Railway-tickets are printed in both languages. So are the names of the
streets in some towns. In the Belgian Parliament, though the members
generally make their speeches in French, they may use Flemish if they
like, and they sometimes do.
Walloon may be described as a very old form of French, but though the
Walloons are the most active and industrious of all the Belgians,
their language is not much known, and you will never hear it spoken
except in the Valley of the Meuse, and in the country parts of
South-West Belgium.
The three Belgian words for Christmas are _Kerstdag_ in Flemish,
_Noel_ in French, and _Nouee_ in Walloon.
CHAPTER XIV
A SHORT HISTORY
I must write just one chapter on Belgian history.
Dates are tiresome things, though they are useful pegs, so to speak,
on which to hang the facts of history, and help us to recollect the
order in which they happened. However, we shall not bother with many
dates. I shall make the whole story as plain and simple as possible;
and, besides, you can skip it all if you find it too stupid and dull.
The first thing to understand about the tiny corner of Europe which is
now called Belgium is that very long ago it was divided into a great
many small States, each of which was ruled over by some Duke, or
Count, or Baron, or some noble with another title, who made peace or
war with his neighbours, just as the Kings of Europe do nowadays.
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