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Benko, also, assures us, that this kind of state is common in Transylvania; and adds, the Gipseys are particularly fond of clothes made after the Hungarian fashion, or which had been worn by people of distinction. The habits and properties of the Gipseys in Hungary are precisely the same. The following passage, which appeared in the Imperial Gazettes, is very much to the purpose: “Notwithstanding these people are so wretched, that they have nothing but rags to cover them, which do not at all fit, and are scarcely sufficient to hide their nakedness, yet they betray their foolish taste and vain ostentation whenever they have an opportunity.”

In Transylvania, some of them wear the Wallachian dress; but in Hungary they are so attached to the habits of the country, that a Gipsey had rather go half naked, or wrap himself up in a sack, than he would condescend to wear a foreign garb, even though a very good one were given to him. Green is a favourite colour with the Gipseys; but scarlet is held in so great esteem by them, that a man cannot appear abroad in a red habit, though worn out, without being surrounded by a crowd old and young, who, in the open street, are solicitous to purchase of him, be it coat, pellisse, or breeches. Unless severely pinched by the cold, or in case of the greatest necessity, they will not deign to put on a boor’s coat: they rather choose to buy for their own use cast-off clothes; and if they happen to be ornamented with lace or loops, they strut about in such dresses, as proudly as if they were not merely lords of the district, but of the whole creation. Thus all the money they can spare, is expended in obtaining a sort of clothes not at all becoming their station, and which answer no other purpose, but to betray their weak silly notions, and expose them to the ridicule of the more sensible part of mankind. They do not pay the least regard to symmetry, nor care what reasonable people think of their dress: provided they can only get something shining to put on, that will catch the eye, they give themselves no concern if the rest of their clothing be very bad, or though they be nearly in a state of nudity. It is no uncommon spectacle to see a Gipsey parading the streets in an embroidered pellisse, or laced coat decorated with silver buttons, with a dirty ragged shirt, barefooted, and without a hat; or with a pair of embroidered scarlet breeches on, and perhaps no other covering but half a shirt.