ker leans, protected from its hostile hardness by a pillow.

The pattern lies below, just beneath the warp, and easily seen through
it, not the mere tracing as on the threads of the high-warp loom, but
the coloured cartoon, so that shades may be followed as well as lines.
It sometimes happens, however, in copying a valuable old tapestry,
that a black and white drawing only is placed under the warp while the
original is suspended behind the weavers, who look to it for colour
suggestion.

In low-warp the worker has the privilege of laying his flutes on top
the work, the flutes not at the moment in use, and there they lie in
convenient mass ready to resume for the figure abandoned for another.
If the right hand thrusts the flute, it is the duty of the left to see
that the alternate and the limiting threads of the warp are properly
lifted. First comes a pressure of the foot on a long, lath-like pedal
which is attached to the bar holding in turn the loops which pass
around alternate threads.

That pressure lifts the threads, and the fingers of the left hand,
deft and agile, limit and select those which the flute shall cover
with its coloured woof.

After the casting of a thread, or of a group of threads, the weaver
picks up a comb of steel or of ivory, and packs hard the woof, one
line against another, to make the fabric firm and even in the weaving.

[Illustration: BAUMGARTEN TAPESTRY. LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY]

[Illustration: BAUMGARTEN TAPESTRY. MODERN CARTOON]

Such then is the simple process of the looms, far simpler seen than
described and yet depending absolutely for its beauty on the talent
and patience of gifted workers. It is as simple as the alphabet, yet
as complicated as the dictionary.

Patient years of apprenticeship must a man spend before he can become
a good weaver, and then must he give the best years of his life to
becoming perfect in the craft. But if the work is exacting, at least
it is agreeable, almost lovable, and in delightful contrast to the
labour of those who but tend machines driven by power. And if the art
of tapestry weaving is almost a lost one to-day, at least the weavers
can find in history much matter for pride. It is no mean ambition to
follow the profession of conscientious Nicolas Bataille, of the able
Pannemaker, of La Planche and Comans, of Tessier, Cozette, and a
hundred others of family and fame.

Much preparation is necessary before the loom can be set going. First
is