It is one thing to be a procuress, and
another to be a harlot, though the former has assuredly no reason
to complain if she be confounded with the latter. 'The Gitanas,'
says Doctor Sancho de Moncada, in his discourse concerning the
Gypsies, which I shall presently lay before the reader, 'are public
harlots, common, as it is said, to all the Gitanos, and with
dances, demeanour, and filthy songs, are the cause of infinite harm
to the souls of the vassals of your Majesty (Philip III.), as it is
notorious what infinite harm they have caused in many honourable
houses. The married women whom they have separated from their
husbands, and the maidens whom they have perverted; and finally, in
the best of these Gitanas, any one may recognise all the signs of a
harlot given by the wise king: "they are gadders about,
whisperers, always unquiet in the places and corners."' (28)
The author of Alonso, (29) he who of all the old Spanish writers
has written most graphically concerning the Gitanos, and I believe
with most correctness, puts the following account of the Gitanas,
and their fortune-telling practices, into the entertaining mouth of
his hero:-
'O how many times did these Gitanas carry me along with them, for
being, after all, women, even they have their fears, and were glad
of me as a protector: and so they went through the neighbouring
villages, and entered the houses a-begging, giving to understand
thereby their poverty and necessity, and then they would call aside
the girls, in order to tell them the buena ventura, and the young
fellows the good luck which they were to enjoy, never failing in
the first place to ask for a cuarto or real, in order to make the
sign of the cross; and with these flattering words, they got as
much as they could, although, it is true, not much in money, as
their harvest in that article was generally slight; but enough in
bacon to afford subsistence to their husbands and bantlings.
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