Ancient Peruvian Cloths 



By C. W. MEAD 



Willi illiisLralions from lexlilcs in the American Museum 



EXAMPLES of every style of weav- 

 ing known at the present day can 

 be found in the collection of pre- 

 historic Peruvian textiles on exhibition 

 in the South American gallery of the 

 American Museum of Natural History. 

 Here also may be seen looms from the an- 

 cient graves at x\nc6n and Pachacamac, 

 with cloth in the process of manufacture. 

 They are of very simple form ; two sticks, 

 one at the top anfl the other at the bot- 

 tom, oxer which the warp threads are 

 stretched. About these threads are the 

 loops or "leashes" that lift them for 

 the passage of the shuttle, taking the 

 place of heddles in the modern heald, or 

 harness. Several cross-rods were gener- 

 ally used to keep the threads of the warp 

 in position, and a batten to drive home 

 the thread of the woof. In modern 

 looms the "reed," a fixed comb, drives 

 in the woof threads by blow of the " lay." 

 Small sticks, tapering to a point at both 

 ends, answered for shuttles, and upon 

 these the colored threads were wound. 



For materials the ancient Peruvians 

 had cotton of fair staple and of two 

 colors — one snowy white, the other a 

 beautiful golden brown. Their wool 

 came from the fleeces of three members 

 of the camel family, the llama, alpaca, 

 and the vicuiia. The first wool is coarse 

 and was but seldom used; the qualities 

 of alpaca wool are well known; vicuna 

 is much finer than alpaca and very silk- 

 like, and this was the material used in 

 making the most beautiful specimens 

 that have come down to us. The 

 product is always spoken of as vicuna 

 cloth, but the warp is of cotton. 



In weaving such cloth it is essential 



that the warp threads should be very 

 strong, and at the same time much 

 smaller than those of the woof or filling. 

 Cotton, being stronger than wool, was 

 better material from which to make 

 these fine, tightly-twisted threads. The 

 vicuna yarns of the woof, being loosely- 

 twisted and much larger, could be beaten 





i\u 



^^^mm^-n^rvQVj 





Part of large shawl-like garment of cotton cloth with 

 a border of vicuna wool, from the Peruvian coast, 

 near Lima. The animal figures represent the puma 



389 



