ound round the breast beam as is done on hand and
power looms of the present day. Some very long pieces of cloth have
come down to us and unless they were "taken up" in this way a long
stretch of ground would have been necessary. A modified form of this
horizontal loom has been met with in recent years among the Bedawin
Arabs, as shown in the illustration of a study sketch, Fig. 12, made
by Frank Goodall, R.A., in the forties of last century. The loom was
provided with pegs like the old Egyptian loom but it was supplied with
a primitive heddle resting on a stone at each side of the warp and it
would appear that the weaver, to a certain extent, did not take up the
woven cloth by winding it round the breast beam and by that means
retaining his position, but, as the weaving progressed and the line of
finished cloth got beyond his reach, he crept up to it and so got
farther and farther away from the breast beam until in the end he
arrived at the warp beam. Similar looms are still used for mat making
by the Egyptian fellah.

VERTICAL LOOMS.

[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Upright or vertical loom. Wilkinson's
_Ancient Egyptians_, London, John Murray. 1st ed., Vol. III., p. 135.]

Apart from the horizontal loom Wilkinson and Robert Hay[C] also
recorded the existence of an illustration of an upright loom, said in
error to be at Eileithyias (El Kab). Wilkinson's copy, Fig. 13, is
more elaborate than that of Hay. Mr. Davies informs me that the
original is not at Eileithyias, but in the tomb of Nefer-hotep at
Thebes. Wilkinson in regard to this illustration quotes the
oft-repeated statement of Herodotus (_circa_ 460-455 B.C.) in
reference to looms in general:--"Other nations make cloth by pushing
the woof upwards, the Egyptians on the contrary, press it down." On
this statement Wilkinson remarks: "This is confirmed by the paintings
which represent the process of making cloth; but at Thebes, a man who
is engaged in making a piece of cloth with a coloured border or
selvedge, appears to push the woof upwards, the cloth being fixed
above him, to the upper part of the frame" [Fig. 13]. But I am unable
to follow Wilkinson in this, for I can find no indication in his
illustration which shows how the beating-in of the weft is
accomplished. From the illustration all one can say is that it might
have been done either way. Wilkinson's illustration is lettered from
_a_ to _p_ but this lettering is not explained by him at all,
excepting in th