The cotton being thus prepared, without any carding, it is spun by the women; the coarse yarn is spun on a beavy one-thread wheel, of teak-wood, and of the rudest carpentry

The finer yarn is spun with a metallic spindle, sometimes with and sometimes without a distaff; a bit of clay is attached as a weight to one end of the spindle, which is turned round with the left hand, whilst the cotton is supplied with the right; the thread is wound up on a small piece of wood. The spinster keeps her fingers dry by the use of a chalky powder. In this simple way the Indian women, whose sense of touch is most acute and delicate, produce yarns which are finer and far more tenacious than any of the machine-spun yarns of Europe.

The yarn, having been reeled and warped in the sim

f

plest possible manner, is given to the weaver, whose loom is as rude a piece of apparatus as can be imagined. It is thus described:-"The loom consists merely of two "bamboo rollers, one for the warp and the other for the "web, and a pair of geer. The shuttle performs the "double office of shuttle and batten, and for this purpose "is made like a large netting needle, and of a length "somewhat exceeding the breadth of the piece. This apparatus the weaver carries to a tree, under which he digs a hole large enough to contain his legs and the "lower part of the geer. He then stretches his warp

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by fastening his bamboo rollers at a due distance from "each other on the turf by wooden pins. The balances "of the geer he fastens to some convenient branch of the "tree over his head: two loops underneath the geer, in "which he inserts his great toes, serve instead of treadles; and his long shuttle, which also performs the "office of batten, draws the weft through the warp, and "afterwards strikes it up close to the web." "There " is not so much as an expedient for rolling up the warp: "it is stretched out at the full length of the web, which "makes the house of the weaver insufficient to contain "him. He is therefore obliged to work continually in "the open air; and every return of inclement weather interrupts him."‡

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The following is a representation of the Hindoo weaver and his loom:

• The shuttle is not always of this length. Hoole, in his "Mission to India," represents it as requiring to be thrown, in which case it must be short; and a drawing of a Candyan weaver, in the Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, shews the shuttle of the same size as an English shuttle.

+ Martin's Circle of the Mechanical Arts, p. 239.

Mill's History of British India, book ii. ch. 8.

Forbes describes the weavers in Guzerat, near Baroche, as "fixing their looms at sun-rise under the "shade of tamarind and mango trees." In some parts of India, however, as on the banks of the Ganges, the weavers work under the cover of their sheds, fixing the geer of their looms to a bamboo in the roof. They size their warps with a starch made from the root called

kandri. When chequered muslins are wrought, three persons are employed at each loom: the lungri pulls the threads to form the pattern, the dobarah twists the thread, and the binkarai weaves.

Some authentic particulars concerning the habits and remuneration of the Hindoos engaged in the making of cotton cloth, are contained in an unpublished account of the districts of Puraniya (Purneah,) Patna, and Dinajpur, by Dr. Francis Hamilton, better known as Dr. F. Buchanan, (he having taken the name of Hamilton,) the author of the "Journey from Madras through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar." This account of the abovenamed provinces near the Ganges is in several manuscript volumes in the library of the India House, in London. I learn from his elaborate survey that the spinning and weaving of cotton prevails throughout these provinces. The fine yarns are spun with an iron spindle, and without distaff, generally by women of rank; no cast is disgraced here by spinning, as in the south of India;* the women do not employ all their time at this work, but only so much as is allowed by their domestic occupations. The coarse yarns are spun on "a small "miserable wheel turned by the hand." The hand-mill is used to free the cotton from its seeds, and the bow to tease it. "The following capital is required for the "weaver's business: a loom, 2 rupees; sticks for warping and a wheel for winding, 2 anas; a shop, 4 rupees; "thread for two ready money pieces, worth 6 rupees

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• In his work on Mysore, Dr. Buchanan says—" The women of the Brahmans are averse from spinning as their husbands are from holding the plough.” But Mr. Orme says " A weaver among the Gentoos is no despicable cast; he is next to the scribe, and above all the mechanics; he would lose his cast were he to undertake a drudgery which did not immediately relate to his work."

"each, 5 rupees;-total 11 rupees 10 anas; to which "must be added a month's subsistence. The man and his wife warp, wind, and weave two pieces of this kind " in a month, and he has 7 rupees (14 shillings) profit, ❝ deducting, however, the tear and wear of his apparatus, "which is a trifle. A person hired to weave can in a month make three pieces of this kind, and is allowed. "2 anas in the rupee of their value, which is 24 rupees

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(4s. 6d.) a month. The finest goods cost 2 rupees a "piece for weaving." In his observations on another district, Dr. Hamilton states the average profit of a loom engaged in weaving coarse goods to be 28 rupees (£2. 168.) a year, or something less than 13d. a week. At Puraniya and Dinajpur the journeymen cottonweavers "usually made from 2 to 24 rupees (from 4s. to 5s.) a month." At Patna a man and his wife made from 3 to 4 rupees (from 6s. to 8s.) a month by beating and cleaning cotton; and each loom employed in making chequered muslins, and therefore employing three persons, has a profit of 108 rupees a year (£10. 16s.), that is, 1s. 4d. a week for each person. The average earnings of a journeyman weaver, therefore, appear to be from 1s. to 1s. 4d. per week. At Bangalore, and in some other parts of southern India, this author states that weavers earn from 3d. to 8d. a day, according as they are employed on coarse or fine goods; but this is

so very much above the usual remuneration for labour in India, that, if the statement is not erroneous, it must be of extremely limited application. On the same authority, a woman spinning coarse yarn can earn in the same parts lid. per day.t

• Buchanan's Journey through Mysore, vol. i. pp. 216-218.

↑ Ibid. vol. iii. p. 317.