382 



NAVAJO WEAVERS. 



yarn-beam. Every time the weft is turned at the edge these two strings 

 are twisted together and the welt is passed through the twist ; thus one 

 thread or strand of this border is always on the outside. As it is con 

 stantly twisted in one direction, it is evident that, after a while, a coun- 

 ter tw ist must form which would reuderthe passage of the weft between 

 the cords difficult, if the cords could not be untwisted again. Here the 

 object of tying these cords loosely to one of the upper beams, as before 

 described, is displayed. From time to time the cords are untied and 

 the unwoven portion straightened as the work progresses. Fig. 44 and 

 Plate XXXVIII show these cords. The coarse blankets do not have 

 them. (Fig 42.) 



Navajo blankets are single-ply, with designs the same on both sides, 

 no matter how elaborate these designs may be. To produce their vari- 



gated patterns they have a 

 separate skein, shuttle, or 

 thread for each component of 

 the pattern. Take, for in- 

 stance, the blanket depicted 

 in Fig. 49. Across this blank- 

 er, between the points a — b, 

 we have two serrated borders, 

 two white spaces, a small 

 diamond in the center, and 

 twenty four serrated stripes, 

 making in all twenty-nine 

 component parts of the pat- 

 tern. Now, when the weaver 

 was working in this place, 

 t wenty-nine different threads 

 of weft might have been seen 

 hanging from the face of the 

 web at one time. In the girth 

 pictured in Fig. 44 live dif- 

 ferent threads of woof are 

 shown depending from the 

 loom. 



When the w T eb is so nearly 

 finished that the batten can 

 no longer be inserted in the 

 warp, slender rods are placed 

 in the shed, while the weft 

 is passed with increased dif- 

 ficulty on the end of a delicate splinter and the reed-fork alone presses 

 the warp home. Later it becomes necessary to remove even the rod 

 and the shed; then the alternate threads are separated by a slender 

 stick worked in tediously between them, and two threads of woof are 



Fig. 44. — Weaving of saddlo-girth. 



