In Andalusia the Gitano has been studied by those who, for various
reasons, have mingled with the Gitanos. It is tolerably well
understood by the chalans, or jockeys, who have picked up many
words in the fairs and market-places which the former frequent. It
has, however, been cultivated to a greater degree by other
individuals, who have sought the society of the Gitanos from a zest
for their habits, their dances, and their songs; and such
individuals have belonged to all classes, amongst them have been
noblemen and members of the priestly order.
Perhaps no people in Andalusia have been more addicted in general
to the acquaintance of the Gitanos than the friars, and pre-
eminently amongst these the half-jockey half-religious personages
of the Cartujan convent at Xeres. This community, now suppressed,
was, as is well known, in possession of a celebrated breed of
horses, which fed in the pastures of the convent, and from which
they derived no inconsiderable part of their revenue. These
reverend gentlemen seem to have been much better versed in the
points of a horse than in points of theology, and to have
understood thieves' slang and Gitano far better than the language
of the Vulgate.
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