G. Davies' _Five Theban Tombs_, Plate
XXXVII.

The upper illustration indicates a woman warping or beaming, probably
warping.

In the lower illustration note the left hand figure holding the spool
in her hand. At first sight this small black line looks like a
continuation of the "beater-in" in the hands of the other weaver, but
Mr. Davies informs me that it is quite a distinct article, and that
there can be no doubt about it. Just above the breast beam there are 8
or 9 threads of weft but they are too faint to be included.]

The selvedge F on the one side of the cloth and not on both sides is
also interesting from the fact that selvedges do not appear on the
Egyptian cloths until the XVIII. Dynasty _circa_ B.C. 1600.

The breast beam:--It appears to me that the three portions marked G1,
G2 and G3 joined up are intended to represent the breast beam and its
holding pegs, similar to the warp beam A and its pegs B1, B2, but the
portion K is not clearly drawn in any of the reproductions. Wilkinson
omits this altogether, but in its place has two black pieces which
also are still less clear. Lepsius has omitted G2 altogether and
appears to have made G1 and K and G3 into treadles, by raising G1
above the level of G3, and to support the view that these are
treadles, he makes use of the overseer's foot by placing it on the
supposed treadle, and the casual observer thinks it is the foot of the
woman weaver. However, Mr. Davies' copy seems to offer a solution. He
agrees with Cailliaud and Rosellini in so far as G1, G2 and G3 are
concerned. With him K takes quite a different form, in fact it looks
very similar to an article which an attendant woman in another panel
has close by her, see Fig. 8. It might perhaps be a rest to prevent
the beater-in being driven home too forcibly--this, however, is still
only a surmise--as the length of the beater-in makes it heavy at the
far end.

[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Weaver with the support K, Fig. 6; the woman
appears to hold a beater-in in the right hand and a ball of thread in
the left hand. Rosellini.]

In Cailliaud the warp threads are coloured in pale blue and red on top
of the black lines of the drawing; he has painted the selvedge and
finished cloth a pale blue, as well as that portion of G2 which is
covered by the cloth indicating that this is the breast beam, G3 and
G1 are painted a dark red. Rosellini colours A, B1, B2, D1, D2, G3
orange; G1 and K dark red, but E from end to end