There was not much writing, but many singular diagrams, and signs arranged in circles.

It was, in fact, a book of magic, written at the dictation, as the preface stated, of one who had been for seven years a slave among the Romany.
He had been captured, and forced to work for the tent to which his owners belonged.

He had witnessed their worship and their sorceries; he had seen the sacrifice to the full moon, their chief goddess, and the wild extravagances with which it was accompanied.

He had learnt some few of their signs, and, upon escaping, had reproduced them from memory.
Some were engraved on the stones set in their rings; some were carved on wooden tablets, some drawn with ink on parchment; but, with all, their procedure seemed to be the repetition of certain verses, and then a steady gaze upon the picture.

Presently they became filled with rapture, uttered what sounded as the wildest ravings, and (their women especially) prophesied of the future.
A few of the signs he understood the meaning of, but the others he owned were unknown to him.