HOLLAND 



4-89 



The commanding position that Holland at one time held among the nations of the world 

 surrounds the stolid Hollander of the present day with a halo of romance. Hallam has said 

 of the Dutch: "A great people, a people fertile of men of various ability and erudition, 

 a people of scholars, philosophers, historians, and poets." When we remember the great 

 names of Scaliger, Grotius, and Kembrandt, we cannot but feel that this encomium is deserved. 

 The late Professor Thorold Rogers was not less enthusiastic in his eulogy. He claimed that 

 the revolt of the Netherlands from the dominion of Spain and the success of Holland were the 

 beginning of modern civilisation, the Dutch, in his opinion, having taught Europe everything 

 which it knows, surely a paradoxical statement! 



Many of the old Dutch customs are no longer practised, yet the people still retain 

 certain usages. For example, in several towns the birth of a child is made known by the 

 exhibition of a placard (pink for a girl and blue for a boy), gaily decorated with silk and 

 lace, outside the mother's dwelling. Then the friends of the family as they appear are 

 entertained with mulled wine and cinnamon cakes. All festivities in Holland are attended 

 with a good deal of heavy feasting. 



A betrothal is an elaborate affair. Before the wedding comes off, printed circulars are 

 sent to the friends of the bride and bridegroom, and receptions are held, at which the couple 

 are seated on decorated chairs, on a platform under a canopy of evergreens. The parents and 

 near relations sit on each side of them, so as to form a semicircle. The visitors, admitted 

 one at a time to this audience, deliver set little speeches, with appropriate allusions to the 

 coming event, and then retire to partake of the good things provided for their entertainment. 



As in other Teutonic countries, the different periods of married life are divided into the 

 copper, the silver, and the golden stages. The first begins at twelve and the last after fifty 

 years of wedlock. Each is celebrated in a pleasing way, by friends offering presents made 

 of the metals from which these epochs are named. 



Dr. Brown mentions several curious marriage customs prevailing among the peasants 

 of North Holland. In Drenthe, he tells us, it was usual for the wedding guests to be 

 summoned by two bachelors, who carried wands gaily decorated with ribands. On arriving at 

 each house, they repeated a number of doggerel verses, the burden of which was generally the 

 bill of fare at the coming feast. At one time no citizen was allowed to marry out of his 

 native town, except on payment of a heavy fine. 



" When a death occurs in a Dutch family," 

 says the same authority, " aanspreken, a sort of 

 'mutes,' dressed in black-tailed coats, black knee- 

 breeches, silk stockings, shoes with silver buckles, 

 white ties, and enormous cocked hats, with rosettes 

 at the side, and two long pieces of ribbon hanging 

 doAvn their backs, go from house to house announcing 

 the mournful news. At the funeral there is usually 

 much feasting, and in the festive province of Drenthe 

 so freely were all comers regaled that the vagabonds 

 collected from all parts of the country, until a death 

 in a wealthy family was invariably followed by a 

 drunken orgie. In some parts of Zeeland a quan- 

 tity of straw used to be placed on the doorstep of 

 the house where the sad event had occurred, the 

 size of the heap being regulated by the position of 

 the deceased. After the interment the straw was 

 burnt, this custom being, it has been suggested, a 

 survival from earlier days, when the dead were 



Cremated." rhoto by N. J. to. Steinmelz} \_Tke Hague. 



The majority of the inhabitants of Holland, A DUTCH MAN, VOLENDAM. 



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