with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

258
roosts and hedges, lifting lambs from their folds, and
other acts of contribution, are the natural and ex-
pected consequences of their troublesome neighbour-
hood. So much are they noted for petty acts of de-
predation, that the exclamation of an old woman in
Galloway is there treasured up as a phrase of caution.
On the morning after the arrival of the tinker squad,
she was calling her poultry for the purpose of feeding
them;
—
" Chuckle ! chuckle ! chuckle !
—
Ay, kaith ! sae I
may ! Our new-come neebors like feathered flesh owre
weel!'*
These gypsies are an undaunted and vigorous set of
vagrants, lodging, as it suits them, a few days or
weeks in the first empty barn or kiln they can find.
Here they set up their little forges and shops without
the ceremony of asking permission of their oVners.
They were formerly very formidable among the lone-
some cottages, forcibly stealing and pillaging every
thing that fell in their way ; but when the Legislature
disarmed the peasantry, they were compelled to lay
aside their short swords and daggers. They are now
dwindled into little parties, seldom exceeding six or
seven in number, men, women, and children, with a
couple of asses to carry their spoon-making appara-
tus and bartering wares.