Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society - 1915-1916 #270899

Bulgarians, the lords of the land, might be expected to know something more concerning the Gypsies, who are, after all, in Bulgaria, numerically no negligible quantity. Such is, however, not the case. To them every Gypsy man is just a gypsy, a dirty scoundrel, while every Gypsy woman is the fitting subject for some coarse joke. At the best some lawyer may give you a belated copy of a futile bye-law, which never interested any one save perhaps its author, and has remained a dead letter since its unfortunate birth. I would add that the Bulgarians' ignorance on this subject is only surpassed by their inability to understand that there is anything in it worth learning. I should not deem it necessary to mention these things but for the tendency, in England, to rely implicitly upon information Obtained from persons on the spot,' who are therefore considered to be qualified to report upon the most puzzling questions.