380 NAVAJO WEAVERS. 



is substituted for it ; but with the lower shed, healds are applied to the 

 auterior threads and the rod is withdrawn. 



§ V. The mode of applying the healds is simple: (1) the weaver sits 

 facing the loom in the positiou for weaving; (2) she lays at the right 

 (her right) side of the loom a ball of string which she knows contains 

 more than sufficient material to make the healds ; (3) she takes the end 

 of this string and passes it to the left through the shed, leaving the ball 

 in its original positiou ; (4) she ties a loop at the end of the string large 

 enough to admit the beald-rod ; (5) she holds horizontally in her left 

 hand a straightish slender rod, which is to become the heald-rod — its 

 right extremity touching the left edge of the warp — and passes the rod 

 through the loop uutil the point of the stick is evm with the third 

 (second anterior from the left) thread of the warp; (C) she puts her fin- 

 ger through the space between the first and third threads and draws out 

 a fold of the heald-striug ; (7) she twists this once around, so as to form 

 a loop, and pushes the point of the heald-rod on to the right through 

 this loop; (8) she puts her finger into the next space and forms another 

 loop ; (9) and soon she continues to advance her rod and form her loops 

 from left to right uutil each of the auterior (alternate) warp-threads of 

 the lower shed is included in a loop of the heald; (10) when the last 

 loop is made she ties the string firmly to the rod near its right end. 



When the weaving is nearly done and it becomes necessary to remove 

 the healds, the rod is drawu out of the loops, a slight pull is made at 

 the thread, the loops fall in an instant, and the straightened string is 

 drawn out of the shed. Illustrations of the healds may be seen in 

 Plates XXXV and XXXVIII and Figs. 42, 44, and 46, that in Fig. 46 

 being the most distinct. 



§ VI. Iu making a blanket the operator sits on the ground with her 

 legs folded under her. The warp hangs vertically before her, and (ex- 

 cepting in a case to be mentioned) she weaves from below upwards. As 

 she never rises from this squatting posture when at work, it is evident 

 that when she has woven the web to a certain height further work must 

 become inconvenient or impossible unless by some arrangement the tin 

 ished web is drawn downwards. Her cloth-beam does not revolve as in 

 our looms, so she' brings her work within easy reach by the following- 

 method: The spiral rope (Plate XXXVIII and Fig. 42) is loosened, the 

 yarn-beam is lowered to the desired distance, a fold is made iu the 

 loosened web, and the upper edge of the fold is sewed down tightly to 

 the cloth-beam. In all new blankets over two feet long the marks of this 

 sewing are to be seen, and they often remain until the blanket is worn 

 out. Plate XXXV, representing a blanket nearly finished, illustrates 

 this procedure. 



Except in belts, girths, and perhaps occasionally in very narrow 

 blankets, the shuttle is never passed through the whole width of the 

 warp at once, but only through a space which does not exceed the 

 length of the batten ; for it is by means of the batten, which is rarely 

 more than 3 feet long, that the shed is opened. 



