To the two professions before mentioned as commonly followed by the men, may be added, those of carpenters and turners: the former make watering-troughs and chests; the latter turn trenchers, dishes, make spoons and other trifling articles, which they hawk about. There are others who make sieves, or maintain themselves by cobbling shoes. Many of these, as well as the blacksmiths and whitesmiths, find constant employment in the houses of the better sort of people, for whom they work the year round. They are not paid in money; but, beside other advantages, find a certain subsistence. Those who are not thus circumstanced, do not wait at home for customers, but, with their implements in a sack thrown over their shoulders, seek business in the cities or villages: when any one calls, they throw down the bundle, and prepare the apparatus for work, before the door of their employer.
The Gipseys have a fixed dislike to agriculture; and had rather suffer hunger, or any privation, than follow the plough, to earn a decent livelihood. But, as there is no general rule without an exception, so, beside the slaves to the bojars in Moldavia and Wallachia, who are constrained to apply to it, there are some in Hungary who are cultivators by choice. Since the year 1768, the Empress Theresa has commanded that the Hungarian and Transylvanian Gipseys should be instructed in husbandry; but these orders have been very little regarded. At this time there are so few of them farmers, in those parts, that they are undeserving of notice; though in Spain, and other European countries, they are still more scarce, as it would be difficult to find one who had ever made a furrow in his life.
Formerly, Gipseys were commonly employed in Hungary, and in Transylvania almost universally, for hangmen and executioners. They still perform the business of flayers in Hungary, and of executioners in different parts of Transylvania. Their assiduity in torturing, their cruel invention in tormenting, are described by Toppeltin to be so shocking, that the Gipseys seem eminently calculated for works of barbarity. They do not follow flaying as a regular profession any-where; it is merely a casual occupation, in addition to their usual employment. Whenever a beast dies near where they happen to be, it is a fortunate circumstance if there be no skinner in the place; not because they can make much of the skin, which they always leave with the owner for a trifling consideration, but they are thus enabled to procure a plentiful provision of flesh for the family.