in passing over a bridge, for example at Pesth, which is not
demanded from a well-dressed person - nor from the Czigany, who
have frequently no dress at all - and whose insouciance stands in
striking contrast with the trembling submission of the peasants.
The Gypsy, wherever you find him, is an incomprehensible being, but
nowhere more than in Hungary, where, in the midst of slavery, he is
free, though apparently one step lower than the lowest slave. The
habits of the Hungarian Gypsies are abominable; their hovels appear
sinks of the vilest poverty and filth, their dress is at best rags,
their food frequently the vilest carrion, and occasionally, if
report be true, still worse - on which point, when speaking of the
Spanish Gitanos, we shall have subsequently more to say: thus they
live in filth, in rags, in nakedness, and in merriness of heart,
for nowhere is there more of song and dance than in an Hungarian
Gypsy village. They are very fond of music, and some of them are
heard to touch the violin in a manner wild, but of peculiar
excellence. Parties of them have been known to exhibit even at
Paris.

In Hungary, as in all parts, they are addicted to horse-dealing;
they are likewise tinkers, and smiths in a small way. The women
are fortune-tellers, of course - both sexes thieves of the first
water. They roam where they list - in a country where all other
people are held under strict surveillance, no one seems to care
about these Parias. The most remarkable feature, however,
connected with the habits of the Czigany, consists in their foreign
excursions, having plunder in view, which frequently endure for
three or four years, when, if no mischance has befallen them, they
return to their native land - rich; where they squander the
proceeds of their dexterity in mad festivals. They wander in bands