640 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
hooked stick, is at work. The cross sticks are shown, but their pur- 
pose could never be detected from the picture. There is not much 
indication—only a line—as to which is woven web and which un- 
woven warp. I imagine the line just above the weaver’s knee is that 
of the already woven portion, and that all above is unwoven warp. 
Also that the line by the weaver’s left hand indicates where he is 
picking up alternate threads to make an opening for the weft which 
is wound upon the hooked stick or spindle. 
Anyhow, we have here the warp stretched between the top and bot- - 
tom bars, or probably rollers, of an upright loom of solid construc- 
tion at which the 
weaver is at work in 
such a position that 
he must be beating 
the weft downward, 
and the web be grow- 
ing upward. 
Fastening the 
warp at both ends to 
rollers and weaving 
upward are without 
doubt great ad- 
vances on the an- 
cient European 
methods of proce- 
dure. A further ad- 
vance is the inven- 
tion of what is now 
called the heddle 
rod. There is no 
direct evidence of 
this valuable addi- 
tion to the loom either in ancient Europe or in Egypt, but it is 
difficult to believe that the extremely fine wide linen of Egypt could 
have been woven to the extent it was, without this simple and obvious 
appliance. Some of the finest Egyptian webs have as many as 150 
threads of warp to every inch of their width, and it seems incredible 
that this multitude of fine threads could have been profitably manipu- 
lated with the fingers only. 
It is possible that the bar across the loom (fig. 12), on which the 
weaver is apparently only resting his arm, may be a heddle rod. 
This important appliance I must now explain. 
Returning for a moment to figure 3, let me call your attention to 
the loose loops which I pointed out as time economizers, but did not 
further describe. 
Fig. 12.—Egyptian loom for linen weaving. 
