 society since they have been less the objects
of legal persecution, the gipsies are still a ferocious and vindictive people.
But notwithstanding this is certainly the case, I cannot but add, from my own
observation of nearly fifty years, that the manners of these vagrant tribes are
much ameliorated; - that I have known individuals amongst them who have united
themselves to civilised society, and maintain respectable characters, and that a
great alteration has been wrought in their cleanliness and general mode of life.
 
17 In a former volume of this edition of the Waverley Novels (Guy Mannering),
the reader will find some remarks on the gipsies as they are found in Scotland.
But it is well known that this extraordinary variety of the human race exists in
nearly the same primitive state, speaking the same language, in almost all the
kingdoms of Europe, and conforming in certain respects to the manners of the
people around them, but yet remaining separated from them by certain material
distinctions, in which they correspond with each other, and thus maintain their
pretensions to be considered as a distinct race. Their first appearance in
Europe took place in the beginning of the fifteenth century, when various bands
of this singular people appeared in the different countries of Europe. They
claimed an Egyptian descent, and their features attested that they were of
Eastern origin. The account given by these singular people was, that it was
appointed to them, as a penance, to travel for a certain number of years. This
apology was probably selected as being most congenial to the superstitions of
the countries which they visited. Their appearance, however, and manners,
strongly contradicted the allegation that they travelled from any religious
motive.
Their dress and accoutrements were at once showy and squalid; those who acted as
captains and leaders of any horde, and such always appeared as their commanders,
were arrayed in dresses of the most showy colours, such as scarlet or light
green; were well mounted; assumed the title of dukes and counts, and affected
considerable consequence. The rest of the tribe were most miserable in their
diet and apparel, fed without hesitation on animals which had died of disease,
and were clad in filthy and scanty rags, which hardly sufficed for the ordinary
purposes of common decency. Their complexion was positively Eastern, approaching
to that of the Hindoos.
Their manners were as depraved as their appearance was poor and beggarly. The
men were in general thieves, and the women of the most abandoned character. The
few arts which they studied with success, were of a slight and idle, though
ingenious description. They practised working in iron, but never
