It is
necessary to watch them strictly, as articles frequently disappear
in a mysterious manner whilst Gitanas are telling fortunes. The
bahi, moreover, is occasionally the prelude to a device which we
shall now attempt to describe, and which is called HOKKANO BARO, or
the great trick, of which we have already said something in the
former part of this work. It consists in persuading some credulous
person to deposit whatever money and valuables the party can muster
in a particular spot, under the promise that the deposit will
increase many manifold. Some of our readers will have difficulty
in believing that any people can be found sufficiently credulous to
allow themselves to be duped by a trick of this description, the
grossness of the intended fraud seeming too palpable. Experience,
however, proves the contrary. The deception is frequently
practised at the present day, and not only in Spain but in England
- enlightened England - and in France likewise; an instance being
given in the memoirs of Vidocq, the late celebrated head of the
secret police of Paris, though, in that instance, the perpetrator
of the fraud was not a Gypsy.
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