shape of a turban;[14] large gold or silver hoops in the ears, and a small cross of the same suspended by a black ribbon from the neck; stockings of grey or blue thread, or bare legs; large _sabots_, the insteps frequently garnished with a strip of rabbit-skin. Such are our village belles. At a superficial glance one does not see amongst them such gradations from youth to age as among our own women. All are either old or young, hideously ugly, or pretty, or very pretty. About the age of puberty (which seems to be earlier than with us), they become masculine and coarse, though still handsome. But about thirty (or earlier, if they have children) they lose all pretensions to good looks, and immediately assume the appearance of old age--wrinkled, skinny, with sunken cheeks, hollow eyes--and such necks! Like the men, these women are vastly superior to our female peasantry in carriage of person and in manners. The former is invariably erect and commanding, giving to the ugliest old woman an air of dignity never or very rarely to be met with among our working classes, and not always amongst our ladies. Some of the young ones, well made and tall, with their firm determined step, are really majestic creatures. The ordinary diet of these people seems little calculated to enable them to go through the portion of hard labour that falls to their lot. Bread, black, coarse, dry, and diabolically sour, a bit of hard tasteless cheese, compose the usual breakfast and dinner, with the occasional addition of haricots, or some other vegetables; for supper, broth (_potage aux herbes_), in which a bit of lard or some kind of grease is melted to give it richness and perhaps flavour. Their beverage is a poor sort of _vin du pays_, very sour, and very inferior to the sound rough cider used in our apple-counties, Hereford and Devon. In the _cabarets_ beer is to be had of a pleasant quality, although not strong. The _bonne double bierre de Mars_ is of a superior caste, and, when bottled (as it is sold), a refreshing, agreeable drink in hot weather.