99 
raised and depressed between each throw of the shuttle, and 
this is usually done by means of treadles. 
For weaving patterns, several sets of heddles are employed. 
The patterns may be either merely woven, as in diaper, or 
produced by coloured threads being thrown in, as in figured 
ribbons. In a still simpler form of loom, such as that in use 
in India, the reed and batten are dispensed with, a long 
shuttle like a netting-mesh being used, which first draws the 
weft into its place, and is then used to beat it up. In other 
cases, the threads of the warp are stretched in a frame, some¬ 
times by means of weights, and the weft inserted by hand and 
beaten up with a sort of comb. Sometimes the surface of the 
tissue is hairy or piled liked velvet, from short threads being 
woven in. 
Articles closely resembling woven fabrics are in some in¬ 
stances made by the simple process of plaiting, like our ordi¬ 
nary rush-matting. Some baskets also present the same 
texture as if they had been woven. Felting, or the formation 
of cloth by the entanglement of short fibres crossing each 
other in every direction, is another process closely allied to 
weaving. Coloured figures and patterns on cloth may be 
produced in various ways, either by dyeing portions of both 
warp and weft of different colours, or by using coloured 
portions in one of them only ; or the tissues may be com¬ 
pleted and subsequently printed. The bark-cloth made in 
Fiji and Tonga is ornamented in this last manner, and is 
itself a tissue which is neither woven, plaited, nor felted, but 
consists of the inner bark of the malo-tree dexterously mani¬ 
pulated and beaten. The bast which is used for matting 
affords an instance of a somewhat similar application or the 
inner bark of a tree : the outer bark, like the birch-bark so 
largely employed in North America, is generally used for 
stiff and not flexible articles. 
Another method of ornamenting is by embroidery, or 
working patterns on a fabric by means of the needle. Looped 
fabrics knitted from a continuous thread, and knotted fabrics 
made by tying strings together, may be regarded as varieties 
of woven fabrics. 
H 2 
