WHERE THE WOMAN PAYS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12507, 24 July 1926, Page 11

WHERE THE WOMAN PAYS

LOVER’S RIGHT TO PUNISH A new version of tho old theme, “The Woman Pays” can be found m tho peasant villages of Vologda, an outlying province in Northern Russia. When a peasant lad begins to court a girl he establishes a sort of proprietary right over her by treating her to sweets and cakes. Should tho girl wish to break the engagement she is obliged, on pain of receiving a sound thrashing from her disillusioned lover, to pay him a full indemnity, not only for the sweet* and cakes he has bought, but for the time he has lost in courting her; also for the shoes and clothing he has worn out, and for the “samogon” or moonshine whisky which he has drunk in the raptures of his young love. Cases sometimes occur when unfortunate girls rifle the grainbins of papa’s barn in order to placate the irate swains whom they have thrown over. iiiiiiiiiiE]uiiiiiniiic3iiiiiiiniiiraiiimiifmE3iiiiiiiiii!jE3iiiiiminiE3iiiim

20 years, history tells little of his doings; but he had a lasting reputation as a patron of literature, and he was a physician of sucli eminence that ho came to be identified with the Greek god Asklepios. . He was remembered with reverence for many centuries. There is :a statue of Sesostris 11. in Berlin which represents Pharaoh in the act of adoring Zozer. There are also records of a later date to his honour. According to Arthur Weigall, the greatness of Zozer was due to his minister, Imhotep, who was also identified with Asklepios. A temple was erected to this man’s honour near Memphis, where hundreds of small metal figures of him have been found. He was revered as’a philosopher, proverb-mak-er, physician, scribe, and architect. Ultimately he was regarded in Memphis as “a son of God”—the offspring of the local god Ptah, horn of a woman. Every scribe dropped a few drops of water from the jar attached to his writing box as a libation to Imhotep, his patron saint, before beginning his work.