Dyeing. Three colours, red, dark blue and light blue, are used by the Lhotas. Red thread is generally bought either from a shop or from an Ao village, for red dyeing is considered a risky occupation likely to bring on dysentery, and therefore only suitable for old women, who are of no value to the community. The industry, however, is carried on in a few Lhota villages, such as Changsü and Okotso. To make red dye the root of Rubia sikkimensis (karung) is pounded up, and another leaf (’ntawo) is pounded and added. The mixture is then boiled with water, and the thread put in while the water is boiling. The pot is then lifted off the fire and [[38]]allowed to stand for three days, when the thread is taken out and dried.
Dark blue dye is made from the leaves of Strobilanthes flaccidi-folius (tchemo), pounded up and boiled with water. The thread is steeped in the mixture for half an hour and is then dried. This gives a colour like navy blue. To make light blue the leaves which have been already boiled and used for making dark blue dye are drained and dried and kept for a year. They are then broken up fine and mixed with cold water and the white ash of burnt bark, and put to stand till next day, when the thread is put in and left there for a day, or for two days if the dye is weak. It is then taken out and dried.
Dyeing is exclusively performed by women, who when they are so occupied must refrain from sexual intercourse and must not eat beef, goat’s flesh, dog’s flesh, dried fish, or that horrible vegetable known in Naga-Assamese as “stinking dal” (nyingtyingtsing), in fact any food with a strong smell. If any man were to dye a piece of thread he would never again have any luck in fishing or hunting. No one but the dyer must look on while thread is being dyed or the colour will be patchy and bad.
Weaving. Like the Semas and Aos, the Lhotas use a simple single-heddle tension loom (tsirochunglung) which is set up and operated as follows. A beam (tsikam) of bamboo about three feet long is securely fastened to the wall of the house or any other suitable firm support in a horizontal position and at a height of about two feet from the ground. On this are slipped two loops (tsisü) of bark string, in which is put the other bar (ncho) of the loom. The loops are set at a distance apart equal to the breadth of the piece of cloth to be woven. The lower bar (ncho) is notched at either end, to enable the weaving belt (ephi) to be attached to it. This belt is of woven cane or bamboo and is worn by the operator in the small of her back. By it, as she sits in front of the loom, she can keep the necessary tension on the warp. Both the beams being in position and a strain having been taken on the tsisü, each tsisü is crossed by the lower string being pulled up and the upper down and a thin stick of bamboo [[39]](yingyi) is put in position. This is naturally held firmly in place by the downward pressure of the lower strings and the upward pressure of the upper. Then, working towards the weaver, the lease-rod (chunglung) is put in close to the yingyi without crossing the strings. Below the lease-rod the sword (tsitam) is inserted, the strings being crossed as in the case of the yingyi. The twine which is to form the heddle-loops (ena) is now tied loosely onto the left end of the sword and laid along it. This twine is sometimes thick cotton thread and is sometimes made from the twisted bark of a creeper called enazü (Pineraria Thungbergiana). Two balls of thread are then taken and their loose ends twisted together and joined. One ball is held in the lap of the weaver while the other is passed over the ncho, under the tsitam and the ena which is lying along it, over the chunglung and under and then round over and under the yingyi and then over the tsikam, from whence it is brought straight back to the weaver under the loom. The second ball is then passed under the ncho and over the ena and under the tsitam and chunglung, and under and back over and under the yingyi and over the tsikam, and is brought back to the weaver under the loom. The process is repeated till all the warp (elomo) has been set. The result is that the ena forms a series of heddle-loops and the yingyi (the object of which is to shorten the upper side of the shed made by the lease-rod) is entirely encircled by each warp. Unless the loom be a very small one the weaver cannot reach the tsikam. She therefore generally has an assistant, who can be a man, to pass the warp thread over and under the tsikam. The two ends of the warp thread, when all has been set are turned back across the warp and woven into the material. The shuttle (yingshü), which is simply a thin piece of bamboo, is filled from the ball by being spun against the right thigh. This process and that of setting the warp are the only two in which a man may take part. Before weaving can begin the tsitam, a flat piece of hard wood, is turned on edge and the heddle (natyung) is slipped in alongside it so as to take up the heddle-loops formed by the ena. The tsitam is then removed. The object of substituting [[40]]the sword for the heddle while the warp is being set is to ensure big enough heddle-loops. The tsisü are then removed, and the lease-rod is moved down close to the heddle thus giving the warp enough strain to keep the latter in place. In weaving the shuttle is shot backwards and forwards by hand, the heddle being raised every alternate pick. To increase the shed the sword is put in for each pick and turned edgeways. For the check pattern so common in women’s body-cloths both warp and weft (mpyo) are changed. For ornamentation little bits of red wool or yellow thread bought from a shop are worked in by hand as the weaving progresses, the warp being manipulated with a porcupine quill. Ordinarily the first weft-element passes alternately over and under a single warp-element, the second passing over those under which the first passed. A variety of pattern is that in which a single weft element passes alternately under and over pairs of warp elements. Another variety is that in which a single weft element passes under and over alternate pairs of warp elements and is returned under those under which it passed before, giving a pattern of interwoven pairs of warp and weft elements. Four pieces of cloth about one foot broad by five feet long go to make an ordinary man’s cloth. These strips are sewn together along their long sides. The Lhota needle (otyam) is simply a piece of bamboo sharpened at one end. To the head is attached by wax a piece of thread about two inches long known as otyam emhi (“needle-tail”) onto which the thread used for sewing is twisted. The broad stripes of light blue seen in so many Lhota cloths are invariably separate strips, sewn between two of the main strips of the cloth. A woman in the old days was forbidden to weave while her husband was absent on a raid, as it might cause him to trip over creepers in the jungle and fall into the hands of the enemy.
Photo by Mr. Butler.]
Spinning
Photo by Mr. Butler.] [To face p. 39.
Weaving