Rollade was more promising. It suggested somehow a turn-down collar, and sounded courtly. But there was against it the strong objection that it didn’t appear in the Dutch-English lexicon. Rollade therefore was set aside provisionally.
Kraag again offered well, but on inspection proved far too vague, for it included the ideas of cape, neck, nape and hood. That wouldn’t do. It was far too uncertain. Therefore ‘Kraag’ was marked as ‘doubtful.’
ETYMOLOGY AN UNSAFE GUIDE.
Diligence however is its own reward, and I found a prize in the next word. Halsband answered every reasonable expectation. It stood every test I could apply to it.
The Dutch-English lexicon said it was ‘collar’, and nothing more.
Etymology confirmed the dictionary: hals, the neck; band, a band—a band for the neck—what could be clearer? If that wasn’t collar, nothing was.
So I wrote down with much confidence, as my first item, 6 halsbanden. I felt that this was an excellent beginning and that Dutch was not such a difficult language after all. Gunst! I said to myself; for I felt so elated at my success, that in a way I was almost thinking in Dutch. Gunst, uitstekend! now for the next article.
That was cuff. Cuff said the dictionary was slag, manchet, oorveeg and handboei. Which would I take? I examined slag, and learnt it was the proper term for battle, fight, or opportunity.
COMMON-SENSE MISLEADING.
This gave me much food for thought. I turned the matter over in every possible way, yet to no purpose. It was impossible to detect any necessary connection between a ‘battle’ or an ‘opportunity’, and ‘a pair of cuffs’; so I dropped ‘slag’ without regret.