"When I had a father living
As other good people have,
He wouldn't allow me to work for others,
Even for a thousand roubles."
Torn away from her native village the young girl gets bitterly homesick:—
"All the rivers and all the lakes
I have filled up with my tears,
I'm sick and tired of this life
Wandering about amongst strangers."
When the young girl marries, her life is often spoiled by the father-in-law and mother-in-law, whose obduracy and cruelty are constantly complained of in the songs; the misery of the married woman is also one of the main topics of old poetry. The young woman is often made to suffer at the hands of all the members of her husband's family. So it is that in one chastushka the married woman warns young girls against marriage:—
"Girls, don't go and marry,
You will find it a very hard lot,
They will not even let you
Walk freely about the room."
One finds a very rich collection of satirical and humorous chastushki touching on very different subjects, but in these also it is the lovers that are the most frequently the butt of the satire or of the humour:—
"My pretty little Jimmy
Has a bristly beard.
Fetch me please the harrow.
And give his beard a combing."
Many songs ridicule dandiness and lavishness. It is particularly the factory worker who has come home to the village on a holiday who is made a laughing-stock of in these songs:—
