SECOND PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 921, 24 July 1869, Page 20

SECOND PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

THE COMPRAOHICOS.

Tub Comprachicos were a hideous and nondescript Association of Wanderers, famous in tho 17th Century, forgotten in 18th, and unknown in the 19th. They belonged to tho colossal fact of slavery. Joseph sold by his brethren is a chapter in their history, for the Comprachicos or Comprapequonos traded in children ; they did not steal, but bought and sold them, and made of them monsters to laugh at The mountebank was wanted in the street, tho poster at the Louvre. It was necessary, in order that tho human toy nhould suocood, that ho should be taken young, and thus sprung up this trade in ohildron. The 17th Century carried on this trado to a large oxtent Flattering historians have concealed the sore, but have divulged the remedy, Vincent do Paul. But a well formed ohild although interesting, is not diverting ; a hunchback Li better fun. Htnoo tho art and mystery of oxea,ting

abortion; There,w^ the'tfiuniap'Vclayt .asTtho »m6dette^l^eadß\; that of.^his figures! > -They took; aiace and <*, made a muzzle ;' they took 'symmetry and „ made deformity;*'* ■ ",. -, jV" 1 " M . ■ " ."-" - ; "Where -Gcfd had put a'look'thdy, mad© , a squint; where God had put ; harmony they made discord ; where God Had made a perfect picture they re-established a smear, and in^ the eyes of pedantic cohnoisßeurs, it „was the smear which was . perfect. It was quite a science ; what one can imagine as the antithesis of orthopedy^ But they also debased animals;, they invented piebald . horses.- Do they not now-a-days dye dogs blue and green ? Nature is our canvas, and man re- touches God's work, sometimes for better, -sometimeß for woree. The Court buffoon was » an attempt to lead man back to the monkey, but it was progress the wrongway* This fabrication of monsters was practised on a large scale, and comprised various species. , , The Sultan required them, so did the Pope ; the one to guard his women, the other t6'sing his prayers. They were of a peculiar kind, incapable of re-produc-tion. The Seraglio and the Sistine Chapel utilised the same kind of monsters ; useful to voluptuousness and religion, fierce in the former, mild in the latter. But the vivisection of former days was not limited to the manufacture of dwarfs, hunchbacks, buffoons, and eunuchs. It abounded in varieties, and one of its triumphs was the manufacture of watchmen for the Kings of England, who crowed like cocks. These men, so promoted, had, in childhood, undergone the operation of the pharynx, part of this art of pseudo-Burgery described by Dr. Oonquest, Member of the Amen St. College. Under Charles 11. the salivation, inseparable from the operation, disgusted the Duchess of Portsmouth, and they got an unmutilated man to represent the cock. Under James 11. the functionary was named William Sampson, cock, and received £9 2s. 6d. annually for his crow. (Chamberlayne's Work on " The present state of England," Chapter 13.) As we have explained, the commerce in children in the 17th century was carried on by the Comprachicos, who bought children, worked on the raw material, and re-sold them at a profit. These traders were also called Cheylas, a Hindoo I word, conveying the image of harrying a nest.

Under the Stuarts, the Comprachicos were by no moans in bad odour at Court. Occasionally, when it was necessary to dismember a family, to cut short a descent, to suppress an heir, they were used for reasons of state. They had a genius for disfiguration which recommended them to state policy, for to disfigure successfully is better than to kill. There was, indeed, the iron mask, but then you could not people Europe with people wearing iron masks, while deformed buffoons oould run about without exciting surprise or more, suspicion. Besides, the mask of flesh cannot be removed, and these Comprachicoa were ingenious artists. They worked on man as the Chinese work on trees. They unmarked a child as one would unm'ark a pocket-handkerchief. Products intended for gymnasts had their joints dislocated in a masterly manner — you would have said they had been boned. But not only did the Comprachicos take away his face from the child, they also took away his memory. At least they took away all they could of it ; the child had no conciousness of the mutilation to which he had been subjected. The frightful surgery left its traces on his countenanco, but not on his mind. By means of a stupifying powder, known from time immemorial in China, and still employed there, all pain was Bupprossed. The Chinese have been beforehand with us in everything, printing, artillery, aerostation, chloroform. Only the discovery which in Europe at once takes life remains a chrysalis in China. China is a museum of embryos. Tho Compraohicos lived a nomad life, but they wore grave and religious. They did not cheat, they did not steal. They were, whatever you may think of thorn, honost folk, sometimes sincerely scrupulous. They entered a house, Wjainod for a child, paid, and departed. All with tho moat punctilious propriety, you observe.

