The Gipsies Advocate | Page 9

them; the elder children then have the care of the younger. Those who are old enough gather wood for fuel; nor is stealing it thought a crime. By the culpable neglect of the parents in this respect, the children are often exposed to accidents by fire; and melancholy instances of children being burnt and scalded to death, are not unfrequent. The author knows one poor woman, two of whose children have thus lost their lives, during her absence from her tent, at different periods: and very lately a child was scalded to death in the parish where the author writes.
The Gipsies are not very regular in attending to the calls of appetite and hunger. Their principal meal is supper, and their food is supplied in proportion to the success they have had through the day; or, to use their own words, the luck they have met with.
Like the poor of the land through which they wander, they are fond of tea, drinking it at every meal. When times are hard with them, they use English herbs, of which they generally carry a stock, such as agrimony, ground-ivy, wild mint, and the root of a herb called spice-herb.
The trades they follow are generally chair-mending, knife-grinding, tinkering, and basket-making, the wood for which they mostly steal. Some of them sell hardware, brushes, corks, &c.; but in general, neither old nor young among them, do much that can be called labour. And it is lamentable that the greatest part of the little they do earn, is laid by to spend at their festivals; for like many tribes of uncivilized Indians, they mostly make their women support their families, who generally do it by swindling and fortune-telling. Their baskets introduce them to the servants of families, of whom they beg victuals, to whom they sell trifling wares, and tell their fortunes, which indeed is their principal aim, as it is their greatest source of gain. They have been awkwardly fixed, both servants and the Gipsy fortune-teller, when the lady of the house has unexpectedly gone into the kitchen and surprised them while thus employed; and sometimes, to avoid detection, the obnoxious party has been hurried into a closet, or butler's pantry, where there has been much plate. Few are aware of the losses that have attended the conduct of unprincipled servants in this, as in other respects. It may be hoped that few families would knowingly look over conduct so improper, so dangerous.
Many of these idle soothsayers endeavour to persuade the people whom they delude, that the power to foretell future events, is granted to them from heaven, to enable them to get bread for their families. It would be well were the prognostications of these women encouraged only among servants; but this is not the case. They are often invited into gay and fashionable circles, whom they amuse, if, by the information possessed by the parties, they are not cunning enough to deceive. They are well paid, and are thus encouraged in their iniquity by those who ought to know, and teach them better. But it is astonishing how many respectable people are led away with the artful flattery of such visitors. They forget that the Gipsy fortune-teller has often made herself acquainted with their connexions, business, and future prospects, and consider not that God commits not his secrets to the wicked and profane. They use not the reason heaven has given them, and are therefore more easily led astray by these crafty deceivers.
They generally prophesy good. Knowing the readiest way to deceive, to a young lady they describe a handsome gentleman, as one she may be assured will be her "husband." To a youth they promise a pretty lady, with a large fortune. And thus suiting their deluding speeches to the age, circumstances, anticipations and prospects of those who employ them, they seldom fail to please their vanity, and often gain a rich reward for their fraud.
They suit their incantations, or their pretended means of gaining knowledge, to their employers. Two female servants went into the camp of some Gipsies near Southampton, to have their fortunes told by one well known to the author, and a great professor of the art. On observing them to appear like persons in service, she said to a companion, I shall not get my books or cards for them; they are but tenants. And calling for a frying-pan, she ordered them to fill it with water, and hold their faces over it. This being done, she proceeded to flatter and to promise them great things, for which she was paid 1s 6d each. This is called the frying-pan fortune. But it ought to be remembered that all fortune-telling is quite as contemptible.
These artful pretenders to a knowledge of future events, generally discover who are in possession