Laima's Distaff
The distaff of fate in Latvian and Lithuanian belief: a carved spindle-holder on which the goddess Laima, or the forest fairy Lauma, spins and measures the thread of a human life, fixing its length and its luck. Folk accounts describe laumas borrowing distaffs and spindles from village women and spinning linen by night, and the spindle's turning thread stands in countless spinning dainas for fate being spun out for a newborn child. The distaff itself was a treasured, often carved and painted object passed from mother to daughter, so that the homely tool of flax-spinning carried a double meanin