A piece of frame, Fig. 24, has been described as a "weaver's beam" for making rush mats like the modern _hasira_. It is provided with 28 holes which are arranged about 27 to 40 mm. apart. The holes may have been more or less circular originally, and worn into present shape by threads, etc., and look more irregular inside than they really are, as the inside surface of the holes is fairly smooth; the holes are slightly larger, on an average about 4 mm., on the face shown than on the other face. Prof. Flinders Petrie seems to think it resembles the frame on which the modern Egyptian mat is made. We now come to the two reeds in the Museum of the Liverpool Institute of Archæology, which Dr. John Garstang discovered near Abu Kirkas, tomb No. 693, of which he tells us: "They are 27 and 29 inches (68·6 and 73·7 cm.) in length respectively, and are precisely similar in general form. They are constructed on a system of nineteen or twenty reeds to the inch, and they may be seen to be exactly similar to the modern reed taken from a loom in the village of Abu Kirkas. It is not possible, unfortunately, to assign a precise date to these objects. They were found in a tomb which contained no other remains; this tomb was surrounded by others, all of them likewise very much disturbed, but equally characteristic of the general nature of the Middle Empire tombs, and containing nothing but Middle Empire objects. Since, in general, few tombs of this site show signs of intrusive burial of a later age, there is no reason to suppose that these objects are of any date later than the XII. Dynasty (_The Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt_, London, 1907, pp. 134-136)." The horizontal looms we have been describing belong to this period, and the artists have not shown any reeds with them. My studies of primitive looms lead me to think that these Egyptian looms are of a date far anterior to the invention or the application of a reed. It has also, I believe, been remarked by those who have examined cloths of this date, that the irregular array of the warp threads is good proof that reeds could not have been in use. I have already pointed out that in the evolution of the loom the reed puts in a late appearance, but apart from this fact, I do not think the artist would have omitted such an important tool had it been in use in his time. [Illustration: Fig. 25.--Reed in Cairo Museum. Length 66 cm. (26 in.) It consists of two wooden frames fitted with flat iron wires. String is wound round the frames binding them together. Then a kind of canvas(?) cover in placed over the frames to cover up the projecting ends of the wires, but this has disappeared in places.]