A PRIMITIVE WEAVING FRAME. 



491 



specimon. an it is set up, the lioalds arc not all used, only a sufficient 

 number to enable the weaver to form a texture having- tit'ty-tive warp 

 threads. Especial interest attaches to this piece of work, which is an 

 example of transparent weaving and beadwork. The warp consists of 

 fifty-five w-hite thn^ads. The shuttle is a steel needle threaded with 

 fine cotton on which beads of dilt'erent colors are strung. The figur(>s 

 are produced by counting off 

 the beads and arranging them 

 so that one will fall in each 

 of the interstices of the weav- 

 ing. 



Accompanying this frame 

 (fig. 3) is a shuttle for mat 

 weaving, having an eye near 

 the center of its body. In 

 forming the beadwork a steel 

 needle was employed; but in 

 ordinar}' garter weaving on 

 the same loom the shuttle was 

 employed both for placing 

 the weft and beating it home. 



The general method of op- 

 eration in both heddles just 

 described and in all others 

 of this type was as follows : 

 Warp threads of the healds 

 and spaces, or a smaller num- 

 ber, were cut into the length 

 of the intended garter,or belt, 

 or liand to be woven. If ihej 

 were all of the same color one 

 filament was drawn through 

 the stirrup in each heald and 

 one passed between each pair 



of healds. If there were to be various colors in the warp, filaments 

 of different shades were passed through the stirrups and l)etween the 

 healds according to the taste of the weaver. At one end, which will 

 be called the outer or farther end, the filaments were gathered together 

 into a knot and made fast to some fixed object answering to the yarn 

 beam of a loom. The other end, which will be called the inner or 

 proximal »end, answering to the cloth beam of a loom, contained that 

 portion of the fabric which, when finished, was rolled on a stick that 

 lay against the breast of the weaver and was secured by a strap pass- 

 ing around the body and buttoned to the ends of the cloth beam. 

 Sometimes the inner ends of the warp were merely held in the left 



Figs. 2 and 3. 



MASQUAKIE HEDDLE FRAME AND SHUTTLE. 

 Cat. Nos. 205262 and 176680, U.S.N.M. Collected by W J McGee. 



