“Illa etiam stantes radio percurrere telas Erudit; et rarum pectine denset opus.”
Juvenal (_Sat._ ix. 30) makes Nævolus complain that he gets cloth from a Gaulish weaver greasy and badly woven—“Et male percussas textoris pectine Galli;” while Virgil (_Æn._ vii. 14) represents Circe as—
“Arguto tenues percurrens pectine telas;”
“Interea longum cantu solata laborem Arguto conjunx percurrit pectine telas.”
These descriptions specify the precise operations necessary for closing or driving home the weft, if the instrument employed were a comb held in the weaver’s hand. Alexander Neckham, in his work _De Naturis Rerum_ (written in the twelfth century, and recently printed in the series of Chronicles by the Master of the Rolls), has a chapter (cap. clxxi., De Textore) on weaving, in which, after describing the insertion of the weft by means of the shuttle, he says—
“Inde textrix telam stantem percurret pectine,”
thus using the same words to describe the same operation.
Dr. Malcolm Monro Mackenzie, Civil Surgeon, Dharwar, Bombay, states that in the jails in Bombay, where the work of the convicts is chiefly weaving, the implement used for beating in the weft is a hand-comb generally of wood, with iron teeth like that represented above in Fig. <span class='htmlonly'>241</span><span class='epubonly'>241</span>. The late Mr. Whytock, carpet manufacturer, when applied to for information as to the nature of the implement used in carpet-weaving, stated that “In the manufacture of the Persian or Axminster carpet, made in one piece and worked in an upright loom, the instrument used for beating down the weft or pile was about 4 inches broad, with iron teeth resembling those of a horse-comb, fastened into a short handle.” He was kind enough to supply a sketch from memory of the instrument as formerly used in the factory at Lasswade. The sketch showed an implement in shape somewhat like the short flat hand-brush used by painters in whitewashing, or a good deal like the Indian loom comb (figured above), only a little broader in proportion to its length. The nature and use of these long-handled combs formed the subject of two papers in the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_, vol. ix. pp. 118, 548.