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of money on the plate, for the expenses of the fête. When the dancing under the linden was finished, they went into the public-houses, or to supper, and, returning, the dancing in the restaurants was kept up sometimes until four in the morning. The fête lasts three days, but on Tuesday it is the married ladies who have the dance of honor, under the linden on the public place, with the young men. When the violin went ting! ting! the young men would kiss the married women on each cheek, and then everybody would laugh; perhaps the husbands would be looking on. When I was young I danced every year, and afterwards when I was married, and went back to the village, I would dance with my children.

Mrs. Willems herself is from the Walloon country.

Not long after my arrival, Mrs. Willems accompanied me to visit an old printing-house at Antwerp, now become a museum. I am told that it belonged for about three hundred years to the family Plantin-Moretus, Plantin having bought it in 1579. Moretus was the son-in-law of Plantin, and the printing-house continued in the same family until 1865. In 1876 the city of Antwerp bought this ancient collection from a member of the family for one million five hundred thousand francs, and it was opened as a museum soon after. In the office of the head of the establishment, upon the walls, instead of paper, are pieces of leather about one and a half feet long and nearly as wide, sewed together. These are figured in gold and colors. They were found under seven coverings of wallpaper, and have all been repaired. In another room are two printing-presses of 1540. Among many other things I see a magnificent Polyglot Bible of 1572, printed with

the permission of Philip II. In another place we are shown Syriac and Samaritan characters, or types; and the guide says to Mrs. W., "We read that the good God spoke to a Samaritan woman,-see, here are Samaritan types." I see over a door an inartistic picture of a man sitting at a table upon which there seems to be a fowl, while he holds a loaf in his hands. The guide tells us that it is the good God, who blesses the bread before eating, which Mrs. Willems explains to mean Jesus Christ blessing the bread. And here in this connection I wish to introduce a little anecdote of something that occurred elsewhere. I asked a young lady at Antwerp what her brother-in-law is. And quietly, much as one might say at home, "He is a Unitarian," she replied, "Atheist."

I have come to Antwerp at the time of a great festival. Thursday, the 15th of August, is the four hundredth anniversary of the guild erected in 1478 in honor of Our Lady, patroness of Antwerp, on the festival of the Assumption and the ten following days. I copy from the notice the following, which was in Flemish, and not, like the former, in French also: "Alles tot meerdere Eer en Glorie van God en van de Allerheilijste Magd en moeder Gods Maria," or, translated, "All for the honor and glory of God and of the most holy maid and mother of God, Mary.” There is in the cathedral an image of Mary and the infant Jesus, said to be several hundred years old. This image I see in the cathedral, like a big doll, dressed in some stiff material which I infer to be cloth of gold.

At Antwerp I see a hearse go by. It is black, and on the body is painted in orange a sort of grave-yard scene, with two skeletons and other objects. Above at the corners

of the hearse are gilded angels. At the time of a funeral I see a yellow-fringed cloth lying over the coffin and hanging down the sides of the hearse, nearly hiding those ghastly emblems of mortality. A priest is in the first carriage, and only men in the others, but whether this is the universal rule I cannot tell. In a funeral procession I see smoke issuing from a carriage window, for within young men have cigarettes.

Mrs. Willems tells me that the country-people of Belgium put poppy-seeds into the children's pap to make them sleep while they work in the fields. She had before taken me to visit a crèche, a sort of temporary infant asylum, where, among many others, I saw a child, quite a nice one, but of a very peculiar appearance,-dark around the eyes. I could not understand the cause of this, hearing from the teacher that she had not a bad habit, which I suspected; but when I hear about the poppy-seeds, it strikes me that this may be the cause. Mrs. Willems adds that in the town it is quite common to give slaap-drank, or sleepdrink, to the children; that hired nurses carry the bottle in their pockets to keep the baby asleep (or children under two years); and that mothers give it.

CHAPTER XXV.

DURING my stay at Antwerp, Mrs. Willems kindly accompanies me on several excursions among the farming population. We travel almost entirely by rail, and railway travelling is cheap here. Our first trip is only about three

miles from the city, and when we alight at the station Mrs. W. inquires the way of a gentleman, who, with a lady, has also got off of the train. When he learns what we are out for, he says that they are going to visit a farm of his, and it is concluded for us to accompany them; but first we must pass through the village, where he is repairing a house. I am quite shocked at the station by seeing wagons drawn by dogs, holding peasants returning from market with their baskets. I see three persons, drawn by three dogs abreast, but when it comes to two dogs dragging two women, in the August heat, it looks worse. We meet many of these dogs laboring along on the stone pavement of the highway; must not their paws be sore? They have a means of expression, however, that does not belong to horses. I hear a barking and see a man whipping, for he wants his team to get over the railroad track. Mr. Pulmann, as I call the gentleman whom we accompany, says that these people got up at one o'clock to go to market at Antwerp, and they still have a long distance to go. He says that they live in a poor country, where there is a great deal of sand, but he afterwards adds that they are people without care; they do not read the newspapers, and do not concern themselves about what is going on in America. They bring eggs, butter, chickens, and many rabbits, but probably not fruits, from their country; and then English dealers meet them, and take their produce. Mr. Pulmann adds that these English agents come to his farm to ask the farmer to sell them his fruits by the tree; they will come themselves to gather them. He adds that more agricultural products go to England than Antwerp itself consumes. Antwerp is said to have one hundred and twenty thousand souls, but England pays better. After passing through the village, we at length reach the farm of Mr. Pulmann, and find the

farm-house to be a long building of brick, with a firm, excellent roof of osiers, or willow, laid on like thatch, and seven or eight inches thick. Such a roof is said to be good for the grain, which is, of course, kept in the garret. The house is very pleasantly situated in a grassy yard, with a number of fine elms in front, and some laurels or baytrees in tubs, and medlars growing,-fruits that are gathered in November. In this handsome yard there is no manureheap, as so often seen in France. The bake-house is a separate large building, for fear of fire. It has a tile roof, which is cheaper than the willow. The buildings and the yard are surrounded by a ditch or fish-pond, more than twelve yards broad, in winter about three or four yards deep, and measuring about fifty yards long on each side. In it are carp, eels, and other fish. I wish to know the age of the house. "We will look," says Mr. Pulmann ; and when we go to one end, we find large iron figures put into the wall giving the date of the house as 1615 (or five years older than Massachusetts). The ground here is dug in ditches at a distance from each other of about a yard and a half; not all the fields are thus dug, but the wet ones. Land here without buildings is worth about five hundred and thirty dollars an acre, and when there is competition may run up higher than seven hundred. Farmers here rent for money, the rent payable every six months, and amounting to about ten dollars the acre. The use of the buildings is thrown in, and the farmer pays all taxes. The taxes amount to seven per cent. of the revenue, the government making an estimate once in ten years of the value of the property, and putting the taxes at seven per cent. But although the farmer pays the taxes, that does not make him a voter; he pays them to the landlord. His tax on windows, two francs a year for each, the tax

on his doors, on

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