black abune my brow," which shows that an old maid fares worse there than elsewhere. "In Scotland," writes Kelly, "no woman is suffered to wear a silk hood unless she be a gentlewoman, that is, a gentleman's daughter, or married to a gentleA rich maid having the offer of a wealthy yeoman, or a bare gentleman, wished for the last to qualify her to wear a black hood. It is since spoken to such wealthy maidens upon the like occasion."

man.

Some allowance must be made for old maids if they are proverbially sour and crabby—“ As spiteful as an old maid," as the phrase goes-and apt to speak in a disparaging manner of their younger sisters. Thus, in Scotland and the North of England, one may often hear some prim spinster remark, "Lassies nowadays ort nae creatures "this being, says Jamieson, "the proverbial reflection of an old woman, as signifying that in our times young women are by no means nice in their choice of husbands."

God's

But it only too often happens that the old maid tries to appear juvenile, and hence in Lancashire, when inquiries respecting the health of an absent friend are made, the subjoined couplet is frequently quoted by way of reply

"Quite young and all alive,

Like an old maid of forty-five."

There comes, however, a time when such frolicsome ways have to be abandoned, and then it is said of a woman, when there is no disguising her age, “This maid was born old.”

But, however much old maids may be exposed to undeserved ridicule, many a piece of romance tells how invariably such a fate is due to no fault of their own, as is instanced by the following traditionary tale :--

"Years ago some Welsh miners, in exploring an old pit that had long been closed, found the body of a young man dressed in a fashion long out of date. The peculiar action of the air of the mine had been such as to preserve the body so perfectly that it appeared asleep rather than dead.

"The miners were puzzled at the circumstance; no one in the district had been missed within their remembrance; and at last it was resolved to bring the oldest inhabitant-an old lady, long past her eightieth year, who had lived single in the village the whole of her life. On being brought into the presence of the body, a strange scene occurred; the old lady fell on the corpse, kissed, and addressed it in every term of loving endearment, couched in the quaint language of a bygone generation. 'He was her only love; she had waited for him during her long life; she knew that he had not forsaken her.'

"The old woman and the young man had been betrothed sixty years before. The lover had disappeared mysteriously, and she had kept faithful during that long interval. Time had stood still with the dead man, but had left its mark on the living woman. The miners who were present were a rough set; but very gently, and with tearful eyes, they escorted the old lady to her house,

and the same night her faithful spirit rejoined that of her long-lost lover."

And it must be remembered that, after all the severe judgment which has been passed by cynical proverbial lore on old maids, much has been said in their favour; for, according to a Bengal adage, "A clever woman is not old, though aged, but has the sweet sap of wit in her ;" and a Sinhalese saying reminds us that, whatever its surroundings, and wherever found, " A gem is a gem ;" and yet, according to Hindustani proverbial lore, old maid is a pack of evil.”

I

I See Fallon's "Hindustani Proverbs."

"An

May widows wed as often as they can,
And ever for the better change their man;
And some devouring plague pursue their lives
Who will not well be govern'd by their wives."

WT

DRYDEN'S Wife of Bath.

IDOWS, who have been described in a Chinese proverb as so many rudderless boats, have had at all times the reputation of being dangerous; and proverbial philosophy has been more or less severe on them, an oft-quoted German maxim affirming that " Women lose their husbands, but they worship their bonnets." Hindustani

proverbial lore inculcates much the same lesson : "The husband dead, and she continues to dress. her hair;" and another oft-quoted maxim telling how, "Forgetting the olden time, the widow is bearing a marriage chaplet," in other words, making a display of herself, and which, we are told, in a wider sense, is commonly applied to those who in prosperity have forgotten the mean

ness of their origin. On the other hand, the widows who frequently make the greatest display of sorrow are said to be those who are indifferent to their husband's happiness when alive, a fact which is noticed even in a Marathi proverb: "While he was alive she was not affectionate, now he is dead she breaks her necklaces and bangles"; and another Marathi proverb warns us that for a new husband a woman's love lasts nine days, and for a dead one only three days. According to Charles Mackay, in his "Safe Predictions".

"Whene'er you see a widow weeping
In public sight,

And still in flagrant notice keeping
Her doleful plight,

Aye talking of her dear departed;
One truth is plain,

She will not languish broken-hearted,
But wed again";

for, as the Spanish proverb says, "A buxom widow must be either married, buried, or shut up in a convent;" and, as the Marathi adage adds, "Neither hair nor anything yet a widow is attractive." In an old piece of proverbial wisdom a man is strictly enjoined to keep himself "from the anger of a great man, from the tumult of a mob, from a man of ill fame, from a widow that has been thrice married, from wind that cometh in at a hole, and from a reconciled enemy; and an old Chinese proverb warns us how "Slanders

cluster round a widow's door."

I See S. W. Fallon's "Hindustani Proverbs."