In one of their couplets allusion is made to this occupation in the
following manner:-
'I'll rise to-morrow bread to earn,
For hunger's worn me grim;
Of all I meet I'll ask in turn,
If they've no beasts to trim.'
Sometimes, whilst shearing the foot of a horse, exceedingly small
scissors are necessary for the purpose of removing fine solitary
hairs; for a Spanish groom will tell you that a horse's foot behind
ought to be kept as clean and smooth as the hand of a senora: such
scissors can only be procured at Madrid. My sending two pair of
this kind to a Cordovese Gypsy, from whom I had experienced much
attention whilst in that city, was the occasion of my receiving a
singular epistle from another whom I scarcely knew, and which I
shall insert as being an original Gypsy composition, and in some
points not a little characteristic of the people of whom I am now
writing.
'Cordova, 20th day of January, 1837.
'SENOR DON JORGE,
'After saluting you and hoping that you are well, I proceed to tell
you that the two pair of scissors arrived at this town of Cordova
with him whom you sent them by; but, unfortunately, they were given
to another Gypsy, whom you neither knew nor spoke to nor saw in
your life; for it chanced that he who brought them was a friend of
mine, and he told me that he had brought two pair of scissors which
an Englishman had given him for the Gypsies; whereupon I,
understanding it was yourself, instantly said to him, "Those
scissors are for me"; he told me, however, that he had already
given them to another, and he is a Gypsy who was not even in
Cordova during the time you were.
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