Working in iron was an occupation strictly forbidden to the Gitanos
by the ancient laws, on what account does not exactly appear;
though, perhaps, the trade of the smith was considered as too much
akin to that of the chalan to be permitted to them. The Gypsy
smith of Granada is still a chalan, even as his brother in England
is a jockey and tinker alternately.
Whilst speaking of the Gitanos of Granada, we cannot pass by in
silence a tragedy which occurred in this town amongst them, some
fifteen years ago, and the details of which are known to every
Gitano in Spain, from Catalonia to Estremadura. We allude to the
murder of Pindamonas by Pepe Conde. Both these individuals were
Gitanos; the latter was a celebrated contrabandista, of whom many
remarkable tales are told. On one occasion, having committed some
enormous crime, he fled over to Barbary and turned Moor, and was
employed by the Moorish emperor in his wars, in company with the
other renegade Spaniards, whose grand depot or presidio is the town
of Agurey in the kingdom of Fez. After the lapse of some years,
when his crime was nearly forgotten, he returned to Granada, where
he followed his old occupations of contrabandista and chalan.
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