THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
219 
The next processes which silk undergoes—the winding and throwsting— 
have been in use among the Hindoos from immemorial time. A skein of 
raw silk is placed on a slight swift, made of bamboos, and a woman 
sitting on the floor makes the swift revolve with her foot. In her hand 
she holds a distaff, which receives the silk as it is unravelled. The 
distaff is then placed on the ground, and the skein is drawn off into 
silken bobbins. The process of throwsting is extremely tedious and com¬ 
plicated, as practised in the Deccan, where it seems to be confined 
generally to particular families. 
The apparatus is quite rude, and worthy of the primitive ages. From 
a few bobbins, the thread is wound into skeins by a revolving wheel 
about a foot and a half in diameter. Each thread receives a twist in a 
particular direction by the revolving of the spindles, and passes on to the 
wheel. 
This forms the weft for the weaver; but to form the skeins into, the 
warp for cloth, they are transferred from swifts, such as those mentioned 
above, and wound upon distaffs, from every two of which the thread is 
run off upon single bobbins. These are carried back to the throwsting 
mill, to undergo the same process as was gone through before, when 
making the weft, with this only difference, that the two threads of each 
are now twisted into one, in a direction opposite to that formerly given. 
When alluding to this process of Indian throwsting, Mr. Graham very 
pertinently observes, that “any person acquainted with the mode of 
twisting silk, or who may have seen an English throwsting mill, will 
readily perceive what a blessing the introduction of some part of our 
throwsting machinery would be among the Hindoos; that, by reducing 
the labour many hundred-fold, it would tend to cheapen a clothing of 
which all classes are particularly fond, and would increase its consumption 
to a very great extent, in a climate so peculiarly adapted to silken 
raiments.” 
So ^delicate is the nature of silk, that even the situation of the filatures 
for reeling it should be particularly attended to. They should be where 
the air is pure, temperate, regular, and dry, and in the neighbourhood of 
good soft water, which is of the utmost consequence, as none but what is 
soft, or made so by artificial means, would do. It is therefore always 
better to have the water drawn into a large cistern, and stand exposed to 
the sun for some time, in order that it may penetrate and soften it. 
Even a cloudy day will have an injurious effect upon silk, and reeling 
should, if possible, be avoided on such occasions. It has been remarked 
that, in Bengal, where they have several harvests, those silks which are 
fil&tured in the rainy season, are always much inferior in colour, and 
