Dutch Life in Town and Country

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It is not likely that this celebration of St. Nicholas will ever be
abolished, and the shopkeepers do their best to perpetuate it by offering
new attractions for the little folk every year. Figures of St. Nicholas,
life-size, are placed before their windows; and some even have a man
dressed like the good Saint, who goes about the streets, mounted on a
white steed, while behind him follows a cart laden with parcels, which
have been ordered and are left in this way at the different houses. Crowds
of children, singing, shouting, and clapping their hands, follow in the
rear, adding to the noise and bustle of the already crowded streets, but
people are too good-natured at St. Nicholas time to expostulate. Smiling
faces, mirth, and jollity abound everywhere, and good feeling unites all
men as brethren on this most popular of all the Dutch festivals.

Chapter XI

National Amusements

Holland, like other countries, is indebted to primitive and classic
times for most of its national amusements and children's games, which
have been handed down from generation to generation. Many of the same
games have been played under many differing Governments and opposing
creeds. Hollander and Spaniard, Protestant and Catholic alike have found
common ground in those games and sports which afford so welcome a break
in daily work.

'Hinkelbaan,' for example, found its way into the Netherlands from far
Phoenicia, whose people invented it. The game of cockal, 'Bikkelen,' still
played by Dutch village children on the blue doorsteps of old-fashioned
houses, together with 'Kaatsen,' was introduced into Holland by Nero
Claudius Druses, and it is stated that he laid out the first 'Kaatsbaan.'
The Frisian peasant is very fond of this game; and also of 'Kolven,' the
older form of golf; and often on a Sunday morning after church he may be
seen dressed in his velvet suit and low-buckled shoes, engaged in these
outdoor sports. About a century ago a game called 'Malien' was universally
played in South Holland and Utrecht. For this it was necessary to have a
large piece of ground, at one end of which poles were erected, joined
together by a porch. The bail was driven by a 'Mahen kolf,' a long stick
with an iron head and a leather grip, and it had to touch both poles and
roll through the porch. The 'Maheveld' at The Hague and the 'Mahebaan' at
Utrecht remind one of the places in which this game was played.

In Friesland the Sunday game for youths is 'Het slingeren met
Dimterkoek'--throwing Deventer cake. Four persons are required to play
this game. The players divide themselves into opposite parties, and play
against each other. First they toss up to see which of the parties and
which of the boys shall begin. He on whom the lot falls is allowed to
give his turn to his opponent, which he often does if, on feeling the
cake, he notices that it is soft and liable to break easily. If, on the
contrary, it is hard, he keeps the first throw for himself. Holding the
cake firmly in his right hand, he takes a little run, bends backward, and
with a sudden swing throws the cake forward (as one throws a stone) so
that it flies away a good distance, breaking off just at the grip. This
piece, called 'hanslik,' or handpiece, he must keep in his hand, for if
he drops it he must let his turn pass by once, and his throw is not
counted. The distance of the throw is now measured and noted down,
whereupon one of the opposing party takes the piece of cake and throws
it, and so it goes on alternately till each has had a turn. The distances
of the throws of every two boys are counted together, and the side which
has the most points wins.

There are also games played only at certain seasons of the year, as the
'Eiergaren' at Easter-time. This was very popular even in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. On Easter Monday all the village people betake
themselves to the principal street of the 'dorp' to watch the
'eiergaarder.' At about two o'clock in the afternoon the innkeeper who
provides the eggs appears upon the scene with a basket containing
twenty-five. These he places on the road at equal distances of twelve feet
from each other. In the middle of the road is then placed a tub of water,
on which floats a very large apple, the largest he has been able to
procure. Two men are chosen from the ranks of the villagers. The one is
led to the tub, his hands are tied behind his back, and he is told to eat
the floating apple; the other has to take the basket in his hand and pick
up while running all the eggs and arrange them in the basket before the
apple is eaten. He who finishes his task first is the winner, and carries
off the basket of eggs as a prize. It provokes great fun to see the man
trying to get hold of the floating-apple, which escapes so easily from the
grasp of his teeth, but some men are wise enough to push the apple against
the side of the tub, and of course as soon as they have taken one bite the
rest is easily eaten. When the game is over, the greater number of the
villagers go and drink to the good health of the winner at the
public-house, and so the innkeeper makes a good thing out of this custom
also, and for a game like this it is certainly wise to refresh one's self
_after_ the event. Skittles and billiards are very popular with the
peasant and working classes on Sunday afternoons, the only free time a
labourer has for recreation. Games of chance, also, in which skill is at a
minimum, are as numerous in Holland as in any other country.

