impediment, when a letter is ex

pected; for a Gipsy will travel any distance to obtain an expected favour of the kind. They are never heard to complain of the heavy expense of postage.

We have already observed that there are many genuine features of humanity in the character of this degraded and despised people. Their constantly retaining an affectionate remembrance of their deceased relatives, affords a striking proof of this statement. And their attachment to the horse, donkey, rings, snuffbox, silver-spoons, and all things, except the clothes, of the deceased relatives, is very strong. With such articles they will never part, except in the greatest distress; and then they only pledge some of them, which are redeemed as soon as they possess the means.

Most families visit the graves of their near relatives, once in the year; generally about the time of Christmas. Then the depository of the dead becomes a rallying spot for the living; for there they renew their attachments and sympathies, and give and receive assurances of continued good will. At such periods, however, they are too often addicted to feasting and intemperance.

The graves of the deceased of this people, are usually kept in very good order in the various church-yards where they lie interred. This is done by the sextons, for which they are annually remunerated. Sometimes large sums of money are expended on the erection of head-stones; and in one instance a monument was erected in the county of Wilts at considerable cost. It is not very long since, that the parents of a deceased

Gipsy child, whom they loved very much, paid a great sum to have it buried in the church.

The Gipsies have a singular custom of burning all the clothes belonging to any one among them deceased, with the straw, litter, &c, of his tent. Whether this be from fear of infection, or from superstition, the Author has not been able to learn. Perhaps both unite in the continuation of a custom which must be attended with some loss to them.*

Seldom do these mysterious sons and daughters of Adam unite themselves in the holy obligations of marriage, after the form of the Established Church of our land. Nor, indeed, for so sacred a union, have they any ceremony at all. The parents on each side are consulted on such occasions, and, if their consent be obtained, the parties become, after their custom, husband and wife. Should the parents object, like the thoughtless and imprudent persons in higher life, who flee to Gretna Green, the Gipsy lovers also escape from their parents to another district. When the couple are again met by the friends of the female, they take her from her protector; but if it appear that he has treated her kindly, and is likely to continue to do so, they restore her to him, and all objections and animosities are forgotten.

As it seldom happens that they now stay more than a few days in a place, and the Gipsy, his wife, and each

May not this be a proof of their Hindostanee origin? There is this difference, however; the clothes, &c., of the deceased Gipsy, are burnt instead of his body!

of their children, may severally belong to different parishes. This is an objection to their ultimate settlement in any one place. It will be some time before this objection can be removed: not till the present generation of Gipsies has passed away, and their posterity cease to make the wilderness their homes, choosing a parish for a permanent place of settlement.

It may naturally be expected that these inhabitants of the field and forest, the lane and the moor, are not without a knowledge of the medicinal qualities of certain herbs. In all slight disorders they have recourse to these remedies, and frequently use the inner bark of the elm, star-in-the-earth, parsley, pellitory-in-the-wall, and wormwood. They are not subject to the numerous disorders and fevers common in large towns; but in some instances they are visited with that dreadful scourge of the British nation, the typhus fever, which spreads through their little camp, and becomes fatal to some of its families. The small-pox and measles are disorders they very much dread; but they are not more disposed to rheumatic affections than those who live in houses. It is a fact, however, that ought not to be passed over here, that when they leave their tents to settle in towns, they are generally ill for a time. The children of one family that wintered with us in 1831, were nearly all attacked with fever that threatened their lives. This may be occasioned by their taking all at once to regular habits, and the renunciation of that exercise to which they have been so long ac

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customed, with some disposing qualities in their change of diet and the atmosphere of a thickly populated town.

This people often live to a considerable age, many instances of which are well known. In his tent at Launton, Oxfordshire, died in the year 1830, more than a hundred years of age, James Smith, called by some, the King of the Gipsies. By his tribe he was looked up to with the greatest respect and veneration. His remains were followed to the grave by his widow, who is herself more than a hundred years old, and by many of his children, grand-children, great grandchildren, and other relatives; and by several individuals of other tribes. At the funeral his widow tore her hair, uttered the most frantic exclamations, and begged to be allowed to throw herself on the coffin, that she might be buried with her husband. The religion of the Redeemer would have taught her to say, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

A woman of the name of B- lived to the reputed age of a hundred and twenty years, and up to that age was accustomed to sing her song very gaily. Many events in the life of this woman were very remarkable. In her youth she was a noted swindler. At one time she got a large sum of money, and other valuable effects, from a lady; for which and other offences, she was condemned to die. A petition was presented to George the Third, to use the Gipsy's own expression, who told the author, just after he had set