Part 7 (1/2)
In about the time he mentioned, a dark, gipsy-looking man looked into the waggon, and spoke to our acquaintance in an unknown language. He replied in the same, and the man disappeared. We continued our route for about a quarter of an hour, when he got out, asked us to follow him, and speaking a few words to the fool, which I did not hear, left him and the boy in the waggon. We paid our fare, took possession of our bundles, and followed our new companion for a few minutes on the cross-road, when he stopped, and said, ”I must now leave you, to prepare for your reception into our fraternity; continue straight on this road until you arrive at a lime-kiln, and wait there till I come.”
He sprang over a stile, and took a direction verging at an angle from the road, forced his way through a hedge, and disappeared from our sight. ”Upon my word, Timothy,” said I, ”I hardly know what to say to this. Have we done right in trusting to this man, who, I am afraid, is a great rogue? I do not much like mixing with these gipsy people, for such I am sure he belongs to.”
”I really, do not see how we can do better,” replied Timothy. ”The world is all before us, and we must force our own way through it. As for his being a quack doctor, I see no great harm in that. People put their faith in nostrums more than they do in regular medicines; and it is well known that quack medicines, as they call them, cure as often as others, merely for that very reason.”
”Very true, Timothy; the mind once at ease, the body soon recovers, and faith, even in quack medicines, will often make people whole; but do you think that he does no more than impose upon people in that way?”
”He may, or he may not; at all events, we need do no more, I suppose.”
”I am not sure of that; however, we shall see. He says we may be useful to him, and I suppose we shall be, or he would not have engaged us--we shall soon find out.”
PART ONE, CHAPTER TEN.
IN WHICH THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO SEVERAL NEW AQUAINTANCES, AND ALL CONNECTED WITH THEM, EXCEPT BIRTH AND PARENTAGE, WHICH APPEARS TO BE THE ONE THING WANTING THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OF THIS WORK.
By this time we had arrived at the lime-kiln to which we had been directed, and we sat down on our bundles, chatting for about five minutes, when our new acquaintance made his appearance, with something in his hand, tied up in a handkerchief.
”You may as well put your coats into your bundles, and put on these frocks,” said he; ”you will appear better among us, and be better received, for there is a _gathering_ now, and some of them are queer customers. However, you have nothing to fear; when once you are with my wife and me, you are quite safe; her little finger would protect you from five hundred.”
”Your wife! who, then, is she?” inquired I, as I put my head through the smock frock.
”She is a great personage among the gipsies. She is, by descent, one of the heads of the tribe, and none dare to disobey her.”
”And you--are you a gipsy?”
”No, and yes. By birth I am not, but by choice, and marriage, I am admitted; but I was not born under a hedge, I can a.s.sure you, although I very often pa.s.s a night there now--that is, when I am domestic; but do not think that you are to remain long here; we shall leave in a few days, and may not meet the tribe again for months, although you may see my own family occasionally. I did not ask you to join me to pa.s.s a gipsy's life--no, no, we must be stirring and active. Come, we are now close to them. Do not speak as you pa.s.s the huts, until you have entered mine. Then you may do as you please.”
We turned short round, pa.s.sed through a gap in the hedge, and found ourselves on a small retired piece of common, which was studded with about twenty or thirty low gipsy huts. The fires were alight and provisions apparently cooking. We pa.s.sed by nine or ten, and obeyed our guide's injunctions to keep silence. At last we stopped, and perceived ourselves to be standing by the fool, who was dressed like us, in a smock frock, and Mr Jumbo, who was very busy making the pot boil, blowing at the sticks underneath till he was black in the face. Several of the men pa.s.sed near us, and examined us with no very pleasant expression of countenance; and we were not sorry to see our conductor, who had gone into the hut, return, followed by a woman, to whom he was speaking in the language of the tribe. ”Nattee bids you welcome,” said he, as she approached.
Never in my life will the remembrance of the first appearance of Nattee, and the effect it had upon me, be erased from my memory. She was tall, too tall, had it not been for the perfect symmetry of her form. Her face of a clear olive, and oval in shape; her eyes jetty black; nose straight, and beautifully formed; mouth small, thin lips, with a slight curl of disdain, and pearly teeth. I never beheld a woman of so commanding a presence. Her feet were bare, but very small, as well as her hands. On her fingers she wore many rings, of a curious old setting, and a piece of gold hung on her forehead, where the hair was parted. She looked at us, touched her high forehead with the ends of her fingers, and waving her hand gracefully, said, in a soft voice, ”You are welcome,” and then turned to her husband, speaking to him in her own language, until by degrees they separated from us in earnest conversation.
She returned to us after a short time, without her husband, and said, in a voice, the notes of which were indeed soft, but the delivery of the words was most determined; ”I have said that you are welcome; sit down, therefore, and share with us--fear nothing, you have no cause to fear.
Be faithful, then, while you serve him; and when you would quit us, say so, and receive your leave to depart; but if you attempt to desert us without permission, then we shall suspect that you are our enemies, and treat you accordingly. There is your lodging while here,” continued she, pointing to another hut. ”There is but one child with you, his boy (pointing to Jumbo), who can lie at your feet. And now join us as friends. Fleta, where are you?”
A soft voice answered from the tent of Nattee, and soon afterwards came out a little girl, of about eleven years old. The appearance of this child was a new source of interest. She was a little fairy figure, with a skin as white as the driven snow--light auburn hair, and large blue eyes; her dress was scanty, and showed a large portion of her taper legs. She hastened to Nattee, and folding her arms across her breast, stood still, saying meekly, ”I am here.”
”Know these as friends, Fleta. Send that lazy Num (this was Philotas, the fool,) for more wood, and see that Jumbo tends the fire.”
Nattee smiled, and left us. I observed she went to where forty or fifty of the tribe were a.s.sembled, in earnest discourse. She took her seat with them, and marked deference was paid to her. In the mean time Jumbo had blown up a brisk fire; we were employed by Fleta in shredding vegetables, which she threw into the boiling kettle. Num appeared with more fuel, and at last there was nothing more to do. Fleta sat down by us, and parting her long hair, which had fallen over her eyes, looked us both in the face.
”Who gave you that name, Fleta?” inquired I.
”They gave it me,” replied she.
”And who are they?”
”Nattee, and Melchior, her husband.”
”But you are not their daughter?”