Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XI. The Gypsies
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
THE GYPSIES 241
customary to lend her to beggars, and as soon as she
can stand on her legs, she is chased out to go begging
for herself. She is a mother at the age of fifteen or
sixteen, and until she reaches the age of thirty has con-
stantly a little baby with her, for she adds one to the
series each year. At thirty she becomes an old woman
and continues to be an old woman until death at
seventy or eighty. She cleans her black, shining, thin
hair with her finger-nails; she is sloppy and neglected,
crushed by the bearing of children; she has no carriage
and is bow-legged. When a family is traveling and
has only one donkey for the purpose, the man will ride
and the wife will walk alongside with her youngest
child tied to her back in a wide cloth, leading the other
children by the hand. In the eyes of the men she is
the female animal who must be subjected by force even
to the tasks of love. She has no one to admire her
and never tries to distinguish herself in any way. How
different is the Andalusian woman, who, however low
she may be in the social scale, is always an object of
homage in her youth and wears a flower in her hair.
She need never deny herself a bit of coquettishness.
You will find gypsies everywhere in Granada, sing-
ing and playing in the streets, haggling in the market-
place, begging by the church-yard. They sit along the
gutters of the Vivarrambla and offer honey for sale,
singing bawdy songs to attract purchasers. They have
a little junk-market of their own in front of the
Cathedral, where they sell tinware, frightful shining
German chromos and cheap gewgaws of black beads,
such as are laid on graves. At the entrance to the
grove of the Alhambra they stand in groups waiting
for the stranger; they wait for him in front of the
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
