Things Seen in Holland
gave it back to the city, the Queen is the city's guest during her sojourn there.
Men and women display a predilection for jewellery, and there are in every small town—nay, in every village—one or more jewellers' shops, whose wares are as tempting as those of their fellow-shopkeepers in the cities. Gems are at a discount with the countryfolk, but ornaments in gold and silver abound. Many of these resemble the five-pointed khoumsa of the Western Arab. How did the mysterious “five” penetrate from the western coast of Morocco to the heart of the Netherlands? Did it travel from Mogador to Madrid, and thence with Alva's female camp-followers to Holland? Certain it is that rings and brooches of the khoumsa pattern are to be met with in Holland, in Belgium, and as far down the French coast as the little fishing village of Le Portel, near
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