Children's games naturally occupy a large share in young Netherlands life,
especially outdoor romping games. Of indoor games there are very few, a
fact which may, perhaps, be accounted for by the custom of allowing
children to play in the streets. In former days children of all classes
played together in outdoor sports and games, and developed both their
muscles and their republican character. Even Prince Frederik Hendrik (who
was brother to and succeeded Prince Maurits in 1625), when at school at
Leyden, mixed freely with his more humble companions, and was often
mistaken for an ordinary schoolboy, and an old woman once sharply rebuked
him for daring to use her boat-hook to fish his ball out of the water into
which it had fallen. Nor did she notice to whom she was speaking until a
passer-by called her attention to the fact that it was the Prince,
whereupon the poor old soul became so frightened that she durst not
venture out of her house for weeks from imaginary fear of falling into the
clutches of the law, and ending her days in prison.

Games may be divided into two classes, those played with toys and those
for which no toys are needed; but whatever the games may be they all have
their special seasons. Once a man wrote an almanack on children's games,
and noted down ail the different sports and their seasons, but, as the
poet Huggens truly said,

'De kindren weten tyd van knickeren en kooten,
En zonder almanack en ist hen nooit ontschoten,'

which, freely translated, means that children know which games are in
season by intuition, and do not need an almanack, so he might have saved
himself the trouble. 'The children know the time to play marbles and
"Kooten," and without an almanack have not forgotten.'

In the eighteenth century driving a hoop was as popular an amusement with
children as it is now, only then it was also a sport, and prizes were
given to the most skilful. In fact, hoop-races were held, and boys and
girls alike joined in them. They had to drive their hoops a certain
distance, and the one who first reached the goal received a silver coin
for a prize. This coin was fastened to the hoop as a trophy, and the more
noise a hoop made while rolling over the streets the greater the honour
for the owner of it, for it showed that a great many prizes had been
gained. In Drenthe the popular game for boys is 'Man ik sta op je
blokhuis,' similar to 'I am the King of the Castle,' but there is also the
'Windspel.' For the latter a piece of wood and a ball are necessary. The
wood is placed upon a pole and the ball laid on one side of it, then with
a stick the child strikes as hard as possible the other side of the piece
of wood, at the same time calling 'W-i-n-d,' and the ball flies up into
the air, and may be almost lost to sight.

'Boer lap den Buis,' an exciting game from a boy's point of view, is a
general favourite in Gelderland and Overyssel. For this the boys build a
sort of castle with large stones, and after tossing up to see who is to be
'Boer,' the boy on whom the lot has fallen stands in the stone fortress,
and the others throw stones at it from a distance, to see whether they can
knock bits off it. As soon as one succeeds in doing so he runs to get back
his stone, at the same time calling out 'Boer, lap den buis,' signifying
that the 'Boer' must mend the castle. If the 'Boer' accomplishes this, and
touches the bag before he has picked up his stone, they change places, and
the game begins anew.

Little girls of the labouring classes have not much time for games of any
sort, for they are generally required at home to act as nursemaids and
help in many other duties of the home life, but sometimes on summer
afternoons they bring out their younger brothers and sisters, their
knitting and a skipping-rope, which they take in turns, and so pass a few
pleasant hours free from their share (not an inconsiderable one) of
household cares, or in the evenings, when the younger members of the
family are in bed, they will be quite happy with a bit of rope and their
skipping songs, of which they seem to know many hundreds, and which might
be sung with equal reason to any other game under the sun for all the
words have to do with skipping.

