252 



DICKSON ON THE EARLY 



industry of Egypt, at a very early period. It is first 

 mentioned in the description of the plagues by which the 

 Egyptians were coerced into permitting the departure of 

 the Israelites. Both the Flax and the barley crops suffered 

 in the plague of hail ; " For the barley was in the ear, and 

 the Flax was boiled. 1 ' This, incidentally, enables us to fix 

 the time or season in which the plagues were inflicted ; for 

 Flax in Egypt begins to boll, or flower, about the beginning 

 of February. 



In ancient times, the spindle or distaff was the simple 

 instrument used, and I believe it even yet continues to be 

 used by the Hindoos in all its primitive simplicity. This 

 mode of spinning gave way to the spinning wheel, which has 

 also disappeared, to make room for admirable improvements 

 in machinery for spinning Flax-yarns. 



Among the Egyptians as among our ancestors at no very- 

 distant period, spinning was a domestic occupation in which 

 ladies of rank did not hesitate to engage. The term 

 (( spinster" is yet applied to unmarried ladies of every rank, 

 and there are persons yet alive who remember to have 

 seen the spinning-wheel an ordinary piece of furniture in 

 domestic economy. Even so late as twenty years back, the 

 wheel and loom were the common articles of furniture in 

 almost every farmhouse in the north of Ireland, and fre- 

 quently farmers had boys bound to them as apprentices, to 

 learn the trade of a weaver; and it often happened that 

 those farmers would have from two to six looms at work, and 

 their daughters and sisters spun the yarns to keep them 

 going ; now, those looms are all to be seen at work on machine 

 yarns, and hand-spinning has all but disappeared. 



We find from the book of Joshua, that Flax was very 

 anciently cultivated in Palestine ; for Rahab, the harlot of 

 Jehrico, concealed the spies under the stalks of Flax, which 

 she had laid to dry on the house-top. 



