The true patrin or pateran usually consists of leaves or grass thrown down in a certain manner by the wayside to guide gypsies in following the main party, which may have gone forward several days. As the arrangement differs with different families, and a variation in the arrangement may affect its signification, a non-gypsy is not likely to gain much information should he chance to discover a pateran. In event of it being necessary to cross a city or town, modifications of the patrin are used, so that notwithstanding the turns taken in passing from one side of the place to the other, the straggler is enabled to find the exact route taken and follow unerringly. If several families from different localities were to pass through a city at about the same time, using the same roadways for a part or the whole of the way, a gypsy could tell how many families had passed through a certain street and the direction they took, and would identify his own family sign. [Illustration] [Illustration: THE TRUE “PATERAN.”] In connection with these methods of intercommunication, the intelligent observation of natural objects, which, as I have previously stated, is a gypsy characteristic, plays an important part; for instance, take the simplest form of patrin, handfuls of grass flung down by the side of road or track at intervals,—a follower is able to say approximately when they were thrown down, and, knowing the distance usually covered in a day, he can, to a certain extent, tell where to find those who placed the patrin, due consideration having been given to such circumstances as—time when a shower fell, prevailing sun or shade, dryness or other condition of the grass, and so on. But why, it may be urged, should not the gypsy confuse the patrin of his own tribe with a similar one of another family travelling for a distance in the same direction on the same track, at about the same time? The matter is, of course, extremely simple, for however close the similarity of the signs of different families might appear to a gorgio, there would always be an identifiable peculiarity about each which the gypsy would instantly recognize, beside which it will be obvious that a second party would always realize the futility of placing a patrin upon or near one of a similar nature.