1833 to make room for the present Apothecary's Hall. . . . The Pearl Street door is said to have been used only for the egress of the dead. The orgies of a Dutch funeral are fast receding from the memory of the living. Few remain who have witnessed them. The records of the church show the expenses of the funerals of church paupers two hundred years ago in rum, beer, tobacco, pipes, etc. Mr. Worth mentions Lydius Street as having been named for the venerable gentleman he described, but the editor corrects him: The street was named in honour of Rev. John Lydius (ancestor of Balthazar), who preached here from 1700 to 1709. It was the camp ground of the British armies in the French and Indian wars. The ancient church pasture, which came into the posses- sion of the Dutch Church in 1668, was laid out into lots in 1791, and sold at auction. The streets were named after the domines or ministers of that church. Beginning, with Lydius Street on the north, then Westerlo, Bassett, Nucella, and Johnson run- ning parallel with it. Among those running north and south were Dellius (pronounced Dallius and now so written) , from Rev. Godfrey Dell, who came over in 1683; Frehnghuysen and Van Schee. The reference to the " funeral orgies ' ' of the Albanian Dutch is not fanciful. The dood-fest, or dead feast, was an established custom. Every burgher kept in his Digitized by Microsoft® 532 The Hudson River cellar a cask of wine, spiced, for that particular occa- sion when, he having gone the way of all flesh, his friends and neighbours should assemble to sustain their PLAN OF ALBANY, l6g5 grief with feasting and drinking. The table was loaded with such delicacies as oily-koeks, dood-koeks, rolletjes and bolletjes, hoofdkaas and worst, with many another toothsome concoction, while wine and beer flowed plentifully. And the women, who occupied a separate Digitized by Microsoft® An Old Dutch Town 533 chamber from their men folk, sipped their burnt wine and discussed the viands and their neighbours. If any- one went home sober from a dood-fest it was not con- sidered a mark of special virtue. But there were livelier festivals than those incident to the taking-off of honest and considerate burghers. Many an odd custom marked the keeping of such holi- days as Keestijd (Christmas), Nieuwjaarsdag, Paasch- dag (Easter), and Pinxterfeest. Christmas, to be sure, was not held in great esteem, for New Year's day was the occasion upon which St. Nicholas and his vrouw, Molly Grietje, visited the faithful. About the fireplaces of the old Albany houses, on New Year's eve, the children stood a-row and sang the time-honoured verses: Santa Klaus, goedt heilig man! Knopyebest van Amsterdam, Van Amsterdam aan Spailje, Van Spanje aan Orange, En brang deze kindjes eenige graps. The old custom of making New Year's calls has con- tinued down to our own day, dying hard after more than two centuries of use. Pinxter was the negroes' festival, and celebrated by the slaves under the leadership of the " Pinxter King' with wildest mummeries. They paraded in grotesque costumes through the streets, varying their march with uncouth dances and accompanying them with their own songs. The last of these parades took place in 1822. Digitized by Microsoft® 534 The Hudson River It is hard to get away from the thread of homely yet deUghtful Ufe that winds in and out between the landmarks of Albany's history and the biographies of her many eminent men. We listen to the eloquence of Jay or Livingston, but with an ear open to catch the crooning of a cradle-song, somewhere within a gable- ended dwelling, over whose sanded floor some Schuy- ler, or Beekman, or Van Dyke has taken his first tottering steps in infancy. How many a small morsel of Dutch humanity, nest- ling his flaxen poll on his mother's arm, has closed his blue eyes to the music of Trip a trop a troontjes, De varkens in de boontjes, De koetjes in de klaver, De paarden in de haver, De eenjes in de waterplas, De kalf in de lang gras, So groot mijn kleine poppetje was. Varkens are pigs ; boontjes, as every one must know, is the Dutch equivalent for bean vines; and koetjes for cows. Klaver needs translation no more than lang gras, or kalf. Paarden are horses, eenjes, ducks; a haver is an oat-field; and, of course, a waterplas is a pond — and then, " So great my little poppet was," a conclusion illogical but dear. What a lullaby that was commencing : Sleep, baby, sleep, In the fields runs a sheep, A sheep with four white feet. Digitized by Microsoft® An Old Dutch Town 535 Only the baby of Saugerties or