WOMEN 453
mind dwell on the like, sins against God. Is it a Jewish concern ? A townf ul of men who have a God, and reli- gious duties to perform, with reward and punishment, who have that world to prepare for, and a wife and children in this one, people must be mad (of the enemies of Zion be it said!) to stare at the sky, the fields, the river, and all the rest of it things which a man on in years ought to blush to talk about.
No, they are proud of the Pidvorke women, and parade them continually. The Pidvorke women are no more attractive, no taller, no cleverer than others. They, too, bear children and suckle them, one a year, after the good old custom; neither are they more thought of by their husbands. On the contrary, they are the best abused and tormented women going, and herein lies their distinction.
They put up, with the indifference of all women alike, to the belittling to which they are subjected by their husbands ; they swallow their contempt by the mouthful without a reproach, and yet they are exceptions, and yet they are distinguished from all other women, as the rushing waters of the Dnieper from the stagnant pools in the marsh.
About five in the morning, when the men-folk turn in bed, and bury their faces in the white feather pil- lows, emitting at the same time strange, broken sounds through their big, stupid, red noses at this early hour their wives have transacted half-a-day's business in the market-place. Dressed in short, light skirts with blue aprons, over which depends on their left a large leather pocket for the receiving of coin and the giving
