A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits, & Present State of the Gypsies;: Designed to Develope the Origin of this Singular People, and to Promote the Amelioration of Their Condition

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author; and sold, 1816 - Romani language - 265 pages
 

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Page 78 - VIII, c. 10 (Egyptians, 1530), as "outlandish people, calling themselves Egyptians, using no craft nor feat of merchandise, who have come into this realm and gone from shire to shire and place to place in great company, and used great, subtle and crafty means to deceive the people ; bearing them in hand, that they by...
Page 152 - The spark of life. The sportive wind blows wide Their fluttering rags, and shows a tawny skin, The vellum of the pedigree they claim.
Page 108 - Nesbit, of Dirleton, as he understood that he was very unwell, and himself being now old, and not so stout as he had been, he wished to see him once more before he died. " The old man set out by the nearest road, which was by no means his common practice. Next market-day some of the farmers informed me, that they had been in Edinburgh and seen Will Faa upon the bridge, (the south bridge was not then built ;) that he was tossing about his old brown hat, and huzzaing with great...
Page 107 - Try to get before that man with the long drab coat ; look at him on your return, and tell me whether you ever saw him, and what you think of him.
Page 18 - ... country and go to the Pope at Rome, who enjoined them seven years' penance to wander over the world, without lying in a bed.
Page 22 - 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 40,000 of them in Spain, great numbers of whom are inn-keepers in the villages and small towns, and are everywhere fortune-tellers. In Spain they are not allowed to possess any lands, or even to...
Page 77 - They had a leader of the name of Giles Hather, who was termed their king ; and a woman of the name of Calot was called queen. These riding through the country on horseback, and in strange attire, had a prettie traine after them.
Page 99 - ... selling horn spoons, called Cutties. Now their common appellation is that of muggers, or, what pleases them better, potters. They purchase, at a cheap rate, the cast or faulty articles, at the different manufactories of earthenware, which they carry for sale all over the country ; consisting of groups of six, ten, and sometimes twelve or fourteen persons, male and female...
Page 106 - Book spread out on a cushion before the clerk, and apparently taken in a line of direction interfering with what they considered to be their privileged ground, it was with great difficulty that the most moderate of them could restrain the rest from running down and taking vengeance, even in sight of their own lord of the manor. They only abstained for a short time ; and no sooner had Sir David and the other...
Page 75 - This kind of people," says the author, •" about a hundred years ago, beganne to gather on head, at the first heere, about the southerne parts. And this, as I am informed, and can gather, was their beginning : Certain Egyptians banished their country, (belike not for their good conditions, ) arrived heere in England, who for quaint tricks and devices not known heere at that time among us, were esteemed and had in great admiration ; insomuch, that many of our English loyterers joined with them, and...

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