USES IN DYEING. 



(The word "sned" signifies to cut brooms, to 

 render "snod," or put in order. Sned is also Anglo- 

 Saxon for a handle or shaft.) 



It has been said that Heather stems have been im- 

 ported into America, but very little of this material is 

 received here. 



In the southern counties of England the gypsies 

 who vend the Heather besoms are named "broom 

 squires." A story is narrated, and is referred to by 

 Kingsley, to the following effect: At a county fair 

 one "squire" demanded how the other could afford to 

 undersell him by offering Heather brooms at one 

 penny each, adding: "I steals the Heather and I steals 

 the stales (handles) and I steals the withs, but yet I 

 can't sell mine under three ha'pence." "Ah!" says 

 the other, "but I steals mine ready made." 



In the Irish legend of "Smallhead and the King's 

 Son," these two worthies metamorphosed themselves 

 in the village on a market day into two Heather brooms, 

 and set to work to brush up the road. The crowd 

 acclaimed them as "the mercy of God," and as "a 

 blessing from heaven sent to sweep the road for- us." 

 They then changed into two doves and took their 

 flight. 



Uses in Dyeing 



The wives and daughters of the Highlanders 

 found in Heather a magnificent substitute for the dyes 

 of our modern times. In most of the Western Islands 

 of Scotland they dyed their yarn of a yellow color 

 by boiling it in water with the green tops and flowers 



77 



