afford some account of the Rommany as I have seen them in other
countries; for there is scarcely a part of the habitable world
where they are not to be found: their tents are alike pitched on
the heaths of Brazil and the ridges of the Himalayan hills, and
their language is heard at Moscow and Madrid, in the streets of
London and Stamboul.


THE ZIGANI, OR RUSSIAN GYPSIES


They are found in all parts of Russia, with the exception of the
government of St. Petersburg, from which they have been banished.
In most of the provincial towns they are to be found in a state of
half-civilisation, supporting themselves by trafficking in horses,
or by curing the disorders incidental to those animals; but the
vast majority reject this manner of life, and traverse the country
in bands, like the ancient Hamaxobioi; the immense grassy plains of
Russia affording pasturage for their herds of cattle, on which, and
the produce of the chase, they chiefly depend for subsistence.
They are, however, not destitute of money, which they obtain by
various means, but principally by curing diseases amongst the
cattle of the mujiks or peasantry, and by telling fortunes, and not
unfrequently by theft and brigandage.

Their power of resisting cold is truly wonderful, as it is not
uncommon to find them encamped in the midst of the snow, in slight
canvas tents, when the temperature is twenty-five or thirty degrees
below the freezing-point according to Reaumur; but in the winter
they generally seek the shelter of the forests, which afford fuel