340 



LACAILLE LACE. 



*ays of spoiling the vulgar derivatives from the 

 i wrnN liH-f/ni niitl luksha, i. e. one hundred 

 thousand ; a name given by the Hindoos to the 

 coccus lacca and ginn-luc, for which they have six 

 different terms ; " but they generally call it laks/ut," 

 siys Sir William Jones, (As. Res. ii. 364), " from 

 tl e multitude of small insects which, as they believe, 

 discharge it from their stomachs, and at length destroy 

 the tree on which they form their colonies.'' The 

 gum-lac is probably discharged by the coccus, as a 

 defence for its eggs, which are deposited on the 

 bihar tree. Four kinds are known stick-lac, seed- 

 lac, lump-lac, and shell-lac. The first is the gum 

 before its separation from the twigs, which it 

 incrusts ; and the best is of a red purplish colour : 

 the second is the gum in a granulated form, stripped 

 from the twigs, and perhaps boiled, by which a portion 

 of the colour is lost: the third is Uie seed-lac, melted 

 into cakes : and the fourth, the common form in 

 which it is known in Europe, is the purified gum. 

 The best is amber-coloured and transparent. I n the 

 East, it is much used for trinkets. It is the basis of 

 sealing-wax. It forms varnishes, furnishes a brilliant 

 red dye, and, mixed with thrice its weight of fine 

 sand, is made into polishing stones. (See Coccus.) 

 Lac, in its original meaning, is applied to the com- 

 putation of money in the East Indies. Thus a lak 

 of rupees is 100,000, which, supposing them to be 

 sicca, or standard, equal 12,500. 



LACAILLE. See Caille. 



LACCADIVE ISLANDS; a group of small 

 islands in the Indian sea ; the nearest is about 120 

 miles from the coast of Malabar; Ion. 71 15' to 

 73 30' E.; lat. 10 to 12 40' N. These islands 

 are supposed to be what Ptolemy called Jnsulee 

 Numero XJX. ; but, in fact, they are thirty-two, all 

 of them small, and covered with trees. They are 

 rocky on their sides, mostly as if laid on a bottom of 

 sand, attended with reefs, and the channels between 

 them very deep. They are commonly visited by 

 British ships, in their way from India to the Persian 

 gulf or Red sea. The principal traffic of the inhabi- 

 tants is in the produce of the cocoa palm, such as 

 the oil, the cables and cordage prepared from this 

 plant ; and in fish, which is dried and sent to the 

 continent of India, from whence they get rice, &c., in 

 return. They also trade to Mascat, in large boats, 

 and bring back, in return for their commodities, 

 dates and coffee. Ambergris is often found floating 

 off these islands. The inhabitants are mostly 

 Mohammedans, called Moplays, 



LACE; a delicate kind of net-work, formed of 

 silk flax or cotton thread, used for the ornamenting 

 of female dresses. Its meshes are of a hexagonal or 

 six sided figure, and formed by twisting together the 

 threads of the substances just mentioned. Thicker 

 threads are also interwoven to form the figures or 

 patterns, according to some regular design, and 

 these (called technically the gimp,) form the orna- 

 ments of the lace. There are several diflerent kinds 

 of lace, which are more or less esteemed according 

 to the fashion of the day, and valued in proportion 

 to their rarity more than from any real difference in 

 their quality and appearance. That of England is 

 generally called Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, or 

 Devonshire, according to the several counties in 

 which it is made. It is also called pillow or bobbin 

 lace, from being woven upon a pillow or cushion by 

 means of bobbins. It consists of hexagonal meshes, 

 four of the sides of each mesh being formed by 

 twisting two threads round each other, and the other 

 two sides by the simple crossing of two threads over 

 each other. This is the kind manufactured at Lisle 

 in France, and Nottingham in England. Another 

 kind is made at Honiton in Devonshire, and called 



Honiton or Devon lace. It is of the same kind as 

 that made at Brussels. Two sides of each mesh of 

 this are plaited of four threads, and the four other 

 sides by threads twisted together. The plaiting 

 renders it much more durable than the twist lace, 

 and it therefore bears a much higher price. There 

 is also a third sort of lace manufactured at Valen- 

 ciennes, but which is not made in England at all. 

 In this all the six sides of the mesh are plaited, but 

 two of the sides of each mesh are so small that they 

 appear like lozenges. At Nottingham imitations of 

 lace are produced by machines, called point net and 

 warp net ; from the names of the machines in which 

 they are made. They are botli a species of chain 

 work, and the machines are varieties of the stocking 

 frame. The warp frame makes a very close imita- 

 tion of the Brussels lace, but has very little dura- 

 bility. The Buckinghamshire lace is woven on a 

 pillow or cushion, which the woman or child \vi;o 

 makes the lace, places on her knees. The threads 

 are wound upon bobbins, or small round pieces of 

 wood, each about the size of a pencil, having round 

 their upper ends a deep groove, so formed as to reduce 

 the bobbin to a thin neck, and on which the thread 

 is wound ; a separate bobbin being used for each 

 thread. To form the meshes pins are stuck into the 

 cushion, and the threads are woven or twisted round 

 the pins, a piece of parchment being first fixed down 

 upon the cushion, pierced previously through with 

 small pin holes in regular order to show the proper 

 places for the pins; and on this parchment the 

 design for the gimp is also traced, so that it may be 

 interwoven with the finer threads, and form the 

 figures. The work is begun at the upper part of the 

 cushion, by tying the threads together in pairs ; and 

 each pair is then attached to a pin, which is stuck 

 through the parchment into the cushion ; the round 

 form of which allows the threads to hang down and 

 remain steadily on whichever side the bobbins are 

 placed. The woman taking one pair in each hand 

 with her finger and thumb, twists the bobbins round 

 each other three times, the effect of which is to twist 

 the threads of each pair together, and this is done 

 by both hands at the same instant of time. This 

 twisting, which forms the two sides of the mesh 

 being completed, the adjacent bobbins of each pair 

 are interchanged in order to cross the threads of 

 those bobbins over each other, and thus form the 

 bottom of the neck. Thus, for instance, supposing 

 the bobbins numbered one, two, three, and four. 

 No. 1 is twisted round 2, and 3 is twisted round 4. 

 Then in order to cross, 2 and 3 are interchanged, so 

 that 1 and 3 come together, and 2 and 4 ; and the 

 next time that the twisting operation is performed, 

 these pairs of threads will be combined together. 

 When a mesh, or half mesh is made, it must be 

 secured by putting a pin into the cushion; and in 

 order to draw the twist work close, the pin is 

 introduced between the recently crossed threads, 

 and carried up towards the top of the pillow, so as to 

 drive the twists and cross before it, and draw the 

 twists into a closer compass. The pin is then 

 inserted into its proper hole in the parchment, and 

 will prevent the threads from returning. These 

 four bobbins are now laid apart for the present on 

 one side of the cushion, when two other pairs are 

 brought forward in front, and twisted and crossed in 

 the same manner ; and in this way the work proceeds 

 till a row of meshes is formed all across the breadth 

 of the intended piece of lace, and then the same 

 bobbins are worked over again to make another row. 

 In general the number of bobbins is equal to 50 or 

 60 to each inch of breadth. These operations are 

 performed with the greatest dexterity, but the work 

 goes on very slowly, so many meshes being required 



