The Queen and Her People
Hindeloopen is to be seen a fine collection of costumes of olden times.
From headgear to footwear there is, so to speak, but one step. The klomp (plural, klompen) takes rank as a national institution. These wooden shoes, or sabots, fashioned out of poplar-wood, do not merely serve to protect the feet; some of them are ornamental, notably those worn on the Island of Marken, which are daintily carved. They can be, and are, used as weapons of defence and offence. Young Dutch David will at times get on even terms with Dutch Goliath should he succeed in being the first to reach the goal aimed at with his wooden missile. Old klompen have sweet uses in their old age, for the Heintjes, Dirkjes, and Pietjes deftly convert them into tjalks (fishing-boats), and sail them along the shore, while the Arisjes, Hilletjes, and Trijntjes watch
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