Like most people of savage ancestry, their teeth are white and
strong; their mouths are not badly formed, but it is in the eye
more than in any other feature that they differ from other human
beings.
There is something remarkable in the eye of the Gitano: should his
hair and complexion become fair as those of the Swede or the Finn,
and his jockey gait as grave and ceremonious as that of the native
of Old Castile, were he dressed like a king, a priest, or a
warrior, still would the Gitano be detected by his eye, should it
continue unchanged. The Jew is known by his eye, but then in the
Jew that feature is peculiarly small; the Chinese has a remarkable
eye, but then the eye of the Chinese is oblong, and even with the
face, which is flat; but the eye of the Gitano is neither large nor
small, and exhibits no marked difference in its shape from the eyes
of the common cast. Its peculiarity consists chiefly in a strange
staring expression, which to be understood must be seen, and in a
thin glaze, which steals over it when in repose, and seems to emit
phosphoric light. That the Gypsy eye has sometimes a peculiar
effect, we learn from the following stanza:-
'A Gypsy stripling's glossy eye
Has pierced my bosom's core,
A feat no eye beneath the sky
Could e'er effect before.
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