A PRIMITIVE WEAVING FRAME, 489 



entano-lcd in the stiri'ups of tlu^ hoalds, the other half passiiio- up and 

 down l)otween the hoalds, 



A still simpler style of making- "sheds'' may be seen in a Chinese 

 device employed in weaving rush matting. A block of wood like a 

 piece of studding, as long as the matting is to be wide and 4 inches 

 s(]uare in sei'tion, has a series of triangular saw cuts through it. Each 

 cut has an upright opening on one side and terminates with a small 

 hole on the opposite side. The next saw cut alternates with the pre- 

 ceding, its long opening being on the side of the small perforation in 

 the other cut. In rocking the heddle block by means of two handles 

 on top, backward and forward, '\sheds" are formed in the twine which 

 constitutes the warp of the matting. 



The specimens to be herein described came to the Museum from the 

 Zuni and other pueblos of the Southwest; from the Masquakee or Sauks 

 of Iowa; from the Chippewa Indians; from Finland, Germany, and 

 Italy in Europe; and, finally, from the English settlements in the New 

 England States and New York, and the Dutch settlements in Lancaster 

 County. Pennsylvania. To complete the round this ingenious mechan- 

 ism, having traveled through many lands and some centuries, emerges 

 from the U. S. Patent Office as patent No. 334320 (Plate 4), and adapted 

 forms are used for illustrating technical instruction in the Teachers' 

 College, New York. 



HEDDLE FRAME OF THE ALGONQUIN TRIBES. 



The first of these objects brought to the notice of the ethnologist, 

 belonging to the first class above described, in which the operator 

 raises and lowers the heddle frame, was a C'hippewa specimen figured 

 in Schoolcraft, but no description of it is there given (fig. 1). 



The Chippewa Indians (belonging to the Algonquin family) about 

 Lakes ^Michigan, Huron, and Superior were in an excellent area of 

 food supply, contiguous to Iroquoian and Siouan tribes, and were 

 also brought into close industrial relationship with the French 

 explorers and priests; later the English settlers became their teachers,^ 



The ver}^ object described by Mr, Schoolcraft was in the possession 

 of the United States Government before the U. S. National Museum 

 was founded, and is here figured; ])ut there is on the specimen and in 

 the catalogues no allusion to the distinguished ethnologist and none to 

 the function of the ap]3aratus. It is carved from a single ])lock of 

 beech wood one-eighth of an inch thick. The upper margin is rounded 

 and cut into patterns as with a jig saw, representing two animals, two 

 hearts, and a synunetrical pattern in the middle. The lower margin 

 is treated in the same w^av, only the designs are such as might be seen 

 on old-fashioned furniture. The working part of this apparatus is 



^ Information respe;tinj: the Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the 

 United States, Philadelphia, 1852, II, pi. 77. 



