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THE GYPSIES 229
bats in a swarm of dancing gnats. They beg; they tell
fortunes; they haggle. They stick to the foreigner
like tenacious street dogs and will not release their
hold until something remains in their mouths.
They have their shearing-grounds in the small
streets of the large cities as well as in every village,
and there they clip donkeys and mules in the most
marvelous patterns. The Andalusian considers this
occupation unclean; but the gypsy has no delicate feel-
ings and is quite content to be well paid for the job.
He will go to the flayer’s pit and will carry off the hides
of dead beasts as well as the best parts of their meat.
He will buy decrepit mares from peasants and sell
them for bull-fights. In addition he is a basket-weaver,
a tanner and often a fine copper-smith. He fashions
keys, donkey-bells and ox-bells and sometimes rises to
the height of manufacturing a wretched counterfeit
money of tin. But he is just as fond of smuggling or
begging; and most of all he loves to steal.
One night a great anchor weighing nearly four thou-
sand pounds disappeared from the quay at Seville.
Knowing their business, the police at once proceeded
to the gypsy quarter of Triana, where they actually
found the anchor, buried several yards under ground,
at the place of a gypsy locksmith, who intended to
make keys of it!
“How on earth did you manage to drag this heavy
anchor all the way out here?” asked the policeman.
“Well, you see, Your Most Infallible Highness,”
answered the gypsy, “I was just taking a walk down
by the shore looking at the moon, when suddenly some-
thing got stuck to the fringes of my pants, and when I
got home and looked at it, it was the anchor.”
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