case; it is ten chances to one, however, that no children's hands
plucked them, but that they were strewed in this manner by Gypsies,
for the purpose of informing any of their companions, who might be
straggling behind, the route which they had taken; this is one form
of the patteran or trail. It is likely, too, that the gorgio
reader may have seen a cross drawn at the entrance of a road, the
long part or stem of it pointing down that particular road, and he
may have thought nothing of it, or have supposed that some
sauntering individual like himself had made the mark with his
stick: not so, courteous gorgio; ley tiro solloholomus opre lesti,
YOU MAY TAKE YOUR OATH UPON IT that it was drawn by a Gypsy finger,
for that mark is another of the Rommany trails; there is no mistake
in this. Once in the south of France, when I was weary, hungry,
and penniless, I observed one of these last patterans, and
following the direction pointed out, arrived at the resting-place
of 'certain Bohemians,' by whom I was received with kindness and
hospitality, on the faith of no other word of recommendation than
patteran. There is also another kind of patteran, which is more
particularly adapted for the night; it is a cleft stick stuck at
the side of the road, close by the hedge, with a little arm in the
cleft pointing down the road which the band have taken, in the
manner of a signpost; any stragglers who may arrive at night where
cross-roads occur search for this patteran on the left-hand side,
and speedily rejoin their companions.

By following these patterans, or trails, the first Gypsies on their
way to Europe never lost each other, though wandering amidst horrid
wildernesses and dreary defiles. Rommany matters have always had a
peculiar interest for me; nothing, however, connected with Gypsy
life ever more captivated my imagination than this patteran system: