_Myself_.—Before I answer you, I shall wish you to inform me what business it is which renders your presence necessary in _Castumba_; your son-in-law, Paco, told me that it was no longer the custom of the gypsies to wander. _Antonio_.—It is an affair of Egypt, brother, and I shall not acquaint you with it; peradventure it relates to a horse or an ass, or peradventure it relates to a mule or a _macho_; it does not relate to yourself, therefore I advise you not to inquire about it—_Dosta_. With respect to my offer, you are free to decline it; there is a _drungruje_ between here and _Madrilati_, and you can travel it in the _birdoche_, or with the _dromális_; but I tell you, as a brother, that there are _chories_ upon the _drun_, and some of them are of the _Errate_. Certainly few people in my situation would have accepted the offer of this singular gypsy. It was not, however, without its allurements for me; I was fond of adventure, and what more ready means of gratifying my love of it than by putting myself under the hands of such a guide? There are many who would have been afraid of treachery, but I had no fears on this point, as I did not believe that the fellow harboured the slightest ill intention towards me; I saw that he was fully convinced that I was one of the _Errate_, and his affection for his own race, and his hatred for the _Busné_, were his strongest characteristics. I wished, moreover, to lay hold of every opportunity of making myself acquainted with the ways of the Spanish gypsies, and an excellent one here presented itself on my first entrance into Spain. In a word, I determined to accompany the gypsy. “I will go with you,” I exclaimed; “as for my baggage, I will despatch it to Madrid by the _birdoche_.” “Do so, brother,” he replied, “and the _gras_ will go lighter. Baggage, indeed!—what need of baggage have you? How the _Busné_ on the road would laugh if they saw two _Calés_ with baggage behind them!” During my stay at Badajoz I had but little intercourse with the Spaniards, my time being chiefly devoted to the gypsies, with whom, from long intercourse with various sections of their race in different parts of the world, I felt myself much more at home than with the silent, reserved men of Spain, with whom a foreigner might mingle for half a century without having half a dozen words addressed to him, unless he himself made the first advances to intimacy, which, after all, might be rejected with a shrug and a _no entiendo_; {110} for among the many deeply-rooted prejudices of these people is the strange idea that no foreigner can speak their language, an idea to which they will still cling though they hear him conversing with perfect ease; for in that case the utmost that they will concede to his attainments is, _Habla quatro palabras y nada mas_ (he can speak four words, and no more).