The people who inhabit the vast extent of country between the Black sea and the North sea are divided into various distinct races, too numerous to admit of a particular description. The women are generally very industrious; even in their walks they carry a portable distaff and spin every step of the way. Generally speaking, the clothing of these people is of domestic manufacture; the wants of each family being supplied by the diligent fingers of its female members. A Walachian woman may often be seen carrying a large basket of goods to market on her head, singing and spinning as she trudges along. Both Croatian and Walachian women perform all the agricultural operations, in addition to their own domestic concerns. When a mother goes to church, or to visit a neighbor, or to labor in the fields, she carries her infant in a low open box, swung over her shoulders by cords; while she is at work, this box is suspended on a neighboring tree. The Liburnian women carry on their heads a cradle, in which the babe sleeps securely. When these cradles are set on the ground, they rock with the slightest impulsion. The Gothscheer women often follow the trade of pedlers, and are absent from their homes many months, travelling about the country with staff in hand, and a pack at their back.
Among these numerous tribes, each preserving their ancient customs from time immemorial, the Morlachians seem to be the most rude. “In general,” says M. Fortis, “their women, except those of the towns, seem not at all displeased to receive a beating from their husbands, and sometimes even from their lovers.” Being treated like beasts of burden, and expected to endure submissively every species of hardship, they naturally become very dirty and careless in their habits. The wretched wife, after she has labored hard all day, is obliged to lie upon the floor, and would be beaten, if she presumed to approach the heap of straw on which her tyrant sleeps. When the Morlachians have occasion to speak of a woman, before any respectable person, they always say, “saving your presence;” as if apologizing for the mention of things so disgusting; and in answer to inquiries reply, “It is my wife—excuse the word.”
From these brutes in the human form, we gladly turn to the frank, affectionate, romantic Tyrolese. Among these simple, virtuous people, husbands and wives are remarkably faithful to each other, and fondly attached to their children. Their robust and vigorous women are engaged in very toilsome occupations, but the men take their full share in all laborious tasks. Many of them travel through Germany as pedlers, and they are rarely seen without a wife or a sister by their side. The Tyrolese women are gentle and modest, but not shy in the presence of strangers. A mother, in the innocent kindness of her heart, frequently sends her daughters to meet a traveller, and offer him a present of fruit or flowers, or a draught of sweet milk, from her own neat dairy. Their affections are ardent, and they are proverbial for constancy. It is an almost unheard of thing for parents to arrange marriages, or attempt to throw any obstacle in the way of a desired union between their children. The young people become acquainted with each other in their walks, or at their rustic amusements, and when they have once taken each other by the hand, in earnest pledge of their mutual affection, every other man and woman in the world are forever after excluded from their thoughts, so far as love is concerned. The Tyrolese have a reverent and simple faith in religion, and a strong belief in the active agency of good and evil spirits. The peasant girls scarcely dare to go abroad after dark, for fear of falling into snares laid by mischievous spirits. To protect themselves from these influences, it is common for both sexes to engrave the figure of Christ upon their flesh, by pricking it with a needle and rubbing gunpowder into the punctures.
The Swiss resemble the Tyrolese in simplicity, frankness, and honesty. The women are very neat and industrious. They are busily engaged in their dairies and domestic avocations, and are little inclined to visiting. When they do visit socially, very few men are invited, and those are their nearest relations. Sometimes twenty ladies assemble together, without one man in the party; their husbands being all assembled at the smoking clubs.
In Basil, female societies are formed from infancy of children of the same age, and the same class. They are so particular about equality of years, that sisters, whose ages differ a few years, belong to separate societies, with whom they always meet at each other’s houses. Friendships formed in this way constitute a strong bond of union. Those that have belonged to the same society in childhood often meet, after separation, in maturer years, with the affection of sisters. The ladies usually carry work to parties, at which they assemble as early as three in the afternoon. Parents have one day of the week, which they call le jour de famille. On this occasion all their offspring, even to the fifth and sixth generation, are assembled together. The Swiss women marry at an early age. Not long since, there were six ladies in Basil whose grandchildren were grandmothers. The manners of these hardy mountaineers are patriarchal and affectionate. Young people are allowed to marry according to their inclination, and matches from interested motives are not common. In such a state of things, there is no need of the restraints imposed among voluptuous nations. The Swiss girls have a great deal of freedom allowed them, and are distinguished for innocence and modesty.
