lower beam at an angle of about
90 degrees, and the weaver sits underneath at his work, Fig. 28. It is
not at all uncommon to meet with illustrations showing the warp
stretched at an incline, and apart from the fact that in many the
weavers are posing for illustration, and therefore, are most probably
not exactly in their natural positions, the tilted arrangement has
this advantage, namely, that the work of beating-in is improved by
the fall given to the "sword" which, with less exertion by the
weaver, drives the weft home more effectively. In all these cases,
however, the weaver sits or stands in front of the loom, but in the
case of the Bushongo the loom is tilted to such an extent that the
weaver finds it more convenient to sit underneath the warp.

The discovery by Messrs. Alan Gardiner and N. de G. Davies of
illustrations of Egyptian upright looms, confirms Wilkinson in his
statement and illustration that the Egyptians had this class of loom
as well as the horizontal one. The vertical loom is found in Europe,
Asia, Africa and America, and is, probably, ethnically as old if not
older than the horizontal loom.[E] But this Egyptian upright loom
differs from another, the Greek, or Central European, or Scandinavian
form of the upright loom, in having an upper and a lower beam so that
the warp is made taut between two beams, while in the Greek loom there
is only _one_ beam. The warp hangs from this beam, the warp threads
being made taut by means of weights attached at the lower ends.

[Illustration: Fig. 29a.--Illustration on a small lekythos of an
Athenian girl at work on a tapestry loom, together with a full size
tracing of the tapestry loom. British Museum. B.C. 500.]

[Illustration: Fig. 29b.--Illustration of a Greek woman with a
tapestry loom. From Stackelberg's _Graeber der Hellenen_, pl. xxxiii.]

The Greeks were, however, acquainted with the tapestry loom, for there
exists in the British Museum a small lekythos with an illustration,
Fig. 29a, of such an article resting on the knees of a lady weaver.[F]

[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Greek woman at work on a loom. From C. Robert
+Eph arch+ 1892, pl. xiii., p. 247. It is not possible to say from
this illustration whether this is a warp weighted loom or not.]

[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Penelope at her loom. Illustration on an
Athenian skyphos found in an Etruscan tomb at Chiusi, and at present
in the museum there. The illustration is taken from _Monumenti d.
Inst. A