live is still more unfavorable to the development of physical charms, or at least obscures them when actually existing.

The boast of the Gipsies that they sprang from the earth, is verified by the quantity of dirt adhering to their persons. However useful water may be for purposes of navigation, they appear to have sworn eternal hostility against it, both as a purifying agent and a beverage. Were it not for the involuntary washing of an occasional shower, a person might with tolerable accuracy estimate the age of a Gipsy from the different strata of filth collected upon his body, as we tell the age of trees by counting the rings of annual growth from the centre of the trunk. It were better for us, however, not to reveal the whole truth of this matter.

These princes of the 'ragged regiment' are equally negligent with their garments. The different tribes of Suders who inhabit the mountains of the Carnatic, and are in so many respects allied to the Gipsies as evidently to belong to the race, are said to have a singular domestic regulation that obliges persons of both sexes to pass their lives in disgusting uncleanness. The common Gipsy usage regarding dress is reduced to a law forbidding any person to wash his garments or to lay them aside until they fall from the body of their own accord. This regulation is so scrupulously observed, that if one of their number dips his rags in the water, he is forthwith expelled from the tribe and sent away in disgrace. It should be stated, however, that water is not very abundant in the region of the Carnatic.

The features of the Gipsies are not to be mistaken. They are of medium height, robust and nervous. Never among the ebony slaves from Abyssinia exposed for sale in the markets of Egypt, or among the pale merchandise of the East which in early life had breathed the mountain air of the Caucasus, have we seen forms so perfectly rounded and developed - forms that would so delight a sculptor as models. Sometimes when seen in repose, the youth of the Zend-cali might almost be mistaken for statues of bronze. The face is oval, the complexion a dark, rich olive, and the teeth are of ivory whiteness. The females, if not combining all the splendid outlines and delicious tints of Eastern beauty, are not wanting in the browned ruddy cheeks and swelling bosoms so associated with Gipsy charms. The eye, however, is the marked feature of the race, and would distinguish the Gipsy in whatever place, costume or character she might appear. It is not the small, luxurious eye of the Jewess, the oblong eye indispensable to the Chinese beauty, nor the soft, almond eye of the Egyptian, but something unique and peculiar. It is vivid, lustrous, or liquid, according to the thought which seeks for utterance. Now it has a wild and staring expression, and then, in moments of repose, a filmy and phosphorescent softness will gather over it, through which one looks as into the depths of the soul.

Beauty, however, is a delicate gift- a child of care and attention which, if not to be bathed constantly in May-dew, and fed on honeysuckle, cannot on the contrary be long exposed with impu

nity to the rough manner of life · sans feu et lieu of the Gipsies. We once saw a Circassian girl sold in Constantinople whose appearance by no means corresponded with the idea we had formed of her countrywomen. Upon inquiry, we were informed that female slaves, when first brought from the Caucasus, are for the most part rough, ungainly creatures. But after they have been trained for a time in the harems of the Turkish grandees, and used the bath, the veil, and the thousand-and-one agents employed in the East, they become really beautiful. Their daughters are to be numbered among the handsomest women in the world is beauty dependent upon favorable circumstances.

- so much

Gipsy charms are therefore short-lived: and as it takes an angel to make a demon, the pretty girl of Roma soon becomes the incarnation of ugliness. The change is as great as if one of the Graces were metamorphosed into a daughter of Acheron. Her smile grows hard and disagreeable; her forehead is early seamed with wrinkles; her wind-beaten and sun-burned cheeks, scarred by exposure and furrowed by passion, are the cheeks of a living mummy. The body bent, the expression cracked, the voice broken-sex itself becomes obliterated; and the Gipsy hag might well imitate old Madame de Hondatot, who candidly admitted-Autrefois, quand j'etais femme. Manhood also assumes a sinister and ferocious aspect. The hair which in youth served as an ornament, grows stiff and harsh like that of a horse's tail, and being rarely cut or kemped, is usually the home of undisturbed innocence.

The face of the untamed Gipsy becomes blacker and blacker with age, making the redness of the lips more observable, and rendering hideous the hazy glare of the deep rolling eye. One never sees in the aged faces of the Zend-cali that tender, mellow, childlike expression which we often observe in good old people. On the contrary, vice, malice, revenge, and deceit become more outspoken. Age and the loss of teeth only whet their appetites for evil. Their withered limbs seem never to lose their strength, the evil eye never grows old. As the French become better cooks in proportion to their age and ugliness, so crooked Gipsy crones make the best fortune-tellers.

