SECTION X.

SHE LAYETH HER HANDS TO THE SPINDLE, AND HER HANDS HOLD

THE DISTAFF.

a not the sacred writer further enlarged upon the character of this woman, had this single praise been uttered of her, it would, to those for whom it was immediately intended, be of itself a high commendation. The Rabbins record and old saying of the Hebrews, that there is no wisdom in a woman but in the distaff; implying, as do the words of the text, that a woman's great praise is her industry. The Greeks and Romans would have accorded fully with the implied sentiment. When a Roman lady became a bride, she received many a hint, from the marriage ceremony, that she was about to enter on active domestic employment; and again and again the word thalassio resounded on her ear. This word,

which signified the vessel in which were kept the materials for spinning, and the work already spun, reminded her, not only of the spindle and the distaff, to which it might directly refer, but was also significant of the various household occupations in which the women of ancient days felt it their duty and their honor to excel.

"In those old times,

There was far less of gadding, and far more
Of home-born, heart-felt comfort, rooted strong
In industry, and bearing such rare fruit
As wealth might never purchase."

It was not until the more degenerate days of Rome, when luxury had supplanted the habits of the older state of society, that spinning and weaving were left to the slave. In earlier times, the bride went to her new home amid the throng of rejoicing maidens; and the young attendants carried in their hands the distaff and the spindle, with the gay colored wools hanging about them; —to all it spoke the same lesson,- the lesson so often inculcated by the Roman writers,- that a woman should resemble

the bee for industry, and imitate Minerva, whose wisdom was so truly womanly in its direction, that she was said to be the first who ever wrought a web.

It was the pride of Augustus Cæsar, that his imperial robes, his fringed tunic, and costly girdle, were wrought in his household, by the hands of his wife, his sister, his daughter, and his granddaughters. So, too, Alexander the Great, when advising the mother of Darius to teach her nieces to imitate the Grecian ladies in spinning wool, showed her the garments which he wore, and told her they were made by his sisters. The virtuous Lucretia worked with her maidens at the spinningwheel; and Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquin, wrought woollen robes so well, that long after her death, her spinning implements, together with a robe of her manufacture, were hung up in the Temple of Fortune; a constant monument of her taste and skill, and an intimation to Roman maids and matrons that they, too, should lay their hands tc the spindle, and their hands should hold the distaff

The Jewish Scriptures so frequently refer to the

industry of women in occupations of this kind, that one can easily imagine the matron

“At her wheel,

Spinning amain, as if to overtake

The never-halting time; or, in her turn,
Teaching some novice of the sisterhood

Her skill in this or other household work."

The ancient spindle or spinning-wheel was held by the right hand, and turned round, while the distaff or staff around which the wool was rolled was held in the bend of the left arm, and the thread drawn over the fingers of the left hand, so that both hands were employed.

The spindle and the distaff are the most ancient form of the spinning apparatus, and, in an improved condition, were long used even in our own country; hence the word spinster; and the English maiden or mother might often be seen sitting at her wheel

"In summer, ere the mower was abroad

Among the dewy grass-in early spring,

Ere the last star had vanished."

But time has brought its wondrous improvements and great changes, and the well-constructed spin