and is later boiled with the dye for a half hour, after which it is placed in a basket to drain and dry.  The process is repeated daily for about two weeks, or until the thread assumes a brick red color.  If a purple hue is desired a little lime is added to the dye.  Black is obtained by a slightly different method.  The leaves, root, and bark of the pinarrEm tree are crushed in water.  This yields a black liquor which is poured into a jar containing the thread and the whole is placed over a slow fire where it remains until the liquid is near the boiling point.  When this is reached the thread is removed and placed in a gourd, the open end of which fits over the jar so as to catch the steam coming from the dye.  After a time the thread is removed and dried, and the process is repeated until at last a permanent black is obtained.  After the coloring is complete the thread is again placed on the rectangular frame, the over-tying is removed and the warp is ready for the loom (Plate XXII.) In the loom (Plate XXIII) the threads encircle a bamboo pole attached to the wall, and are held tense by a strap which passes around the waist of the operator.  The weft threads are forced up against the fabric by means of the comber board and are beaten in with a baton.  The warp threads are held in their relative positions, first by the comber board, second by loops which pass under the lower threads and over a small stick or lease rod, and lastly by passing over and under, or around, other lease rods.  These are rolled away as the work progresses.

[1] Morinda Bracteata Roxb.

[2] Woof threads are generally of one color.  A somewhat similar process used in Java is described by SIR THOS.  RAFFLES in The History of Java, Vol.  I, p. 189.

[Transcriber’s note:  Although footnote 2 appears on the same page as the above paragraph, it is not clear to what particular part of that paragraph it refers.]

After the cloth is removed from the loom it is polished.  A long pole of palma brava is fitted into a notch in the roof.  The operator seats herself on the floor with a smooth board before her, or in her lap, and on it places the dampened cloth.  A shell is fitted over the lower end of the pole, which is bent and made bowlike, until the shell rests on the cloth.  It is then ironed rapidly to and fro until the fabric has received a high polish (Plate XXIV).

The woman’s duties do not end with the manufacture of cloth, for all the garments worn by the members of the tribe are the result of her handiwork.  She sews the strips of hemp cloth into skirts, men’s trousers, carrying bags, and sometimes into jackets.  The women devote hours of labor to these jackets, covering arms, necks, and waist bands with colored embroidery or designs in applique, while on the better garments they place elaborate designs in beads or shell disks.

After the evening meal is over the women of the household gather around the flickering lights, and until far into the night work on these garments, bead necklaces, or other ornaments.