[206] We rechten het huys op—we erected (i.e., completed the erection of) our house. [↑]
[207] Een Meyboom—a May-tree. According to Adelung, in his Hochdeutsches Wörterbuch, “Maybaum” is in many parts of Germany the vernacular name of the birch-tree, especially the common species (Betula alba), also called the May-birch, or simply “May”,—as the hawthorn is called in England,—branches of which are used for ornamenting the houses and churches in the month of May.
The same name is given to the green branch of a tree, or at times the whole tree itself—frequently the birch, but not exclusively so—which is set up on occasions of festivity. This is the meyboom of the Dutch; and it would seem on the one hand to be the original of our English May-pole, and on the other to have degenerated into the flag which our builders are in the habit of hoisting on the chimneys of houses, when raised. [↑]
[208] Alsoo wy nu … laghen—because we now lay. [↑]
[209] Heel open—quite open. [↑]
[210] Wy laghen tot den grondt toe bevroren—we lay frozen right down to the ground. [↑]