100 CHAPTER XIII. 



serves for fences, fishing rods, and for a hundred 

 other purposes. On Reed frames the figs dry tempt- 

 ingly in the sun; and Reed railings hold the long 

 lines of orange-peel which decorate the house-top or 

 the open loft of the perfumer. 



A distafl (Fig. 37) is very ingeniously constructed 

 by making a number of parallel and vertical slits in a 

 piece of Arundo stem and inserting small cross-bars 

 to form the bulging curve on which the tow is placed. 

 Hence the French name for this Reed, " Roseau a 

 quenouille." These distaffs are used in every cottage 

 on the Riviera, and I believe throughout the whole 

 Mediterranean region. 



Humboldt says somewhere (I quote from memory) 

 that the three great stages of civilization are marked 

 by the use men make of the Arundo. First, in the 

 wild hunting stage it forms the shaft of an arrow or 

 a lance. Next, in the pastoral state the shepherd, 

 seated in the shade, plays on his flute of Reed while 

 the cattle graze around. Then comes the third or 

 agricultural stage, when the Reed is used for support- 

 ing the vine ; and this use still remains. 



Humboldt might have mentioned a fourth and 

 final stage of society in which the Arundo plays its 

 part, namely, that in which men no longer chase the 

 game through leafy glade, or watch the flocks on 

 grassy plain, or tend the vines on sunny slope ; when 

 all this work is done by slaves, or freemen in worse 

 plight than slaves, while others take their ease. 

 Might not this ease and luxury be represented by the 

 pipe, the bowl of thick Reed, and the stem a thinner 

 one ? If the flute may stand as a symbol of the 

 shepherd life, might not Sir Walter Raleigh's weed 



