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The furniture and property of the Gipseys have been already described; they consist of an earthen pot, an iron pan, a spoon, a jug, and a knife; when it happens that every thing is complete, they sometimes add a dish: these serve for the whole family. When the master of the house is a smith by trade, as will be hereafter mentioned, he has a pair of bellows to blow up his fire, a small stone anvil, a pair of tongs, and perhaps a couple of hammers; add to these a few old tatters in which he dresses himself, his knapsack, some pieces of torn bed-clothes, his tent, with his antiquated jade, and you have a complete catalogue of a nomadic Gipsey’s estate.

Very little can be said respecting the domestic employment of the women. The care of their children is the most trifling concern: they neither wash, mend their clothes, nor clean their utensils: they seldom bake: the whole of their business, then, is reduced to—dressing their food and eating it, smoking tobacco, prating, and sleeping. They continue during the whole winter in their hut; but at the first croaking of the frogs, they pull down their house, and decamp.

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