PLATE XLIV.
As a specimen of gorgeous colour and elaborate execution, nothing can be imagined to surpass theshawl which forms the subject of our illustration. Its scale of composition offers a striking contrast tothat of the scarf-end engraved in Plate XXVIII.; since, while the purpose of the designer of that objectappears to have been to so arrange his colours as to neutralise and lower one another, until the generaltone was brought to a rich brown tint, that of the artist who distributed the relative intensities of the toneswhich make up the pattern now presented to our readers, was unquestionably to enhance the splendourof each tint by vivid contrast, and to stimulate rather than to tranquillise the imagination of the beholder.As the former of these patterns served to convey a good idea of the general tone and effect aimed at by theweavers of Cashmere , so the latter may suffice to exhibit the more brilliant scale upon which the operationsof those who embroider the plain fabrics of the country are usually based.
In our present notice we propose to resume the subject of the shawl-manufacture of Cashmere , in con-tinuation of the remarks offered in illustration of Plate XXVIII., and in so doing shall derive our informationfrom the several authorities therein alluded to.
The merchants of the country are celebrated not only for the skill with which they fabricate the goodsin which they deal, but for the astuteness with which they dispose of their products. Mr. Vigne gives a mostamusing sketch of the ingenious blandishments they are in the habit of lavishing, with every semblance ofdisinterested affection, upon those they conceive likely to become customers, and the unceremonious promptitudewith which the guest is got rid of the moment the bargain is concluded and the money paid.
Many of the rich merchants possess large factories, in which are crowded together as many as a hundredlooms and many hundred workpeople. “ The looms usually consist of a kind of framework, at which thepersons employed sit on a bench, in number two, three, or four. On plain shawls only two persons are
employed, and a long, narrow, heavy shuttle is used. Those of which the pattern is variegated are worked
with wooden needles, there being a separate needle for the threads of each colour. For the latter no shuttleis required. When the w T arp is fixed in the loom, the nalcash, or pattern-drawer, and the overseer, whodetermines the proportion of yarn of different colours to be employed, are brought together in consultation.The first brings the drawing of the pattern in black and white; the overseer, having well considered it, pointsout the disposition of the colours, beginning at the foot of the pattern, and calling out the colour and the
number of threads to which it is to extend, that by which it is to be followed, and so on in succession until
the whole pattern has been described. From his dictation, the talim guru, or foreman, writes down the par-ticulars in a kind of character or short-hand, and delivers a copy of the document to the weavers. The
workmen prepare the tujis, or needles, by arming each with coloured yarn of the weight of about four grains.These needles, without eyes, are made of light, smooth wood, and have both their sharp ends slightly charred,to prevent their becoming rough or jagged through working. Under the superintendence of the tar ah guru,
the weavers knot the yarn of the tuji to the warp. The face or right side of the cloth is placed next to
the ground, the work being carried on at the back or reverse, on which hang the needles in a row, and
differing in number from 400 to 1500 , according to the lightness or heaviness of the embroidery.
The cloth of shawls is generally of two kinds; one plain, or of two threads, and one twilled, or of fourthreads.Shawls are twilled, and are commonly about twenty-four nails broad. They differ in their