rate was not affected by any of these things,
perhaps knew nothing of them, and certainly did not wish to know
anything, for whoso dares to let his mind dwell on the like, sins
against God. Is it a Jewish concern? A townful of men who have a God,
and religious duties to perform, with reward and punishment, who have
_that_ world to prepare for, and a wife and children in _this_ one,
people must be mad (of the enemies of Zion be it said!) to stare at the
sky, the fields, the river, and all the rest of it--things which a man
on in years ought to blush to talk about.

No, they are proud of the Pidvorke women, and parade them continually.
The Pidvorke women are no more attractive, no taller, no cleverer than
others. They, too, bear children and suckle them, one a year, after the
good old custom; neither are they more thought of by their husbands. On
the contrary, they are the best abused and tormented women going, and
herein lies their distinction.

They put up, with the indifference of all women alike, to the belittling
to which they are subjected by their husbands; they swallow their
contempt by the mouthful without a reproach, and yet they are
exceptions; and yet they are distinguished from all other women, as the
rushing waters of the Dnieper from the stagnant pools in the marsh.

About five in the morning, when the men-folk turn in bed, and bury their
faces in the white feather pillows, emitting at the same time strange,
broken sounds through their big, stupid, red noses--at this early hour
their wives have transacted half-a-day's business in the market-place.
Dressed in short, light skirts with blue aprons, over which depends on
their left a large leather pocket for the receiving of coin and the
giving out of change--one cannot be running every minute to the
cash-box--they stand in their shops with miscellaneous ware, and toil
hard. They weigh and measure, buy and sell, and all this with wonderful
celerity. There stands one of them by herself in a shop, and tries to
persuade a young, barefoot peasant woman to buy the printed cotton she
offers her, although the customer only wants a red cotton with a large,
flowery pattern. She talks without a pause, declaring that the young
peasant may depend upon her, she would not take her in for the world,
and, indeed, to no one else would she sell the article so cheap. But
soon her eye catches two other women pursuing a peasant man, and before
even making out whether he has any