was condemned to death, together with her
lovers. Strict discipline went so far that, according to old Polish
custom, maidens were chastised with rods every Friday to remind them of
Christ's sufferings and to bring them nearer to God. The prayer of
innocent children was reputed more effective, which was a strong
incentive for young women to keep themselves pure as long as possible.
No wonder that such women attained, in the course of time, a moral
supremacy over their men, and that nowhere in Europe such a genuine
deference was offered to women as in Poland. The almost supreme rule of
the Polish mother over her sons is proverbial. With all her tenderness
for her children, it is the Polish mother who drove the youth of the
land to an almost hopeless struggle against the foreign conqueror, and
to death on the altar of the fatherland. Nowhere has the Spartan
mother's "Either with the shield or upon the shield" become such an
often repeated reality as in the Polish insurrections against Russia.

Until the entrance of French fashions, which, however, especially
influenced the higher classes, the costume of Polish women of all
classes was national, beautiful, and many-colored. A cap of fine linen
and a diadem were worn; the neck was left uncovered, as with the Polish
men, and was adorned with strings of beads or jewels; rich furs
ornamented the edges of their garments. The unmarried women wore fine
silken or linen aprons, which are even to-day an indispensable part of
the costume of Polish peasant girls at their social functions, for
example, dances and spinning parties. A gaily colored cloth,
artistically wound around the head, was always worn by the Polish girl
of the lower classes; a white veil, which, however, must not cover the
face, as with Mohammedan women, covered the heads of the maidens of the
higher classes. Since the partition of Poland the gay national costume
of the Poles is prohibited in Russia, but it is still worn, especially
on festal occasions in Austria and Prussia.

The charm and beauty of Polish women is the constant theme of the
national poets. A lyric poet of the seventeenth century, Morsztyn, sings
of the Polish virgin:

"Thou model mine, divine in all thy beauty,
Compared with whom spring's roses even languish,
O brightest star, produced on earthly meadows,
Yet unsurpassed by heaven's luminaries!

"Pure spirit, encompassed in crystal,
From which t