24 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XVI, 
which runs red the front of the heddle-rod and is there 
firmly tied in position. 
As arule two women work together at this kind of loom, 
‘both squatting on the web (&) and one inserting the thread of 
the woof, which she holds roughly bundled together without a 
shuttle, by hand, while the other wields the beater-in and 
manipulates the heddle-rod and shed-stick. A single woman 
can, however, work alon 
The beater-in (fig. 2, pl. II) resembles the specimen, pro- 
bably from Persia, figured by Ling Roth in Journ. Anthrop. 
Inst., XLVITI, p. 130, fig. 195A, except that the handle and 
body are in a straight line. They are carved out of a single 
piece of wood and on the back of the body there is a metal 
shield, sometimes of brass, sometimes of iron and often partly 
of one metal and partly of the other. It is fixed on by nails. 
The other surface is not protected but is often ornamented 
are fixed to the body. These teeth are abruptly curved copper 
blades, seven in number. Their bases are inserted into the 
wood and covered by a piece of raw hide in which slits are 
cut for the protrusion of the teeth. This has evidently been 
applied wet and allowed to dry in position before the metal 
shield has been fastened on. The straightness of the beater- 
in is probably correlated with the fact that the weaver sits on 
the web and oe. downwards with it. Compare the figure 
of a Lycian weaver working at an upright loom with a curved 
or bent beater-in reproduced by Ling Roth in the paper cited 
above (Journ. Anthrop. Inst., XLVIII, p. 123, fig. 12 
"he whole apparatus is "probably degenerate rather than 
primitive, its peculiarities depending on the difficulty experi- 
enced by the Gaodar in obtaining timber. A minimum of wood 
is used in its construction and the crooked branches of the pelea 
tamarisk are utilized perforce. Even these have to be br — 
from Miankangi, a remote district situated between the ma 
effluents of the Helmand. The tripods and suspenders are 
thus valued possessions and may always be seen when not in 
parse leaning against the walls of the reed huts of the Gaodar 
pla 
The woollen cloth made with this loom is a coarse blanket - 
like material, as a rule black with white or grey transverse 
stripes but without other pattern. It is produced in long 
strips not more than two and a half feet wide. A similar 
type of loom is used by Baluchi women in Seistan for weaving 
carpets. See Tate’s Seistan, part IV, plate opposite page 
323. This plate is, however, not quite clear as to details and 
I did not see the carpet- -loom myself. 
