academy o* soencesj INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES 97 



which serves to sustain the necessary rotation. A tuft of cotton is attached to the end of this 

 bar, and, as the top rotates the thread is twisted. When the thread is sufficiently long it is wound 

 around the handle and the operation is repeated. By this slow and tedious process a sufficient 

 amount of yarn is spun for the requirements of the spinner. 



The dyeing process consists in boiling the abakd yarn with finely chopped pieces of various 

 woods. 3 In order to produce a permanent dye, the process of boiling must be repeated more 

 than once with new dyeing material. As the boiling apparatus consists nearly always of small 

 earthen pots and the boiling is continually interrupted by culinary operations, it is obvious that 

 the process is an inordinately slow and unsatisfactory one. I am of the opinion that to produce 

 a fast red dye on sufficient yarn for about seven skirts, the boiling occupies the better part of 

 two weeks. 



Cotton yarn is never dyed. Whenever colors are desired, imported cotton must be obtained 

 through Christian or Christianized intermediaries. 



The weaving is performed on a simple, portable loom, consisting of two internodes of bamboo, 

 one at the back part and one at the front part. The warp threads pass serially around these 

 two pieces of bamboo and between the slits of a primitive comb situated within arm reach of the 

 posterior bamboo internode. The comb consists of an oblong rectangle about SO by 5 centi- 

 meters, having a series of little reeds set parallel at a distance of 1.5 millimeters from each other. 

 Through these interstices pass the warp threads. Just beyond this comb and farther away from 

 the weaver is a hardwood rood, as wide as the weft, around which are single loops of abakd or 

 other fiber. Through these loops pass alternately the warp threads in such a way that when 

 the batten is inserted the upper and lower alternate warp threads are reversed, thereby holding 

 the weft threads in the position to which they have been driven by the batten. 



The weft thread is wound upon a bobbin made out of a slender piece of rattan which has 

 two slits at each end, through which the weft thread passes. The bobbin is driven through by 

 the hand from side to side and between the upper and the lower warp threads. The heavy, 

 hardwood, fiat, polished batten is then worked by the hand, driving the weft thread into juxta- 

 position with the part of the fabric finished already. The weaver then inserts the batten between 

 the warp threads at the point where they alternately pass up and down through the previously 

 mentioned loops on the distal side of the comb, and between it and the rod that holds the loops. 

 By pulling the comb back to the finished part of the fabric, the warp threads are reversed and 

 the last weft thread is securely held in place. Thus the process is repeated over and over again 

 until the fabric is finished. 



The setting up of a piece of skirt cloth would occupy some two whole days of uninterrupted 

 work and the weaving some three days, but as multitudinous household duties call the woman 

 away constantly, she spends the better part of at least two weeks on one piece, this period not 

 including the preparation of the yarn by tying and dyeing. 



In weaving the woman sits upon the floor and keeps the warp threads stretched by a rope 

 that passes round her back from each extremity of the yarn beam. When not in use, the web and 

 the finished fabric are folded up around the beam. 



The products of the Manobo loom are not as numerous and artistic as those of the Mandayas. 

 The cloth produced is of four kinds: (1) The ordinary skirt or mosquito-bar cloth made out of 

 abakd fiber and having white and black longitudinal warp stripes, alternating with the stripes 

 of the red background; (2) a closely woven but thin cloth of abakd having sometimes, as in the 

 case of men's jackets, straight weft stripes of imported blue cotton; (3) a cloth of the same 

 material, but so thin as to be diaphanous, and not adorned with any stripes; (4) a cloth for 

 trousers made out of an abakd warp and a native cotton woof. 



In the chapter on dress reference has been made to the elaborate and beautiful effects pro- 

 duced by the Mandayas on abakd cloth. The Manobo woman has no knowledge of the process 

 by which such effects are obtained. 



' Si-ki-tig root for red effects, pieces of kami-yum tree for black and pieces of du-au for yellow effects. 



