254 PRODUCTS.

most expert in his art, would be greatly puzzled if put to one of these looms, and would scarcely know how to begin his work, so primitive are they in construction. Four stout sticks, are driven into the ground, to which the reed and other parts of the apparatus are attached ; the weft is expanded at a distance of scarcely one span from the ground, bound to a pole to which a stone is attached, and then drawn along with it. The frame is of the dimensions the piece manufactured is required to have, and is sometimes twenty ells in length. The weaver stands in a pit before his loom, and casts his shuttle at a venture. With every second throw his thread breaks, and then it takes him double the time to tie it again ; but nothing disturbs the equanimity of the weaver, he ties his knot with the greatest patience, and again throws his shuttle, again breaks his thread, and again readjusts it. Thus it is impossible to conceive the space of time required to finish a piece about twenty ells in length. They do not understand how to manufacture woven goods from goats' hair.

The smiths are the most industrious workmen ; they fabricate all the necessary household and agricultural implements, are at the same time miners, and smelters of ore ; for they dig the iron from the bowels of the earth themselves, and melt it after a very simple process ; but they do not understand how to harden it. They have no fixed workshops, but arrange them wheresoever they may happen to