NO. 2235. HOPI INDIAN COLLECTION— HOUGH. 257 



tern band the red threads are worked in pairs, the white always 

 single. The weft is white wool yarn and shows very little in the pat- 

 tern and not at all in the border bands. The specimen is 1| inches 

 wide and is probably Zuiii. 



In Hopi belt weaving the heddles are not applied for patterns, but 

 continuously, to alternate warp threads as in plain weaving, the de- 

 signs being formed by lifting the required warp yarns by hand with 

 a small wooden blade or batten. This interesting combination of 

 hand and machine work points to a more primitive method as in 

 the Navaho, Chilkat, and Salish weavings. 



As remarked, the belts of the Hopi and Zuili exhibit great skill in 

 technic and ingenuity in pattern. The warp and weft are often of 

 the same yarn, giving uniformity of texture, but usually the warp 

 is partly of yarn of the same thickness as the weft yarn and partly 

 smaller. This arrangement furnishes a fertile field for the play of 

 design. The warp in the central or pattern band of a belt is generally 

 of small white yarn and another color of larger yarn, usually red, 

 the former working' out white pattern grounds, having raised figures 

 in red warp, the latter contrast being produced by the difference in 

 size of the yarns, the small warp being worked singly and the larger 

 in pairs. 



Wedding blanket of cotton. — The Hopi wedding blanket, following 

 correct custom, should be of plain white cotton fabric, resembling 

 coarse canvas woven in the hand loom (fig. 22). During the year 

 following the investiture of the bride with the wedding blanket it is 

 embroidered on the upper and lower borders with symbolic patterns 

 in black, green, red, and rarely yellow yarn, and on each corner is 

 fastened a large tassel which is formed on a grooved flat stick about 

 which the material for the tassel is wound. The upper corner tassels 

 are usually white and smaller than the lower, which are of black and 

 red. The embroidered band on the upper margin of the blanket is 

 narrower and simpler in design than that of the lower, whose pattern 

 represents rainclouds, rain, squash flowers, and butterflies, applied in 

 a very pleasing ensemble. No embroidered wedding blankets antedate 

 the period when dyed yarns could be procured from the trader and all 

 known specimens are worked with worsteds, but many were collected 

 before aniline colors came into use. As to the character of the wed- 

 ding blanket before wool was introduced there is no information, 

 though following the method employed in the kilts of the Snake 

 society the garments may have been ornamented with painted designs. 

 It is probable, however, that no large woven blankets were made in 

 ancient times, and no wide fabrics have been found in the cliff dwell- 

 ings, the widest being 26 inches from Grand Gulch, Utah. 



3343— 19— Proc.N.M.vol.54 18 



