THAT these people are still the rude unpolished creatures that nature formed them, or, at most, have only advanced one degree towards humanity, is evinced, with other circumstances, by their family economy.
Many of the Gipseys are stationary, having regular habitations, according to their situation in life. To this class belong those who keep public-houses in Spain; and others in Transylvania and Hungary, who follow some regular business; which latter have their own miserable huts near Hermanstadt, Cronstadt, Bistritz, Grosswaradein, Debrezin, Eperies, Karchau, and other places. There are also many slaves, to particular bojars, in Moldavia and Wallachia, who do not wander any more than the others. But by far the greatest number of these people lead a very different kind of life: ignorant of the comforts attending a fixed place of residence, they rove from one district to another in hordes, having no habitations but tents, holes in the rocks, or caves; the former shade them in summer, the latter screen them in winter. Many of these savage people, particularly in Germany and Spain, do not even carry tents with them, but shelter themselves, from the heat of the sun, in forests shaded by the rocks, or behind hedges: they are very partial to willows, under which they erect their sleeping place, at the close of the evening. Some live in their tents (in their language called _tschater_) during both summer and winter; which indeed the Gipseys generally prefer. In Hungary, even those who have discontinued their rambling way of life, and built houses for themselves, seldom let a spring pass, without taking advantage of the first settled weather, to set up a tent for their summer residence; under this each one enjoys himself, with his family, nor thinks of his house till the winter returns, and the frost and snow drive him back to it again.
The wandering Gipsey, in Hungary and Transylvania, endeavours to procure a horse; in Turkey, an ass serves to carry his wife, a couple of children, with his tent. When he arrives at a place he likes, near a village or city, he unpacks, pitches his tent, ties his animal to a stake to graze, and remains some weeks there: or if he do not find his station convenient, he breaks up in a day or two, loads his beast, and looks out for a more agreeable situation, near some other town. Indeed, it is not always in his power to determine how long he will remain in the same place; for the boors are apt to trouble him, on account of fowls and geese he has made free with: it sometimes happens, when he is very much at his ease, they sally out with bludgeons or hedge-stakes, making use of such forcible arguments, that he does not hesitate a moment to set up his staff a little farther off: though, in general, the Gipseys are cunning enough, when they have purloined any thing, or done mischief, to make off in time before the villagers begin to suspect them.