Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-01

ment | had ever anywhere beheld.
Strictly speaking, it could not be called
an encampment, for, while NUMBER Oh
patched tents and rude wooden cabins
could be seem the Gypsy village, with ali
its uncouth scenes occupied the site of an
abandoned pueblo, in which perhaps 2OU
ruinous structures were still standing.
These were very ancient. Many were
utterly uninhabitable, roofs or portions
of the walls having fallen in; but against
the remaining walls of such most COM
Portable temporary huts had been built.
Some of these were curious indeed. Loose
stones had been formed into end-walls
running at sharp angle from the |
ground up against the old slde
walls still standing. The roof was
composed of skins or coarse cloth, |
running from the ground to the peaks
| Of the temporary walls; and the en-
frances to such were invariably from
| within the ruined olden habitation.
| Others were formed by the stones and
| mortar of ruin falling down on all
sides, thus snugly protecting some single
| apartment. Most curious and suggestive
of all, limiting to one s fancy common
| instinct between these wanderers from
| Hindoostan and the earliest hOusebuilders
among the Celts of Western Europe,
| were seven huts, exact duplicates or the
| beehive cells of Brittany, Cornwall anu
! Ireland, of such extraordinary interest
to arch@ologists. These had been bullt
of the lighter and thinner stones, in hor-
! izontal LAYERS, each one slightly lnwardly
overlapping the lower one, and
forming dome-shaped structure
with d hole in the top and a small door,
which invariably faced the east. The
latter is custom with all Glpsles, Tor
which they will, OF can, give no reason
though it undoubtedly is q lingering
proof of their earlier worship of the sun.
Some of the more important members or
the band, the ''prominent citizens as
it were, occupied structures which were
still habitable to Gipsies, after slight
pothering and mending; but the chief OF
the tribe, Pancho Tomas, and three or
four of his sons and daughters families
were residing in much composure and
comfort in the still firmly standing range
of cloisters from which the once capac-
ious church of the mountain town had as
completely fallen away and disappeared
as though it had never existed. The
secret of
THE DISCRETION OF THE PUEBLO
by its native inhabitants lay in the fact
/ that sometime within the past century or
two the place had been so thoroughly
shaken bv one of the earthquakes which
5 now and then thunder along the Riviera
2 that the simple souls who lived within it
/ had incontinently fed, never to return L.
Its present occupation by from three to
f four hundred Of the GitanI, was simply
an example Of clever thrift under the
new order of things among the Gipsies OF
Snain. where thieves have become honest
traders rather than, as among our klnd
u of folk, honest traders becoming COM
Il mercial thieves.
T The spot was one Of the most pictur-
: esoue | have found i'll Spain. A noun
tain valley of perhaps twenty square
miles in area a thousand feet above the
# sea was protected from northern wind'
n Inv mountain wall behind, reaching
. another thousand feet above, whose
horizon edge was as straight and blue a.
: a level ridge of steel. Back to the west
J, bevond the white houses of GranadliIa
L were numberless Hastings of the sinuou
n Fbro, with countless pueblOs peepln!
from hilIy nests beyond. To the cas-
st rose the Jagged hills of Montblanch, TIT
l. peaks of Montagui, and, far beyond, tn
y castellated heights of sacred Montserrat
Sc To the south lay. in descending hollow
se dotted with smiling villages, the fruitful
Of valleys of TarragOna; and beyond, unde
es q skv of indefinite depth and almos
rs palpabIe azure, was spread the vas
" emerald-blue waters of the gloriou
ne Mediterranean.
IS 'sIt is not too good for us, brother!
)t half asked, half asserted Pancno TOMAS
sc as we wandered among his people an
'. herds; for there were more horses tina
of men, more donkeys than women, IN
=, more COWS than children, belonging I
q these Glpsies, grazing within the valley
,ss cropDiug the short grass upon the noun
Ill tain side or tethered about the villag
ID undergoing the refurbishing arts so we
re known among these people. ! estimate
as that there were fully 800 head of anima
re gathered here The lot were worth frol
o. twelve to fifteen thousand dollars wheI
they stood; from eighteen to TWEEN
o. Thousand dollars in the markets of Mao
p rid and Barcelona. They represented c
y an outlay of less than six thousand do
in lars, the acquisitions OF one SPANS
an Gipsy band during the winter throug
as easter old CASTLE, the Basque province
X aud part of Catalonia.
IS, I vii not dwell upon my own deligh
is, fuI experiences among these tawny foil
n their surprise. pleasure and attectiC
re- on finding in FL Americana one who cou
rec sneak in their own secret tongue ana tt
cry them such wondrous and true tales
ing their rich brethren in the far Eldora'
W. across the sea; my loiterings among Il
Ems poorer detached families whose pride
pa, / nv little attentions knew no bounds; I
ian hours with the esquiladors or, in Gyps
the the monrabaros, who will with th'
err cachas, or SCISSORS, so deftly clip a
ave trim the hair of animals; the lingerin
It's, among herreros or blacksmiths, W
lost with Their charcoal urns for FORCES W
ret turn out marvels of horse-shoes, M
,le. and all needed implements: or those st
i'm more enchanting evenings when the e
,wn tire village was transformed into
en- A SCENE OF INNOCENT REvEL
,,Un and dancing, where hundreds of we
but figures in the half-lights and shade
'ver glided airlly in the sensuous balero
and leaped and pounded the ancient str
n0' in the registering zapotea; but brie
give such facts concerning the r
aonsitiou of SDanish GipsIes of too