Under this name of Comprachicos fratornisod English, French, CastilianSj Germans, Italians. Unity of idea, unity of Bupontition, unity of intorest, causes suoh fusions. Swarms of Basques conversed with swarms of Irishmen, both speak tho old Punio jargon. The fellowship oonsisted of the riff-raff of th© Universo, with a crime for a trade, and tho law of whose oxistonce was to wander. Whnt is only tolerated cannot take root, and they were barely tolerated. Kings mado me of their art, and often sent them to tho Galleys. Bnt then such inconsistencies belong to the ebb and flow of royal caprice, " For such is our pleasure." A lolling atone and a roving trade gather no mots, and to the Gomprachlooi were poor, It U poulblt, nay probable,

thelrchiGfaretnahiingunVriovm. that the wholesale oontractprs in the traaef became rioh. '/'l^, > ' '"' uKH,-', itf^w' i" I f i j ) „ These^agabonds had. appointed places for perfeSdical nieetingjij iwhioh .their leaders conferredHogethei* \ In;ji;he 17 th century they had] iourpnncipalrpoints of rendezvous. Ofre\in Jsp4n> $9 jpaßß °* Pancorbo j one &in "^Gjerraany^thip glade called the Wicked W6manj!neoir.Di l ekirsh ; one in France, '%c, Jb#l f where;;jwas -the Colossal Statue of Masaue la. Prqinesae in the old 1 sacfed r wobcl.ofrJßtorv.o Tomona, near Bourbonne i lea v Baina ; aiid | one ia England, behind • the; garden,. wall of William Challoner, Squire of Gisborough in Cleveland, Yorkshire, behind..the square tower and the great wing which is entered by an arched door. " ," "" ' h , ; ' The laws against vagabonds have always been very rigorous in England..', j She, ia her police legisMion, "seemed to have been inspired with the principle,' Homo «rrant ferra ep-dnte pejor. JSngllsh. law, nevertheless, in the same way as i|; tolerr nted the wolf, tamed, domesticated, and become, ia some, sort, a dog, tolerated, the the tame Vagabond, become, in some sort, a subject. It winked at the mountebank, the travelling barber, the quack doctor, the pedlar, the open-air sohola'r, any one who had a trade to live by. Biit a tramp was a possible publio. enemy., That modern institution, the lounger, or the loafer, was then unknown ; that ancient thing, the vagrant, alone was understood. And for him who could not answer satisfactorily " Where do you live ? How do you get a living V iron and fire were in the code ; the law oauterised vagrancy. The Oomprachioos, though nomads, had nothing in common with the Gipsies. The Gipsies were a tribe, the Oompraohicos <a freemasonry — a masonry not having, a noble aim, but a hideous handicraft. The Gipsies were Pagans, the Oomprochicos were Christians, more than that, Catholics, more than Catholics, they were Romans, and so devout in their faith that they refused to associate with the Hungarian (Nomads of Pesth, who were schismatics, to the extent of celebrating the assumption of the 29th of AugUßt, which is an abomination. James 11. of England, a devout man, who persecuted the Jews, and stamped out the Gipsies, was a good prince to the Oomprachicos. Let us see why. They were buyers of the human ware in which he was a dealer. They were excellent at disappearances, and disappearances were occasionally necessary for the good of the State. An inoonvenient heir of tender age, whom they took and handled, lost his shape. This facilitated confiscation, tiie transfer of titles to favorites was simplified. They were also very discreet, and very taciturn. Moreover, they furnished singers for the Holy Father, and James 11. could not therefore be' hostile to them. In 1688 there was a change of dynasty !n England, however, and William of Orange having neither the same ideas nor practices as James, was severe to the Oompraohicos. He did his best to orush out the vermin. A statute was passed which hit them hard. By it those of this gang taken and convioted were branded with a red hot iron— R on the shoulder^ signifying rogue ; on the left hand, T, signifying thief ; and on the right hand, M, signifying man-skyer. The ohiefa were punished in the pillory, and branded on the forehead with a P, besides having their properties comfiscated, and the trees in their woods rooted up. Women found amongst these men were to suffer the Oucking stool — a chair was suspended over a river or pond, the woman seated in it, and the chair and woman dropt into the water and then pulled out, three times. Those who did not inform against the Oompraohicos were punished with confiscation and imprisonment, as for the crime of mispriaion.

(To ht continutd.)