skin remain in that mixture three or four days: the operation is thus completed, the skin having acquired a yellow tint. They then wash and grease the leather with camels'-fat, to render it smooth. If pomegranates cannot be obtained, they use the roots of a desert herb, called œrk this is about three spans long, and as thick as a man's finger: the outer skin serves as a substitute for the pomegranate peel, and dyes the leather red. Of leather so prepared, the large water-skins are made; these are sometimes soaked a second, and even a third time in the mixtures above described, a month after the first dyeing. For some time the skin imparts to the water a bitterish taste; this, however, the Arabs like."-BURCKHARDT's Notes on the Bedouins, &c., pp. 65, 66.

"All our baggage consisted of a sheep-skin coat, the woolly side in, and the other side coloured with red ochre, to keep out the rain."-IRBY and MANGLES, p. 258.

The Turkoman women seem to have made great progress in the art of dyeing; their colours are beautiful. Indigo and cochineal, which they purchase at Aleppo, give them their blue and red dyes, but the ingredients of all the others, especially of a brilliant green, are herbs which they gather in the mountains of Armenia. The dyeing process is kept by them as a national secret.— See BURCKHARDT's Syria, &c., pp. 639, 640.

MANUFACTORY OF WATER-SKINS AT HEBRON.

"In passing along the skirts of the town on the hillside north of the Haram, we came upon a large manufactory of water-skins, occupying an extensive yard with several tanners' vats. These are merely the skins of goats stripped off whole, except at the neck; the holes at the legs and tails being sewed up. They are first stuffed out full and strained by driving in small billets and chips of oak-wood; and are then filled with a

250 SPINNING WEAVING

-NEEDLEWORK-EMBROIDERY.

strong infusion of oak-bark for a certain time, until the hair becomes fixed, and the skins sufficiently tanned. This constitutes the whole process. Not less than fifteen hundred skins were lying thus stuffed in rows about the yard. They are sold at different prices, from fifteen up to forty piastres." —ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. ii. p. 440.

SPINNING-WEAVING-NEEDLEWORK-
EMBROIDERY.

EXODUS XXVI. 36.

"And thou shalt make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework."

xxxv. 25, 26.

"And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose hearts stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair."

xxxviii. 23.

...Aholiab...an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen."

JUDGES xvi. 13, 14.

"And Delilah said unto Samson,... Tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened it with the pin...and he awaked ...and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web."

1 SAM. xvii. 7.

"And the staff of (Goliath's) spear was like a weaver's beam."

JOB Vii. 6.

"My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, (or, than a weaver.)"

PROV. XXXI. 13, 19.

"She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands....She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff."

ISAIAH Xxxviii. 12.

"I have cut off like a weaver my life."

lix. 6.

"Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works."

"The Arab women use a very simple loom; it consists of two short sticks, which are stuck into the ground at a certain distance, according to the desired breadth of the piece to be worked. A third stick is placed across over them, about four yards from them, three sticks are placed in the same manner, and over the two horizontal cross-sticks, the woof. To keep the upper and under woof at a proper distance from each other, a flat stick is placed between them. A piece of wood serves as the weaver's shuttle, and a short gazelle's horn is used in beating back the thread of the shuttle. The loom is placed before the harem, or women's apartment, and

worked by the mother and her daughters. The distaff is in general use. . . . . .”—BURCKHARDT's Notes on the Bedouins, &c., pp. 67, 68.

"The Turkoman women are very laborious ;... they work the tent coverings of goats'-hair, and the woollen carpets, which are inferior only to those of Persian ma

nufacture. Their looms are of primitive simplicity; they do not make use of the shuttle, but pass the woof with their hands. The wool of their carpets is of the ordinary kind; the carpets are about seven feet long and three broad, and sell from fifteen to one hundred piastres apiece. While the females are employed in these labours the men pass their whole time in indolence."-BURCKHARDT's Syria, &c., pp. 639, 640.

"While the Arab girls guard the flocks, they always have a bundle of wool at their backs for spinning." IRBY and MANGLES.

"At Algiers and Tunis there are looms for velvets, taffeties, and different sorts of wrought silks. Coarse linen is likewise made in most of the cities and villages, though Susa is noted for producing the finest....But the chief branch of their manufactures is the making of hykes or blankets, as we should call them... These are of different sizes, and of different qualities and fineness."SHAW's Travels, vol i. p. 403.

"The wool they spin into yarn, wind the thread round little stones, and thus suspend them to a long stick fixed in a horizontal position between two trees, so as to form a warp; and by passing another thread alternately between these, fabricate a kind of coarse cloth, with which they cover the lower part of their bodies."BELZONI's Travels, pp. 87, 88.

"We saw...the process of manufacturing the goats' hair cloth of which the common Arab cloaks are made, A woman had laid her warp along the ground for the length of several yards, and sat at one end of it under a small shed, with a curtain before her to ward off the eyes of passers by. She wove by passing the woof through with her hand, and then driving it up with a flat piece of board having a thin edge."-ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. i. p. 250.

"They work in Hedjaz very neat neck-leathers for the camels, upon which their husbands ride; these are a kind of net-work adorned with shells and leather tas

sels.... The distaff is frequently seen in the hands of men all over the Hedjaz; and it seems strange that they should not regard this as derogating from their masculine dignity, while they disdainfully spurn at every other domestic employment."-BURCKHARDT's Notes &c., vol. i. p. 243.

The Persian tailors, Sir John Chardin informs us, "excel us in their sewing. They make carpets, cushions, veils for doors, and other pieces of furniture, of felt, in mosaic work, which represents just what they please. This is done so neatly, that a man might suppose the figures were painted, instead of being a kind of inlaid work. Look as close as you will, the joinings cannot be seen."-SIR JOHN CHARDIN. This resembles our old fashioned tapestry.

"The Eastern ladies pass most of their time at their looms, embroidering veils and robes."-LADY W. MON

TAGU.

NEEDLE USED BY CAMEL-DRIVERS.

MATT. xix. 24.

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

"As we were ascending the hill, I saw something shining on the road, which proved to be one of the needles used by the camel-drivers for mending their camel furniture. It was about six inches long, and had a large, very long eye; it had evidently been dropped by one of the conductors of a caravan which was some little way a-head of us. This association of the needle with the camels at once reminded me of the passage which has been considered so difficult to be illustrated.... How valuable the needle must be to the poor cameldriver, may be inferred from its loss. Should he have