e hands, or palms and naked thigh, we have the
original of the spinning wheel and the steam-driven cotton spindle; in
the roughest plaiting we have the first hint of the finest woven cloth.
The need of securing things or otherwise strengthening them then led to
binding, fastening, and sewing. The wattle-work hut with its roof of
interlaced boughs, the skins sewn by fine needles with entrails or
sinews, the matted twigs, grasses, and rushes are all the crude
beginnings of an art which tells of the settled life of to-day.

[Sidenote: Primitive Methods]

Nothing is definitely known of the origin of these arts; all is
conjecture. They doubtless had their beginning long before mention is
made of them in history, but these crafts--spinning and
weaving--modified and complicated by inventions and, in modern times
transferred largely from man to machine, were distinctively woman's
employment.

The very primitive type of spinning, where no spindle was used, was to
fasten the strands of goats' hair or wool to a stone which was twirled
round until the yarn was sufficiently twisted when it was wound upon
the stone and the process repeated over and over.

[Illustration: ITALIAN WOMAN SPINNING FLAX

Spindle and Distaff.

From Hull House Museum. (In This Series of Pictures the Spinners and
Weavers Are in Native Costume.)]

[Illustration: RUSSIAN SPINNING

Flax Held on Frame, Leaving Both Hands Free to Manage the Thread and
Spindle.

From Hull House Museum.]

[Sidenote: Spinning with the Spindle]

The next method of twisting yarn was with the spindle, a straight stick
eight to twelve inches long on which the thread was wound after
twisting. At first it had a cleft or split in the top in which the
thread was fixed; later a hook of bone was added to the upper end. The
spindle is yet used by the North American Indians, the Italians, and in
the Orient. The bunch of wool or flax fibers is held in the left hand;
with the right hand the fibers are drawn out several inches and the end
fastened securely in the slit or hook on the top of the spindle. A
whirling motion is given to the spindle on the thigh or any convenient
part of the body; the spindle is then dropped, twisting the yarn, which
is wound on the upper part of the spindle. Another bunch of fibers is
drawn out, the spindle is given another twirl, the yarn is wound on the
spindle, and so on.

[Sidenote: Spindle Whorl]

A spindle containing a quantity of yarn was