devote themselves to any toil or trade, it is assuredly in every
material point one and the same. We have found them above, in the
heart of a wild mountain, hammering iron, and manufacturing from it
instruments either for their own use or that of the neighbouring
towns and villages. They may be seen employed in a similar manner
in the plains of Russia, or in the bosom of its eternal forests;
and whoever inspects the site where a horde of Gypsies has
encamped, in the grassy lanes beneath the hazel bushes of merry
England, is generally sure to find relics of tin and other metal,
avouching that they have there been exercising the arts of the
tinker or smith. Perhaps nothing speaks more forcibly for the
antiquity of this sect or caste than the tenacity with which they
have uniformly preserved their peculiar customs since the period of
their becoming generally known; for, unless their habits had become
a part of their nature, which could only have been effected by a
strict devotion to them through a long succession of generations,
it is not to be supposed that after their arrival in civilised
Europe they would have retained and cherished them precisely in the
same manner in the various countries where they found an asylum.

Each band or family of the Spanish Gypsies had its Captain, or, as
he was generally designated, its Count. Don Juan de Quinones, who,
in a small volume published in 1632, has written some details
respecting their way of life, says: 'They roam about, divided into
families and troops, each of which has its head or Count; and to
fill this office they choose the most valiant and courageous
individual amongst them, and the one endowed with the greatest
strength. He must at the same time be crafty and sagacious, and
adapted in every respect to govern them. It is he who settles
their differences and disputes, even when they are residing in a