That Her Art, However, Has Been Improved By
Her Contact With The Pueblo And Other Indians, There Can Be No Question,
And, If She Had A Crude Loom, It Was Speedily Replaced By The One So Long
Used By The Pueblo.
Where the Pueblo weaver gained her loom we do not know,
whether from the tribes of the South or by her own invention.
But in all
practical ways the primitive loom was as complete and perfect at the time
of the Spanish conquest as it is today.
Any loom, to be complete, must possess certain qualifications. As Dr. Mason
has well said: "In any style of mechanical weaving, however simple or
complex, even in darning, the following operations are performed: First,
raising and lowering alternately different sets of warp filaments to form
the 'sheds'; second, throwing the shuttle, or performing some operation
that amounts to the same thing; third, after inserting the weft thread,
driving it home, and adjusting it by means of the batten, be it the needle,
the finger, the shuttle or a separate device."
Indian looms are made of four poles cut from trees that line the nearest
stream or grow in the mountain forests. Two of these poles are forked for
uprights, and the cross beams are lashed to them above and below. Sometimes
the lower beam is dispensed with and wooden pegs driven into the earth
instead. The warp is then arranged on beams lashed to the top and bottom of
the frame by means of a rawhide or horse-hair riata.
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