of the persons of this caste call themselves Catholics, and have every
external show of great devotion. They always carry about them rosaries
and a crucifix; they say their prayers night and morning, and follow
the service with much attention and precision. In Germany, they seldom
exercise any other calling than that of horse doctor, or herbalist:
some addict themselves to medicine, that is to say, profess to be in
possession of secret means of effecting cures. A vast number of them
travel in bodies, some tell fortunes, others mend glass, china, pots,
and pans; woe to the inhabitants of the country overrun by these
vagabonds. There will infallibly be a mortality amongst the cattle, for
the gipsies are very clever in killing them, without leaving any traces
which can be converted into a charge of malevolence against them. They
kill the cows by piercing them to the heart with a long and very fine
needle, so that the blood flowing inwardly, it may be supposed that the
animal died of disease. They stifle poultry with brimstone; they know
that then they will give them the dead birds; and whilst they imagine
that they have a taste for carrion, they make good cheer, and eat
delicious meat. Sometimes they want hams, and then they take a red
herring and hold it under the nose of a pig, which, allured by the
smell, would follow them to the world's end."


_Rouletiers_

Are fellows who plunder carriages of portmanteaus, imperials, &c.

"One day I followed a famous _rouletier_ named _Gosnet_. On reaching
the Rue Saint Denis, he jumped up on a coach, put on a cloak and cotton
cap which he found lying close to his hand, and in this dress got down
again with a portmanteau under his arm. It was not later than two