These their fautors were of all ranks and
grades, from the corregidor of noble blood to the low and obscure
escribano; and from the viceroy of the province to the archer of
the Hermandad.
To the high and noble, they were known as Chalanes, and to the
plebeian functionaries, as people who, notwithstanding their
general poverty, could pay for protection.
A law was even enacted against these protectors of the Gitanos,
which of course failed, as the execution of the law was confided to
the very delinquents against whom it was directed. Thus, the
Gitano bought, sold, and exchanged animals openly, though he
subjected himself to the penalty of death by so doing, or left his
habitation when he thought fit, though such an act, by the law of
the land, was punishable with the galleys.
In one of their songs they have commemorated the impunity with
which they wandered about. The escribano, to whom the Gitanos of
the neighbourhood pay contribution, on a strange Gypsy being
brought before him, instantly orders him to be liberated, assigning
as a reason that he is no Gitano, but a legitimate Spaniard:-
'I left my house, and walked about
They seized me fast, and bound:
It is a Gypsy thief, they shout,
The Spaniards here have found.
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