114 GYPSIES. 



(Gypsy witches) but voodoo women, astrologers, clairvo- 

 yants, and many more popular mystics. 



For every fortune the Gypsy wife tells she expects a 

 III {i. e., a dollar), and for " setting the cards" she de- 

 mands live dollars or a bar. But she is an oriental and 

 you can higgle with her, and I have known her shade 

 the price from a dollar down to a pair of old shoes. Still 

 the gains of their fortune telling (and of other lower class 

 seers too) are much larger than one would think possible 

 in the face of our common schools, public libraries, and 

 churches. 



While the women are in town, the men loaf round the 

 camp, tend the horses, look after the babies, who tumble 

 about on the grass all day, clean up the pots and dishes, 

 cut wood, and wait for horse customers. When any one 

 who wants a real good horse turns up, of course they are 

 ready for him. How they love to hail a green country- 

 man, but how they hate a shrewd, horsey Yankee or a 

 Jew, whom they call a "Christ-killer," for Gypsies have 

 Christian prejudices whether they have the virtues or 

 not. Some woman generally stays with the men in the 

 camp to get dinner, though the Ham can cook for him- 

 self on a pinch. 



But if you will go to the tan on Krokers, or Sunday, a 

 word derived from the Greek Kvpianri, they are all at 

 home and all idle and glad to see you. The Gypsies 

 keep the Sabbath pretty well, but if a customer comes 

 for a horse, they can't help letting him look it over, and 

 if he buys then and there why, isn't it his fault more 

 than theirs? They didn't ask him to come S^anday. 



The women sit around and talk, the mothers get din- 

 ner, and sometimes a little washing or mending goes on. 

 After the fire wood is cut and the grais curried, the men 

 lie round and loaf, as in fact I think they do twenty 

 hours of the twenty-four any way. Even cutting wood 

 and cleaning horses is often left to the hired man. 



52 



