In order to weave, it is first necessary to reduce your fibre, or wool, or cotton, to more or less even threads or yarn. The Amerind way of doing this was the same, practically, wherever spinning and weaving were attempted, from Central America northward. The spindle is a round, slender, pointed stick, a foot to about fifteen inches long, put through a disc, generally of flat, hard wood, four to six inches in diameter, which acts as a flywheel to keep up the momentum. It is the simplest form of top. The operator holds the wool or cotton, previously prepared, in his or her lap, and attaching one end of it to the top arm of the spindle, above the disc, gives the spindle a twirl, either by the thumb and forefinger or by a dexterous sweep of the palm of the hand along the thigh. The fibre, or wool, that was attached to the arm of it winds round till it reaches the tip, where it clings and takes on the rotary motion of the stick to which it is fast, being twisted thereby into yarn. It continues to spin with the spindle for some seconds, about fifteen or twenty, and when the momentum slackens below the necessary speed, the yarn thus far made is wound on the spindle and it is started afresh, with more wool paid out to the twisting. The operation is repeated over and over till the spindle is full, and it is surprising to see how rapidly it can be done. I have only seen this performed amongst the Moki, but the descriptions from other places show it to be done in about the same way everywhere. In the Mexican region the spindle-discs were made of pottery. In Nicaragua both wood and terra cotta were employed, and it is likely that wood was also used by some part of the people in Mexico and other places where the terra-cotta discs are now found.