# Processing Hemp and Flax

The ancient Magyars must already have possessed some kind of homespun cloth before the Conquest, since the names kender (hemp), csepű (tow), orsó (spindle), and tiló (swingle) are Bulgaro-Turkish in origin. If we add to these the words fon (spin) and sző (weave), traceable to the Finno-Ugric period, there can be little doubt that this domestic occupation, at least in part, belongs to the most ancient Hungarian crafts. The Hungarian word len (flax) originates from the Slavic, but its earlier significance in the Carpathian Basin cannot compare with that of hemp. It is certain that Slavic peoples introduced a more differentiated processing of fibrous plants to the Hungarians. The terminology also shows Slavic influence: gereben (flax-comb), guzsaly (distaff), motolla (hand reel), cséve (spool), eszteváta (weaver’s loom), and its parts: borda (reed), nyüst (heddle), etc. Furthermore, the general designation of the artisan who did the weaving (takács) also derives from one of the Slavic languages.

Fig. 150. Swingle made out of a single log for beating and for swingling fibres.
Region of Takta, former Zemplén County. Around 1940

158. Breaking hemp: a swingle
Gyimes-Bükkhavas, former Csík County

Fig. 151. A swingle with a double blade for fine processing.
Region of Takta, former Zemplén County. Around 1940

Fig. 152. Two kinds of distaffs, one with a stool to support with the feet, the other with a board to sit on.
Magyarvalkó, former Kolozs County. 1930s

159. Combing out hemp
Karcsa, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County

160. Working on a spinning-wheel
Sukoró, Fejér County

Until recently, and sometimes even today, each peasant family planted as much flax and hemp as they could process during the year. The 50 to 150 square fathom fields of hemp lay close to the village, outside of the fields of crop rotation. This area of land could be inherited by the daughters as well as the sons, since the produce of the land was turned into linen as the result of their work. Furthermore, because the {305.} same crop went into the small plots each year, they fertilized it and cultivated it thoroughly. Flax especially demanded much attention. The cultivation of the soil and the early sowing of the hemp were jobs for men. The woman prepared the clean seed for sowing and cooked scrambled eggs for her husband for breakfast, so that the planted seeds would yield plenty of beautiful yellow-white linen. Sowing was quickly done and the empty sack or the cloth used for sowing was thrown up high in the air, so that the plants would grow just as high.

There was not much work with hemp until it was harvested, because it was sown so thickly that all the weeds were smothered. Pulling the flax out of the ground by its roots (nyűvés) takes place in July, and of hemp in August. It is dried for a few days, then the sheaves are soaked and stacked on top of each other in a ditch, backwater, or a creek. It is pressed with stones and mud, perhaps tied down, and left until it has softened sufficiently. The time it takes to soften depends equally on the thickness of the stalk, on the weather, and on the temperature of the water. Then the sheaves are taken out, and washed and dried. In fine, sunny weather, a few days are enough for this process.

Fig. 154. An implement for spooling yarn.
Désháza, former Szilágy County. 1948

The dried hemp is scutched roughly, then stripped more finely. They do this with a tongued implement that stands on legs, its function being to separate the woody fibres of the hemp by beating, and to soften up the usable fibres. Further cleaning takes place with the help of an implement made of nails (gereben) pounded into a board, different versions of which exist in various regions of the Hungarian speaking territory. Breaking hemp through trampling by foot or by means of a large rubbing implement (dörzsölő) or two scutchers (szösztörő) was known only in some regions. The tow is put away, tied together and completely prepared for spinning, and taken out again only when outdoor chores have been finished, late in the autumn.

Fig. 153. A stand for bobbins.
Magyarvalkó, former Kolozs County. 1930s

The oldest implement of spinning is the distaff (guzsaly), which in a few cases is held in the armpit, but usually women sit on its base, although in some places the distaff is stuck into a low stool and the woman holds it with her feet on the floor. She ties the tow to the upper part of the distaff, leads the thread out of it with her left hand, wetting it continually while spinning it, and winding the thread with her right hand evenly onto the spindle. A great many carved, richly ornamented distaffs may be found, often given by young men to their sweethearts as gifts. The foot-operated spinning wheel (kerekes guzsaly or rokka) appeared at the end of the 18th century in the Carpathian Basin. Its name is Italian in origin, but it is presumed to have come to Hungary through Austrian–German mediation. Although more can be spun with this foot-operated instrument than with the distaff in a given period of time, it did not spread everywhere and replaced the distaff only very slowly. In certain areas it never gained ground (Bodrogköz), because by the time it had appeared, the domestic processing of hemp was on the decline.

