FLAX. 



Fig. 16. Chien, or Dog. 



but what is thus gained in beauty and lightness is often 

 sacrificed in strength. 



When the Erench spinner has filled the required num- 

 ber of bobbins with home-spun thread, she draws from 

 out some dark recess a thing which she calls a chien, or 

 dog. It is simply a small 

 round log of rough wood, nine 

 or ten inches long, raised in 

 front on a couple of long nails 

 by way of forefeet, and with 

 a straight iron pin, or unicorn 

 horn, projecting from its fore- 

 head (see fig. 16). Hind legs it has not ; and needs none. 

 It would be more appropriately called a seal, if it must 

 be compared to an animal at all. On the projecting pin 

 she sticks a bobbin, and taking in her left hand a reel or 

 harpe (see fig. 

 17), with her 

 right she assists 

 the thread to un- 

 wind itself from 

 the bobbin, and 

 from a skein upon 

 the reel. The 

 two arms A A 

 of the reel are 

 fixed at the ends 

 of the handle H 

 (the middle of 

 which is grasped 

 in the reeler's 

 hand), in direc- 

 tions crossing 

 each other at 



, 

 The dotted lines 



tiff- 17-Beel, or Harpe. 



show the direction of the thread. Each arm of the reel 

 is ten inches lonpf. The handle between the two arms is 

 eight and a half inches long. When the mistress finds 



