156 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



industry is one of great benefit to the inhabitants, for 

 not only are large numbers of men and boys employed 

 on the actual work, but women and children prepare 

 and wind the wool. The trade is one that has to be 

 learnt early, and the entire training must be gone 

 through before a workman is considered competent. 

 The first process to be learned is the winding of the 

 wool, which is handed over in enormous hanks to each 

 foreman, and, squatting on the floor, were to be seen 

 innumerable small brown beys busily winding it off 

 from their toes, ever present and ready skein holders! 

 The first promotion places them behind the looms, 

 where they sit and run a line of the cotton into the 

 warp to strengthen it for sustaining the wool, and then, 

 with a large iron comb, they push it into place. When 

 this part of the work is learned, they are transferred 

 to the other side of the loom, where they begin by 

 learning to place and knot, in the curious fashion in 

 vogue, the wool for the plain stitches that edge the 

 border, and at the end of six months they are usually 

 expert enough to work at the difficult pattern. And 

 the pattern, how is that accomplished? Strange as it 

 may seem, the pattern is unknown to all the workers. 

 All that they are given are slips of papers on which 

 appear extraordinary hieroglyphics, the patois of the 

 Kashmiri carpet-makers written in a shorthand of their 

 own, indicating directions for the line next to be pro- 

 ceeded with. " 3 green, lift 4, 2 black, 5 blue, 12 green, 

 lift 6," etc., drones out the head-boy at each loom, and 

 nimble brown fingers knot in the wool, fork it straight, 

 and clip even with large iron scissors as the row is 

 completed. 



In this laborious thorough manner the great fabrics 



