At 12:36 PM 6/24/01 -0700, you wrote:
> > Would anyone be able to tell me what the title "Weary Pund o' Tow"
> > means? Its the title of a slow air from Gow's 3rd Repository.
>
>Tow is wool in its unspun state. A pound of it represents one hell of
>a lot of work ahead in spinning it.
Correction: Tow is made up of the short fibers of flax. To process flax,
you take the retted stems of the plant and run them through hackles
(essentially sharp tined combs.) This process splits the fibers of the
stem of the flax plant, and combs out any short bits. The short bits are
the tow. The long-combed out bits frequently look very much like long
blonde hair (hence "flaxen haired") and the short bits like short blonde
hair (tow-headed boys.)
Spinning a pound of tow would be a lot of work!
Janice in GA
Spinster
who once did a spinning demo for 1st graders and entertained them by
draping a long strick of flax over her short brown hair to became an
instant blonde :-)
Nil significat
nisi oscillat.
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
