From this practice, when they are not
detected, they derive considerable advantage. Poisoning cattle is
exercised by them in two ways: by one, they merely cause disease
in the animals, with the view of receiving money for curing them
upon offering their services; the poison is generally administered
by powders cast at night into the mangers of the animals: this way
is only practised upon the larger cattle, such as horses and cows.
By the other, which they practise chiefly on swine, speedy death is
almost invariably produced, the drug administered being of a highly
intoxicating nature, and affecting the brain. They then apply at
the house or farm where the disaster has occurred for the carcase
of the animal, which is generally given them without suspicion, and
then they feast on the flesh, which is not injured by the poison,
which only affects the head.
The English Gypsies are constant attendants at the racecourse; what
jockey is not? Perhaps jockeyism originated with them, and even
racing, at least in England. Jockeyism properly implies THE
MANAGEMENT OF A WHIP, and the word jockey is neither more nor less
than the term slightly modified, by which they designate the
formidable whips which they usually carry, and which are at present
in general use amongst horse-traffickers, under the title of jockey
whips.
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