Cultivation of Flax

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 136, 30 January 1942, Page 5

Cultivation of Flax

HE cultivation of flax in Asia belongs to prehistoric times. It was extensively grown in Syria and Palestine. The story of Rahab hiding the spies on the roof of her house in Jericho shows us one of the means used for drying and bleaching the flax. Probably most of the weaving, like that of Egypt,

was done by men, but we read of women as spinners and makers of fine linen. In Hebrew history there are references to whole familes being engaged in the flax weaving industry. Scraps of linen of very ancient date have been found at Susa, the capital of Elam. The Babylonians and Assyrians wore linen in everyday life, but not to the same

extent aS wool, ihe ancient use of linen in ritual by the Hebrews is recorded in the account of the building of the tabernacle, and in later years, of the temple at Jerusalem. Among the craftsmen sent to Solomon by Hiram, king of Tyre, for the great work of building the temple, was a man skilled in the making of fine linen, whose mother was of the tribe of Dan. At that time, Tyre and Berytus were the Phoenician cities especially famous for linen. Their traders carried the knowledge into Southern Europe along the shores of the Mediterranean, until it reached Britain. The Greeks may have got their knowledge of linen from Asia by other means than through the Phoenicians, but the fine weaving of the Phoenician women was just as well known to the Greeks as the seafaring skill of the men.-("Needlework Through the Ages," by Mrs. Stamp-Taylor, 2Y A, January 14.)