Spinning is not only work, it is also an opportunity for entertainment, because during spinning conversation comes naturally. The adolescent girls and girls of marriageable age met in the spinning houses of their own community, separately from the younger and older women. For this purpose they either rented a whole room, or were able to use a room at {306.} a house where there were few girls and women in the family and, in return for the room, they spun the roughest hemp of their hosts also. To go to the spinning house, girls did not dress in a festive way, but they wore nicer clothes than for every day. Each girl brought along her distaff and spindle, together with the material to be spun. A permanent and customary sitting arrangement developed. The older girls sat near the door, and the younger girls in the rear part of the room. They started spinning rapidly, because the work slowed down later on, when the young men arrived after having fed and watered the animals and cleaned the stable. Time passed with cheerful conversation. Those who were good story-tellers, knew superstitions and scary tales were especially welcome. Later on in the evening came time for singing and for various games. If a young man picked up a girl’s dropped spindle, it was returned only in exchange for a kiss. In the Great Plain the young people often danced to zither music. They did not stay late and, at a signal from the housewife, everyone left together. Spinning was not only an opportunity to get together for work and entertainment, but also functioned as the match-making institution of the village where young people became acquainted with each other.

161. The loom of a professional weaver
Nagyvázsony, Veszprém County

162. Beating out the wash at the river
Miske, Bács-Kiskun County

The spun yarn is wound on a one-forked hand reel (motolla) or on a four-forked turnable reel, which measures the length while reeling it. The amount going around the reel once is called yarn length (szál), and equals four times the width of the reel. As the length of this varies from {307.} region to region, the word szál does not indicate some absolute measurement. The first composite unit, varying by regions, three times the szál, is the ige, or the kispászma, which is 50 to 100 times larger. The other composite unit is the nagypászma, which is 40 to 100 times longer than the previous unit. The darab (matring, skein), consists of 2 to 15 other composite units. With the help of this extremely complicated system of counting, they could always keep exact track of the quantity of completed thread and estimate the length of the linen that can be woven from it.

Another communal job at the end of winter is yarn washing (fonalmosás). The yarn is first boiled in lye and ashes, then washed thoroughly either at home or in the icy waters of rivers and lakes (e.g. Bodrogköz). Men help in wringing it out and also in hauling it home from the river or creek. The yarn, dried on the porch or on the fence, is wound into balls according to the previously mentioned system of counting, and stored in this form until weaving begins in early spring.

Fig. 155. A warping wheel (vetőkaró) for setting the yarn, fixed to the beam of the room.
Region of Takta, former Zemplén County. Around 1940

The warping of the loom (fonalfelvetés), wbich precedes weaving, {308.} determines both the width and length of the cloth. The warping wheel (vető) is made out of four rods which turn on a central spindle, the lower end resting on a board on the ground, the top being fastened to a beam in the ceiling. As a consequence, its size, which is determined by domestic circumstances, can vary widely within the same settlement. The yarn is taken off the warping wheel very carefully, several people helping in this work. They usually thread it onto the loom or maybe put it aside until the next day. In general, by reviewing the methods of counting in reeling and warping, we can still reconstruct the almost forgotten numerical system based on the number 60 that has barely survived in some parts of the Carpathian Basin.

163. Beating out the wash
Kalotaszentkirály, former Kolozs County

Fig. 156. Loom.
Region of Takta, former Zemplén County. Around 1940

The most ancient form of the loom (osztováta) is the vertical loom, but its use in connection with linen weaving is only remembered sporadically. Among the peasant looms currently in use the oldest type appears to be the one that had its poles fastened into a foundation log lying on the ground. This was succeeded by a form, in general use today, standing on {309.} four posts. A cylindrical beam, which fits onto two posts, holds the yarn; the yarn is guided through the heddles (nyüst), which hang from a beam. In front of the heddles are the reeds (borda), with which the yarn is beaten, after the shuttle (vetélő) has been through the shed to weave the cloth. Two posts hold a beam, also cylindrical, onto which the cloth is rolled as it is woven. It is possible to weave cloth 50 to 65 cm wide on a peasant loom, and this dimension significantly influenced the articles of clothing made from it. The finished cloth is taken off the loom, is dipped in water, then hung on a fence or spread on the grass, and bleached in the spring and early summer sun to get it as white as possible.

Simple underwear was sewn out of plain linen. Both the warp and the weft were made of hemp or flax yarn until the middle of the last century. Since the second half of the 19th century, cotton yarn was used for the warp in many places, while the weft was hemp or flax. This type of linen was called half-cotton linen (félpamutvászon), and is not nearly as coarse as its pure hemp predecessor.

The processing of hemp and flax up to the weaving of the cloth is typically women’s work; only the sowing, harvesting, and pulling of the plant was done by the men. On the other hand, the artisan weavers–always men–, who have been frequently mentioned since the beginning of the Middle Ages, first worked at the cities but later on in the villages as well. They, however, wove ready-made yarn either which they bought or was brought to them by village women as payment or for share weaving. Sometimes they were also asked to weave smooth linen, because wider material could be made on the weaver’s loom, but peasant women came to them more for special types of cloth, for more ornate and more novel materials (cf. p. 396).

164. Woman spinning from a distaff
Lészped, Moldavia