. The story of textiles; a bird's-eye view of the history of the beginning and the growth of the industry by which mankind is clothed. After two or three days immersionthe bundles were opened and the fibres pulled out and ex-posed to the air. Each piece was inspected to ascertainwhether it was ready for the remaining operations. If not,it went back to the bed of the brook until the conditionswere such as were desired. When evidences of decomposition were shown by thefibres becoming soft and flexible, the natives knew thatthe material was in the proper condition for the next stepof the operatio
. The story of textiles; a bird's-eye view of the history of the beginning and the growth of the industry by which mankind is clothed. After two or three days immersionthe bundles were opened and the fibres pulled out and ex-posed to the air. Each piece was inspected to ascertainwhether it was ready for the remaining operations. If not,it went back to the bed of the brook until the conditionswere such as were desired. When evidences of decomposition were shown by thefibres becoming soft and flexible, the natives knew thatthe material was in the proper condition for the next stepof the operation. The different strips were then laid inlayers upon a smooth surface, such as the prostrate trunkof a cocoanut-tree, and were beaten with a kind of heavymallet, made of ebony, in shape somewhat like an old-fashioned razor-strop. Upon the surface of the hammerwere shallow parallel indentations, which varied in depthon different sides, so that it was adapted to the severalstages of the operation. The hammering thus producedthe corduroy stripes that were prominent in the *Tappa. The fibres of the Tappa were thus beaten, and layer. THE STORY OF TEXTILES 21 after layer was put on until the whole was merged into onemass. The beating then continued, water from time totime being added, until the material reached the requiredthinness, according to the purpose for which it was to beused. It was then placed on the grass to bleach, and cameout a dazzling whiteness; or it was impregnated with vege-table dyes, which gave it a permanent color. Brown andyellow were generally the common tints. According to Captain Sylvanus Nickerson, who commandedthe clipper ship Huguenot when she was lost in 1880off the island of Java, the Malays of some of the islandsof the Ombay Straits still weave their garments of cottonwhich is grown in the same row with the corn, with littleor no cultivation, and without any effort to separate theplants. They take the cotton as it comes from the boll,and, making it into
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidstoryoftexti, bookyear1912
