Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/53

II.] "The hearth is in the kitchen, but the wife cooks meals outside, she swells her small tresses and ties them into a large knot, and frequently turns back her head (as if to see somebody). She empties the pitcher, and goes to the pond for re-filling it, casts side-glances on the passers-by, and covertly glances at some stranger while talking with neighbours on the road, hums a tune while lighting the evening lamp. Such a woman should not be kept in the house."

The sky of Bengal, clear and transparent in the early spring, foggy in winter, and full of frowning clouds and angry flashes of lightnings in the rainy months, ever changing its aspects from month to month, cannot fail to strike a keen observer of nature with the clearly defined lines of its varied weather. The various seasons produce different results on the human system, on the paddy-fields, and on the variegated flowers and leaves of trees with which the villages abound. Life here changes, as it were, from month to month and Nature picturesquely disports herself on the stage of this beautiful country through the twelve sub-divisions