f the warp being
made fast to a frame, the whole is kept tight, and the web stretched out
by means of a species of yoke, which is fastened behind the body, when
the person weaving sits down. Every second of the longitudinal threads,
or warp, passes separately through a set of reeds, like the teeth of a
comb, and the alternate ones through another set. These cross each other,
up and down, to admit the woof, not from the extremities, as in our
looms, nor effected by the feet, but by turning edgeways two flat sticks
which pass between them. The shuttle (turak) is a hollow reed about
sixteen inches long, generally ornamented on the outside, and closed at
one end, having in it a small bit of stick, on which is rolled the woof
or shoot. The silk cloths have usually a gold head. They use sometimes
another kind of loom, still more simple than this, being no more than a
frame in which the warp is fixed, and the woof darned with a long
small-pointed shuttle. For spinning the cotton they make use of a machine
very like ours. The women are expert at embroidery, the gold and silver
thread for which is procured from China, as well as their needles. For
common work their thread is the pulas before mentioned, or else filaments
of the pisang (musa).

EARTHENWARE.

Different kinds of earthenware, I have elsewhere observed, are
manufactured in the island.

PERFUMES.

They have a practice of perfuming their hair with oil of benzoin, which
they distil themselves from the gum by a process doubtless of their own
invention. In procuring it a priuk, or earthen rice-pot, covered close,
is used for a retort. A small bamboo is inserted in the side of the
vessel, and well luted with clay and ashes, from which the oil drops as
it comes over. Along with the benzoin they put into the retort a mixture
of sugar-cane and other articles that contribute little or nothing to the
quantity or quality of the distillation; but no liquid is added. This oil
is valued among them at a high price, and can only be used by the
superior rank of people.

OIL.

The oil in general use is that of the coconut, which is procured in the
following manner. The fleshy part being scraped out of the nut, which for
this use must be old, is exposed for some time to the heat of the sun. It
is then put into a mat bag and placed in the press (kampahan) between two
sloping timbers, which are fixed together in a socket in the lower part
of the frame, and forced towards each other