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On their Food and Beverage.

Those Gipseys who are more connected with civilised people are not remarkable in their diet; though it is to be observed of them, that they are by no means particular in their cookery. The others, on the contrary, have their table furnished in a very irregular and extraordinary way. Sometimes they fast, or at best have only bread and water to subsist upon: at other times they regale on fowls and geese. The greatest luxury to them is, when they can procure a roast of cattle that have died of any distemper. It is the same to them, whether it be the carrion of a sheep, hog, cow, or other beast, horse-flesh only excepted: they are so far from being disgusted with it, that to eat their fill of such a meal is to them the height of epicurism. When any person censures their taste, or shews surprise at it, they answer, “The flesh of a beast which God kills, must be better than that of one killed by the hand of man:” they therefore embrace every opportunity of getting such dainties. That they take carrion from the laystalls, as is affirmed of the Gipseys in Hungary, is not probable, any more than that they eat horse flesh. But if a beast out of a herd die, and they find it before it become rotten and putrefied; or if a farmer give them notice of a cow dead in the stable; they proceed, without hesitation, to get possession of the booty. They are particularly fond of animals that have been destroyed by fire; therefore, whenever a conflagration has happened, either in town or country, the next day the Gipseys, from every neighbouring quarter, assemble, and draw the suffocated, half consumed, beasts out of the ashes. Men, women, and children, in troops, are extremely busy, joyfully carrying the flesh home to their dwellings: they return several times, provide themselves plentifully with this roast meat, and gluttonise in their huts as long as their noble fare lasts. Their manner of dressing this delicious food is curious:—they boil or roast what is intended for the first day; if they have more than they can devour at once, the remainder is either dried in the sun, or smoked in their huts, and eaten without any further preparation.