A third representation of a horizontal loom is reproduced from the
forthcoming volume of the Egypt Exploration Fund by kind permission of
Mr. N. de G. Davies, who made the copy. In this, Fig. 7, already
referred to, the lower portion is all that has come down to us. The
cloth is not shown contracted as in the Beni Hasan representation, the
two laze rods are drawn close to each other and here also an attempt
appears to have been made to show the over and under lapping warp
threads; the laze rods appear each with a hook, the hook on the upper
rod turned upwards and the hook (if it be one) on the lower rod turned
downwards. It is possible these hooks may be pegs to prevent the
shifting of the laze rods. It may be that one of the two rods is a
heddle rod the indication being the fine double lines, but this may
not be compatible with the hook at the end of the rod. The weaver on
the left holds a spool in her hand, evidently a piece of stick with
the weft thread wound round it, which she is pushing through with her
fingers. The weaver on the right holds a beater-in as shown in the
Beni Hasan drawing. The breast beam is held in position by two pegs
near the right one of which there is a curved article of indeterminate
use.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Study of a Bedawin Arab weaving, from a
sketch taken in the Forties of last Century, by Frank Goodall, R.A.
The original sketch is in Bankfield Museum. The weaver appears to be
provided with one heddle and a beater-in.]
There is no very clear evidence as to how the finished cloth was
"taken up" unless we accept it that the bulging out of the part G2
means that it was wound round the breast beam as is done on hand and
power looms of the present day. Some very long pieces of cloth have
come down to us and unless they were "taken up" in this way a long
stretch of ground would have been necessary. A modified form of this
horizontal loom has been met with in recent years among the Bedawin
Arabs, as shown in the illustration of a study sketch, Fig. 12, made
by Frank Goodall, R.A., in the forties of last century. The loom was
provided with pegs like the old Egyptian loom but it was supplied with
a primitive heddle resting on a stone at each side of the warp and it
would appear that the weaver, to a certain extent, did not take up the
woven cloth by winding it round the breast beam and by that means
retaining his position, but, as the weaving progressed and the line of
finished cloth got beyond his reach, he crept up to it and so got
farther and farther away from the breast beam until in the end he
arrived at the warp beam. Similar looms are still used for mat making
by the Egyptian fellah.