TAA i.3.9.29

                                   –           25            –    
 

earlier into Egypt. It was doubtless in use in India.

          As regards linen, there are in existence models from a

tomb of many hundreds of years before Tutankhamen of women spin-

ing flax and weaving the threads on large looms.

          In the speciamens^sic here, the state of preservation <v>aries

greatly. In the first three dishes the condition is fairly 

good<;> in the fourth, which is the same material, the fabric is

discoloured and very fragile. When you look at the specimens

note how beautifully even and regular the weaving has bee^sic ex-

ecuted. There is a further point of interest here, particularly

to the ladies. This is the sewing. The stitch is that which is

known, I believe<,> as "whipping" and in one case you will notice

it is used for the hem and in another case for joining two pieces

of cloth together: note the regularity of the stitching.

          The next dish, No. 5, is, to all appearance a mass of

dust. But actually, this dust is composed entirely of the small

fragments of disintegrated fibres, as can be clearly seen under

the microscope. This is the final condition to which deteriorated

fabric is brought. It is the state in which most of the fabric

was received by us from Egypt, <and the> fragments of cloth which are

still intact were picked out by me from this heap of sooty dust.

Several boxes in the anti/<e>-chamber contained a large quantity

of this fibre-dust representing all that was left of, in some

cases, six or seven separate garments.

          The next dish is particularly interesting, as it contains

fragments of coloured braid, green and gold<,> and possibly other

colours<,> which are inter-woven. This looks very similar to

modern gimp<,> and reference to the tubes next to it show that it

served as an edging to a garment, and from it hung a fringe of

alternating green and yellow threads. In artificial light you