wooden articles for household use. The gipsies are remarkably clever
with their hands; many of these wooden utensils are fashioned very
dexterously, and even display some taste. The gipsy, moreover, is always
the best blacksmith in all the country round; and as for their music, I
have before spoken of the strange power these people possess of stirring
the hearts of their hearers with their pathetic strains. It has often
seemed to me that this marvellous gift of music is, as it were, a
language brought with them in their exile from another and a higher
state of existence.

That these poor outcasts are capable of noble self-sacrifice, the story
I am about to relate will testify. Not far from this very gipsy
settlement, in a wild romantic glen, is a steep overhanging rock, which
is known throughout the country as the "Gipsy's Rock," and came to be so
called from the following tragical occurrence. It seems that many years
ago--about the middle of the last century, I believe--there was a famine
in the land, and the poor gipsies, poorer than all the rest, were
reduced to great straits. Some of them came to the neighbouring village
and begged hard for food. The selfish people turned them away, or at
least tried to do so; but one poor fellow would not cease his
importunities, and said that his children were literally starving.
"Then," said one of the villagers in a mocking tone, "I will give your
family a side of bacon if you will jump that rock."

"You hear his promise?" cried the gipsy, appealing to the idle crowd. He
said not another word, but rushing from their midst, clambered up the
rock, and in another instant took the fatal leap!

I see no reason to discredit the story, generally believed as it is in
the district; and, happily for the honour of human nature, it has many a