covers a frame of iron; and bags for carrying the ore. The hides of animals are also used for external trousers when it is necessary to ride long journeys; and on the East Coast the gauchos draw the skin of a horse's hinder leg over their own thigh leg and foot, and when it is dried it appears like an outer skin of their own, rather than an article of clothing. Wool is comparatively common, not only of the sheep of the country, but also of the llama the alpaca and the vicuña. The wool of this last animal is rare and small in amount; it is also remarkably fine and silky to the touch, and is therefore expensive. The process of manufacture throws us back to primitive times in our own 11. Spindle Whorl; Pottery. country; and is somewhat like the following. The wool is spun without the intervention of any machinery, but by the simple spindle and whorl.* Numerous specimens of the latter implement, the spindelstein of the Germans, are procured in almost all great finds of antiquitiest; 12. Spindle Whorl; Lead. because it was made of some hard material, and therefore is * These whorls are found among the remains of people of the Stone period, or to whom metal was unknown; they are also found among the remains of all more recent communities.-In our old English writers, the term occurs under a variety of forms; but the chief one is that found in the Pictorial Vocabulary, viz., "Vertebrum, a aworowylle." "Vertebrum dicitur vertel, scilicet illud quod pendet in fuso.-John de Garlande. There is a prominent notice of it, as of many other instruments, in Gwillim's Heraldry. "This spindle differeth much "from those preceding, in respect to the crook above, and of the wharrow "impressed upon the lower part thereof. This sort the spindle women do use "most commonly to spin withal, at a distaff put under their girdle, so as they "oftentimes spin therewith going. The round ball at the lower end serveth to "the fast twisting of the thread, and is called a wharrow.”—Gwillim, p. 300. + They are found among the remains of the pile-houses in Switzerland; showing that spinning and weaving were well known to the inhabitants. It has been shown that they were also sometimes used as buttons. Some have been found recently in the remains of huts of the primitive inhabitants of Anglesea, at Holyhead; and they have been described by the Hon. W. Owen Stanley, M.P., and Albert Way, Esq. almost imperishable.* In our own country, the distaff was used 。 alábjū for the purpose of containing the material to be spun, and it is so to this day in other countries. It was a stick which passed under the right arm, and frequently under the girdle; and on its top was fastened the flax or wool to be spun. It was succeeded alabi by the "rock," which formed a part of the 13. Reel. spinning wheel.† In connexion with this subject, it may be interesting to see the domestic reel of the fifteenth century, taken from the Pictorial Vocabulary," Hoc alabrum, a rele." "The spindle was a round stick or metal rod. When the thread was suffi "ciently twisted, it was wound upon this, as coarse bands are still when made in 66 66 cottages from tow or wool. When the spindle was pretty well filled, it was necessary to prevent the thread from becoming unravelled through shuffling "down from the centre to the end. A knob was placed on one end, therefore, of "wood, stone, or metal; which fixed the centre of gravity, and served the same purpose as the end of a spool or bobbin. Large numbers of flat and round "stones, varying from an inch to two inches in diameter, are found where "antiquities are usually procured, and their uses were long unknown. It was "generally supposed that they were amulets; but the opinion now is that they "were used on the spindle. Examples occur frequently in tumuli of the North "of Europe, of France, Germany, and in almost all parts of Great Britain and "Ireland. The proper name has been already applied-spindle-whorl.”— Spinning and Weaving. Ulster Journal. 66 66 "In our old English literature, the distaff is alluded to as an ordinary "instrument; and the subject of spinning is mentioned in a connection in "which no other instrument could have suited. Thus Shakspeare, in the Twelfth Night, uses the expression 'it hangs like flax on a distaff,' and the "adoption of such a simile shows that the fact must have been a common one. "But long before, if we may credit the Robin Hood Ballads,-which celebrated, probably in the fifteenth century, the deeds of outlaws of the thirteenth, "the use of the distaff is indicated. In the ballad of Robin Hood and the 666 Bishop,' the former is represented as changing clothes with an old woman, "and taking the instruments of her industry, the spindle and twine' with him, "to the greenwood. It is said, that with his spindle and twine he oft looked "behind;' so that the flax, the thread, and the distaff, were obviously borne "about like the yarn, needles, and work of a modern knitter. The distaff was "afterwards spoken of figuratively; and Dunbar, a Scottish poet of the close of "the fifteenth century, speaks of wives spinning on "rocks." The instrument "is still commonly used in many places on the continent of Europe. In the English exhibition of the French School of Fine Arts [1857], the distaff was "figured by Isidore Patrois and Constant Troyon. The latter represented a loop "on the dress to confine it to the body. The term 'distaff' is derived from the "Saxon, and appears to be of purely English origin; while "rock" reaches us "from North Britain, and is derived from the Scandinavian branch of the "Teutonic family of languages."-Ulster Journal.-One of the double pictures, 66 I saw no appearance of a distaff where the spindle was used; but the Indian woman 15 inches. placed a coil of the "roving" of wool round her right or left wrist, and thus had the supply of her material literally "at hand." Though I wrote two essays* on spinning and weaving, ten years ago, (some passages from which have just been quoted,) there was one part which I could not understand, nor could any one who had seen the operation give me definite information respecting it. This was, how the thread which had been already spun was kept from ravelling, while the spindle was whirled round to twist a new portion; for it is clear that the finished portion of the thread should be isolated in some way from the unfinished portion. In practice, this is done in two ways. (1) A slit is made in the top of the spindle, or perhaps at one side, and the finished portion of the thread is drawn tightly through this. The result is, that the twisted portion is separated by this "clip" or holder, and that the twisting can extend only to the new portion of the thread, viz., to that which is between this notch and the fingers of the spinner 14. Spindle, Whorl, Roving, and Thread. such as used to be common in Bible illustrations, is contained in the Cottonian MSS. On one side of it an angel hands a spade to Adam and a distaff to Eve; on the other the implements are in use, and we see that " Adam delved and Eve span."-Knight's Pictorial England, i, 286. • Ulster Journal of Archæology, v, pp. 92-110, 169–185, } near the roving. (2) The spun portion is looped over the top of the spindle, as is usual when spindle and wool are laid aside for the time, and thus the ravelling process is prevented, while the twisting is confined to the part which requires it. (3) The same effect would be produced by inserting a pin into the spun coil, so as to hold down the last of the finished thread; but in the localities to which I now refer, wire pins are scarcely known. The same practice has no doubt prevailed from the earliest times; for in the graves of the dead at Arica, the spindle is 15, Spindle and Whorl, from the Graves at Arica.-7 inches. found by the side of a dead woman who had twirled it perhaps a century or two before the arrival of Pizarro and his Spaniards.* One of these I procured, and also a delicate spindle on which the thread still remains, apparently cotton. 16. Spindle with Thread, from the Graves at Arica.-6 inches. In connexion with this, an incident occurred which shows the jealous disposition of the Indian people. I was very anxious to become the possessor of the first spindle and wool * As the idea of immortality, held by all heathen nations has ever been this present life slightly diversified, so the implements of war and the chase were placed in the grave of the man, and the objects of household toil in that of the woman. Even the domestic animals were supposed capable of re-appearing; and hence the horse or the dog was frequently interred with his master. "Yet simple nature to his hope has given "Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, an humbler Heaven; "He thinks, admitted to that equal sky "His faithful dog shall bear him company."-Pope. |