SCUTCHING. 



67 



tal slit an inch and a half broad. "With his left hand, 

 the scutcher introduces into the slit a handful, or tuft, of 

 braqued, or malleted and broken, flax, so that it hangs down 

 011 the side of the scutching-board, which faces the reader 

 in the cut. "With his right hand he scrapes and chops 

 at the flax with a tool called an ecouche, or scutch (to be 

 immediately described), something like a battledore, 

 or a monstrous wooden butter-knife. A leather strap, 



Fig. 13. Side view of the Scutching-board, or Ecouclie-pied. 



L, L, an inch in breadth, stretches between two low 

 posts, P, P, at the height of nineteen inches from the 

 ground, just before the workman's legs, at the lower 

 part of the scutching-board, in order that he may not 

 p 2 



