THE ANGORA GOAT. 165 
combing out all bum, seeds, or other impurities, 
and m a careful washing of the fleece. The pro- 
cesses of spinning and weaving, as described by 
Captain Conolly as usual at Angora, are very primitive. 
The yarn is said to be much superior in the melon 
season, from the mucilaginous quality imparted to the 
saliva by eating that fruit. The spinning of the thread 
is done by women, but the fabrics made from it are 
manufactured by men, who stretch their warp in the 
open air, on a level space by the bank of the river, and 
prepare it for the loom by a dressing of a glutinous 
hquor called "chirish," made from a plant of the 
Asphodel family, which grows plentifully on all the 
high lands of Armenia. The chirish liquor is squirted 
or blown on to the web. It has a sweetish and 
not disagreeable taste, but is said to destroy the 
teeth. 
Socks and gloves of the finest texture are knitted by 
the women, from the tiftik yarn. Some of these were 
so ingeniously wrought as to puzzle the English 
manufacturers to know where the work had been begun 
or ended. Permission is now freely given by the 
Turkish Government to export raw tiftik, and a large 
quantity is annually sent away to various European 
and American ports. 
A mistaken impression exists in Australia, and also 
m America, that the Angora and Cashmere goats are 
identical. The two breeds are as distinct, however 
from each other as the Leicester sheep is from the 
Merino. The Cashmere goat is valued for the produc- 
tion of a very small quantity of extremely fine wool 
called "pushm" a sort of downy undergrowth, which 
hes at the roots of the long coarse hair with which the 
