V. A song of the reapers. At the corn-harvest, the females have no other clothing than a shift, tied about the waist with a string, or a stripe of list. No coat or gown have they, no neckcloth or handkerchief; their whole apparel consists in a shift, a ribbon about the head to tie up the hair, and a few beads that hang about their neck. The men wear a pair of linen trowsers besides the shirt; all go barefoot. How cutting to the German landlords ought the last line but one of the following sonnet to be! As its proper effect, it should teach them a little humanity: for never were human creatures treated with less than the Esthonian and Livonian peasants. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th, are certainly ingenious and significant. They are a tissue of delicate sentiment, sarcasm, and simplicity.
Shine, shine, thou sun!
Bright and cheerful be the day!
Shine, that we may be warm without cloth,
Drive with thy heat the linen asunder,
And make us to sweat without any clothes.
Shine, sun, upon the perg,[1]
And upon the silver beads:
The heat does not spoil the perg.
Nor fair weather the gaudy beads!
Shine not on the Germans at all,
But shine on us for ever.
VI. The summer is short in Esthonia. So early as the middle of August, heavy rains and bleak winds frequently interrupt the hay-making. They are therefore obliged to toil with redoubled force at this employment on the sun-shining days. If the boor were free, and might call what he mowed his own, there would be no need of having recourse to coercion to increase the velocity of his arm. But a large plot of ground is prescribed him as a task: "This must be mown to-day, or there is no rest for thee." The overseer stands by him with the stick in his hand, which he lays plentifully on the backs of those who, in his judgment, do not move their arms quick enough. The bailiff receives an order, at the hay-season, to turn out all the people
- ↑ Perg is the head-dress of an unmarried woman, consisting of a circle of pasteboard, decorated with pieces of fillas tied about with artificial tresses, and keeping the hair together.
