he
transverse thread is passed, and all work is done by hand. The transverse
thread is beaten firmly home by means of a heavy prismatic piece of wood.
The material used in weaving is yak or sheep's wool, either in its
natural colour or dyed in the primary colours of red and blue and yellow,
and one secondary only, green. Blue and red are used in the greater and
equal proportion; then green. Yellow is very parsimoniously used. The
thread is well twisted and is subjected to no preparation before
spinning, leaving thus a certain greasiness in the closely-woven material
that renders it waterproof. In weaving colour fabrics several shuttles
are used.

Shoka women are very adept at this ancient art, and they patiently sit
out of doors day after day weaving most intricate and artistic patterns.
These coloured tissues, if we except the simpler ones with blue ground
and lines for women's garments, are usually very narrow (about seven
inches in width), whereas the less elaborate ones, such as the white
material of which men's clothes are made, average sixteen inches.

The patterns in these many-coloured materials are woven from memory, and
do not contain curves or circles, but are entirely composed of lines and
angles, combinations of small lozenges and squares separated by long
tri-coloured parallel lines, forming, so far as weaving is concerned, the
main Shoka ideas of decoration and ornament. The fabrics are
extraordinarily strong. The narrow coloured cloth of better quality is
used mostly for making bags in which money and food are carried; the
coarser kind for the double sheep-loads.

The more talented of the Shoka young women show much ingenuity in carpet
or rather rug making. They have copied the idea from old Chinese rugs
which have found their way here _via_ Lhassa, and though upon close
examination it is true they differ considerably in quality and
manufacture, they are pleasing enough to the eye. These rugs are woven
upon coarse thread matting, the coloured material being let in
vertically. A soft surface is obtained not unlike in general appearance
to that of Persian carpets, but not quite so pleasant to the touch. These
small rectangular rugs are offered in the house of Shoka gentlemen to
guests to sit on, and are also used to render the Tibetan saddles less
uncomfortable.

As time went on I became very anxious as to the missing book, for it
contained all my notes of the journey. The thought of its being deposite