A “camp” may consist of ten or twenty individuals, sometimes, perhaps, of forty, or even fifty, of various ages, and is ruled by the eldest, who is also the parent.  He is absolute master of his “camp”, but has no power or recognition beyond it, so that how many leaders there may be among them it is not possible even to guess.  Nor is the master known to them as king, or duke, nor has he any title, but is simply the oldest or founder of the family.  The “camp” has no law, no established custom; events happen, and even the master cannot be said to reign.  When he becomes feeble, they simply leave him to die.

They are depraved, and without shame, clad in sheep-skins chiefly, if clad at all, or in such clothes as they have stolen.  They have no ceremonies whatever.  The number of these “camps” must be considerable, and yet the Bushman is seldom seen, nor do we very often hear of their depredations, which is accounted for by the extent of country they wander over.  It is in severe winters that the chief danger occurs; they then suffer from hunger and cold, and are driven to the neighbourhood of the enclosures to steal.  So dexterous are they in slipping through the bushes, and slinking among the reeds and osiers, that they will pass within a few yards without discovering their presence, and the signs of their passage can be detected only by the experienced hunter, and not always by him.

It is observed that whatever mischief the Bushman commits, he never sets fire to any ricks or buildings; the reason is because his nature is to slink from the scene of his depredations, and flame at once attracts people to the spot.  Twice the occurrence of a remarkably severe winter has caused the Bushmen to flock together and act in an approach to concert in attacking the enclosures.  The Bushmen of the north, who were even more savage and brutal, then came down, and were with difficulty repulsed from the walled cities.  In ordinary times we see very little of them.  They are the thieves, the human vermin of the woods.

Under the name of gipsies, those who are now often called Romany and Zingari were well known to the ancients.  Indeed, they boast that their ancestry goes back so much farther than the oldest we can claim, that the ancients themselves were but modern to them.  Even in that age of highest civilization, which immediately preceded the present, they say (and there is no doubt of it) that they preserved the blood of their race pure and untainted, that they never dwelt under permanent roofs, nor bowed their knees to the prevalent religion.  They remained apart, and still continue after civilization has disappeared, exactly the same as they were before it commenced.