s, from the fact that it is found among the savages of Central
Africa (_Park_) and the islands of the sea. "Clavigero, in his history
of Mexico, shows that on the conquest of that country, weaving was found
to be practised by the natives." (_Ashenhurst_.)

[Sidenote: _Egyptian loom_]

[Sidenote: _Method of pushing the woof_]

[Sidenote: _Hindoo loom_]

The Egyptians are supposed to have been inventors of the loom. There
were two kinds in use, one horizontal and the other perpendicular.
Instead of a shuttle they used a stick with a hook at one end, which was
used also as a batten. Herodotus says that it was the practice of the
Egyptians to push the woof downwards, and this method is pictured in
many paintings; but one representation found at Thebes shows a man
pushing it upwards. The former method is, I believe, the one generally
used by all nations, and it certainly seems the easier way. Martin's
description of a Hindoo loom in his "Circle of the Mechanical Arts" is
interesting: "The loom consists merely of two bamboo rollers, one for
the warp and the other for the web, and a pair of gears. The shuttle
performs the double office of shuttle and batten, and for this purpose
is made like a huge netting needle, and of a length somewhat exceeding
the breadth of the cloth. This apparatus the weaver carries to a tree,
under which he digs a hole large enough to contain his legs and the
lower part of the gear. He then stretches his warp by fastening his
bamboo rollers, at a due distance from each other on the turf, by wooden
pins. The balance of the gear he fastens to some convenient branch of
the tree over his head. Two loops underneath the gear, in which he
inserts his great toes, serve instead of treadles, and his long
shuttle, which also performs the office of batten, draws the weft
through the warp, and afterwards strikes it up close to the web."

[Sidenote: _Crude implements used by primitive peoples_]

[Sidenote: _Patience and dexterity necessary_]

Ashenhurst says: "It is very evident that the implements used, not only
by the early Egyptians, but by other contemporaneous nations, and even
by the Hindoos at the present time, were of the rudest possible
character, and nothing but the most exemplary patience, dexterity, and
great delicacy of hand, acquired by long traditionary habit, can account
for the extraordinary beauty and fineness of their textile productions."
This exemplary patience, dexterity, and great deli