Of the sorcerers, and particularly the sorceresses, among them, all have
heard, and, indeed, the places where they dwell seem full of mystery and
magic. They live in tents, and though they constantly remove from
district to district, one tribe never clashes with or crosses another,
because all have their especial routes, upon which no intrusion is ever
made. Some agriculture is practiced, and flocks and herds are kept, but
the work is entirely done by the women. The men are always on horseback,
or sleeping in their tents.
Each tribe has its central camping-place, to which they return at
intervals after perhaps wandering for months, a certain number of
persons being left at home to defend it. These camps are often situated
in inaccessible positions, and well protected by stockades. The
territory which is acknowledged to belong to such a camp is extremely
limited; its mere environs only are considered the actual property of
the tribe, and a second can pitch its tents with a few hundred yards.
These stockades, in fact, are more like store-houses than residences;
each is a mere rendezvous.
The gipsies are everywhere, but their stockades are most numerous in the
south, along the sides of the green hills and plains, and especially
round Stonehenge, where, on the great open plains, among the huge
boulders, placed ages since in circles, they perform strange ceremonies
and incantations. They attack every traveller, and every caravan or
train of waggons which they feel strong enough to master, but they do
not murder the solitary sleeping hunter or shepherd like the Bushmen.
They will, indeed, steal from him, but do not kill, except in fight.
Once, now and then, they have found their way into towns, when terrible
massacres have followed, for, when excited, the savage knows not how to
restrain himself.
Vengeance is their idol. If any community has injured or affronted them,
they never cease endeavouring to retaliate, and will wipe it out in fire
and blood generations afterwards. There are towns which have thus been
suddenly harried when the citizens had forgotten that any cause of
enmity existed. Vengeance is their religion and their social law, which
guides all their actions among themselves. It is for this reason that
they are continually at war, duke with duke, and king with king. A
deadly feud, too, has set Bushman and gipsy at each other's throat, far
beyond the memory of man. The Romany looks on the Bushman as a dog, and
slaughters him as such. In turn, the despised human dog slinks in the
darkness of the night into the Romany's tent, and stabs his daughter or
his wife, for such is the meanness and cowardice of the Bushman that he
would always rather kill a woman than a man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account