After a long spell of rain the first fall of snow is hailed with
delight, for it is a sign that frost is not far off. Jack Frost, after
several preliminary appearances in December, usually pays his first long
visit in January (sometimes, however, this is but a flying visit of two
or three days), and, as a rule, a Dutchman may reckon on a good hard
winter. As soon, therefore, as he sees the snow he thinks of the good
old saying--'Sneeuw op slik in drie dagen ys dun of dik' ('Snow on mud
in three days' time, thin or thick'). Ice is to be expected, and he gets
out his skates with all speed. This is one of the few occasions when the
people of the Netherlands are enthusiastic. Certainly skating is _the_
national sport. The ditches are always the first to be tried, as the
water in them is very shallow, and naturally freezes sooner than the
very deep and exposed waters of river and canal, over which the wind,
which is always blowing in Holland, has fair play; but when once these
are frozen, then skating begins in real earnest. The tracks are all
marked out by the Hollandsche Ysvereeniging, a society which was founded
in 1889 in South Holland, and which the other provinces have now joined.
Finger-posts to point the way are put up by this society at all
cross-roads and ditches, with notices to mark the dangerous places,
while the newspapers of the day contain reports as to which roads are
the best to take, and which trips can be planned. For people living in
South Holland the first trip is always to the Vink at Leyden, as it can
be reached by narrow streams and ditches, and it is quite a sight to see
the skaters sitting at little tables with plates of steaming hot soup
before them. The Vink has been famous for its pea soup many years, and
has been known as a restaurant from 1768. When the Galgenwater is frozen
(the mouth of the Rhine which flows into the sea at Kat wyk), then the
Vink has a still gayer appearance, for not only skaters, but pedestrians
from Leyden and the villages round about that town, flock to this _cafe_
to watch the skating and enjoy the amusing scenes which the presence of
the ice affords them. Then the broad expanse of water, which in summer
looks so deserted and gloomy as it flows silently and dreamily towards
the sea, is dotted ail over with tents, flags, 'baanvegers,' and, if the
ice is strong, even sleighs.

Among the peasant classes of South Holland it is the custom, as soon as
the ice will bear, to skate to Gouda, men and women together, there to buy
long Gouda pipes for the men and 'Goudsche sprits' for the women, and then
to skate home with these brittle objects without breaking them. As they
come along side by side, the farmer holding his pipe high above his head
and the woman carefully holding her bag of cakes, every passer-by knocks
against them and tries to upset them, but it seldom happens that they
succeed in doing so, as a farmer stands very firmly on his skates, and, as
a rule, he manages to keep his pipe intact after skating many miles. The
longest trip for the people of South Holland, North Holland, and Utrecht,
is through these three provinces, and the way over the ice-clad country is
quite as picturesque as in summer-time, the little mills, quaint old
drawbridges, and rustic farmhouses losing nothing of their charm in winter
garb. All along the banks of the canals and rivers little tents are put
up to keep out the wind; a roughly fashioned rickety table stands on the
ice under the shelter of the matting, and here are sold all manner of
things for the skaters to refresh themselves with--hot milk boiled with
aniseed and served out of very sticky cups, stale biscuits, and sweet
cake. The tent-holders call out their wares in the most poetical language
they can muster--

'Leg ereis an! Leg ereis an!
In het tentje by de man.
Warme melk en zoete koek
En een bevrozen vaatedoek.'

['Put up, put up
At the tent with the man;
Warm milk and sweet cake,
And a frozen dish-cloth.']

and they tell you plainly that you may expect unwashed cups, for the cloth
wherewith to wipe them is frozen, as well as the water to cleanse them.

Under the bridges the ice is not always safe, and even if it has become
safe the men break it up so that they may earn a few cents by people
passing over their roughly constructed gangways, and so boards are laid
down by the 'baanvegers' for the skaters to pass over without risking
their lives. Besides making these wooden bridges, the 'baanvegers' keep
the tracks clean. Every hundred yards or so one is greeted by the
monotonous cry of 'Denk ereis an de baanveger,' so that on long trips
these sweepers are a great nuisance, for having to get out one's purse and
give them cents greatly impedes progress. The Ice Society has, however,
minimized the annoyance by appointing 'baanvegers' who work for it and
are paid out of the common funds, so that the members of the society who
wear their badge can pass a 'baanveger' with a clear conscience, while as
the result of this combination you can skate over miles of good and
well-swept ice without interference for the modest sum of tenpence, this
being the cost of membership of the society for the whole season.

[Illustration: Skating to Church.]

