n the days when the spinning-wheels hummed busily in the
farmhouses- and even great ladies
clothed in silk and thread-lace
had their toy spinning-wheels of polished oak- there might be seen
in
districts far away among the lanes
or deep in the bosom of the hills
certain pallid undersized men
who
by the side of the brawny
country-folk
looked like the remnants of a disinherited race. The
shepherd's dog barked fiercely when one of these alien-looking men
appeared on the upland
dark against the early winter sunset; for what
dog likes a figure bent under a heavy bag?- and these pale men
rarely stirred abroad without that mysterious burden. The shepherd
himself
though he had good reason to believe that the bag held
nothing but flaxen thread
or else the long rolls of strong linen spun
from that thread
was not quite sure that this trade of weaving
indispensable though it was
could be carried on entirely without
the help of the Evil One. In that far-off time superstition clung
easily round every person or thing that was at all unwonted
or even
intermittent and occasional merely
like the visits of the pedlar or
the knife-grinder. No one knew where wandering men had their homes
or their origin; and how was a man to be explained unless you at least
knew somebody who knew his father and mother? To the peasants of old
times
the world outside their own direct experience was a region of
vagueness and mystery: to their untravelled thought a state of
wandering was a conception as dim as the winter life of the swallows
that came back with the spring; and even a settler
if he came from
distant parts
hardly ever ceased to be viewed with a remnant of
distrust
which would have prevented any surprise if a long course
of inoffensive conduct on his part had ended in the commission of a
crime; especially if he had any reputation for knowledge
or showed
any skill in handicraft. All cleverness
whether in the rapid use of
that difficult instrument the tongue
or in some other art
unfamiliar to villagers
was in itself suspicious: honest folks
born and bred in a visible manner
were mostly not overwise or clever-
at least
not beyond such a matter as knowing the signs of the
weather; and the process by which rapidity and dexterity of any kind
were acquired was so wholly hidden
that they partook of the nature of
conjuring. In this way it came to pass that those scattered
linen-weavers- emigrants from the town into the country- were to the
last regarded as aliens by their rustic neighbours
and usually
contracted the eccentric habits which belong to a state of loneliness.