Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/522

 484 Collecta7iea.

they composed upon the spot, and which they dictated to me. Amongst these was an old woman who was known for her wisdom and the way in which she ruled her numerous children, and even her husband. I knew that she had composed songs in her youth; indeed, I had written down some of them, but had never heard her sing ; it would have been beneath her dignity. I was even obliged to remember never to read her songs in the presence of her sons, who would have felt ashamed had I done so. In fact, in order to avoid unpleasant situations, I used to note on the margin of every song the list of the persons who must not hear it. This poetess came of a well-to-do family. In youth her parents wished her to marry the man to whom they had betrothed her : she threatened suicide and won her point. After her marriage to the man of her choice, she left off caring for poetry and devoted herself to the duties of wife, mother, and housekeeper with such great zeal that she was noted as a courageous, industrious, and economical head of a family. She exacted so much from other women that her two daughters-in-law ran away from her, being unable to fulfil her ideal of the modest and virtuous woman who thinks of nothing but her home duties.

However I knew two women who after marriage still kept their love for poetry. Both were very poor, and therefore were not much respected by their countrymen. The life of one of them (Vunit) was particularly hard. Her father shortly before his death promised her in marriage to his friend. She might have been the daughter of her old husband, who brought her up with her brothers and sisters. He soon became paralysed and unable to work. All his relatives were dead, so he could get, no help from his family, and led the life of a beggar. The unhappy woman not only worked incessantly to support her helpless husband, but had also much trouble with her children, who, born in such misery, did not live long. In spite of her hard life she retained her sensitiveness and the gift of rising above the wretchedness of her daily existence. She had also a good n>emory and real eloquence and was in no way ashamed of her gift, but considered it as her glory, distinguishing her from other women.