As is perhaps natural considering that his life was passed fighting for his country’s nationality, Petöfi’s poems strike mostly a wailing note such as: A cloud o’er my country there hangs, That tells of a storm approaching; My soul in foreboding its pangs Gains strength to resist its encroaching. The harp of my fingers is weary, Too long have I struck it with pain; Well knows it my heart has been dreary, In wearing its strings out in vain. Or: TO THE STORK The winter time is over and the fields are growing green, And thou once more art here, bird so good, To build thy nest again where it before hath been, To hatch therein again thy feathery fledgling brood. Away! Away! Be cheated not By the sunbeam’s glittering quiver, By the babbling of the river; Away! Spring comes not to the spot, Life is benumbed and frozen up for ever. Oh! walk not through the fields, there is nothing there but graves; Oh! roam not by the lake-side, blood-crimsoned are its waves; Oh! fly not to the house-tops, all there that thou shalt find Are but the reeking embers that ruin left behind. * * * * * We are dying-- We are scattered far and wide Like a sheaf by storm untied. Some lie within the tomb, Some in the prison’s gloom, Others wander in their sadness dumb with woe. Some with a start arise, Terror gleaming in their eyes, To seek another fatherland beyond the Atlantic’s flow. It is of course difficult to give any idea of originals when they are translated into a tongue alien from that in which they were written, and especially is it impossible to judge of the pathos of these national songs without the wild melancholy tunes to which they are sung. In spite of his tendency to melancholy the Magyar can be cheerful enough and is a good fellow; he makes a particularly good husband and father. The women are treated well and take their full share in all that goes on. Hungary has from time immemorial given women equal rights with men in regard to property. If a woman marries she is entitled to half her husband’s property in addition to her own, and in case of divorce takes it with her. A man must, by law, leave half his property to his wife. Ten years ago it was unusual to find any girl of good class working for her living, but now the universal receipt for happiness is allowed freely to women as well as men. In the universities all courses are open to them except theology and law, the last with a reason maybe, as law is one of the requirements expected from a man entering the public service. Medicine, however, is thrown open, and there are even women doctors employed by the State.