The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-04-08
THE sHAWLS OF CASHMERE.
BY S. J. PRICHARD.

There is no cameFS hair shaWs,'
nor can learn, by much searching Of
many authorities, that shawls are OF
ever were made of carnel's hair at all.
On the highest inhabited table-land
of the earth, the average height ol
which il about 1900 feet above the
level of the sea, lives and thrives the
Thibet goat. Ia -..e
Nature has supplied this goat with a
covering the warmest and sOftest that
is known to exist; and every attempt
to remove the animal from it high
home has been failure, for nowhere
else will the supply of wool remain suf-
ficent to reward the labor Of keeping.
The animal has coating Of long,
coarse hairs, underneath which Is
found the exquisitely soft substance that
is almost without a name, it being too
fine for hair, and to straight for wool.
The fleece is conveyed from Thibet-
a months journey ere it reaches the
Vale of Caslmere--the Vale Of Cash.
mere in Northern India, where the
women are beautiful as no other wo-
men are, and where the men have at
tanned to the perfection of the Asiatic
physical man. Who has not heard or
dreamed of this valley where the
shawls are made?
The date of the manufacture OF the
Cashmere shawl has not been learned,
nor is it positively known of what ORR
gin the Cashmerians are. They appear
to be of Hindoo descent. 1as
Arrived in Cashmere, from Thibet,
the wool is slowly, carefully, and patti
entity collected, fibre by fibre, the
choicest being selected for the costly
shawls probably the fifty-thousand-
dollar shawls. r-a.ae ~ so
The color is gray as received. 1t is
bleached by the aid of q preparation OF
rice-flour, after which 1t is dyed. 1t IS
then given to women to spin it. 1t is
estimated that One-half the weight Is
lost in the preparation OF the article be
fore it is woven.
The yarn is next given out to the
weavers by merchant, who enters
largely into the shawl trade, and em-
ploys number of shops in which the
men work for him, or else he supplies
certain number of Overseers5 with
yarn. delivering to them at the same
i'm instructions as to the quality, col
ors and patterns, and these men carry
on the manufacture at their own houses
with the aid of ordinary weaveIs. The
overseers receive six or eight piee day
for their wages; common wOrkmen
from one TO four, or about three and q
half pence. A remarkably fine aud
elaborate shawl win sometimes occupy
a shop for whole year, four persons
being employed on it sig,s ss- .ars
Plain and inexpensive shawls are
made with long and heavy shuttle,
but the shawls of many cOl0rs and
wondrOus patterns are worked with
wooden needles instead of a shuttle,
there being a separate needle for every
color, and the more tjCts there are ia
q shawl, the greater its cost. In the
fine shawls, scarcely quarter OF an
inch is completed by three or four per-
sons in day. 49, T
In order to hasten the process, many
of the shawls are woven in separate
pieces in different looms. They are af-
terward so dexterously Joined together
as to evade ordinary scrutiny, and
sometimes it is impossible to discover
the junction.
One object in dividing the work upon
"a shaw. !. is to avoid loss by insects and
time, as it would require three years to
complete certain shawls, If made en-
tire.
The worker puts in the pattern on
the wrong side Of the shawl, and, if il
is new, or especially difficult, an over
seer directs every movement with the
pattern before him.
The shawls of cashmere are ALWAYS
I ,,,..la xx-;tI, 10th Sis1Cs alike alfho,I,y,,