156 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



fibers are twisted with the palm of the hand across the bare 

 thigh. As the good lady's cord lengthens, she fills her netting 

 needle and works it into her net. . . The example of one 

 of the Samoan women twisting, without the aid of a spindle, 

 strips of bark into cord is as near to the invention of spinning 

 as we may hope to come." Mason (Woman's Share in 

 Primitive Culture, p. 68). 



From the tightly twisted grass stems of the hay-rope, it is 

 not a long step to binding-twine, made of long cleaned bast 

 fibers; nor thence to rope, which is a compound of such 

 twines; nor thence to cords and thread, made of shorter, 

 softer and finer fibers of linen and of cotton. It is the twisting 

 that grips the overlapped fibers together and holds them by 



PlG. 62. Loosely twisted fibers of coarse twine. 



mutual pressure. Braiding accomplishes the same result for 

 a few fibers of uniform size, but even for these it has the dis- 

 advantage, as compared with spinning, that it bends the 

 fibers more sharply, tending to break them, and yields a 

 flat cord, having less pliancy. Both spinning and braiding 

 were practised in all lands before the dawn of history. 

 Everywhere man had need of strings, longer than any that 

 nature offered ready-made. He gathered what he could find 

 and combined them, first into coarse cordage, strong enough 

 to fetter wild beasts or to bind up the poles of his primitive 

 dwelling, and then into an endless variety of finer products, as 

 progress was made in the art of spinning. 



Sewing threads were long unspun, and differed in kinds in 

 different parts of the earth. Horsehairs served our bar- 

 barian ancestors in Europe for their sewing: the shredded 

 sinews of the deer served the Indians of the northeastern 

 United States ; and the fibers of the yucca, those of the south- 



