510 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 



blade, so as to be utilized also as a batten in pushing the weft thread 

 into place. Now, in the Pueblo examples the bobbin is a little stick 

 on which the weft thread is wound, very much as a boy winds his kite 

 string, into a spindle-shaped package, the ends of which pass easily 

 into and through the "sheds." This bobbin is not used at all in beat- 

 ing the weft thread home, but a separate sword or batten is employed, 

 which performs several functions. First, it takes the place of fingers 

 in separating different series of warp threads when figure weaving is 

 in view. After running the batten underneath those warp threads 

 that are to appear in the figure it is revolved 90° on its axis and 

 in this way becomes a special harness for making "sheds." Second, 

 as a batten for beating home the weft. Third, as a help to the hed- 

 dle, which does not always separate the two series of warp threads. 

 The longer specimens are used for precisely the same purposes by 

 blanket weavers in their looms, and in the U. S. National Museum 

 there is, in the Ainu collection, a weaving in bark in which a very 

 broad batten of this kind with a handle similar to some of those found 

 in the Pueblo region is exhibited. 



The specimens shown in Plate 9 are of mesquite wood {Prosopis 

 julifiora) or of oak {QuercK.s gamhelii). The upper example is made 

 from a branch split and smoothed and shaped as little as possible. In 

 the others it will be seen that there is an increasing effort on the part 

 of the maker to secure a handle and a wider, thinner, and smoother 

 blade. 



It is regrettable that the author has not been able to extend his 

 inquiries into France and Spain. Hypothetically, the heddle frame 

 came from Europe or southwestern Asia. The Finns, the Germans, the 

 Sauks, and the Pueblo tribes have the free-swinging heddle frame. 

 The New England women, who sit in chairs at their work, the Penn- 

 sylvania Dutch, and the Italians used the stationary frame, making the 

 "sheds" by raising and lowering the inner or cloth ends of the warp. 



Those weavers that sat on the ground and employed the free-swing- 

 ing heddle could use a sword or paddle batten, serving to make the 

 "sheds," to separate certain warp filaments for figure working, and 

 for beating home the weft. Only rich patterns occur where the free- 

 swinging heddle frame is employed. Not enough is known of the 

 spread of this last apparatus in Europe to show the definite manner of 

 its introduction into Iowa and the Pueblo region. On weaving with 

 little boards in Bagdad and Mesopotamia, see C. F, Lehmann.^ 



^ Verhandl. d. Berliners Gesellsch. f. Anthrop., etc., May 19, 1900, p. 299. 



