in the households of the boyards, especially in the kitchens, which they made ‘not less disgusting than the receptacles of swine.’  They were bastinadoed, often in the presence of the master or mistress, and ’the ladies of quality, however young and beautiful, do not show much delicate reluctance in similar instances of authority.’  Other punishments, some very inhuman, were inflicted; and although the owners had no power of life or death over them, if the latter were the result of too severe beating ’neither the Government nor the public took notice of the circumstance.’  Not only was it ’under the care of these depraved servants that the boyards were brought up,’ but as the women of the higher classes were not in the habit of nursing their infants, they placed them in the hands of gipsy wet-nurses, who imparted to them their diseases, and no doubt influenced the morals of their after-life.[36] Although the gipsies were nominally freed in 1848, their condition remained unchanged after the revolution was suppressed, and it was not until 1854 that they were permanently liberated.  To-day there are nominally 200,000 of them in Roumania, and until recently they were divided, or divided themselves, into distinct castes following various occupations.  The highest of these were the Laoutari, or musicians, who generally perform in bands consisting of four or five men each.  These usually play upon one or two violins, a mandoline, and the Pandean pipes.  Their music is wild and plaintive, giving the impression from a distance that two or three bagpipes are being played.  They have the credit of being very good musicians, and of being able to perform national airs from the ear alone.  Some of them have risen to the position of acknowledged composers, and indeed, for that matter, many individuals amongst the gipsy race occupy comparatively high posts in other departments of human intelligence.

[Illustration:  ROUMANIAN GIRL.]

[Illustration:  GIPSY.]

Another section are workers in metal, such as tinkers and brass-founders; a third work in wood, and perform various duties connected with the building trade; but a large proportion are still vagabonds and thieves, who infest the country, and are a nuisance to the honest peasants and labourers.  The last-named class profess no religion and obey no law, excepting the criminal law when they are forced.  The settled part of the gipsy community belong to the national Church; the women are chaste as against the Roumanians, but their morality is said to be very lax amongst themselves.  It is, however, hardly fair to speak in these general terms of the gipsy race at present.  As already stated, many of them occupy very honourable positions in society; and some years since a German writer predicted what is now taking place, namely, a fusion of the gipsies with the Roumanians.[37] We were informed by a learned philologist in Bucarest that this process is rapidly going on; the castes are not so clearly defined; intermarriages with Roumanians