tarted, and let the lancet fall."]

[Illustration: "The women of Bohemia act as bricklayers' labourers."]

LIFE IN BOHEMIA.

Bohemia is a land of rugged mountains and towering pine-forests, with
other beauties of its own. Not many years ago it was, to most English
people, an unknown land; but in these days, when travelling is so easy
and rapid, year by year an ever-increasing number of our countrymen find
their way to this beautiful country in search of health and pleasure.
You have only to cross the strip of silver sea that rolls between our
little island and sunny France or misty Holland, and you may then rush
on, borne by the fastest of express trains, over the level plains that
greet you on landing, on through the beautiful Rhineland and the quaint
old towns of Bavaria, till at length you find yourself in this land of
enchantment.

Here, surrounded by the mighty forests, and shut in by the mountains,
stands the town of Marienbad. Not very long ago it was a lonely village,
inhabited during the summer months by peasants tending their flocks and
herds on the pasture of the table-land. In winter it was almost
deserted, given over to the wild storms that swept the mountain slopes
and to the wolves and bears that roamed through the forests.

Gradually the wonderful qualities of its mineral springs became known,
and now a crowd of fashionable folk pour into it during the summer, and
in every direction trees are being cut down to make way for villas, and
buildings of all kinds, which are springing up like mushrooms.

The peasant-life of the people continues wonderfully simple, and it is
very amusing to watch this mixing of modern fashionable life with the
primitive ways of the villagers.

English boys and girls would, perhaps, not care to go for a ride in the
Bohemian waggons, as they are so fond of doing in ours during
harvest-time. These waggons are made of a few long, wide planks, nailed
together so as to form a kind of huge trough, and strengthened on the
outside by cross-pieces of wood. This is placed upon the framework with
which the wheels are connected, and then roughly fastened to it. These
clumsy vehicles are drawn over the rough mountain roads by teams of
patient oxen. On _fete_ days the cattle look very gay, for then they are
decked out with ribbons of many colours.

The women of Bohemia work very hard indeed; they help their husbands in
all kinds of work. Among other occupations they act as bric