DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0239
The Kababish, a Sudan Arab tribe
177
sheep’s wool, similar in character to the khesa. Nehayz are the broad dark bands sup-
porting the roof-sheet of the tent; they are, we believe, made of goat’s hair.
The loom used by the Kababish is a fixed peddle-loom, which, as was pointed out to
us by Mr. H. Ling Roth, is the form in use among the Beduwins of the Egyptian Desert,
and, it might be added, throughout the whole civilized portion of the Nile Valley. The
general appearance of the loom will be gathered from pl. 5, fig. 5, and pl. 6, fig. 1. The
weft is drawn from balls of yarn, consisting in this case of long leather strips knotted
together, lying beside the operator; no spool or shuttle is used. The operator raises each
individual warp with the fingers, and the prick is made, i. e. the weft put through, in the
same primitive fashion; the oryx horn well seen in pl. 6, fig. 1, being used to drag home
the weft. The coarseness of the tissue in the photographs is due to the fact that the
woman is making a selil— the heavy and expensive camel-trapping woven of leather
strands shown in pl. 6, fig. 2. These strands are usually cut from tanned sheep skins, as
many as fourteen skins being used to make one selil. The trapping has a fringe at its
lower edge, and is ornamented with cowries sewn on in simple geometrical patterns.
Fig. 2 of pl. 6 shows one unfinished, upon which the cowries are being sewn.
3. Basketry and Mats. We did not have the opportunity of seeing baskets made.
The finished products are so closely woven that they will hold fluid, and indeed they are the
orthodox receptacles for milk. They are made of zdf, the dried immature fronds of the dom
palm imported from the Dar Hamid and Dongola. All the baskets we saw were exam-
ples of coiled work, the foundation consisting of three or four strips of zaf, apparently the
midribs of the pinnules, the sewing being done with narrow lengths of the dried leaflet.
We are indebted for the following further information to Miss W. Blackman, who has
examined some of the specimens brought back, and also our photographs. The coil forms
a continuous ascending spiral, each stitch being passed through the foundation of the
coil below. This feature is well shown in the photograph of the milk vessel ('umra) repro-
duced in pl. 6, fig. 3. But in the karoya (pl. 6, fig. 4) a number of the stitches are split,
and Miss Blackman points out that in a basket we collected from the Dar Hamid (pre-
sumably it had been made by them, though on this point we made no special enquiry),
the great majority of the stitches on the outside are split, each stitch in the upper row
being passed through the centre of the stitch in the coil immediately below it. In this
particular basket the work is not very evenly done, as the splitting does not occur with
every stitch, while on the inside the stitches for the most part are not pierced.
Coiled basket work with split stitching is recognized by 0. T. Mason as a type which
he calls the “furcate coil”,106 and this technique has been noted by Miss Blackman as
106 Rep. U. S. National Museum, Washington, 1902, p. 244 and pl. 23.
177
sheep’s wool, similar in character to the khesa. Nehayz are the broad dark bands sup-
porting the roof-sheet of the tent; they are, we believe, made of goat’s hair.
The loom used by the Kababish is a fixed peddle-loom, which, as was pointed out to
us by Mr. H. Ling Roth, is the form in use among the Beduwins of the Egyptian Desert,
and, it might be added, throughout the whole civilized portion of the Nile Valley. The
general appearance of the loom will be gathered from pl. 5, fig. 5, and pl. 6, fig. 1. The
weft is drawn from balls of yarn, consisting in this case of long leather strips knotted
together, lying beside the operator; no spool or shuttle is used. The operator raises each
individual warp with the fingers, and the prick is made, i. e. the weft put through, in the
same primitive fashion; the oryx horn well seen in pl. 6, fig. 1, being used to drag home
the weft. The coarseness of the tissue in the photographs is due to the fact that the
woman is making a selil— the heavy and expensive camel-trapping woven of leather
strands shown in pl. 6, fig. 2. These strands are usually cut from tanned sheep skins, as
many as fourteen skins being used to make one selil. The trapping has a fringe at its
lower edge, and is ornamented with cowries sewn on in simple geometrical patterns.
Fig. 2 of pl. 6 shows one unfinished, upon which the cowries are being sewn.
3. Basketry and Mats. We did not have the opportunity of seeing baskets made.
The finished products are so closely woven that they will hold fluid, and indeed they are the
orthodox receptacles for milk. They are made of zdf, the dried immature fronds of the dom
palm imported from the Dar Hamid and Dongola. All the baskets we saw were exam-
ples of coiled work, the foundation consisting of three or four strips of zaf, apparently the
midribs of the pinnules, the sewing being done with narrow lengths of the dried leaflet.
We are indebted for the following further information to Miss W. Blackman, who has
examined some of the specimens brought back, and also our photographs. The coil forms
a continuous ascending spiral, each stitch being passed through the foundation of the
coil below. This feature is well shown in the photograph of the milk vessel ('umra) repro-
duced in pl. 6, fig. 3. But in the karoya (pl. 6, fig. 4) a number of the stitches are split,
and Miss Blackman points out that in a basket we collected from the Dar Hamid (pre-
sumably it had been made by them, though on this point we made no special enquiry),
the great majority of the stitches on the outside are split, each stitch in the upper row
being passed through the centre of the stitch in the coil immediately below it. In this
particular basket the work is not very evenly done, as the splitting does not occur with
every stitch, while on the inside the stitches for the most part are not pierced.
Coiled basket work with split stitching is recognized by 0. T. Mason as a type which
he calls the “furcate coil”,106 and this technique has been noted by Miss Blackman as
106 Rep. U. S. National Museum, Washington, 1902, p. 244 and pl. 23.