Nevertheless, I repeat that I am inclined to believe that Gypsies
virtually exist in Barbary, and my reasons I shall presently
adduce; but I will here observe, that if these strange outcasts did
indeed contrive to penetrate into the heart of that savage and
inhospitable region, they could only have succeeded after having
become well acquainted with the Moorish language, and when, after a
considerable sojourn on the coast, they had raised for themselves a
name, and were regarded with superstitious fear; in a word, if they
walked this land of peril untouched and unscathed, it was not that
they were considered as harmless and inoffensive people, which,
indeed, would not have protected them, and which assuredly they
were not; it was not that they were mistaken for wandering Moors
and Bedouins, from whom they differed in feature and complexion,
but because, wherever they went, they were dreaded as the
possessors of supernatural powers, and as mighty sorcerers.
There is in Barbary more than one sect of wanderers, which, to the
cursory observer, might easily appear, and perhaps have appeared,
in the right of legitimate Gypsies. For example, there are the
Beni Aros.
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