156 COTTON TEXTILES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



Yarns. The yarns which are imported into this country almost 

 wholly from England are used in the manufacture of materials for 

 shirts, dresses, turbans, scarfs, belts, sashes, handkerchiefs, towels, 

 inendils, keffiyehs, and notably for the manufacture of a kind of native 

 cloth called "dima," varying in length per piece from 8 to 9 yards, and 

 in width from 15 to 19 inches, price from 30 to 75 cents per piece ; also, 

 in various textile fabrics of native wool and silk, in which the warp is 

 produced from English yarns. 



WEIGHT. 



Gray cloth : Weight from 4 to 12 pounds a piece, or four-twenty- 

 fourths to twelve-twenty-fourths pounds per yard. 



Gray shirtings : Weight from 7 to 14 pounds a piece, or one-fifth to 

 one- third of a pound per yard. 



Bleached shirtings : Weight varies considerably say from 6 to 16 

 pounds a piece, or one-sixth to two-fifths of a pound per yard. 



Prints (printed calicoes): Weight varies considerably say from 4 to 10 

 pounds a piece, or one-tenth to five- tenths of a pound per yard. 



Muslins and tanjibs : Weight varies considerably, from 1 to 4 

 pounds a piece, or two-tenths to three-tenths of a pound a yard for mus- 

 lins, and 3 to 4 pounds a piece, or one-tenth to two-tenths of a pound a 

 yard for tanjibs.* 



It will be observed that weights vary considerably ; the reason as- 

 signed for this discrepancy is said to be not only due to the different 

 qualities and weights of the textiles, but also to the " sizing n which nota- 

 bly bleached shirtings, prints and muslin and tanjibs contain. As these 

 last-mentioned goods are not sold by weight in Syria, the object of de- 

 teriorating them by such a questionable process is not manifest; and 

 although, 1 am informed, this practice in nowise interferes with their 

 salability here, I would not recommend its adoption by American manu- 

 facturers. 



HOW PURCHASED. 



All cotton goods imported from England are purchased direct from 

 the English manufacturers, either by the agents or the partners of the 

 Syrian firms, most of whom have branch houses in either Manchester 

 or Liverpool. This trade is now largely in the hands of native mer- 

 chants who have gradually replaced the foreign and English commis- 

 sion merchants formerly established here. The English manufacturers 

 have at present no direct representatives in Syria for the sale of their 

 cotton textiles, and there is now but one English firm left in Beirut 

 which is engaged in the sale of Manchester goods. On the other hand, 

 by far the greater part of the muslins, scarfs, sashes, clothes of various 

 kinds for the use of the peasants, stockings, and sundry other cotton 



* The subdivision of the pound is purposely given in these fractions to accord as 

 near as possible with the corresponding lengths in yards of the various pieces. 



