the bodies of animals which the Gypsies have themselves killed by
casting drao, in hope that the flesh may eventually be abandoned to
them. It is utterly useless to write about the habits of the
Gypsies, especially of the wandering tribes, unless you have lived
long and intimately with them; and unhappily, up to the present
time, all the books which have been published concerning them have
been written by those who have introduced themselves into their
society for a few hours, and from what they have seen or heard
consider themselves competent to give the world an idea of the
manners and customs of the mysterious Rommany: thus, because they
have been known to beg the carcass of a hog which they themselves
have poisoned, it has been asserted that they prefer carrion which
has perished of sickness to the meat of the shambles; and because
they have been seen to make a ragout of boror (SNAILS), and to
roast a hotchiwitchu or hedgehog, it has been supposed that
reptiles of every description form a part of their cuisine. It is
high time to undeceive the Gentiles on these points. Know, then, O
Gentile, whether thou be from the land of the Gorgios (20) or the
Busne (21), that the very Gypsies who consider a ragout of snails a
delicious dish will not touch an eel, because it bears resemblance
to a SNAKE; and that those who will feast on a roasted hedgehog
could be induced by no money to taste a squirrel, a delicious and
wholesome species of game, living on the purest and most nutritious
food which the fields and forests can supply. I myself, while
living among the Roms of England, have been regarded almost in the
light of a cannibal for cooking the latter animal and preferring it
to hotchiwitchu barbecued, or ragout of boror. 'You are but half
Rommany, brother,' they would say, 'and you feed gorgiko-nes (LIKE
A GENTILE), even as you talk. Tchachipen (IN TRUTH), if we did not
know you to be of the Mecralliskoe rat (ROYAL BLOOD) of Pharaoh, we