Il3 GYPSIES. 



stuck on a stick and went round selling, in the old 

 country. In former days Gypsies were smiths and 

 tinkers, and the name Smith or Petulengro is common 

 among them, but I never knew any Gypsy smiths or 

 tinkers in America. 



From our description thus far of the Gypsy and his 

 belongings, we have gotten enough to form a good idea 

 of the Gypsies' life. Gypsies generally move in gangs, 

 several households, or rather tent-holds, travelling in 

 company. Society, I suppose, is the main object in this, 

 and perhaps also mutual cooperation makes the daily 

 occupations of pasturing and tending the horses, cutting 

 fire wood and tent stakes, TidcMng the tan (pitching the 

 tent), &c., &c., easier. As, however, one Gypsy is com- 

 petitor to another in the grai puriven (horse swapping) 

 and dukerin (fortune telling) business, and as, also, the 

 pasture by the roadside for the horses has its limit, it is 

 inconvenient for too many to travel together, and like all 

 nomads their ways must often part. Thus, once on a 

 time, the l)ori dai Amelia Wells separated at Poughkeep- 

 sie from her sons Henry and Leonard, and went down into 

 Connecticut for the summer while they went on to Al- 

 bany and beyond ; "For there wasn't chor enough for 

 " so manjgrais^^ (not grass enough for so many horses). 

 Even so separated Abram and Lot, long ago. Strange, 

 isn't it, how the patriarchal ways of past millenniums are 

 reproduced to-day among the waifs and outcasts of our 

 roadsides ? 



These Gypsy gangs can not properly be called tribes, 

 since there is neither government nor common interest 

 save that of temporary companionship. Both, however, 

 are incipient, especially where the gang, as among the 

 Wells, so often mentioned, is composed of several closely 

 related families. Here the blood relationship combines 

 the different tents into an incipient phratry and some 

 sort of patriarchal, or more often matriarchal authority 



so 