Water is the usual beverage of the Gipsies. They have, however, an inordinate love of brandy, which is preferred to all other intoxicating drinks, from the fact that it induces intoxication more speedily. Beer is not sufficiently stimulating; beside, it is the favorite drink of the lower class. The important events of life are made the occasion of boisterous revels; and in case liquor can be obtained, the mirth and glee which attend the Gipsy's birth and marriage are surpassed only by the drunken orgies that mark his passage to another world.

Among the Bazeegurs, a Gipsy tribe of India, disputes are never referred beyond their seat. If the matter be of so serious a nature that a small puncha'et (council) cannot settle it, the Bula Suder convenes a general assembly. This tribunal, however, never enters upon business until a quantity of liquor equal to the import

ance of the case has been provided by both plaintiff and defendant. The loser has ultimately to bear the expense unless, as frequently happens, (all parties during the discussion being indulged in a free participation of the liquor,) judges and contestants forget all about the affair under consideration. The letter of the law is in this way accommodated to the spirit. The puncha'et disperses by degrees, and the contending parties, when aroused from the torpor of intoxication, awake only to regret their folly. Christians do not more effectually ruin themselves in their law-suits.

This Gipsy tribunal rarely returns a verdict of Not guilty,' but fortunately for the convict any crime may be expiated by a plentiful supply of liquor, the fine being proportionate to the thirst of the court. The alternative is to have the nose rubbed on the ground. When the case is too complicated for the intelligence of the assembly, the accused is made to apply his tongue to a piece of hot iron, and if burned, is pronounced guilty. Persons who have acquired any property are in constant danger of accusation, and if the liquor be not forthwith coming, the delinquent is hooted from the tribe, so that he is ultimately willing to impoverish himself in order to obtain the necessary libation.

It may be truly said of the Gipsies of India, that they imbibe alcohol with the maternal milk. Toddy, the fermented juice of the palm, is regularly given to infants of five and six months when it can be obtained. As in other countries, the Gipsies never work while they have any thing to drink, so that their wretched life constantly alternates from intoxication to labor of some kind, and from labor to intoxication. Nor do the women allow themselves to be outdone by the men in the habit of intemperance. The use of intoxicating drinks is condemned by all the high castes of India.

The dress of the Gipsies is in keeping with their nomadic tendencies. They find it agreeable to beg or steal garments, and therefore ordinarily procure their clothing ready-made, so as not to be molested by tailors' bills. The only attempt at tailoring I ever saw among them, was to make a hole in the middle of a blanket large enough for the head, and a couple of smaller ones for the arms. The wind cannot blow off his hat who has none, and shoes are troublesome appliances with people whose manner of life and general economy are those of vagrants and beggars.

Pride is as common in the cabins of the lowly as in the palaces of kings. The Gipsy exhibits this weakness even in the selection and display of his rags. Better starve than work,' is his motto, and he would consider it highly degrading to put on the ordinary dress of a laboring man.

Gipsy women neither spin nor weave, neither sew nor work, and yet it cannot be said of them that they are clothed like unto the lilies of the field. They are usually more picturesque in the matter of dress than the males. We have known many instances in which the entire female dress consisted of a large piece of cloth thrown over the head and wound round the body in Eastern style, and revealing here and there the tawny, sun-browned integument

beneath. Gipsy women have also a dash of Bloomerism, for in case their own wretched garments give out, they do not hesitate to draw on those of their male companions, should these be so fortunate as to have any unmentionable articles of dress to spare.

