afterwards confessed that the Gypsy, who had visited them in
prison, had promised to shield them from conviction by means of her
art. It is therefore not surprising that in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, when a belief in sorcery was supported by the
laws of all Europe, these people were regarded as practisers of
sorcery, and punished as such, when, even in the nineteenth, they
still find people weak enough to place confidence in their claims
to supernatural power.

The accusation of producing disease and death amongst the cattle
was far from groundless. Indeed, however strange and incredible it
may sound in the present day to those who are unacquainted with
this caste, and the peculiar habits of the Rommanees, the practice
is still occasionally pursued in England and many other countries
where they are found. From this practice, when they are not
detected, they derive considerable advantage. Poisoning cattle is
exercised by them in two ways: by one, they merely cause disease
in the animals, with the view of receiving money for curing them
upon offering their services; the poison is generally administered
by powders cast at night into the mangers of the animals: this way
is only practised upon the larger cattle, such as horses and cows.
By the other, which they practise chiefly on swine, speedy death is
almost invariably produced, the drug administered being of a highly
intoxicating nature, and affecting the brain. They then apply at
the house or farm where the disaster has occurred for the carcase
of the animal, which is generally given them without suspicion, and
then they feast on the flesh, which is not injured by the poison,
which only affects the head.

The English Gypsies are constant attendants at the racecourse; what