Читать книгу Dissertation on the Gipseys онлайн

27 страница из 36

We are not to suppose, from what is said above, that the Gipseys are indifferent about dress; on the contrary, they love fine clothes to an extravagant degree: the want proceeds from necessity, which is become with them a second nature, forgetting that labour and care are the means to procure clothes, as well as nourishment. Whenever an opportunity offers of acquiring a good coat, either by gift, purchase, or theft, the Gipsey immediately bestirs himself to become master of it: possessed of the prize, he puts it on directly, without considering in the least, whether it suits the rest of his apparel. If his dirty shirt had holes in it as big as a barn door, or his breeches were so out of condition that one might perceive their antiquity at the first glance; were he unprovided with shoes, stockings, or a covering for the head; neither of these defects would prevent his strutting about in a laced coat, feeling himself of still greater consequence in case it happened to be a red one. Martin Kelpius therefore says, that the Gipseys in Transylvania spend all their earnings in alehouses and in clothes. It would excite laughter in the sternest philosopher, to see a Gipsey parading about, with a beaver hat, a silk or red cloth coat, at the same time his breeches torn, and his shoes or boots, if perchance he have either, covered with patches.

Правообладателям