1 88 COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES
2 of two colours, dark brown (sometimes approach-
3 ing to black) and white, the former possedsing
4 about half the value only of the latter, which is
5 better suited to dyeing. After the long hairs
6 have been carefully separated from the mass, the
7 residue undergoes a very careful washing, rice-
8 flour forming an efficient substitute for soap. As
9 soon as the whole is perfectly dry, the spinning-
10 wheel comes into play. Women are employed
11 on this part of the buisness at a very low rate of
12 wages. The yarn is then dyed, not less than
13 sixty different tints being employed by the dyers.
14 The raw material being prepared, the loom and
15 shuttle is now brought into operation ; the design
16 of the pattern is drawn by one hand, another
17 selects the proportions and quality of the threads,
18 the warp and woof are arranged by a third per-
19 son, and then the weaving commences. The time
20 occupied in the process depends in a great
21 measure upon the pattern of the shawl; if it be
22 brilliant and variegated, many months are con-
23 sumed in the weaving; if simple, a shawl will
24 be prepared in less than three months. It is un-
25 necessary to tell the European reader, who has
26 examined shawls from Kashmir, that the em-
27 broidered border is a separate piece of work
28 attached to the middle by sewing. The value of
29 the shawls when completed varies with the pat-
30 tern. Moorcroft, one of the earliest English
31 travellers in the Punjaub, computed a pair (for