ings of the assistants are even excruciating. But how great is the joy when the hour of pain is over, and the family is increased by a son or a daughter!
A crooked piece of wood, in the form of a half-circle, or rather a large horse-shoe, connects the two poles or shafts of the cart, over the horse's head. The fabricating of these crooked and elastic pieces, which requires a great deal of pains, particularly as every piece of wood will not answer the purpose, is the business of the men. Krummholtzmacher, Krummholtzhohler, or crooked wood-maker, is therefore, in the following specimen, as much as to say, a man.
To play the reel is the same as to wind off yarn, the employment of the women, and is here used to denote that sex.
Song at a Lying-in.
The lovely lying-in woman
Went ten times the way to the kitchen,
A hundred times the way to the bagnio,[1]
A thousand times about the rooms of the house,
She is looking for a beam to hang herself upon,
Or a piece of timber to knock out her brains.
The boors weep under the bench.
The children cry under the table,
The husband in the room.
Pause.
Jesus asked through the door,
Maria looked in at the window.
Pause.
"What has the Creator sent you?
"Has he sent you a Krummholtzhohler?
"Or a secretary for the landlord?
"Or one that plies the reel?"
God has made the Krummholtzhohler[2]
The boors laugh under the bench,
The children under the table,
The husband in the room.