Upon the coast of Malabar there is a caste of Indians named Malai-Condiairous who live in the forests and are principally occupied in extracting, and preparing for use, the juice of the palm. Though their manner of life is barbarous, there are too many points of resemblance between them and the Gipsies not to believe that they had a kindred origin. The individuals of this caste go naked, the women wearing merely a shred of cloth that imperfectly conceals the part it is intended to cover. It is related by the Abbé Dubois that when the last Sultan of Mysore made an expedition among the mountains of Malabar, having met a band of these savages, he was shocked at the state of nudity in which they lived. However depraved the Mussulmans in their private life, they are unequalled in the exhibition of decency and modesty in public; and are greatly scandalized by the want of either, especially on the part of females. The Sultan having caused the chiefs of the MalaiCondiairous to be brought in his presence, asked them why they and their wives did not cover their bodies more decently? The chiefs gave as a reason the poverty of their people and the force of custom. Tippoo replied that he should henceforth require them to wear clothes like the rest of his subjects, and if they had not the necessary means, would himself gratuitously furuish every year the cloth requisite for that purpose. The savages, thus pressed by their sovereign, humbly remonstrated, and begged that he would not subject them to the embarrassment of wearing clothes. Finally they declared that if, in opposition to the rules of their caste, he should insist upon his demand, sooner than submit to so great a vexation, they would all leave the country and seek a refuge where, unmolested, they could follow the customs of their forefathers in dress and manner of life. Tippoo was obliged to yield.

Among the Turks, the so-called Mohammedan Gipsies have the privilege of wearing a white turban. In Russia, the Tsigans have large caps covered with ribbons, and, as in many other Eastern countries, exhibit, when able, strings of silver, or even of gold coin upon the head and neck. Green and scarlet are every where favorite colors with the Zend-cali. Though so wretched generally as to have nothing but unseemly rags to cover their bodies, they are not indifferent to dress. To attract attention, not to conceal their nakedness, is the chief object. Kelpius says that the Gipsies of Transylvania spend all their earnings for drink and clothing. In winter, the Wallachian Gipsies either wear coarse woolen stockings, knit by females upon huge wooden needles, or sew up their feet in bundles of rags, which are not taken off until spring arrives or the material perishes.

'It would appear,' says Cervantes, in his Gitanella, a work more highly esteemed in Spain than even the adventures of Don Quixote, 'as though Gipsies, both men and women, came into the world for

no other end or purpose than to be thieves: they grow up among thieves, the art of thieving is their study, and they finish with being thieves, rogues, and robbers in every sense of the word; and the love and practice of theft, are, in their case, a sort of inseparable accident, ceasing only with death.' The Gipsies account for this remarkable proclivity in the following manner. The impression prevails throughout Eastern Europe, that it was the children of Roma who crucified our SAVIOUR on Calvary, but they say that only one of their number assisted on that sorrowful occasion. Four nails were brought for use. The Gipsy thinking that three were enough, stole the remaining one; and ever since, his people have been notorious thieves. Music, with all its refining influences, has not cured them of this predeliction.

With the Gipsies, stealing is a legitimate profession, the very corner-stone, one might say, of their body politic. Writers upon moral philosophy contend that labor and virtue are indispensable elements of perpetuity in the existence of a state; but here we have a distinct people, who have existed many centuries, more by theft than by properly directed industry, and have every where been looked upon as the parasites of society.

The only disgrace the Gipsies attach to theft, consists in practising it too near home, and in being detected; and the youth of Sparta were not more adroit in the execution, or more self-sacrificing in the concealment of the act. The most successful thief in a band of Gipsies, usually attains the honor of being its chief, and skill in this profession is ranked as the highest accomplishment that a maiden of the tawny race can possess, proficiency therein rendering her valuable to her parents, and especially desirable as a bride.

It is not surprising, therefore, that among the Gipsies theft should be a matter of study and education. Long before the child of Roma is taught to read the mystical lines of the hand, or interpret the hidden meaning of the stars, it is carefully instructed in this most reliable and lucrative of Gipsy arts. Wrinkled men and women, whose chins and knees are brought near together by age, are the teachers, and the pupils have the benefit of both precept and example.

In the unwritten grammar of the Gipsies, the verb is a word which signifies to dance, to smoke, to be idle. Instead of beginning with the moods and tenses of to love, they are first taught to conjugate and decline nicabar, to steal; and at an astonishingly early age, become familiar with it in all its numbers and persons. Their knowledge has also the advantage of being practical, and shared by every member of the tribe.

While the women are abroad telling fortunes, and the able-bodied men engaged in predatory or trafficking excursions, the children at their temporary home are initiated into the mysteries of the thieving art. In countries where the Gipsies abound, we have seen many a tableau of this kind worthy of the painter's skill. The still, hazy air of mid-day, two or three ragged tents pitched on the outskirts