70 THE UNAPPRECIATED FISHER FOLK. 
superstition that cannot be allayed except by cessation 
from work. The Dutch fisherman has ever the recollection 
of a crowd of death-dealing disasters upon his memory as 
he lazily whistles for a wind or murmurs a prayer to hush 
the rising breeze. The fisherwives of Holland are exceed- 
ingly industrious: they carry the fish caught by their 
husbands, brothers or sons to market, and negotiate the 
sales. The work of the husband is finished as soon as 
he comes on shore, the work of the women then com- 
mences. The wives undergo great labour, and take much 
pains to render it remunerative; but the fisherwomen 
of South Holland do not look so happy or prosperous as 
their sisters located on the shores of the Zuyder Zee, who, 
as a rule, are in a far more flourishing condition. At 
Moniekendam, and on the opposite island of Marken, the 
fisher people afford ample scope for study and portraiture. 
They are quaint in their dress, peculiar in their manners, and 
exceedingly simple and pious. The men of Marken are 
very temperate, are the finest sailors in the world, and live to 
a good age. The colony of fisher folk established there is 
similar to some of those in Scotland: it is a kind of family 
community, like that of Newhaven near Edinburgh. The 
people intermarry each with the other, and thus beget 
habits as stereotyped in many respects as those of the 
Chinese, or the nest-building birds of the air. Their wants 
being few and simple, and the temptations to expend money 
rare, the people of the very remarkable island of Marken 
happily find themselves passing rich. 
The Dutch fishers are always at work when wind and 
tide are suitable, and that they fish for other markets than 
their own is well-known; they send us a liberal share of 
their catch in the shape of Turbot, Eels, &c. Even so far 
back as half a century ago, we paid them nearly £100,000 per 
