_Textiles. Wool and Linen._--No trace remains in history of the inventor of the loom, but no historical record remains of a time without some means of producing a texture by means of intertwining a loose thread across a fixed warp. Any such device, however rude, must involve a degree of culture much above mere savagery, and probably resulted from a long process of groping effort and invention. From this dim background hand-spinning and weaving emerge in tradition and history as the customary work of women, the type of their activity, and the norm of their duty and morals. The old Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, and German words for loom are certainly very ancient, and Pictet derives the word _wife_ from the occupation of weaving. In the Northern Mythology the three stars in the Belt of Orion were called Frigga Rock, or Frigga's Distaff, which in the days of Christianity was changed to Maria Rock, rock being an old word for distaff. Spinning, weaving, dyeing, and embroidering were special features of Anglo-Saxon industry, and were entirely confined to women. King Alfred in his will distinguished between the spear-half and spindle-half of his family; and in an old illustration of the Scripture, Adam is shown receiving the spade and Eve the distaff, after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. This traditional distinction between the duties of the sexes was continued even to the grave, a spear or a spindle, according to sex, being often found buried with the dead in Anglo-Saxon tombs. In the Church of East Meon, Hants, there is a curious old font with a sculptured representation of the same incident: Eve, it has been observed, stalks away with head erect, plying her spindle and distaff, while Adam, receiving a spade from the Angel, looks submissive and abased. In an old play entitled _Corpus Christi_, formerly performed before the Grey or Franciscan Friars, Adam is made to say to Eve: And wyff, to spinne now must thou fynde Our naked bodyes in cloth to wynde. The distaff or rock could on occasion serve the purpose of a weapon of offence or defence. In the _Digby Mysteries_ a woman brandishes her distaff, exclaiming: What! shall a woman with a Rocke drive thee away! In the _Winter's Tale_ Hermione exclaims: We'll thwack him thence with distaffs (Act I., Sc. ii.). Spinning and weaving were in old times regarded as specially virtuous occupations. Deloney quotes an old song which brings out this idea with much _naïveté_: Had Helen then sat carding wool, Whose beauteous face did breed such strife, She had not been Sir Paris' trull Nor cause so many lose their life. Or had King Priam's wanton son Been making quills with sweet content He had not then his friends undone When he to Greece a-gadding went. The cedar trees endure more storms Than little shrubs that sprout on hie, The weaver lives more void of harm Than princes of great dignity.