The Egyptians, say they,
were to fall upon the open fields, they were not to be brought
together nor gathered; they were to be dispersed through the
countries, their idols were to be destroyed, and their images were
to cease out of Noph! In what people in the world do these
denunciations appear to be verified save the Gypsies? - a people
who pass their lives in the open fields, who are not gathered
together, who are dispersed through the countries, who have no
idols, no images, nor any fixed or certain religion.
In Spain, the want of religion amongst the Gitanos was speedily
observed, and became quite as notorious as their want of honesty;
they have been styled atheists, heathen idolaters, and Moors. In
the little book of Quinones', we find the subject noticed in the
following manner:-
'They do not understand what kind of thing the church is, and never
enter it but for the purpose of committing sacrilege. They do not
know the prayers; for I examined them myself, males and females,
and they knew them not, or if any, very imperfectly. They never
partake of the Holy Sacraments, and though they marry relations
they procure no dispensations.
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