overcome by sleep; others that throw
themselves backward as if in fright; some lean toward each other till
their roofs almost touch, as if they were confiding secrets; some reel
against each other as though tipsy; a few lean backward between others
that lean forward, like malefactors being dragged away by policemen.
Rows of houses seem to be bowing to church-steeples; other groups are
paying attention to one house in their centre, and seem to be plotting
against some palace. I will soon let you into the secret of all this.

[Illustration: In Rotterdam.]

But it is neither the shape of the houses nor their inclination that
seemed to me the most curious thing about them.

One must observe them carefully, one by one, from top to bottom, and
in their diversity they are as interesting as a picture.

In some of the houses, in the middle of the gable, at the top of the
facade, a crooked beam projects, fitted with a pulley and a piece of
cord to raise and lower buckets or baskets. In others, a stag's,
sheep's, or goat's head looks down from a little round window. Under
this head there is a line of whitewashed stones or a wooden beam which
cuts the facade in two. Below the beam there are two large windows,
shaded by awnings like canopies, under which hang little green
curtains, over the upper panes of the window. Under the green curtain
are two white curtains, draped back to reveal a swinging bird-cage or
a hanging basket full of flowers. Below this flower-basket screening
the lower window-panes there is a frame with a very fine wire netting,
which prevents pedestrians from looking into the rooms. Behind the
wire netting, in the divisions between the netting and the framework
of the window, there are tables ornamented with china, glass, flowers,
statuettes and other trifles. On the stone sills of windows which open
into the street there is a row of little flower-pots. In the middle or
at one side of the window-sill there is a curved iron hook which
supports two movable mirrors joined like the backs of a book,
surmounted by a third movable glass, so arranged that from within the
house one can see everything that happens in the street without one's
self being seen. In some houses a lantern projects between the
windows. Below the windows is the house-door or shop-door. If it be a
shop-door, there will be carved above it either a negro's head with
the mouth wide open or the smirking face of a Turk. Sometimes the sign
is an elep