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Webster, in his "White Devil" (1612, act iv. sc. 4), had the same proverb in mind when he made Flamineo say :

Why do kick her, say
you

?

Do you think that she's like a walnut tree?

Must she be cudgell'd ere she bear good fruit ?"

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And at the present day the Italians are wont to affirm, "Women, asses, and nuts require rough hands; with which may be compared the Chinese adage, "Nothing will frighten a wilful wife but a beating.' Such chastisement women was really carried into effect in the socalled days of chivalry, as may be inferred from the precepts of the knightly orders which directed that ladies should be treated respectfully and tenderly. And yet, on the other hand, as it has been pointed out, "the social annals of our Anglo-Saxon period comprise revolting stories of the barbarity of mistresses to their slaves; and in later times the lady of a castle or manorial seat was accustomed to rule her children and domestics with a severity surpassing that of the lord whom she obeyed with fear." But happily woman no longer lives under the lash as in the days of long ago, and, no matter how bad her character may be-

"The man who lays his hand upon a woman,
Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch,

Whom 'twere gross flattery to name a coward.”

Indeed, he would be a bold man who, nowadays, would think to follow out with impunity the spirit of the old proverbial philosophy, and, under

the impression that he was making his wife a good woman, put into practice the following admonition :-

“The crab of the wood is sauce very good

For the crab of the sea;

But the wood of the crab is sauce for a drab
That will not her husband obey."

The same idea is embodied in numerous other items of proverbial lore, such as "A ship and a woman want always trimming;" or, as another version has it, "Women are ships and must be manned." But this apparently does not always answer, for, as an old folk-rhyme reminds us :

"To talk well with some women doth as much good As a sick man to eat up a load of greenwood."

And, à propos of the subject, we may quote the case of the young girl who, on receiving an offer of marriage which she wished to accept, submitted the matter to her father, who advised her against matrimony, using as an argument St. Paul's words, "They who marry do well; but they who do not, do better.' "Well," replied the damsel, "I love to do well; let those do better who can."

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The Scotch would appear to be more gallant in their opinion of the fair sex, if we can place reliance on the following adage :

"A' are gude lasses, but where do the ill wives come frae?

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-a saying which has its equivalent in Spain, where there is a proverb, "All are good maids, but whence come the bad wives?"

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Even the good woman is warned against the contaminating influence of her own sex, for, as an Eastern piece of proverbial lore tells us, "A good woman, beset by evil women, is like the chaste mimosa surrounded by poisonous herbs "-illustrations of which maxim under a variety of forms are to be met with in most countries; a popular Oriental adage warning us that "bad company is friendship with a snake fencing with a sword." But it has been generally held that "as the woman, so her friends," an Osmandi proverb reminding us that "the life of a good woman is shown by her companions."

Equivocal as many of the proverbial sayings are when speaking of woman's goodness, it may be noted that the reverse is invariably the case in the folk-tales and legends which have immortalised in a hundred and one ways their deeds of bravery and self-denial. At Lilliard's Edge, for instance, in Roxburghshire, was fought, in 1545, the battle of Ancrum Moor, in which, according to tradition, a female warrior named Lilliard, when covered with wounds, continued to fight on the Scotch side, in the name of name of Squire Witherington. Buried on the field of victory, a stone was raised to her good memory, on which were written these words :

"Fair Maiden Lilliard lies under the stane, Little was her stature, but great was her fame

Upon the English loons she laid mony thumps,

And when her legs were cuttit off, she fought upon her stumps."

1 Rev. J. Long's "Eastern Proverbs and Emblems," 1881, p. 25.

Folk-lore can boast of numerous historic rhymes of this class, and elsewhere we have alluded to some of the old Church builder's legends which owe their origin to the marvellous efforts of noble and good women. Thus, to give one example, a pretty legend is told of the building of Linton Church, which is situated on a little knoll of fine, compact sand, without any admixture of stone, even pebbles, and widely different from the soil of the neighbouring heights. The sand has, however, hardened into stone, yet the particles are so coherent that the sides of ready-made graves appear smooth as a wall to the depth of fifteen feet. This singular phenomenon is thus accounted for by the local tradition: Many, many years ago a young man killed a priest, and was condemned to death for murder and sacrilege. By the intervention of two good women-his two sisters-his life was spared on condition that they should sift as much sand as would form a mound on which to build a church.

The maidens undertook the task, but on their brother's liberation at the completion of the church one of them died immediately "either from the effects of past fatigue, or overpowering joy." I

I See Henderson's "Folk-lore of the Northern Counties."

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CCORDING to the trite old adage, "Man, woman, and the devil are the three degrees of comparison," for it has long been agreed that when a woman is bad she far excels man in evil, a maxim which has been upheld by the proverb lore of most countries; a Chinese proverb affirming that "there is no such poison in the green snake's mouth, or the hornet's sting, as in a woman's heart; " and the Italians say that "it is better to irritate a dog than a bad woman," which is similar to the German saying, "An ill-tempered woman is the devil's door-nail." According to a familiar adage

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"A wicked woman and an evil

Is three-halfpence worse than the devil,"

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