222 State of the Arts of [April, 



(a few feet asunder,) to the length of her purposed web, she has pre- 

 pared the only warping frame known throughout these regions. 



Tying the thread to the reed on her extreme right, she moves ra- 

 pidly up and down along the line, passing the thread (as it comes off 

 the bobbin, revolving on a shaft passed through its axle, and held in 

 her right hand), on alternate sides of each reed, until the " warp is 

 laid." 



The dexterity acquired by the women, in warping, is considerable, 

 and the quickness with which they entwine the thread, with the warp- 

 ing reeds, is remarkable ; and apparently, it is executed with little trou- 

 ble. I have often seen those women moving up and down, and laying 

 the warp regularly on the frame, at a fast walk, and all the while talk- 

 ing and laughing with the persons present, and assisting them in the 

 performance of their task. 



Having "laid the warp," the reeds (or rods of wood," as the case 

 may be), are pulled out of the ground, and the warp, frame and all, is 

 rolled up and carried home. All the cloths made in the valley are of 

 uncoloured thread, which renders the warping a much easier affair 

 than when striped webs are to be laid down. 



When leisure offers for weaving the web, the women on a sunshin- 

 ing day spi-ead out the warp (the warping sticks still in it) and apply 

 with a brush, made of a suitable kind of grass, the paste necessary for 

 smoothing the thread preparatory to putting the web in the loom. 



The mode of weaving does not essentially differ from that practised 

 in the uncivilized portions of our own country with which I am 

 acquainted. The weaver sitting on a bench, with the loom in front of her, 

 plies the shuttle alternately with either hand, pulling forward the 

 swinging apparatus for laying the woof thread, close to its predecessor , 

 and plies the treddles with her feet*. The weaving is carried on under 

 a shed, within a sma 1 ! verandah, or in the house ; and as the roofs are 

 generally low, the treddles are made to play in a hollow dug in the 

 earthen floor under the loom. The loom is made of the commonest 

 materials, and very clumsily put together, and is altogether of # a piece 

 with the poor state of the weaving art. Lest it should be thought 

 that it is intended to connect the wretched produce of the Nepal 

 looms, with the rudeness of the machinery, as inevitable cause and 



* This portion of the loom is extremely rude and primitive ; instead of foot- 

 boards moving on a fixed point, to be depressed alternately, so as to make one 

 layer of the warp threads cross the other, and thus incorporate the woof with it, 

 we find two small buttons suspended from the lower margin of the netting, which 

 the weaver seizes between her great and first toe, alternately depressing each 

 foot as the woof thread is delivered by the shuttle. 



