e uncouth. In the imagination,
superstition took the place that was unoccupied by intelligence; and
the world of the peasant woman, who went about her round of daily
hardship, was peopled by a throng of supernatural creatures, and her
life spent in fear of violation of some of those strange rules of
conduct which now form interesting matter for the student of folklore.

It is difficult to exaggerate the hardship of the agriculturist of
the Middle Ages; and as she was an active participant in such labors,
besides having upon her the burdens which commonly belong to the
mother of a household, the woman of the times had to bear duties much
beyond those of a woman in a similar grade of life in England to-day.
The great pestilences of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
swept away so many lives that, for two centuries and a half before the
accession of Henry VII., the growth of population was so slight as
to be scarcely calculable. The unsanitary condition of the homes in
general was greatly injurious to health; but this was especially
so of the homes of the humble, the women of which had no ideas of
cleanliness, either in person or surroundings. The weekly shilling
or ninepence of the agricultural laborer must have been distressingly
inadequate for the needs of the household. These included wheat or
rye, which formed the staple of living, the rent of the cottage, the
usual manor dues, the national tax, something for clothing, medicine
for the children, and occasional items which would enter into a
complete enumeration. Even if the wife, as was frequently the case,
had to bear the burden of her own support by engaging in some form of
industrial activity in connection with her other duties, the wage of
the husband was barely enough to meet the needs of the remainder of
the family, and he had not a farthing left for "rainy days," which
were of frequent occurrence, or for those common and extraordinary
exactions which could not be evaded. So rigidly were the taxes levied,
even upon the poorest, that every form of possession came under
tribute; thus, the pet lamb of a poor man, which may have been the one
source of joy to his children and pleasure to his wife, appears in
an inventory of Colchester as amerced for sixpence. In the fifteenth
century, to which this entry refers, the master of a tenant was
forbidden by the Statutes of Laborers to assist him by relieving his
poverty; and even in case of illness of his wife or chil