And

"A woman that spins in vice
Has her smock full of lice."

Again, we are told that "A fair woman without virtue is like palled wine;" an Arabian version being, "An immodest woman is food without bait; or, as it is thus said in some country villages, "A fair woman with foul conditions is like a sumptuous sepulchre, full of corruption ;" and further, "She that loseth her modesty and honesty hath nothing else worth losing; reminding us of the warning often given to those about to get married, "A fair face may be a foul bargain," inasmuch as—

"There cannot be a greater clog to man,

Than to be weary of a wanton woman."

The Scotch say, "Ye may drive the deil into a wife, but ye'll ne'er ding him oot o' her, implying that when a woman is once bad there is no chance of reclaiming her; and hence we cannot be surprised at the German proverb, “A bag of fleas is easier to keep guard over than

But, whether we regard women as good or bad, it is generally agreed they surpass man in either case, for, as the French say, "Women, ever in extremes, are always either better or worse than men," with which may be compared the following lines in Lord Tennyson's "Idylls," "Merlin and Vivien "

"For men at most differ as Heaven and Earth,

But women, worst and best, as Heaven and Hell."

Occasionally old local rhymes allude in somewhat uncomplimentary language to the bad qualities of the fair sex. The island of Iona is separated from Mull by a strait about a mile long. An islet close to the Mull shore opposite the ruins of Iona is designated "The Woman's Island," owing to a tradition of Columba that he would not allow a woman or a cow to remain on his own island. The reason assigned for this ungracious command is embodied in an old folk-rhyme :

"Where there is a cow,

There will be a woman;

And where there is a woman,

There will be mischief".

a saying which, we are told, is in certain parts of Scotland repeated as a good-humoured satire

on women.

It has long been admitted, even by those who disparage women's virtues, that her memory is excellent when she is anxious to keep anything in mind, and hence it is said that "if a woman has any malicious mischief to do her memory is immortal." Proverbial wisdom, again, tells how worthless and unprincipled women often amuse themselves by dissimulation, even going so far as to feign love: an apt illustration of such sham love from Hindustani proverb runs thus, "I'll love him and I'll caress him and I'll put fire under him; if it burn him what can I do?" I and there is a well-known Arabic adage which warns us that, "Women's immorality and monks' wiles are to be dreaded."

I See Fallon's "Hindustani Proverbs."

A

CCORDING to Lord Byron, "Man's love is of man's life a thing apart; 'tis woman's whole existence;" and under a thousand images the poets of all ages have depicted her as a mysterious mixture of joy and sadness, of agony and delight. But the truth of the well-known apothegm cannot be denied, ""Tis love, 'tis love that makes the world go round," for :

"Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,

And men below and saints above;

For love is heaven, and heaven is love."

It is only natural that much should have been written on woman's love-that inexhaustible theme which will continue to hold its sway till the end of time; for, as it was long ago said, "A woman will

dare anything when she loves or hates." And yet, strange to say, it must be acknowledged the love of woman has always been more or less enigmatical in the eyes of man, on account of its only too often eccentric and contradictory nature. Thus Middleton speaks of love's strange antics :

"Love is ever sick, and yet is never dying,

Love is ever true, and yet is ever lying;

Love does doat in liking, and is mad in loathing:
Love, indeed, is anything; yet, indeed, is nothing."

Southwell describes a woman's loving looks as "murdering darts," and elsewhere he says:

"She offereth joy, but bringeth grier,

A kiss-where she doth kill."

The hesitancy with which a woman furtively, and oftentimes playfully, tries to conceal her love by a slight cough, has from an early period been humorously recognised in proverbial love, as in the old adage, "Love and a cough cannot be hid," the Latin equivalent of which is, "Amor tussis que non celantur," versions of which are to be met with in French and Italian proverbs.1 Similarly we may compare the proverb :-

"When a musician hath forgot his note,

He makes as though a crumb stuck in his throat."

Thackeray has described "the delights and tortures, the jealousy and wakefulness, the longing and raptures, the frantic despair and elation,

See Hazlitt's "English Proverbs," 1869, p. 269.

attendant upon the passion of love;" and, indeed, volumes might be written illustrative of the mysterious workings of woman's love, although Alphonse Karr went so far as to affirm: "Women for the most part do not love us. They do not choose a man because they love him, but because it pleases them to be loved by him." But, whatever may have been written descriptive of love, its influence is indisputable, and as the Scotch say, "Love is as warm amang cottars as courtiers ;" and, as it has been truly said :

with which may be compared the English equivalent, "Love lives in cottages as well as

in courts.

Proverbial literature naturally has much to say on the power of a woman's love, and, according to a popular French adage, "Love subdues all but the ruffian's heart; and history abounds in illustrations of this maxim, which under a variety of forms is found all over the world, one of the best-known versions being, "Love rules his kingdom without a sword."

And yet it is agreed that woman's love is only too frequently far from kind, for, as it was proverbially said by our forefathers, "Love is a sweet tyranny, because the lover endureth his torments willingly." The French have a proverb to the same effect: "He who has love in his