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On the Dress of the Gipseys.

It cannot be expected that the description of the dress of a set of people whose whole economy belongs to the class of beggars, should exhibit any thing but poverty and want. The first of them that came to Europe appeared ragged and miserable—unless we perhaps allow their leaders to have been an exception;—in like manner their descendants have continued for hundreds of years, and still remain. This is particularly remarkable in the countries about the mouth of the Danube, which abound with Gipseys; namely, Transylvania, Hungary, and Turkey in Europe, where they dress even more negligently than in other parts.

The Gipseys consider a covering for the head as perfectly useless: the wind will not easily blow his hat off, who never wears any thing of the kind, excepting when he has a mind to make a figure, and even then a rough cap usually supplies its place. During the winter, if the female Gipseys do not knit socks, which those in Moldavia and Wallachia do, with wooden needles, he winds a couple of rags round his feet, which in summer are laid aside as unnecessary. He is not better furnished with linen, as the women neither spin, sew, nor wash. For want of change, what he once puts on his body, remains till it falls off of itself. His whole dress often consists of only a pair of breeches and a torn shirt.