134 



THE MUSEUM. 



The first day I studied her methods 

 of procedure and the second day I 

 succeeded in obtaining several excel- 

 lent pictures of this weaver at work. 

 The woman has rigged up her loom in 

 front of her house, she is busily en- 

 gaged in her weaving and her child 

 sits beside her. Standing up by the 

 loom is an excellent figure of a Navajo 

 Indian, wearing the dress of the daily 

 costume of the men of his tribe. 



Navajos raise their own sheep, spin 

 their own wool, manufacture their 

 own dyes, and as we have seen, weave 

 their own blankets. And surely it is 

 a sight not easily forgotten to see one 

 of these superbly colored and woven 

 fabrics coming off a loom made from 

 undressed and unseasoned pieces of 

 timber from the forest, at the hand of 

 an Indian, the representative of a civ- 

 ilization so entirely primitive. Euro- 

 pean art has, to be sure, slightly af- 

 fected this industry, but even to-day 

 its influence is easily traced, and apart 

 from this, these scra/ics and belts, as 

 they are now made, saw their origin 

 among the aborigines themselves. 



Among all the native weavers of the 

 Southwest, the Navajos have no 

 equals, and are indeed far in advance 

 of any of the others in this line of 

 manufacture. 



The weaver had constructed the 

 subvertical, outside part of the frame 

 of her loom of two trunks of small 

 pine trees, averaging a little over three 

 inches in diameter, and from which 

 the bark was not removed. Parallel 

 to each other and placed about a yard 

 apart, these she had fixed in a slanting 

 position against the front of her house 

 outside. The upper ends were strap- 

 ped to the house, and the lower ends 

 slightly planted in the earth, being 

 held more secure there by a few 

 stones. Next she had firmly tied on 

 cross-pieces, a double one a few inches 

 from the top, and a single one at 

 about a foot above the ground. Over 

 these cross-pieces the warp passes, 

 and in such a manner as to produce a 

 double shed only. Then a smooth, 



short rod is made to take up the alter- 

 nate threads of the warp above the 

 intersection or in the upper shed. 

 Below the intersection of the threads 

 of the warp the weaver serves the 

 lower shed with a set of healds, which 

 are usually composed of yarn, have 

 their own rod and as in the case of 

 the rod above the intersection, include 

 alternate threads of the warp. When 

 drawn towards the weaver, these 

 healds serve the purpose of opening 

 the lower shed, and still another short 

 rod is used to keep the threads in 

 place, which is also well seen in the 

 figure where the woman has her hands 

 resting upon the batten, a smooth, 

 flat and rather rather narrow piece of 

 hard wood. This is the last and yet 

 one of the most important adjuncts 

 composing this primitive loom, and 

 is used be the weaver in turning it 

 horizontally to open the shed to admit 

 the passage of the weft, and after- 

 wards to pound the latter down firmly 

 into its place as the weaving proceeds. 



These belt-looms, as in use among 

 the Navajos, are not always exactly 

 alike in their construction, for we find 

 in some of them that the side posts of 

 the frame are omitted, and the upper 

 cross-piece is fastened to a tree and 

 the lower one served with a loop of 

 rope, through which the weaver pass- 

 es her limbs and then sits down upon 

 thus holding the warp of her belt firm 

 and tense by her own weight as she 

 sits cross-legged afterward at her work. 

 Other modifications of this simple 

 loom are also to be seen in the con- 

 trivances in use among the Zunians 

 and other pueblo tribles, and there are 

 a number of departures from the main 

 details of the weaving (also to be not- 

 ed) as we have described them above. 



Nearly all the belts and the blank- 

 ets manufactured by these tribes are 

 made by their women, though it is not 

 difficult to find among them also most 

 excellent male weavers, and a very el- 

 egant blanket I once secured from the 

 Navajos was made by a man, and its 

 weaving took him considerably over a. 



