all day long, so that any one who enters the room can at once admire their
beauty. Some of the more wealthy have a 'best bedroom,' which they keep
carefully locked. They dust it every day, and clean it out once a week,
but never use it. In South Holland it is more customary to have a
'pronk-kamer' ('show-room'), which is not a bedroom, but a kind of
parlour. This room is never entered by the inhabitants of the house except
at a birth or a death, and in the latter case they put the corpse there.
In Hindeloopen the dead are put in the church to await burial, and there
they rest on biers specially made for the occasion. A different bier is
used to represent the trade or profession or sex of the dead person. These
biers are always most elaborately painted (as, indeed, are all things in
Hindeloopen), with scenes out of the life of a doctor, a clergyman, a
tradesman, or a peasant.

[Illustration: Type of an Overyssel Farmhouse.]

The costume worn by the peasantry is always quaint, and this is
especially so in Hindeloopen. The waistband of a peasant woman takes
alone an hour and a half to arrange. It consists of a very long, thin,
black band, which is wound round and round the waist till it forms one
broad sash. The dress itself includes a black skirt and a check bodice, a
white apron, and a dark necktie; from the waistband hangs at the
right-hand side a long silver chain, to which are attached a silver
pincushion, a pair of scissors, and a needle-case; then on the left-hand
side hangs a reticule with silver clasps; and a long mantle, falling
loose from the shoulders to the hem of the skirt, is worn over all
out-of-doors. This latter is of some light-coloured material, with a
pattern of red flowers and green leaves. On the head three caps are worn,
one over the other, and for outdoor wear a large, tall bonnet is donned
by way of completing the costume.