reads and set in the loom--that the
"warping" and "beaming" are finished. The "drawing" or "entering" comes
next; the end of each warp-thread in regular order is "thumbed" or drawn
in with a warping-needle through the eye or "mail" of the harness, or
heddle.

The heddle is a row of twines, cords, or wires called leashes, which are
stretched vertically between two horizontal bars or rods, placed about a
foot apart. One rod is suspended by a pulley at the top of the loom; and
to the lower rod is hitched the foot-treadle. In the middle of each
length of twine or wire is the loop or eye, through which a warp-thread
is passed. In ordinary weaving there are two heddles, each fastened to a
foot-treadle.

There is a removable loom attachment which when first shown to me was
called a raddle. It is not necessary in weaving, but a convenience and
help in preparing to weave. It is a wooden bar with a row of closely
set, fine, wooden pegs. This is placed in the loom, and used only during
the setting of the warp to keep the warp of proper width; the pegs keep
the bouts or sections of the warp disentangled during the "thumbing in"
of the threads through the heddle-eyes. This attachment is also called a
ravel or raivel; and folk-names for it (not in the dictionary) were
wrathe and rake; the latter a very good descriptive title.

The warp-threads next are drawn through the interspaces between two
dents or strips of the sley or reed. This is done with a wire hook
called a sley-hook or reed-hook. Two warp-threads are drawn in each
space.

The sley or reed is composed of a row of short and very thin parallel
strips of cane or metal, somewhat like comb-teeth, called dents, fixed
at both ends closely in two long, strong, parallel bars of wood set two
or three or even four inches apart. There may be fifty or sixty of these
dents to one inch, for weaving very fine linen; usually there are about
twenty, which gives a "bier"--a counting out of forty warp-threads to
each inch. Sleys were numbered according to the number of biers they
held. The number of dents to an inch determined the "set of the web,"
the fineness of the piece. This reed is placed in a groove on the lower
edge of a heavy batten (or lay or lathe). This batten hangs by two
swords or side bars and swings from an axle or "rocking tree" at the top
of the loom. As the heavy batten swings on its axle, the reed forces
with a sharp blow every newly placed thread of the weft into its