And it was necessary for those who aided in wringing the sheets to turn in the same direction as the Washerwomen; for if by misfortune the assistant turned in an opposite direction, he had his arms wrung in an instant.
"The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries"
W. Y. Evans Wentz
According to the old folk of the past generation, when the phantom Washerwomen would ask a certain passer-by to help them to wring sheets, he could not refuse, under pain of being stopped and wrung like a sheet himself.
"The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries"
W. Y. Evans Wentz
The platform at Arona, the flat fields the train presently lumbered across, the factories and suburbs of Milan, the noisy streets throbbing heavily with heat that grey and lowering afternoon, the shapes of things, of dull things, of tramcars and cabs and Washerwomen, the shop windows, the behaviour and foreign faces of dogs, the behaviour of children, the Italian eyes all turned to her, all staring at her-they fascinated and absorbed her like the development of a vivid dream.
"The Pastor's Wife"
Elizabeth von Arnim