At that time on the morrow, Francisco was on his death-bed. He had
caught the jail fever, which had long raged in the Carcel de la
Corte, where I was imprisoned. In a few days he was buried, a mass
of corruption, in the Campo Santo of Madrid.
CHAPTER V
THE Gitanos, in their habits and manner of life, are much less
cleanly than the Spaniards. The hovels in which they reside
exhibit none of the neatness which is observable in the habitations
of even the poorest of the other race. The floors are unswept, and
abound with filth and mud, and in their persons they are scarcely
less vile. Inattention to cleanliness is a characteristic of the
Gypsies, in all parts of the world.
The Bishop of Forli, as far back as 1422, gives evidence upon this
point, and insinuates that they carried the plague with them; as he
observes that it raged with peculiar violence the year of their
appearance at Forli. (54)
At the present day they are almost equally disgusting, in this
respect, in Hungary, England, and Spain. Amongst the richer
Gitanos, habits of greater cleanliness of course exist than amongst
the poorer. An air of sluttishness, however, pervades their
dwellings, which, to an experienced eye, would sufficiently attest
that the inmates were Gitanos, in the event of their absence.
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