'The first is that they are foreigners, though authors differ much
with respect to the country from whence they came. The majority
say that they are from Africa, and that they came with the Moors
when Spain was lost; others that they are Tartars, Persians,
Cilicians, Nubians, from Lower Egypt, from Syria, or from other
parts of Asia and Africa, and others consider them to be
descendants of Chus, son of Cain; others say that they are of
European origin, Bohemians, Germans, or outcasts from other nations
of this quarter of the world.

'The second and sure opinion is, that those who prowl about Spain
are not Egyptians, but swarms of wasps and atheistical wretches,
without any kind of law or religion, Spaniards, who have introduced
this Gypsy life or sect, and who admit into it every day all the
idle and broken people of Spain. There are some foreigners who
would make Spain the origin and fountain of all the Gypsies of
Europe, as they say that they proceeded from a river in Spain
called Cija, of which Lucan makes mention; an opinion, however, not
much adopted amongst the learned. In the opinion of respectable
authors, they are called Cingary or Cinli, because they in every
respect resemble the bird cinclo, which we call in Spanish
Motacilla, or aguzanieve (wagtail), which is a vagrant bird and
builds no nest, (37) but broods in those of other birds, a bird
restless and poor of plumage, as AElian writes.


'THE GITANOS ARE VERY HURTFUL TO SPAIN


'There is not a nation which does not consider them as a most