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THE GYPSIES 247
Lions. The spacious Vivarrambla, once the theater of
dazzling Moorish games of chivalry, lay desolate.
But up at one of the corners of the market-place
there was a bustle, and certain old gypsy women with
their honey, their bric-a-brac, their tin vessels, warm-
ing their bluish fingers over braziers of charcoal held
in their laps, emitted shrill tunes from time to time.
They tugged at my ulster as I went by and asked me to
buy. I declined, smiled benevolently the while, but
was none the less made the recipient of a torrent of
abuse: “Ugh, Monsieur, qué feo es! How ugly you
are, ugh!” Repulsive dirty faces grinned from over
their wares and ugly comments pursued me as I walked
on.
In my eagerness to round the corner I stumbled over
the naked wrinkled stump of the leg of a gypsy cripple,
which he had just stuck out into the air to inspire sym-
pathy.
“Hermano, hermano” (brother). “Give me a
shilling for the sake of God’s mercy!”
“Tl give you two shillings if you will cover your
ugly stump with a stocking and not expose it so pub-
licly. You will only provide yourself with pneumonia
and others with a dubious enjoyment.”
“Hombre que si—no doubt you are right, Sir! But
then people will give me nothing.”
“T think they will give you more.”
“No, for then they will not see anything and the
people want to see something for their money. Don’t
people want to see something for their money in your
country? They all look at my leg and then there will
always be one of them who will put his hand into his
pocket. The ladies see it too, but they only look
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