shared his shelter.  He had a good bed made of straw and moss, and sheets that were tolerably white, whereas all the rest of the family, which numbered eleven persons, slept on planks three feet long.  So much for their hospitality.  This very same woman, humane as was her treatment of her guest said to me constantly before the sick man:  “Singo, singo, homte hi mulo.”  “Soon, soon he must die!” After all, these people live such miserable lives, that a reference to the approach of death can have no terrors for them.

One remarkable feature in the gipsy character is their indifference about religion.  Not that they are strong-minded or sceptical.  They have never made any profession of atheism.  Far from that, indeed, the religion of the country which they inhabit is always theirs; but they change their religion when they change the country of their residence.  They are equally free from the superstitions which replace religious feeling in the minds of the vulgar.  How, indeed, can superstition exist among a race which, as a rule, makes its livelihood out of the credulity of others?  Nevertheless, I have remarked a particular horror of touching a corpse among the Spanish gipsies.  Very few of these could be induced to carry a dead man to his grave, even if they were paid for it.

I have said that most gipsy women undertake to tell fortunes.  They do this very successfully.  But they find a much greater source of profit in the sale of charms and love-philters.  Not only do they supply toads’ claws to hold fickle hearts, and powdered loadstone to kindle love in cold ones, but if necessity arises, they can use mighty incantations, which force the devil to lend them his aid.  Last year the following story was related to me by a Spanish lady.  She was walking one day along the Calle d’Alcala, feeling very sad and anxious.  A gipsy woman who was squatting on the pavement called out to her, “My pretty lady, your lover has played you false!” (It was quite true.) “Shall I get him back for you?” My readers will imagine with what joy the proposal was accepted, and how complete was the confidence inspired by a person who could thus guess the inmost secrets of the heart.  As it would have been impossible to proceed to perform the operations of magic in the most crowded street in Madrid, a meeting was arranged for the next day.  “Nothing will be easier than to bring back the faithless one to your feet!” said the gitana.  “Do you happen to have a handkerchief, a scarf, or a mantilla, that he gave you?” A silken scarf was handed her.  “Now sew a piastre into one corner of the scarf with crimson silk—­sew half a piastre into another corner—­sew a peseta here—­and a two-real piece there; then, in the middle you must sew a gold coin—­a doubloon would be best.”  The doubloon and all the other coins were duly sewn in.  “Now give me the scarf, and I’ll take it to the Campo Santo when midnight strikes.  You come along with me, if you want to see a fine piece of witchcraft.  I promise you shall see the man you love to-morrow!” The gipsy departed alone for the Campo Santo, since my Spanish friend was too much afraid of witchcraft to go there with her.  I leave my readers to guess whether my poor forsaken lady ever saw her lover, or her scarf, again.