Two classes are free in Hungary to do almost
what they please - the nobility and - the Gypsies; the former are
above the law - the latter below it: a toll is wrung from the
hands of the hard-working labourers, that most meritorious class,
in passing over a bridge, for example at Pesth, which is not
demanded from a well-dressed person - nor from the Czigany, who
have frequently no dress at all - and whose insouciance stands in
striking contrast with the trembling submission of the peasants.
The Gypsy, wherever you find him, is an incomprehensible being, but
nowhere more than in Hungary, where, in the midst of slavery, he is
free, though apparently one step lower than the lowest slave. The
habits of the Hungarian Gypsies are abominable; their hovels appear
sinks of the vilest poverty and filth, their dress is at best rags,
their food frequently the vilest carrion, and occasionally, if
report be true, still worse - on which point, when speaking of the
Spanish Gitanos, we shall have subsequently more to say: thus they
live in filth, in rags, in nakedness, and in merriness of heart,
for nowhere is there more of song and dance than in an Hungarian
Gypsy village.
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