PRIMITIVE SHAWLS

Evening Star, Issue 21099, 11 May 1932, Page 9

PRIMITIVE SHAWLS

PREPARING THE WOOL PRIMITIVE METHODS Since time immemorial Kashmir has been world famous in the manufacture of shawls, and a Kashmiri is self-con-tained in leading a simple life with his own home industry. Every Kashmir farnier grows his own field crops and keeps flocks of sheep and goats to feed and dress him. Like his ancestors, he does not, even in these advanced days of scientific knowledge, encourage the use of machinery, but wholly depends on his own manual labour. It is quite surprising that even now the handicrafts of Kashmir can compete with the machine-made products of any part of the world. Kashmir shawls, noted for their softness and their beauty of design and colouring, are so finely woven in a Kashmiri s own dark and shabby cell with home-made and rough handloom, that they can 'be drawn through a finger ring. They are much coveted by every lady of refined tastes, and fetch a very high price in foreign countries of advanced industries. •THE SHAWL GOAT. The shawls are made of the woollen cloth called “ pashmina ” (the true cashmere), which consists of the fleece of the shawl goat, an animal closely allied to the native Tibetan goat and inhabiting the northern border of the Kashmir State in India. This goat is provided with enormous horns and is coverel with a coat of long, straight, and silky hair, so extensively used in the manufacture of “ namdas ” (felts), at the roots of which, on certain portions of the body, is to be found a small quantity of very fine wooLof a brownish colour, the true cashmere of commerce. The coarser kind of vyool obtained from the sheep is made into blankets, suiting cloth, carpets, and the like, which, too, have found a great demand in foreign markets. Flocks of thousands of goats and sheep, guarded by shepherds and dogs, are taken up the high mountains of Kashmir and to the border of Tibet in summer, but when winter draws near they are brought down into sheltered pastures. Two main crops of wool are taken, one in spring and the other in autumn, the latter always being superior to the former. CLEANING PROCESSES. Before the sheep are shorn, they must be washed properly to remove all •dirt, grease, and dung in their coats. By washing on the sheeps’ backs, the wool is made more attractive, and owing to the long, smooth, and nonfelting characteristics, little or no injury is done during or after the process. In Kashmir a suitable stream is selected and the sheep are driven to the water, dropped into the stream, immersed, rubbed, well twice or thrice, and afterwards driven to a clear grass field, where they may dry without any fear of contamination\with straw, dirt, or other undesirable matter. In this way much lung and dirt is removed which would cause a great deal of expense and inconvenience in the subsequent process. After washing-, the sheep are well brushed with a curved wooden piece called “ chhal ” to open the entangled locks of wool, and to free them from different fruits and seeds of forest plants which could not be removed in washing, and also to give the wool a fine, glosss 7 appearance. SORTING THE WOOL.

The sheep are then shorn with hand siiears in the most primitive form, producing much “ fribby ” or double cut wool, and often leaving the staple shorter than it need be. Wool thus clipped is passed to the women folk, who improve it by opening out the fleece, rejecting the inferior portions, and bulking those of like quality, natural shades, and sizes together, thus facilitating the user’s work, and presenting material which has a better appearance and fetches higher prices in the market than the unsorted.

Dyeing of yarn is now mostly done with aniline dyes, but there are people who still prefer local natural dyes to the imported synthetic ones, and who can preparoi very beautiful tints of all colours from various roots, barks, flowers, and fruits of plants or from lichens.

In every home in Kashmir women folk cair be heard singing with the hum of of their spinning wheels, producing long, fine threads for the market or for their own household use. The yarn, spun at the wheel, is twined in different ways, stretched on frames of various designs, properly sized, and transferred to the village handlooms, where it is woven into cloth or other household articles.