The tawny, flashing-eyed woman could now and again be seen by us as the people about her moved the better to hear or to accommodate one another with room. Her white teeth gleamed; a fierce smile was fixed upon her face; her eyes of Egyptian blackness sparkled under the red hood or handkerchief that covered her head, her skin looked of the colour of pepper in the sunlight; she talked incessantly, with frequent exhortatory flourishings of her arms, and distant as she was--almost the whole length of the long poop-deck separating us--I could see how wild, fierce, and repellant was her smile, whilst she glanced from one face to another as she jabbered and gesticulated. Frequent laughter broke from the passengers, and sometimes one or two of the ladies recoiled by a step, though they would thrust in again a minute after. ‘What can they be doing with the woman?’ said Alice. ‘They seem to be making fun of her,’ said I. ‘It is more likely that she is making fun of them,’ said Alice. ‘Is she a gipsy? She has the appearance of one.’ ‘What is a gipsy?’ I asked. ‘A person who belongs to a strange wandering tribe; whether there are more tribes than one I do not know. They are to be found everywhere, I believe. They look like Jews, but they are not Jews. It is supposed that they originally came from Egypt or India. I used to take a great interest in reading about them. I never can pronounce the word gipsy without an English country picture rising before me; a wayside tract of grass off a dusty road, clumps of trees here and there, the trickling sound of a little brook mingled with the humming of bees and the lowing of cattle in a near pasture, a waggon covered with canvas, two or three dark-skinned little children playing on the grass, a tawny woman like that creature there, bending over an iron pot dangling above a gipsy fire, a fierce, bushy-whiskered, chocolate-faced man, mending chairs, or making baskets, or tinkering at a little forge.’ She gazed at me earnestly when she ceased to speak. I knew that she sought in the expression of my face for some sign of my recognition of the picture she had drawn, for some hint of recollection in my looks. A sudden burst of laughter broke from the people gathered about the gipsy. ‘I believe she is telling fortunes,’ said Alice; ‘shall we go and listen to her, dear?’