There are other tongues in which the name is not less significant. The two most notoriously obstinate things in the world are a mule and a pig. Now there is one language in which _pige_ means a young woman: and another in which woman is denoted by the word _mulier_: which word, whatever grammarians may pretend, is plainly a comparative, applied exclusively and with peculiar force to denote the only creature in nature which is more mulish than a mule. _Comment_, says a Frenchman, _pourroit-on aymer les_ Dames, _puis qu'elles se nomment ainsi du_ dam _et_ dommage _qu'elles apportent aux hommes!_[4] [Footnote 4: BOUCHET.] INTERCHAPTER XXIV. A TRUE STORY OF THE TERRIBLE KNITTERS E' DENT WHICH WILL BE READ WITH INTEREST BY HUMANE MANUFACTURERS, AND BY MASTERS OF SPINNING JENNIES WITH A SMILE.—BETTY YEWDALE.—THE EXCURSION—AN EXTRACT FROM, AND AN ILLUSTRATION OF. _O voi ch' avete gl' intelletti sani, Mirate la dottrina, che s' asconde Sotto 'l velame degli versi strani._ DANTE. “It was about six an' fifty year sen, in June, when a woman cam fra' Dent at see a Nebbor of ours e' Langdon.[1] They er terrible knitters e' Dent[2]—sea my Fadder an' Mudder sent me an' my lile Sister, Sally, back we' her at larn at knit. I was between sebben an' eight year auld, an' Sally twea year younger—T' Woman reade on ya Horse, we Sally afore her—an I on anudder, we a man walking beside me—whiles he gat up behint an' reade—Ee' them Days Fwoak dud'nt gang e' Carts—but Carts er t'best—I'd rader ride e' yan than e' onny Carriage—I us't at think if I was t' Leady, here at t' Ho,'[3] how I wad tear about int' rwoads—but sen I hae ridden in a Chaise I hate t' nwotion ont' warst of ought—for t' Trees gang fleeing by o' ya side, an t' Wa' as[4] on tudder, an' gars yan be as seek as a peeate. [Footnote 1: The valley of Langdale, near Ambleside. The Langdale Pikes are known to all tourists.] [Footnote 2: Dent is a chapelry in the Parish and Union of Sedbergh, W. Division of the wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewcross, W. Riding of the County of York, sixteen miles E. from Kendal.—_Lewis's Topog. Dict._] [Footnote 3: i.e. At the Hall.] [Footnote 4: Wa' as, i.e. Walls, as in p. 86.]