The brittle thread is broken, The dull wheel wearies of its ceaseless round, The duller
distaff sickens of its load; I will not spin to-night.
Now, as the girl was sitting at her
distaff, weeping bitterly because she could not spin, she heard the sound of hundreds of little feet, and from every hole and corner in the hut mice came pattering along the floor, squeaking and saying:
Then what am I making professions for; what am I bragging about; when it is fitter for me to handle the
distaff than the sword?"
I thought of those fine wigs of tow or hemp with which the
distaff of [126] our Prudence was always entangled.
Go, then, within the house and busy yourself with your daily duties, your loom, your
distaff, and the ordering of your servants; for speech is man's matter, and mine above all others {10}--for it is I who am master here."
Meek, mouse-colored donkeys, laden with panniers of freshly cut grass passed by, with a pretty girl in a capaline sitting between the green piles, or an old woman spinning with a
distaff as she went.
'The crown of France shall never degrade the lance to the
distaff'," said Montcalm, dryly, and with a little hauteur; but instantly adding, with his former frank and easy air: "as all the nobler qualities are hereditary, I can easily credit you; though, as I said before, courage has its limits, and humanity must not be forgotten.
May the evil demon Zernebock tear me limb from limb, if I leave my own cell ere I have spun out the hemp on my
distaff!''
This woman wore on her head a red handkerchief, beneath which trailed long locks of hair in color and shape like the flax on a
distaff. She wore no fichu.
Go, then, within the house, and busy yourself with your daily duties, your loom, your
distaff, and the ordering of your servants; for war is man's matter, and mine above all others of them that have been born in Ilius."
Another story says that he came to hold the
distaff, and at last wore the Nessus shirt.
They may find they have more tow on their
distaff than they know how to spin.