Her (like the lady in Mr. Wells's story) they dressed
and civilised, and taught to sow and spin, but could never make
talk. Possibly it is this mermaid who, caught in a fisherman's net,
is represented in bas-relief (as the fish that pleases all tastes)
on one of the facades of Edam, with accompanying verses which must
not be translated, embodying comments upon the nature of the haul by
various typical and very plain-spoken members of society--a soldier
and a schoolmaster, a monk and a fowler, for example.
Edam has yet another hero. On the Dam bridge are iron-backed benches
which never grow rusty. "One owes this particularity," says _Through
Noord-Holland_, "to the invention of an Edamer about 1569, who also
took his secret with him into the grave."
To the little fishing village of Volendain, paradise of quaint
costumes and gay prettinesses, artists invariably resort. Like much
of Monnickendam, and indeed almost all Dutch seaside settlements, the
village is, if not below sea-level, almost invisible from the water,
on account of an obliterating dyke. At the Helder one can consider
the rampart reasonable, but here, where there is no foe but the Zuyder
Zee, it may seem fantastic. If we lived there in winter, however, the
precaution would soon be justified, for the Zuyder Zee can on occasion
roar like a lion.
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