Hemp.
Hemp is not mentioned in our translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and but sparingly in the Greek classics. Hesiod and Homer make no mention of hemp. It is first mentioned by Herodotus: — “Hemp grows in Scythia; it is very like flax; only it is a much coarser and taller plant; some grows wild about the country, some is produced by cultivation. The Thracians make garments of it, which closely resemble linen.” — Herodotus, IV.74. He elsewhere states that they buy it of the Northern people. Hesychius says the Thracian women made sheets of hemp. The people of that country yet wear tunics of hemp, and some are employed in towing the boats on the Danube between Pesth and Vienna. Hempen ropes were used on board the “Syracusia,” built for Hiero, as recorded by Moschion. There are many other notices of hemp by later authors. It was imported in the hank or bale from the country of the Rhodaunus, which empties into the Vistula. The Greeks and Romans used tow for calking the seams of their vessels, but did not cultivate it before the Christian era. Hemp was known to the Roman naturalists, but does not seem to have been used as a fiber plant. It was known to the Anglo-Saxons, and the mode of preparing and beating it is given by Strutt. Hempen cloth became common in Middle and Southern Europe in the thirteenth century. For specific list of appliances in the treatment and manufacture of hemp and other fiber, see cotton, flax, wool, hemp, etc., appliances. |
| Hemp-brake. |
