Help

Hello Rua, I saw that you are a native Dutch speaker; could you help me with something? In the last full paragraph of this page, what do you understand by this sentence?

"De gemeene man maekt messen van zekeren steen, welke messen zy Ituque noemen: en ook van riet, die zy Taquoaquia heten. Anders gebruiken ook Hollantse messen."

More specifically, is it possible to unequivocally establish what "Ituque" refers to, whether it is the stone or the knife made from that stone? The same applies to "Taquoaquia": does it refer to the bamboo or the knife made from that bamboo?

Thank you!

Ituque definitely is the name of the stone knives. For Taquoaquia it's a bit more subtle, but since "riet" is neuter, "die" cannot refer to it, and therefore probably refers to the knives made of it. This seems like an odd sentence structure though, and given the spelling I figure it's an old syntax that people don't use anymore.