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Women were taught early on how to perform in order to sponge their prospective customers. Flora Thompson (as quoted in Gypsy-travelers in the nineteenth-century society) explains this in the text Lark Rise to Candleford. She explains that when a gypsy went hawking door to door, and assuming that the housewife appeared under forty, the gypsy would ask if her mother was at home. No matter how often the flattery was repeated, it was wholly accepted and sparked long conversations between the housewife and the gypsy.
After spending some time with the housewife, some of the gypsies would offer to tell fortunes. Gypsies used different methods for telling fortunes. In Western Europe fortune telling was usually done by palm reading, while in Eastern Europe coffee beans were used (Kenrick, 1998). Although few gypsy women practice fortune telling, it was possibly important in providing a first or second income for those families who pursue this profession, and stories are told of friends traveling together to visit a gypsy who would tell their fortunes.
The belief that gypsy women possessed magical powers that enabled them to see the future was common among the superstitious. This impression was further enhanced if the gypsy dressed for the part by wearing colorful scarves and droopy earrings, was old, ugly and had the appearance of a wild-eyed hag (Mayall, 1988).
Christina E. Wells
Copyright © 2003 by University of North Texas. All rights reserved.
Revised: 04 Dec 2003 09:59:30 -0600
Gypsy Belly Dancer
Gypsy Palm Reader
Gypsy Fortune Teller