[Illustration: BOATS MADE FROM SHOES, HOLLAND (HAITÉ).]
Edam cheese is one of Holland’s famous products. The people are wonderfully careful in making it. They take great care of the cows; when the weather is wet or the flies troublesome, they put blankets over them to protect them. The stables where they keep them are as clean as soap and water will make them; the stalls are made of handsomely planed wood, and there is a window at each one to let in light and to give the cows a chance to look out on the green meadows. The cheeses are made of cream and are pressed in clean, white, earthenware moulds, into the shape and size of cannon balls. They are then colored and sent to market. The greatest cheese market of Holland is at Alkmaar. Scores of boatfuls are there unloaded every market day. The market is at the water’s edge. The cheeses are colored orange or red, and are oiled and wiped till they shine. They are stacked in piles like cannon balls.
Among famous Dutch towns is Delft, where they make a beautiful white porcelain with blue designs, which is a favorite everywhere: then there is Schiedam, where they make “Schnapps,” or gin, which is as famous probably as the Delft ware, but not so praiseworthy; then there is Haarlem, famous for its flower gardens, its tulips and begonias; at Leiden there is a noble old university and a museum where one may see objects made and used by all the Strange Peoples we shall study and many more. Holland has had many great artists, and their works are preserved in the art galleries at Rotterdam, Leiden, The Hague, Haarlem, and Amsterdam. Holland was once the great commercial and naval nation of the world: that day is past, but her ships still sail all seas; the little kingdom is still a centre of intelligence, industry, and education, and the thrifty and wealthy Dutch are a worthy example of the Fair Whites.
Among the dark whites of Europe the Portuguese, Spanish, Italians, and Greeks are conspicuous. In speech they are kin to each other, and to the fair whites. How different they are otherwise! They are handsomer in face, more lithe and graceful in body, more quickly aroused, more changeable in purpose, than the fair whites. Their faces, their gestures, their movements, more emphatically betray their emotions. They live more in the present than the somewhat sober and sombre northern peoples.