The Kralinger Plassen and the Maas near Rotterdam are greatly frequented
spots for carnivals on the ice, but the grandest place for skating and ice
sports of all kinds is the Zuyder Zee. In a severe winter this large
expanse of ice connects instead of dividing Friesland with North Holland.
Here we see the little ice-boats flying over the glossy surface as fast as
a bird on the wing, and sleighs drawn by horses with waving plumes, while
thousands of people flock from Amsterdam to the little Isle of Marken, and
the variety of costume and colour swaying to and fro on the fettered
billows of the restless inland sea makes it seem for the moment as though
the Netherlander's dream had come true, and Zuyder Zee had really become
once more dry land. In winter every one, from the smallest to the
greatest, gives himself up to ice-sports, and even the poor are not
forgotten. In some villages races are proclaimed, for which the prizes are
turfs, potatoes, rice, coals, and other things so welcome to the poor in
cold weather. A racer is appolnted for every poor family, and where there
are no sons big enough to join in the races, a young man of the better
classes generally offers his services, and, when successful, hands his
prize over to the family he undertook to help.

Skating is second nature with the Dutch, and as soon as a child can walk
it is put upon skates, even though they may often be much too big for it.
Moreover, when the ice is good, winter-time affords recreation for the
working as well as the leisured classes, for the canals and rivers become
roads, and the hard-worked errand-boys, the butchers' and the bakers' boys
manage to secure many hours of delightful enjoyment as they travel for
orders on skates. The milkman also takes his milk-cart round on a sledge,
and the farmers skate to market, saving both time and money, for then
there is no railway fare to be paid, and a really good skater goes almost
as fast as a train in Holland--especially the Frisian farmers, for
Frisians are renowned for their swift skating, and the most famous racer
of the commencement of the nineteenth century, Kornelis Ynzes Reen, skated
four miles in five minutes.

But although the ice affords, and always has afforded, so much pleasure,
there are periods in history when the frost caused great anxiety to the
people of the Netherlands. The cities Naarden and Dordrecht are easily
reached by water, and when that is frozen it would give any one free
access to the town, and so in time of war frost was a much-dreaded thing.
In the year 1672 this fear was realized, for when the ships of the Geuzen
round about Naarden were stuck fast in the ice, and the Zuyder Zee was
frozen, the enemy, armed with canoes and battle-axes, came over the ice
from the Y and across the Zuyder Zee to Naarden. The best skaters among
the Geuzen immediately volunteered to meet the Spaniards on the ice. They
took only their swords with them, and while the ships' cannon had fair
play from the bulwarks of the vessels over the heads of the Geuzen into
the Spanish ranks, the Geuzen could approach them fearlessly and
unmolested for a hand-to-hand fight. The Spaniards, who, besides being
very heavily armed were very bad skaters, were soon defeated, for they
kept tumbling over each other. The Geuzen pursued them to Amsterdam, and
then returned to their ships, where they were greeted with great
enthusiasm, and, as the thaw set in the next day, they were happily saved
from a renewed attack.

Chapter XII

Music and the Theatre

Singing was one of the principal social pastimes of the Dutch nation
during the eighteenth and far into the nineteenth century, and the North
Hollander was especially fond of vocal music. When young girls went to
spend the evening at the house of a friend they always carried with them
their 'Liederboek '--a volume beautifully bound in tortoise-shell covers
or mounted with gold or silver. The songs contained in these books were a
strange mixture of the gay and grave. Jovial drinking-songs or
'Kermisliedjes' would find a place next to a 'Christian's Meditation on
Death.' It was an _olla podrida_, in which everybody's tastes were
considered. Recitations were also a feature of these little gatherings.

