“At their weddings they carry torches, and have paranymphs to give the bride away, with many other unusual rites.
“It is in reality, almost absurd to talk of the religion of a set of people, whose moral characters are so depraved, as to make it evident they believe in nothing capable of being a check to their passions. They are usually accounted pilferers, cheats, faithless, and abandoned to dissoluteness.
“They tell fortunes, and play juggling tricks, just as they do in all other countries where they are to be found. In 1560, they were banished the kingdom as thieves, cheats, and spies for the Turks. In 1569 and 1685, the order was resumed, but not being enforced, had little effect.
“A Gypsey being brought to trial for a larceny, declared, that his law allowed him to take as much from others, every day, as sufficed for his maintenance.
“These people make use of two languages, one Calabrian, with a foreign accent and pronunciation; the other a peculiar one of their own, which in sound, seems to have great affinity to the Oriental tongues; and is spoken when they have secrets to impart to each other. They sleep like dogs in a kennel, men, women, and children huddled together.”
The learned Grellmann states, that “Gypsies were universally to be found in Italy; insomuch, that even Sicily and Sardinia were not free from them.
“But they were the most numerous in the dominions of the church; probably because there was the worst police, with much superstition. By the former they were left undisturbed; and the latter enticed them to deceive the ignorant, as it afforded them an opportunity of obtaining a plentiful contribution, by their fortune-telling and enchanted amulets.
“There was a general law throughout Italy, that no Gypsey should remain more than two nights, in any one place. By this regulation, it is true, no place retained its guest long; but no sooner was one gone, than another came in his room. It was a continual circle, and quite as convenient to them, as a perfect toleration would have been. Italy rather suffered, than benefited, by this law; as, by keeping those people in constant motion, they would do more mischief there, than in places where they were permitted to remain stationary.”