118 JOURNAL , R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XIX. 



ground. The pattern is picked up with a weaver's sword 

 (wema), which has an eye at one end through which the weft 

 fibres are threaded, thus serving as a bodkin to draw them 

 through the warp ; a toothed comb (alu karala) like that of 

 the cotton weaver's is used to drive the threads home. The 

 raising and separation of alternate threads to facilitate plain 

 weaving is effected by a very primitive type of heddles. The 

 actual loops of the heddles (welakadduwa) remain in one 

 position^ not moving up or down ; every alternate warp thread 

 passes through a loop. The separation of alternate threads 

 is effected by the movement of two wooden rods, of which 

 one (uttarapata or kontaliya) rests on the warp, the other 

 (pannambate) passes between alternate threads of it. 



The warp is carried on two rods, kotta kura and adina kanda. 

 The first of these is a thin rod which is tied to the stouter 

 heda kanda which is itself tied to sticks driven into the ground. 

 This is at the near end. At the far end, the adina kanda is 

 held by two strings [kadu pa~lanu) to two posts (kalalkanu), 

 and is tightly strained. The heddles are supported on a 

 tripod arrangement of sticks (tunpa kolle) which is moved 

 along the mat as work proceeds. 



The warp is laid (diggahanawa or heda lanawa) in two 

 operations. First the spun thread (nul) is unwound from the 

 spindle, broken and passed through the loops of the heddles 

 and the teeth of the comb ; the short ends left projecting 

 through the comb are loosely tied to prevent the threads 

 slipping out again. The remainder of the warp is then laid 

 according to the required length, broken off, and joined on to 

 the short ends already prepared. 



Mats of perfectly plain weaving in stripes are called pannam 

 kalala ; the usual sort are also decorated with birds, and these 

 are called kurullu kalala ; mats with a variety of patterns are 

 called weda pedum or weda kalala. Other animals such as 

 fish, deer, elephants, cobras are often found on elaborate 

 examples as also trees (called malgaha) and a variety of geo- 

 metrical patterns (toran petta, taruka petta, pannam petta, 



