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He required half the merchandise of those who went up the river. He used to cut off the right hands of those who attempted to smuggle, and throw them into the river. In this way Hand werpen, or hand throwing, came to be the name of the place," said the young commander. "I suppose that story is as true now as it ever was. But where shall we go?" asked the doctor.
It was nicknamed by the Germans Hand Werpen, or Hand Throwing; while the Dutchmen called it Antwerp, which meant the same thing. The Duke of Brabant, or Lord of the land, came to the big fellow's fortress and told him to stop. He even shook his fist under the giant's huge nose, and threatened to attack his castle and burn it. But Antigonus only snapped his fingers, and laughed at him.
In Dutch the word werpen means "to throw," and thus the place where the giant lived was called Hand-werpen, which became, in course of time, Antwerp. Perhaps you may not believe this story, but in one of the squares at Antwerp there is the statue of a man called Brabo, who is said to have killed the giant.
The name of Antwerp denotes the town built at a "wharf"; but it sounds very much like the Flemish handt werpen, "hand-throwing": "hence arose the legend of the giant who cut of the hands of those who passed his castle without paying him black-mail, and threw them into the Scheldt."
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