MAJOR KEPPEL'S ACCOUNT OF THEM. 239 



be found. Mary, give me Major Keppel's Travels across 

 the Balkan, and I will read the passage in which he describes 

 them: " On the left hand side of the road, we saw twenty 

 black tents pitched in a straight line, with two flags, one 

 white and the other red, fixed at the right flank. These 

 formed an encampment of gipsies, which had stationed itself 

 there to welcome, with a band of music, a bride who was to 

 pass in that direction on her way to her future husband. * * 

 * The tents of the wanderers closely resemble those of the 

 Illyants, which I had seen in the Arabian desert. Gipsies 

 are to be seen in every part of Turkey; I constantly fell in 

 with them in the course of my journey. The largest encamp- 

 ment that I ever saw was at Shumla, where they were as- 

 sembled to the number of some thousands. The appearance 

 of their women is always most striking in a Mahometan 

 country, where such rigid notions are entertained of female 

 decorum. Nothing can be more strongly contrasted than the 

 uncovered face, the upright carriage, the fearless and almost 

 fierce demeanor of a well-formed gipsy girl, with the veiled 

 features, shuffling walk, and timid, downcast look of a round 

 looking female of the Turkish race. The gipsies conform to 

 the prevailing religion of the country in which they may 

 chance to be. Thus, they are Christians in Wallachia and 

 Moldavia, and, generally speaking, Mussulmans to the south- 

 ward of the Balkan. Their creed, however, sits loosely upon 

 them; as they follow it no farther than it accords with the 

 habits of their tribe; consequently, those who profess the 

 Mahometan faith are not acknowledged by the more rigid 

 Osmanli, who hates them as infidels, and dreads them as 

 magicians."* 



Thus-you see, that the gipsies are every where the same 

 'vagabond race, every where alike incapable of receiving edu- 

 cation. Religion they have none, but adopt, as Major Keppel 

 states, the creed of the country in which they dwell. Music 

 is the only science which they know; and, unchanged by 

 climate, either in habits, complexion, or physiognomy, these 



* Vol. ii. 



