[Illustration: PEASANTS AT A WELL.]

The women, as in many other continental countries, are the chief workers
in the fields, and they are said to be much more industrious than the
men. They are not alone engaged in agricultural pursuits, but perform
the work of navvies, making roads, and along with the men digging
railway embankments. They usually wear a kerchief rather gracefully
folded over the head and under the chin; the upper part of the body is
clothed in a loose-fitting jacket or bodice, sometimes white, but often
of very bright showy material, and the lower limbs are covered with a
skirt which is usually of a darker colour than the jacket; but this is
also frequently made of a bright-coloured fabric. This is their
every-day dress, and thus habited the men work with square-bladed spades
resembling our own, whilst those of the women have handles as long as a
broomstick and bent spade-or heart-shaped blades. The gala or holiday
dresses of the peasantry are very handsome, each district having its
own peculiar costume, but of these we will say a few words hereafter.
Sometimes, as one walks or drives through the country, he may see the
peasants gossiping at the well, which is a hole dug in the ground and
fenced in with planks, the bucket being raised and lowered by means of a
very primitive contrivance. This consists of a horizontal tree-trunk
swinging upon another tall vertical one forked at the top; a chain
depends from one end of the horizontal beam or bar, to which the bucket
is attached, whilst the other end is counterpoised by means of stones.
Some of the wells are worked with a windlass and fly-wheel, but the one
just described frequently attracts the traveller's notice.

More primitive even than the wells are some of the peasants' houses in
the plains, if the hovels which serve as habitations can be so
dignified. A large hole, somewhat resembling in shape an old-fashioned