Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Colus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

COLUS (ἠλακάτη). A distaff; commonly made out of a cane stick about a yard in length, slit at the top in such a manner that it would open, and form a sort of basket for containing the mass of wool or flax intended to be spun into threads, as represented by the right-hand figure in the annexed wood-cut (Colus/1.1), which is copied from an Egyptian original in the British Museum. The ring which surrounds it is intended to be put over the wool, as a sort of cap, which keeps the whole mass together. The peasantry of Italy make their distaffs of precisely the same form and materials at the present day. When the distaff was filled with wool, it was designated by such epithets as compta (Plin. H. N. viii. 74.), plena (Tibull. i. 3. 86.), or lana amicta (Catull. 64. 312.), and is shown by the left-hand figure, from a bas-relief on the Forum of Nerva at Rome, which represents a female with the distaff in her left hand, the drawn thread (stamen) depending from it, and in the act of twisting the spindle (fusus) with the fingers of her right hand. Compare also the article NEO, in which the manner both of spinning, and of using these implements, is more fully detailed.

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  Colus/1.1