﻿A SECT COMMONLY DEN03IINATED NUTS. 473 



All alive upon the fable, 



When I shew delightful fun. 



At n^y slight of hand you'll laugh, 



At my magic you will stare, 



I can play at quarter staff; 



I can kni\'es suspend in air, 



I enchantment strange devise, 



And with cord and sling surprise." 



T shall now draw a short parallel between the gip- 

 sies of luirope and the people 1 havT described. 



Both the Gipsies and the Nuts are generally a wan- 

 dering race of beings, seldom having a fixed habita- 

 tion. They have each a language peculiar to them- 

 selves. That of the Gipsies is undoubtedly a spe- 

 cies oi' HhidQO.'itance, and so is that of the Nuts. In 

 Europe it answers all the purposes of concealment. 

 Here a conversion of its syllables becomes necessary. 



Tlie Gipsies have their king; the Nuts their Nar- 

 dar Bon tan; — they are equally formed into com- 

 panies, and their peculiar employments are exactly 

 similar ; viz. dancing, singing, music, palmistry, 

 quackery, dancers of monkeys, bears, and snakes. 

 The two latter professions, from local causes, are 

 peculiar to the Nuts. They are both considered as 

 thieves, at least that division of the Nuts wh6se 

 manners come nearest the Gipsies. In matters of 

 religion they appear equally indifferent, and as for 

 food, we have seen that neither the Gipsies nor Bit- 

 deep, Nats are very choice on that particular and 

 though I have not obtained any satisfactory proof of 

 their eating human flesh, 1 do not find it easy to di- 

 vest my mind of its suspicions on this head. Indeed 

 one would think the stomach that could receive 

 without nausea a piece of putrid jackal, could not 

 well retain any qualms in the selection of animal 

 food. 



Though 



