Dutch Sports and Games, 1902
Holland, like other countries, is indebted to primitive and classic times for most of its national amusements and children's games, which have been handed down from generation to generation.
From: 1902 C.E. To: 1902 C.E.
Location: The Netherlands
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Dutch Life in Town and Country by P. M. Hough, 1902.
Holland, like other countries, is indebted to primitive and classic times for most of its national amusements and children's games, which have been handed down from generation to generation. Many of the same games have been played under many differing Governments and opposing creeds. Hollander and Spaniard, Protestant and Catholic alike, have found common ground in those games and sports which afford so welcome a break in daily work.
Hinkelbaan, for example, found its way into the Netherlands from far Phoenicia, whose people invented it. The game of cockal, Bikkelen, still played by Dutch village children on the blue doorsteps of old-fashioned houses, together with Kaatsen, was introduced into Holland by Nero Claudius Druses, and it is stated that he laid out the first Kaatsbaan, The Frisian peasant is very fond of this game, and also of Kolven, the older form of golf, and often on a Sunday morning after church he may be seen, dressed in his velvet suit and low-buckled shoes, engaged in these outdoor sports.
About a century ago a game called Malien was universally played in South Holland and Utrecht. For this it was necessary to have a large piece of ground, at one end of which poles were erected, joined together by a porch. The ball was driven by a Malien kolf, a long stick with an iron head and a leather grip, and it had to touch both poles and roll through the porch. The Malieveld at The Hague and the Maliebaan at Utrecht remind one of the places in which this game was played.
In Friesland the Sunday game for youths is Het slingeren met Dimterkoek—throwing Deventer cake. Four persons are required to play this game. The players divide themselves into opposite parties, and play against each other. First—they toss up to see which of the parties and which of the boys shall begin. He on whom the lot falls is allowed to give his turn to his opponent, which he often does if, on feeling the cake, he notices that it is soft and likely to break easily. If, on the contrary, it is hard, he keeps the first throw for himself.
Holding the cake firmly in his right hand, he takes a little run, bends backward, and with a sudden swing throws the cake forward (as one throws a stone) so that it flies away a good distance, breaking off just at the grip. This piece, called hanslik, or handpiece, he must keep in his hand, for if he drops it he must let his turn pass by once, and his throw is not counted. The distance of the throw is now measured and noted down, whereupon one of the opposing party takes the piece of cake and throws it, and so it goes on alternately till each has had a turn. The distances of the throws of every two boys are counted together, and the side which has the most points wins.
There are also games played only at certain seasons of the year, as the eiergaaren at Easter-time. This was very popular even in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. On Easter Monday all the village people betake themselves to the principal street of the dorp to watch the eiergaarder. At about two o'clock in the afternoon the innkeeper who provides the eggs appears upon the scene with a basket containing twenty-five. These he places on the road at equal distances of twelve feet from each other.
In the middle of the road is then placed a tub of water, on which floats a very large apple, the largest he has been able to procure. Two men are chosen from the ranks of the villagers. The one is led to the tub, his hands are tied behind his back, and he is told to eat the floating apple; the other has to take the basket in his hand and pick up while running all the eggs and arrange them in the basket before the apple is eaten.
He who finishes his task first is the winner, and carries off the basket of eggs as a prize. It provokes great fun to see the man trying to get hold of the floating apple, which escapes so easily from the grasp of his teeth, but some men are wise enough to push the apple against the side of the tub, and of course as soon as they have taken one bite the rest is easily eaten.
When the game is over, the greater number of the villagers go and drink to the good health of the winner at the public-house, and so the innkeeper makes a good thing out of this custom also, and for a game like this it is certainty wise to refresh one's self after the event.
Skittles and billiards are very popular with the peasant and working classes on Sunday afternoons, the only free time a labourer has for recreation. Games of chance, also, in which skill is at a minimum, are as numerous in Holland as in any other country.
Children's games naturally occupy a large share in young Netherlands life, especially outdoor romping games. Of indoor games there are very few, a fact which may, perhaps, be accounted for by the custom of allowing children to play in the streets. In former days, children of all classes played together in outdoor sports and games, and developed both their muscles and their republican character.
Even Prince Frederik Hendrik (who was brother to and succeeded Prince Maurits in 1625), when at school at Leyden, mixed freely with his more humble companions, and was often mistaken for an ordinary schoolboy, and an old woman once sharply rebuked him for daring to use her boat-hook to fish his ball out of the water into which it had fallen.
Nor did she notice to whom she was speaking until a passer-by called her attention to the fact that it was the Prince, whereupon the poor old soul became so frightened that she durst not venture out of her house for weeks from imaginary fear of falling into the clutches of the law, and ending her days in prison.
Games may be divided into two classes, those played with toys and those for which no toys are needed; but whatever the games may be they all have their special seasons. Once a man wrote an almanack on children's games, and noted down all the different sports and their seasons, but, as the poet Huggens truly said,
"De kindren weten tyd van knickeren en kooten,
En zonder almanack en ist hen nooit ontschoten,"
which, freely translated, means that children know which games are in season by intuition, and do not need an almanack, so he might have saved himself the trouble.
"The children know the time to play marbles and kooten,
and without an almanack have not forgotten."
In the eighteenth century, driving a hoop was as popular an amusement with children as it is now, only then it was also a sport, and prizes were given to the most skilful. In fact, hoop-races were held, and boys and girls alike joined in them. They had to drive their hoops a certain distance, and the one who first reached the goal received a silver coin for a prize. This coin was fastened to the hoop as a trophy, and the more noise a hoop made while rolling over the streets the greater the honour for the owner of it, for it showed that a great many prizes had been gained.
In Drenthe the popular game for boys is Man ik sta op je blokhuis, similar to "I am the King of the Castle," but there is also the Windspel. For the latter a piece of wood and a ball are necessary. The wood is placed upon a pole and the ball laid on one side of it, then with a stick the child strikes as hard as possible the other side of the piece of wood, at the same time calling "W-i-n-d," and the ball flies up into the air, and may be almost lost to sight.
Boer, lap den buis, an exciting game from a boy's point of view, is a general favourite in Gelderland and Overyssel. For this the boys build a sort of castle with large stones, and after tossing up to see who is to be "boer," the boy on whom the lot has fallen stands in the stone fortress, and the others throw stones at it from a distance, to see whether they can knock bits off it. As soon as one succeeds in doing so he runs to get back his stone, at the same time calling out "Boer, lap den buis," signifying that the “boer" must mend the castle. If the "boer" accomplishes this, and touches the bag before the other has picked up his stone, they change places, and the game begins anew.
Little girls of the labouring classes have not much time for games of any sort, for they are generally required at home to act as nursemaids and help in many other duties of the home life, but sometimes on summer afternoons they bring out their younger brothers and sisters, their knitting, and a skipping-rope, which they take in turns, and so pass a few pleasant hours free from their share (not an inconsiderable one) of house-hold cares, or in the evenings, when the younger members of the family are in bed, they will be quite happy with a bit of rope and their skipping songs, of which they seem to know many hundreds, and which might be sung with equal reason to any other game under the sun for all the words have to do with skipping.
Hough, P. M. Dutch Life in Town and Country. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1902.
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