setting the warp are the only two in which a man may take part. Before
weaving can begin the tsitam, a flat piece of hard wood, is turned on
edge and the heddle (natyung) is slipped in alongside it so as to take
up the heddle-loops formed by the ena. The tsitam is then removed. The
object of substituting the sword for the heddle while the warp is being
set is to ensure big enough heddle-loops. The tsisü are then removed,
and the lease-rod is moved down close to the heddle thus giving the
warp enough strain to keep the latter in place. In weaving the shuttle
is shot backwards and forwards by hand, the heddle being raised every
alternate pick. To increase the shed the sword is put in for each pick
and turned edgeways. For the check pattern so common in women’s
body-cloths both warp and weft (mpyo) are changed. For ornamentation
little bits of red wool or yellow thread bought from a shop are worked
in by hand as the weaving progresses, the warp being manipulated with a
porcupine quill. Ordinarily the first weft-element passes alternately
over and under a single warp-element, the second passing over those
under which the first passed. A variety of pattern is that in which a
single weft element passes alternately under and over pairs of warp
elements. Another variety is that in which a single weft element passes
under and over alternate pairs of warp elements and is returned under
those under which it passed before, giving a pattern of interwoven
pairs of warp and weft elements. Four pieces of cloth about one foot
broad by five feet long go to make an ordinary man’s cloth. These
strips are sewn together along their long sides. The Lhota needle
(otyam) is simply a piece of bamboo sharpened at one end. To the head
is attached by wax a piece of thread about two inches long known as
otyam emhi (“needle-tail”) onto which the thread used for sewing is
twisted. The broad stripes of light blue seen in so many Lhota cloths
are invariably separate strips, sewn between two of the main strips of
the cloth. A woman in the old days was forbidden to weave while her
husband was absent on a raid, as it might cause him to trip over
creepers in the jungle and fall into the hands of the enemy.