slink from the scene of his depredations, and flame at once attracts
people to the spot. Twice the occurrence of a remarkably severe winter
has caused the Bushmen to flock together and act in an approach to
concert in attacking the enclosures. The Bushmen of the north, who were
even more savage and brutal, then came down, and were with difficulty
repulsed from the walled cities. In ordinary times we see very little of
them. They are the thieves, the human vermin of the woods.

Under the name of gipsies, those who are now often called Romany and
Zingari were well known to the ancients. Indeed, they boast that their
ancestry goes back so much farther than the oldest we can claim, that
the ancients themselves were but modern to them. Even in that age of
highest civilization, which immediately preceded the present, they say
(and there is no doubt of it) that they preserved the blood of their
race pure and untainted, that they never dwelt under permanent roofs,
nor bowed their knees to the prevalent religion. They remained apart,
and still continue after civilization has disappeared, exactly the same
as they were before it commenced.

Since the change their numbers have greatly increased, and were they not
always at war with each other, it is possible that they might go far to
sweep the house people from the land. But there are so many tribes, each
with its king, queen, or duke, that their power is divided, and their
force melts away. The ruler of the Bushman families is always a man, but
among the gipsies a woman, and even a young girl, often exercises
supreme authority, but must be of the sacred blood. These kings and
dukes are absolute autocrats within their tribe, and can order by a nod
the destruction of those who offend them. Habits of simplest obedience
being enjoined on the tribe from earliest childhood, such executions are
rare, but the right to command them is not for a moment questioned.