Читать книгу Dissertation on the Gipseys онлайн

24 страница из 36

To eat with a knife and fork, is no part of a Gipsey’s politeness; nor is a table or plate thought necessary: even a dish is frequently dispensed with. The whole kitchen and table apparatus consists of an earthen pot, an iron pan (which is also used as a dish), a knife, and a spoon. When the meal is ready, all the family sit around the pot or pan, the boiled or roast is divided into pieces, on which they fall-to; their teeth and fingers serving them for knives and forks, as does the ground for table and plates.

The common beverage of the Gipseys is water; now and then beer, when it costs them nothing. Wine is too expensive, nor is it particularly grateful to them. The case is very different when brandy comes in question, of which they are immoderately fond. They feel great pleasure in intoxicating themselves; which being easiest and soonest effected with brandy, it is in their esteem the only liquor worth purchasing: all they can earn goes that way: and whenever by chance they become possessed of a penny, it is expended at the first house where brandy is to be met with. Every christening, wedding, or other occasion of rejoicing, is solemnised with brandy: if they have plenty of it, they, as it were, drive the world before them; each trying, by screaming or holloing, to express his felicity and consummate happiness.