632 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
_ever small the original webs may have been, a set of threads—the 
warp—must in each case have been stretched on some kind of frame. 
The intersecting threads—the weft—must also have been passed be- 
fore and behind alternate warp threads in regular sequence. This 
could only have been done on a loom, however simple, and how simply 
a loom may be constructed let me exemplify. 
Here is an oblong board, two sticks, and a piece of string. 
Tf I wind the string onto the board (fig. 2) and insert the two sticks 
between alternate cords at one end, I have made the board and sticks | 
into a simple loom, which is typical of the loom of every country 
and of all time. It is typical because it has 
the essential characteristic of all looms, 
which is the crossing of the threads between 
the sticks. This cross transforms a collec- 
tion of any number of separate strings into 
a well-ordered weavable warp, which can 
easily be kept free from entanglement. In 
fact, without it no weaving could begin, 
much less be carried on to any length. 
There is a roll of East African weaving 
in the ethnographical gallery of the Brit- 
i ish Museum. This beautiful strip of cloth 
© is 4 inches wide and is a fine specimen of 
modern primitive weaving. The pretty 
web, with its delicate pattern of checkers, 
could quite easily be woven on such a board 
as this, no other appliances being necessary 
than the two or three sticks and a long thin 
£ —_—~ spindle or needle for inserting the weft 
cy hy thread. 
Fic. 2.—Primitive board loom Here is a tiny board loom, on which I 
and See have had woven a copy of one of the border 
stripes of the African native web. Figure 3 (pl. 1) is a photograph 
of it. 
You will notice a number of loops hanging loosely to the unwoven 
threads. I need not refer to them just now, except to say that they 
are for the purpose of economizing time and facilitating the work. 
Without them the weaving would take longer and require a little 
more attention, but otherwise could be as well done. 
If we take a piece of loom-woven coarse canvas and examine it, we 
shall see clearly the stretched threads of warp and the continuous 
intersecting thread of weft. If a small fragment of such a piece of 
textile had been partially burnt and buried in clay at the bottom of 
a lake for 3,000 years or more, then, discovered by a fortunate arche- 
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