When the sickness indicates danger, and that the universal enemy to life is really in earnest, the Gipsey breaks out into sighs and lamentations, on account of his departure; till at last he gives up the ghost, in his usual place of residence—under a tree, or in his tent. The preparations for death are usually regulated according to a person’s religious principles; but the Gipsey, who neither knows nor believes any thing concerning the immortality of the soul, or of rewards and punishments beyond this life, for the most part dies like a beast—ignorant of himself and his Creator, as well as utterly incapable of forming any opinion respecting a higher destination. The Gipsey’s decease is instantly succeeded by the most frantic lamentations: parents, in particular, who have lost their children, appear inconsolable. Little can be said of their burials; only, that on those occasions the cries and bewailings are redoubled, and become very violent. When the leader of a horde dies, things are conducted more quietly. His own people carry him, with great respect, to the grave, where each one appears earnest and attentive; although at the same time employed in a manner to excite laughter. This is the mode of proceeding when a Gipsey dies a natural death. But it often happens that he loses his life by violent means—not by his own hands for self-murder and infanticide are equally unheard of among them. No Gipsey ever puts a period to his own existence on account of vexation, anxiety, or despair; as, besides his unbounded love of life, care or despair is totally unknown to him. Even in the greatest distress, the Gipsey is never troubled with low spirits; ever merry and blythe, he dies not till he cannot help it: this often happens on the gallows, attended with scenes ridiculous as the most ludicrous imagination could invent. One man requested, as a particular act of grace, that he might not be hanged with his face towards the high road; saying, “Many of his acquaintance passed that way, and he should be very much ashamed to be seen by them hanging on a gallows.” At another time the relations of a Gipsey who was leading to execution, perceiving, by the discourse and gestures of the criminal, how unwillingly he advanced, not having the least inclination to be hanged, addressed themselves to the magistrates and officers of justice, with the following wise remonstrance: “Gentlemen, pray do not compel a man to a thing for which you see he has no desire nor inclination.” Such scenes happen at almost every Gipsey execution, which are proofs that these people are quite deficient in thought or consideration. CHAPTER X. _Political Regulations peculiar to the Gipseys_.