Nowadays these national songs are rarely heard. French, Italian, and
German songs have taken their place, and it is but seldom one hears a real
Dutch song at any social gathering. The 'people,' too, seem to have
forgotten their natural gift of poetry, for the only songs now heard about
the streets are badly translated French or English ditties. If England
brings out a comic song of questionable art, six months later that song
will have made its way to Holland, and will have taken a popular place in
a Dutch street musician's _repertoire;_ it will be whistled in many
different keys by butcher and baker boys, and will be heard issuing
painfully from the wonderful mechanism of the superfluous concertina. For
almost every one in Holland possesses some musical instrument on which he
plays, well or otherwise, when his daily work is over, or on Sunday
evenings at home. And here a notable characteristic of the Dutch higher
classes must be mentioned by way of contrast. Musical though they are,
trained as they generally are both to play and sing well, they yet seldom
exercise their gifts in a friendly, social, after-dinner way in their own
homes. They become, in fact, so critical or so self-conscious that they
prefer to pay to hear music rendered by recognized artists, and so a by no
means inconsiderable element of geniality is lost to the social and
domestic circle.

The decay of folk-song is the more regrettable, since Holland is rich in
old ballads, some of which, handed down just as the people used to sing
them centuries ago, are quaint, _naive,_ and exceedingly pretty. The
melodies have all been put to modern harmonies by able composers, and
published for the use of the public.

'Het daghet in het oosten,
Het lichtis overal,'

is a little jewel of poetic feeling, and the melody is very sweet. The
story, like most of the songs of the past troublous centuries, tells of
a battlefield where a young girl goes to seek her lover, but finds him
dead. So, after burying him with her own white hands, with his sword
and his banner by his side, she vows entrance into a convent. The story
is a picture in miniature of the times, and as a piece of literature it
ranks high.

Music of some sort finds a place in the homes of the poorest, and the
concert, theatre, and opera are as much frequented by the humble of the
land as by the wealthy and noble born. The servant class on their 'evening
out' frequently go to the French opera, and there is not a boy on the
street but is able to whistle some tune from the great modern operas, such
as 'Faust,' 'Lohengrin,' and other standard works. And no wonder, for the
choristers in the operas walk behind fruit-carts all day long, and often
call out their wares in the musical tones learnt while following their
more select profession as public singers. Some, of course, cannot read a
note of music, and the melodies they have to sing have to be drummed, or
rather trumpeted, into their ears. To this end they are placed in a row,
and a man with a large trumpet stands before them and plays the tune over
and over again until they know it off. In the summer-time whole parties of
these Jewish youths--for Jewish they chiefly are--go about the woods on
their Sabbath day singing the parts they take in the operas in the winter
season, and crowds of people flock to hear them, for their voices are
really well worth listening to.

Concerts are naturally not so largely patronized by the people as are
operas and theatres. In the larger towns of Holland especially theatricals
take a very prominent place in popular relaxation, and even the smaller
towns and villages, should they lack theatres and be unable to get good
theatrical companies to pay them periodical visits, arrange for dramatic
performances by local talent. The popularity of the opera may be judged
from the fact that at Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Groningen, Arnhem
and Utrecht, operas in Dutch and French are regularly given, and
occasionally works in German and even Italian are produced. Money is
scarce in Holland, the people generally have little to spare, so grand
opera-houses, such as are thought necessary in most European cities of any
pretension to culture, are impossible, and the singers can seldom count on
liberal fees. But most of the best works are heard all the same--which,
after all, is the principal thing--and the enjoyment and edification which
result are not less genuine because of the simplicity of the properties
and the humble character of the entire surroundings.

Yet outdoor music possesses a powerful attraction for the Dutch humbler
classes, as for the same classes in most, if not all, countries; and when
in the summer-time there is music in the Wood at The Hague on Sunday
afternoons or Wednesday evenings, the walks round about the 'Tent' are
alive with servants and their lovers, parading decorously arm-in-arm.
Happy fathers, too, with their wives and children in Sunday best,
perambulate the grounds or rest on the seats amongst the trees and listen
to the 'Bosch-muziek.' People of the better class only are members of the
'Witte Societeit,' and sit inside the green paling to listen to the music
and drink something meanwhile. For it is strange but true, that a Dutchman
never seems thoroughly to enjoy himself unless he has liquid of some sort
at hand, and never feels really comfortable without his cigar. Indeed, if
smoking were abolished from places of public amusement, most Dutchmen
would frequent them no more. In winter concerts are given every other
Wednesday at The Hague--and what is true of The Hague applies to Amsterdam
and all other towns of any size in the country--and the Public Hall is
always packed; but besides these 'Diligentia' concerts there are others
given by various Singing Societies, so that there is variety enough to
choose from.

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