In the field of scientific invention, it seems that the gypsy is not very likely to become a shining light, but that he nevertheless possesses considerable ingenuity in certain directions is shown by his turning to good account apparently useless native material in the manufacture of useful, ornamental and curious articles, and his brain is also fairly fertile in the way of dodges that will, now and again, yield a few pence. One of such dodges—evincing considerable astuteness, and some little knowledge of domestic economy on the part of its originator—was brought under my observation by a small gypsy boy asking if I would not “please buy one?” at the same time opening the lid of an old chocolate box and exposing to view a number of oddly shaped, flattish cakes differing slightly in size, each being about one and a half inches by one inch, and half-inch in thickness, all being curiously veined or marbled in drabs and browns and emitting a rather pleasant odour. At first, I was a good deal puzzled as to their composition, and was not helped much by the information volunteered by the boy, that they were for “keepin’ the morf away an’ takin’ iney mole outcher close.” This done into English would read—“keeping the moth away and removing iron-mould from your clothes.” A brief examination of the contents of the box enabled me to see through the fraud. The little cakes had been prepared by breaking off projecting pieces from the deeply furrowed bark of the cluster pine, these had been shaved and bevelled with a knife until the pattern formed by the layers was sufficiently pronounced, and afterwards smoothed with sandpaper, so that unless one touched them he might easily mistake them for variegated tablets of soap; a few drops of scent—sprinkled probably from a penny bottle of synthetic “Eau de Lavande”—had completed the process of manufacture. I may add that as the boy had not been furnished with directions for use, he could not state how many penny pieces would be required to keep the “morf” away from a given space, nor how long the spell would last; with respect to the “iney mole,” one would expect an intensification rather than a diminution of the stain from the use of such an eradicator. Most of my readers have probably seen, or, may possess, examples of work in wood or other material which has been built up within globes or bottles of water, the whole having been passed in and put together through a comparatively small neck or other aperture. Such work has at all times been beloved of sailors, but gypsies are occasionally found who make this class of “ornament.”