e woven in one direction only.

I have described how the ends of the blanket are bordered with a stout
three-ply string applied to the folds of the warp. The lateral edges
of the blanket are similarly protected by stout cords applied to the
weft. The way in which these are woven in, next demands our attention.
Two stout worsted cords, tied together, are firmly attached at each
end of the cloth-beam just outside of the warp; they are then carried
upwards and loosely tied to the yarn-beam or the supplementary
yarn-beam. Every time the weft is turned at the edge these two strings
are twisted together and the weft is passed through the twist; thus
one thread or strand of this border is always on the outside. As it is
constantly twisted in one direction, it is evident that, after a
while, a counter-twist must form which would render the passage of the
weft between the cords difficult, if the cords could not be untwisted
again. Here the object of tying these cords loosely to one of the
upper beams, as before described, is displayed. From time to time the
cords are untied and the unwoven portion straightened as the work
progresses. Fig. 44 and Plate XXXVIII show these cords. The coarse
blankets do not have them. (Fig 42.)

Navajo blankets are single-ply, with designs the same on both sides,
no matter how elaborate these designs may be. To produce their
varigated patterns they have a separate skein, shuttle, or thread for
each component of the pattern. Take, for instance, the blanket
depicted in Fig. 49. Across this blanket, between the points _a--b_,
we have two serrated borders, two white spaces, a small diamond in the
center, and twenty-four serrated stripes, making in all twenty-nine
component parts of the pattern. Now, when the weaver was working in
this place, twenty-nine different threads of weft might have been seen
hanging from the face of the web at one time. In the girth pictured in
Fig. 44 five different threads of woof are shown depending from the
loom.

[Illustration: FIG. 44.--Weaving of saddle-girth.]

When the web is so nearly finished that the batten can no longer be
inserted in the warp, slender rods are placed in the shed, while the
weft is passed with increased difficulty on the end of a delicate
splinter and the reed-fork alone presses the warp home. Later it
becomes necessary to remove even the rod and the shed; then the
alternate threads are separated by a slender stick worked in tediously
between t