The inhabitants of the Netherlands are proverbial for their industry and love of acquiring money. Their women are eminently domestic, being always busy in their household, or engaged in assisting their husbands in some department of his business, such as keeping accounts, and receiving money. They are not only thrifty themselves, but teach their children to earn something as soon as they can use their fingers. If they quit their domestic employments, it is to join some family party, or take a short excursion with their husbands. Their stainless floors, shining pewter dishes, and snow-white starched caps, all indicate that notable housewives are common in the land. The Dutch women are generally robust and rosy, with figures the reverse of tall and slender. At Haarlem, a very ancient and peculiar custom is still preserved. When a child is newly born, a wooden figure, about sixteen inches square, covered with red silk and Brussels lace, is placed at the door. This exempts the master of the house from all judicial molestation, and is intended to insure the tranquillity necessary for the mother’s health. To prevent the kind but injudicious intrusion of friends, a written bulletin of the state of both mother and child is daily affixed to the door or window; and finally a paper is posted on the door, to signify on what day the mother will receive the ladies of her acquaintance. Among the phlegmatic and thrifty Dutch, matches are, of course, generally made from prudential motives, rather than the impulses of passion, or the refinement of sentiment.
Russia is a country slowly emerging from barbarism. Of their condition in the time of Peter the Great, something may be judged by the regulation he made, ordering the ladies of his court not to get drunk upon any pretence whatever, and forbidding gentlemen to do so before ten o’clock. The empress Catherine ordered certain Russian ladies to be publicly knouted for some indiscretions. French manners now prevail among the higher ranks, who are generally frank, hospitable and courtly. The women are serious and dignified, with something of oriental languor. Their forms of society are ceremonious, compared with the lively graces of the Poles, of whose manners they are apt to judge severely. A French writer has asserted that of all countries, except France, it is perhaps the most agreeable to be a woman in Russia; but when he said this, he must have been thinking only of cities, and of a favored class in those cities. The Russian ladies are proverbial for the facility with which they acquire foreign languages. They speak and write French like native Parisians, though often unable to spell the Russian tongue, which is seldom spoken in polite circles. Among the higher ranks, whose blood is mingled with that of Georgians, Circassians, and Poles, there are some women of extraordinary beauty; but the Russian females are in general short, clumsy, round-faced and sallow. They daub their faces with red and white paint, and in some districts stain their teeth black. The peasantry use no cradles. The babe is placed on a mattress, inclosed in a frame like that used for embroidery, and suspended from the ceiling by four cords, after the manner of the Hindoos. Russian fathers, of all classes, generally arrange marriages for their children, without consulting their inclinations. Among the peasantry, if a girl has the name of being a good housewife, her parents will not fail to have applications for her, whatever may be her age, or personal endowments. As soon as a young man is old enough to be married, his parents seek a wife for him, and all is settled before the young couple know any thing of the matter. Porter gives very unfavorable ideas of the morality of the Russian nobility. He says the marriage tie is little regarded, but the women are less profligate than the men. It ought, however, in justice, to be remembered that a traveller has a better chance to see the vices of a country, than its virtues. Although the Russians, in common with their neighbors of Sweden and Lapland, have an Asiatic fondness for frequent bathing, they are so dirty with regard to their garments, that even the wealthy are generally more or less infested with vermin.
The Cossack women are very cleanly and industrious. In the absence of their husbands they supply their places, by taking charge of all their usual occupations in addition to their own. It is rare for a Cossack woman not to know some trade, such as dyeing cloth, tanning leather, &c.
Throughout Russia all classes salute each other by kissing. “When a lady would only courtesy a welcome in England, she must kiss it in Russia;” and if a man salutes her in this way, she must on no occasion refuse to return it.
The higher classes, both in Denmark and Sweden, imitate the French manners and customs very closely. The ladies generally have the northern physiognomy; viz. fair complexion, light hair, blue eyes, and a mild, clear expression. They have little of the ardor of the Italians, or the vivacity of the French. Ambition is more easily excited in their breasts than love. Their manners are modest and reserved. Gallantry toward ladies is not the characteristic of any of the northern nations. The Swedes are generally industrious and sincere, and perhaps there is no country in the world where women perform so much and such various labor. They serve the bricklayers, carry burdens, row boats, thresh grain, and manage the plough.