ÖÖI 8x 3 ^c- 0 - Acehbooks.org

148 S U M A T R A .
Looms. Sillc and cotton cloths, of varied colors, manufactured by themfelves,
are worn by the natives in all parts of the country; efpecially by the
women. Some of their work is very fine, and the patterns prettily fancied.
Their loom or apparatus for weaving (tunnoné) is extremely defective,
and renders their progrefs tedious. One end of the warp being
made faft to a frame, the whole is kept tight, and the web ftretched out
by means of a fpecies of yoke, which fattens behind the body, as the
perfon weaving fits down. Every fecond of the longitudinal threads,
pafies feparately through a fet of reeds, like the teeth of a comb, and
the alternate ones through another fet. Thefe are forced home at each
return of the fhuttle, rendering the warp clofe and even. The alternate
threads of the warp crofs each other, up and down, to admit the fhuttle,
not from the extremities, as in our looms, nor effected by the feet,
but by turning edge ways two flat flicks which pafs through. The
fhuttle (toorah) is a hollow reed, about fixteen inches long, generally
ornamented on the outfide, and clofed at one end, having in it a fmall
bit of ftick, on which is rolled the woof or fhoot. The filk clouts have
ufually a gold head. They ufe fometimes another kind of loom, ftill
more fimple than this, being no more than a frame in which the warp is
fixed, and the woof darned with a long, fmall pointed fhuttle. They
make ufe of a machine for fpinning the cotton very like ours. The
women are expert at embroidery, the gold and filver thread for which, is
procured from China, as well as their needles. For common work,
their thread is the polay befpre mentioned, or filaments of the pefang
(mufa).
Earthenware. Different kkinds of earthenware, I have elfewhere obferved, are mafaCtured
on the ifland.
Perfumes. They have a pradtice of perfuming their hair with oil of benjamin,
which they diftill themfelves from the gum, by a procefs doubtlefs of
their own invention. In procuring it, a pretoo, or earthen rice pot, co­
vered clofe, is ufed for a retort. A fmall bamboo is inferted in the fide
of the veffel, and well luted with clay and afb.es, from which the oil
drops