PENELOPE AND NAUSICAA 197 
those made before the use of chemical dyes. Then 
the people raised their own indigo and went out into 
the woods for walnut bark and certain herbs whose 
dyes defied both time and the washtub, only getting 
a little mellower as they grew older. Some of the 
prettiest of these old coverlets have a dark green 
pattern woven into a black warp, and one occa- 
sionally sees an old-rose counterpane, which is pret- 
tiest of all. 
Even in the remoter districts it is only the older 
women who weave, and in another generation hand- 
weaving will have become a lost art, so far as the 
people at large are concerned. Schools to encourage 
weaving have been established here and there in the 
mountains, it is true, but philanthropic efforts of that 
kind cannot save a people from the onward march 
of progress. The work done in these schools is not 
sold to the people themselves, — they cannot afford 
to buy it, — but to summer visitors or it is sent to 
distant cities as a luxury to the rich. It serves a good 
purpose in providing remunerative work to a small 
number of the mountain women, but as to reviving 
to any extent the good old customs among the people 
themselves, — the hand cannot be put back on the 
dial. Besides the immediate help they afford, these 
schools have doubtless another mission: by gather- 
ing up and recording the old patterns, and with them 
more or less of the old customs of the people, they are 
preserving valuable material for future historians 
and story-tellers. 
In addition to the art of weaving, the mountain 
