some of the dark-eyed singing-girls? What availed making
complaints, when perhaps a Gypsy sibyl, the mother of those very
girls, had free admission to the house of the corregidor at all
times and seasons, and spaed the good fortune to his daughters,
promising them counts and dukes, and Andalusian knights in
marriage, or prepared philtres for his lady by which she was always
to reign supreme in the affections of her husband? And, above all,
what availed it to the plundered party to complain that his mule or
horse had been stolen, when the Gitano robber, perhaps the husband
of the sibyl and the father of the black-eyed Gitanillas, was at
that moment actually in treaty with my lord the corregidor himself
for supplying him with some splendid thick-maned, long-tailed steed
at a small price, to be obtained, as the reader may well suppose,
by an infraction of the laws? The favour and protection which the
Gitanos experienced from people of high rank is alluded to in the
Spanish laws, and can only be accounted for by the motives above
detailed.

The Gitanerias were soon considered as public nuisances, on which
account the Gitanos were forbidden to live together in particular
parts of the town, to hold meetings, and even to intermarry with
each other; yet it does not appear that the Gitanerias were ever
suppressed by the arm of the law, as many still exist where these
singular beings 'marry and are given in marriage,' and meet
together to discuss their affairs, which, in their opinion, never
flourish unless those of their fellow-creatures suffer. So much
for the Gitanerias, or Gypsy colonies in the towns of Spain.