Imagination will easily conceive how dismal and horrid the inside of such Gipsey huts must be to civilised humanity. Air and daylight excluded, very damp, and full of filth, they have more the appearance of wild beasts’ dens, that of the habitations of intelligent beings. Rooms or separate apartments are not even thought of; all is one open space: in the middle is the fire, serving both for the purpose of cooking and warmth; the father and mother lie half naked, the children entirely so, round it. Chairs, tables, beds or bedsteads, find no place here; they sit, eat, sleep, on the bare ground, or at most spread an old blanket, or, in the Banat, a sheep-skin, under them. Every fine day the door is set open for the sun to shine in, which they continue watching so long as it is above the horizon; when the day closes, they shut their door and consign themselves over to rest. When the weather is cold, or the snow prevents them opening the door, they make up the fire, and sit round it till they fall asleep, without any more light than it affords. The furniture and property of the Gipseys have been already described; they consist of an earthen pot, an iron pan, a spoon, a jug, and a knife; when it happens that every thing is complete, they sometimes add a dish: these serve for the whole family. When the master of the house is a smith by trade, as will be hereafter mentioned, he has a pair of bellows to blow up his fire, a small stone anvil, a pair of tongs, and perhaps a couple of hammers; add to these a few old tatters in which he dresses himself, his knapsack, some pieces of torn bed-clothes, his tent, with his antiquated jade, and you have a complete catalogue of a nomadic Gipsey’s estate. Very little can be said respecting the domestic employment of the women. The care of their children is the most trifling concern: they neither wash, mend their clothes, nor clean their utensils: they seldom bake: the whole of their business, then, is reduced to—dressing their food and eating it, smoking tobacco, prating, and sleeping. They continue during the whole winter in their hut; but at the first croaking of the frogs, they pull down their house, and decamp.