266 FROCHJEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUHEUM. vol. 54. 



and North Africa will prove a revelation in design. The Hopi and 

 other Pueblo belts take their place in this most interesting series 

 that has been generally overlooked by students of textile manipu- 

 lation and design. In the Pueblo tribes the weaver's art antedates 

 the introduction of wool and dyed yarns on which the present indus- 

 try largely rests. 



Hopi belts are woven on a small loom and worked in all respects 

 like the blanket, except for the taking out of threads at the central 

 warps where the design is woven. They may also be woven with 

 reed heddles, an ancient improvement in weaving methods, which 

 renders the separation of the warp to produce the sheds much easier 

 than by the cord heddles. the latter an invention presumably more 

 ancient than the reed heddles. An interesting feature of belt weav- 

 ing is that the operator's body forms part of the loom illustrated 



by a figure in the Zuiii family 

 group in the Natural History 

 Building of the United States 

 National Museum. 



The warp, which is attached to 

 a roller of wood secured to. a sup- 

 port, is stretched by cords vdiich 

 are fastened to the ends of a yoke 

 Fig. 34.— Stretcher and record in weaving passmg over the Weaver s back 

 BLANKETS. .^ud tlcd to thc cloth beam. By 



iuovenients of the body, the weaver, who sits on the ground in 

 front of her work, can tighten or loosen the warp, an advantage 

 in making the sheds for the passage of the shuttle. This device 

 is in world wide use and appears to be connected with the distribu- 

 tion of weaving from a culture center. 



The tools in belt weaving are the same as those employed in blanket 

 weaving but smaller. The roller or cloth beam and the back yoke, 

 however, are not parts of the blanket loom. Instead of using the 

 back yoke of the Pueblos, the Navaho stretch the belt warp in the 

 V-shape opening of a tree fork, which forms a belt loom of primitive 

 aspect, as shown m one of the groups in the United States National 

 Museum. 



The warp of a typical belt is set us thus: Two pairs of white 

 threads for edging ; 12 red and 12 green on both edges forming plain- 

 woven red and green bordering bands; 60 red yarn and 14 white 

 cotton threads, forming the middle pattern section ; and then warps 

 of red and green as above to the other edge, which is bound with 

 two pairs of white threads. Another example has two white edging 

 warps, 12 red, 6 black, 12 red, 20 white, 20 red for center band; and 

 to other edge 12 red, 6 black, 12 red, 2 edging warps. In the pat- 



