THE TAJIN TOTONAC PART 1 — KELLY AND PALERM 



231 



weaver; for the next, away from her. The heddle is 

 held in the left hand and gradually is extended to the 

 right, over the upper shed, as the work progresses. Work 

 proceeds from left to right across the top of the upper 

 shed, and as thread is consumed, the ball on the ground 

 is unwound. Each loop which goes over the heddle is 

 held in place with the index finger of the left hand, to 

 prevent slipping. 



Plate 28, d shows Maria Loreto laboriously rigging the 

 heddle. The process is identical with that described 

 above, but she has started at the right instead of the 

 left. This is not her standard practice, but it is many 

 years since she has attempted to weave and some details 

 have escaped her; later, she realized that it would have 

 been easier to have started at the left. Note that she 

 has the batten turned upright, to keep the two sheds 

 well separated. 



Once the heddle is set, the shuttle, on which the weft 

 is wound, is thrown through, between the separated 

 warps. The shed is changed and the shuttle thrown back 

 again. Four or five weft threads are inserted thus and 

 are beaten into place with the batten. They are scratched 

 with a small pointed implement (see below) until the 

 threads are evenly spaced. 



Next, the loom is turned, so that the four or five rows 

 of woof lie at the far end, and the end bar which for- 

 merly reposed on the lap of the worker now is tied to the 

 post. These preliminaries terminated, the weaver now 

 is ready to begin forming the fabric. 



WEAVING 



Below are listed the successive steps in weav- 

 ing, beginning just after a newly inserted weft 

 has been beaten home: 



1. Batten removed and placed on top of shed bar. 

 Weaver leans forward, releasing the tension on the warp 

 (pi. 28, e). Her right hand clutches both shed and bat- 

 ten, which are turned away from the body two or three 

 times, to loosen the warp. At the same time, the heddle 

 is raised with the left hand and the warps attached to 

 it are forced to the upper surface. 



2. Batten passed beneath the warps which have just 

 been raised by the heddle. 



3. Weft beaten home with batten. 



4. Batten turned on end, to make room for shuttle. 



5. Shuttle thrown through, between the two sheds. 



6. Weft beaten home with batten. 



7. Batten removed. 



8. Shed (on far side of heddle) turned to vertical po- 

 sition to shift warps, retiring those lifted previously by 

 heddle. 



9. Batten inserted and weft beaten home. 



10. Batten turned to vertical position and shuttle passed 

 through. 



11. Weft beaten home. 



12. Batten removed and heddle lifted, as described in 

 first step above. 



From time to time, in order to space the threads 

 evenly, the fabric is scratched vigorously with a 

 pick (liswelkni?), often a flat, bamboo instru- 

 ment, about a centimeter in width and sharply 

 pointed at one end. One weaver uses a deer bone 

 (laskni 2 ), 8 or 9 cm. long, which terminates in a 

 point; she does not recall where or when she ac- 

 quired it. It is said that in Talaxca, a thorn or a 

 fish (sdbalo) bone is preferred. 25 



When not in use, the shuttle may lie across the 

 top of the warps, on the far side of the heddle; 

 on the newly formed fabric, at the waist of the 

 worker ; or on the ground. If heavy, ornamental 

 woof is used, there are two shuttles, one for the 

 normal weft, the other for the cordage. 



To form a design, the weaver uses the pick to 

 raise a loop of the heavy woof to the surface. 

 She plucks with her right hand, and with the in- 

 dex finger of her left, holds the loop in place 

 until the succeeding one is formed. If the shut- 

 tle has been thrown from left to right, and the 

 free end of the pabilo is on the right, she starts 

 plucking at the left since, owing to the pile, she 

 must be able to draw additional thread from the 

 shuttle. If the latter has been thrown from the 

 right, she starts at that side. The weft thread 

 not in use at the moment is carried along the sel- 

 vage, as a loop. 



Designs are "carried in the head"; Nicolasa 

 de Leon claims to be following those used by her 

 mother years ago. Sometimes, at least, threads 

 are counted ; sometimes the weaver merely guesses 

 at the distance. Figures of men or animals are 

 built feet first, so that the figure is standing up- 

 right when completed. 



Sometimes warp threads are double. Other 

 than this, there is no variation of simple under- 

 over weaving. Despite their simplicity, Totonac 

 textiles are very pleasing and some, especially 

 those manufactured a few years ago, are of excel- 

 lent quality. 



WOVEN ORNAMENT 



The border of colored thread which, upon occa- 

 sion, decorates the ruedo and the strainer, has been 

 mentioned above. Occasionally manteles are sim- 

 ilarly adorned, but ordinarily they are all white, 

 or white combined with brown lint cotton. With- 

 out exception, they are decorated with geometric 



25 Tho Chinantec are said to use a pointed bone or n cactus 

 spine (Bevan, p. 81). 





