“This device of the Ottoman Empire (the crescent) is of great antiquity, as appears from several medals, and took its rise from an event related by Stephanus the Geographer, a native of Byzantium. He tells us that Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, meeting with mighty difficulties in the siege of that city, set the workmen on a very dark night to undermine the walls, that his troops might enter the place without being perceived; but, luckily for the besieged, the moon appearing discovered the design, which accordingly miscarried. “In acknowledgment of this deliverance,” he says, “the Byzantines erected a statue to Diana, and thus the crescent became their symbol.” The following interesting reference to ear-piercing is to be found in Exodus XXI. 5, 6:— “And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; and shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.” Under these circumstances the boring of the ear evidently indicated servitude, and it has been suggested the inserting of rings was intended to prevent the holes closing, so that their value as a visible sign of bondage should be permanent; a state of affairs certainly not implied by the ear-ring habit of the present-day gypsy. In a previous chapter reference was made to the persecution of the gypsies by Henry VIII, and we find that his laws affecting dress, made in 1532, were not of a nature to render life more endurable by people of their proclivities. “Jewellery of every kind was forbidden below a certain degree, while the common people were not to wear even a silver button or any kind of ornament except a badge of service.” However, all laws regulating dress were repealed by statute in the first year of the reign of James I.