woman are alike."1

"It is better to dwell in a corner

of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house."2

A house wi' a reek and a wife wi' a reerd [scolding noise] will sune mak a man run to the door. - Scotch.

Of the continental versions of this proverb the Spanish seems to me the best, and next to it the Dutch.1

3

- Scotch.

It's a sair reek where the gude wife dings the gude man. —

“A man in my country," says James Kelly, "coming out of his house with tears on his cheeks, was asked the occasion. He said there was a sair reek in the house' but, upon further inquiry, it was found that his wife had beaten him." "It is a sad house where the hen crows and the cock is mute" (Spanish). Though we have not this proverb in English, we have its spirit embodied in one word, HENPECKED, which is peculiar to ourselves.

The gray mare is the better horse.

The wife wears the breeches. "A hawk's marriage: the hen is the better bird" (French).o

Marry above your match and you get a master.

"In the rich woman's house she commands always,

1 Prov. xxvii. 15.

2 Prov. xxi. 19.

3 Humo y gotera, y la muger parlera, echan el hombre de su casa fuera.

4 Rook, stank, en kwaade wijven zijn die de mans uit de huizen drijven.

5 Triste es la casa donde la gallina canta y el gallo calla. 6 Mariage d'épervier: la femelle vaut mieux que le mâle.

and he never" (Spanish).1

"Who takes a wife for her

But

dower turns his back on freedom" (French).2

every married man is in this plight, for

"He that has a wife has a master."3

"He that's not sensible of the truth of this proverb," says James Kelly, "may blot it out or pass it over."

"As the good man saith, so say we :

But as the good woman saith, so it must be."

Wedding and ill wintering tame both man and beast.

"You will marry and grow tame" (Spanish).*

He that marries a widow and two daughters marries three stark thieves.

He that marries a widow and two daughters has three back doors to his house.

And "The back door is the one that robs the house

Never marry a widow unless her first husband was hanged. Else the burden of an old Scotch song, "Ye'll never be like mine auld gudeman," will be dinned in your ears day and night.

He that marries a widow will have a dead man's head cast in his dish.

Happy is the wife who is married to a motherless son.

"Uno animo omnes socrus oderunt nurus," says

1 En la casa de muger rica, ella manda siempre, y el nunca.

2 Qui prend une femme pour sa dot a la liberté tourne le dos.

3 In French, Qui prend femme, prend maître.

4 Casaras y amansaras.

5 La porta di dietro è quella che ruba la casa.

Terence; and this is the common testimony of experience in all ages and countries.

"The husband's mother is the wife's devil" (German, Dutch). "As long as I

was a daughter-in-law I never had a good mother-in-law, and as long as I was a mother-in-law I never had a good daughter-in-law" (Spanish)." "The mother-in-law forgets that she was a daughter-in-law" (Spanish). "She

is well married who has neither mother-in-law nor sister-in-law" (Spanish) Men, too, do not always regard their wives' mothers with tender affection, and some of the many bitter sayings against mothers-in-law seem to be common to both sexes. Such is this queer Ulster rhyme :

"Of all the ould women that ever I saw,

Sweet bad luck to my mother-in-law."

Also these Low German: "There is no good mother-inlaw but she that wears a green gown; 995 i. e., that is covered with the turf of the churchyard; "The best mother-in-law is she on whose gown the geese feed; and this Portuguese, "If my mother-in-law dies, I will fetch somebody to flay her.""

1 Des Mannes Mutter ist der Frau Teufel. Een mans moer is de duivel op den vloer.

2 En quanto fue nuera, nunca tuve buena suegra, y en quanto fue suegra, nunca tuve buena nuera.

3 No se acuerda la suegra que fue nuera.

4 Aquella es bien casada, que no tiene suegra ni cuñada.

5 Es ist keine gut Swigar, danne die einen grünen Rok an hat.

6 Die beste Swigar ist die auf deren Rok die Gänse waiden. 7 Se minha sogra more, buscare quem a estolle.

PARENTS AND CHILDREN.

Children are certain cares but uncertain comforts. "LITTLE children and headaches- great children and heartaches" (Italian). Nevertheless, "He knows not what love is that has not children” (Italian).2

It is a wise child that knows his own father.

Happily, as a French sage remarks, "One is always somebody's child, and that is a comfort." "The child names the father; the mother knows him " (Livonian).

The mother knows best if the child be like the father.

The mither's breath is aye sweet.

-Scotch.

This proverb, which belongs exclusively to Scotland, appears to me even more 'exquisitely graceful and tender than that German and French proverb so justly admired by Dean Trench, "Mother's truth keeps constant youth." "There is no mother like the mother

994

1 Fanciulli piccioli, dolor di testa; fanciulli grandi, dolor di

cuore.

2 Chi non ha figliuoli non sa che cosa sia amore.

3 On est toujours le fils de quelqu'un ; cela console.

4 Muttertreu wird täglich neu. Tendresse maternelle toujours se renouvelle.

that bore us

(Spanish).1 "The child that gets a step

mother gets a stepfather also" (Danish),2

66

The crow thinks her own bird the fairest.

Every mother's child is handsome" (German).3 "No ape but swears he has the finest children” (German). "If our child squints, our neighbor's child has a cast in both eyes" (Livonian).

As the old cock crows so crows the young; or

As the old cock crows the young cock learns.

If the mare have a bald face the filly will have a blaze.

Trot feyther, trot mither, how can foal amble? - Scotch.

Children generally follow the example of their parents, but imitate their faults more surely than their virtues. Thus,

A light-heeled mother makes a heavy-heeled daughter.

Unless the mother transfers a part of her household cares to the daughter, the latter will grow up in sloth and ignorance of good housewifery. "A tender-hearted mother rears a scabby daughter" (French, Italian).5

A child may have too much of its mother's blessing.

Her foolish fondness may spoil it.

The worst store is a maid unbestowed. Welsh.

1 No hay tal madre como la que pare.

2 Det Barn der faaer Stivmoder, faaer ogsaa Stifvader.

3 Jeder Mutter Kind ist schön.

4 Kein Aff', er schwört, er habe die schönsten Kinder.

5 Mère piteuse fait sa fille rogneuse. La madre pietosa fa la figliuola tignosa,