It is, however, certain, that the gypsy servants can neither be kept in proper order without punishment, nor be made to go through any long work without the stimulus of stripes. The private owners have not the power of death over them; but it has happened sometimes, that some unfortunate wretch has been beaten to death, and neither the government nor the public took notice of the circumstance.
It is under the care of these depraved servants, that the children of Boyars are brought up. The women of the higher ranks not being in the habit of nursing their infants, place them in the hands of gypsy wet-nurses, whose mode of life exposes them incessantly to diseases which must prove most prejudicial to the quality of their milk, and whose bad nourishment and dirty habits, must otherwise affect the constitution of the children.
Notwithstanding that the gypsies form here so necessary a part of the community, they are held in the greatest contempt by the other inhabitants, who, indeed, treat them little better than brutes; and the insulting epithet of ‘thief,’ or any equivalent, would sooner be put up with than that of ‘gypsy.’
The public executioners for any kind of punishment are chosen from that class alone; but as their office is merely momentary, the unfortunate beings condemned always suffer considerably more from their inexperience and incapacity.
The Wallachian and Moldavian gypsies speak the language of the country; but those who lead a wandering life use, amongst themselves, a peculiar jargon composed of a corruption of Bulgarian, Servian, and Hungarian words, mixed with some Turkish. Its pronunciation, however, sounds so much like that of the Hungarian tongue, that a person accustomed to hear both without understanding either, is apt to mistake the one for the other.
Their quality of slaves is acknowledged by the surrounding nations; and those who abscond to them are restored when claimed as private property. Desertions, however, are not frequent; and when they do take place, the fugitives take such precautions as to prevent the place of their concealment being discovered.
CHAPTER IX.
INTERCOURSE OF FOREIGNERS.—FOREIGN CONSULS.—HOW FAR THE NATIVES ARE BENEFITED BY THEIR INTERCOURSE WITH FOREIGN RESIDENTS.
A considerable number of foreign Europeans reside in both principalities, where they are attracted by a variety of resources.
The principal merchants and bankers, either from birthright or from foreign naturalisation, carry on their business under the immediate protection of European courts; without which the general system of the local governments, so prejudicial to the interests of trade, would give but little security to their operations.
There are at both capitals several German and French coachmakers, carpenters, builders, architects, teachers of European languages and music, physicians, and apothecaries, all of whom have rendered themselves extremely useful to the native inhabitants, and derive no small profit from the exercise of their respective professions. Almost all the importers of foreign furniture, luxuries in ladies’ apparel and other kinds of retail trade, undertakers of subscription-clubs, and of coffee-houses of the better sort, ladies’ shoemakers, mantuamakers, and taylors, are also European foreigners.