woven their own silk and cotton for centuries. Indeed,

recent archeological discoveries, particularly at Ban

Chiang in the northeast, have shown that the techni-

ques of silk cultivation were known to the Thais from

their earliest origins when they migrated southward from

China some three thousand years ago.

Today, as in earlier times, women and girls in the

northeast use their free time after the rice has been

harvested, to weave cloth for household use or for pre-

senting to monks at Buddhist temple ceremonies. And

over the centuries these hardworking women have also

learned how to make the best possible use of the local

natural products, to create vivid colors for dyeing their

home-grown cotton and home-produced silk yarns and

fabrics.

The designs, too, are based on patterns found in

nature — elephants, watermelons, scorpions, birds,

flowers, snakes and insects. The exquisite design and

workmanship take shape in such everyday household

articles as traditional men's and women's garments —

sarongs, pusins or ankle-length skirts, {Jakaonuis or men's

loincloths — as well as in the rather hard, square north-

eastern pillows, mosquito nets and blankets (it's cold at

night in the northeast in wintertime). Some designs are

specially reserved for the use of household guests; others

for presenting to one's elders as a sign of respect; yet

others for decorating a future son-in-law's room, or for

ordination ceremonies.

The provinces of Korat, Chaiyaphum and Surin are

among those famous for the high quality and beautiful

design of their silk. In Surin Province, for instance, every

village has at least one loom, and in some villages every

family has one. In these villages the air resounds with the

loud, rhythmic thump-thump of the wooden battens

beating the cross-threads or weft to make the finished

cloth firm and even. The tinkle of little bells attached to

moving parts of the loom may also be heard — a relic of

earlier days when the bells were probably a way of signal-

ling to the bachelor men folk that a modest, hard-

working, diligent girl was at work in the house, who

would make someone a good wife.

The rural northeast is almost totally dependent on

nature: the young boys riding their buffaloes, the rice

paddies, at their most haunting at sunset, the soft lul-

labies coming from distant cottages, the children on the

verandahs of houses, listening with rapt attention to

folk-tales told by their elders under the soft glow of the

moon — and always, it seems, the women and girls at

their looms.

Cotton planting and silkworm breeding in the

northeast begin in May or June. The cotton is ready for

picking by November. It is dried in the sun for four or five

days, separated from the seed in a roller gin, carded and

rolled round wooden dowels into long tufts ready for

spinning.

After the rice harvest in January, a traditional cere-

mony called "long kuang" is held to mark the start of the

weaving season. Like so many other ceremonies in Thai-

land, this mostly takes place on a night of the full moon.

During the afternoon of the auspicious day on

which the ceremony is held, young girls collect fuel, and

after the evening meal the villagers gather near a tree or

in the compound of a house, where a bonfire is built and

lit. Sitting around the fire, the women spin the raw

cotton into yarn, stopping every now and then to chat

and eat roasted tamarind seeds. This is also the tradi-

tional occasion for young men to court the unattached

girls. This takes place in a pleasant, rhythmic dialogue;

the man asks the girl if she has a husband or a lover, and

she replies that she is as pure and fresh as a newly cloven

banana leaf.

The cultivation of silk is far more difficult and cum-

bersome than that of cotton. Rearing the silkworms on

the leaves of the mulberry trees which thrive in the

northeast, demands the greatest care in protecting the

tiny creatures from heat and sunlight. The silk cocoons

are boiled in earthenware pots, from which the filaments

are reeled and re-reeled until they are of uniform thick-

ness. The silk yarn must then be put through a long,

time-consuming treatment before it is ready for dyeing.

The dyes are made from roots, berries, insects and

the soil. The lac insect gives a red dye, the indigo plant

blue; black comes from the 'krajai' berry, and yellow

from a root. The preparation of dyes from these and

other raw materials also involves many processes — dry-

ing in the sun, pounding, soaking, settling and so on.

Thailand's most famous type of silk is 'mut-mee* or

tie-dyed silk. ('MuC' means to tie, while 'rrwe' are very thin

noodles). The lengthwise or warp threads are wound

tightly onto a wooden frame of the correct size for the

sarong, or other article being made. Short strings made

from banana fibre are tied to the silk threads in the

pattern of the weaver's choice. The whole frame is then

dipped into dye of the background color, rinsed and

dried, after which the pieces of banana fiber are cut away,

leaving undyed areas, which are dabbed with other

colors — and so the brilliant multicolored pattern takes

shape, to be woven into cloth on the loom.

In the north and south of Thailand, too, cotton and

silk are woven. Nowadays only a few districts and villages

in the south practice this ancient skill; and the silk yarn

must be brought from the northeast. But the weaver's

craft is often mentioned in old southern folk songs and

lullabies. Nakorn Si Thammarat is famous for its ancient

brocades, still woven today in relatively small quantities.

A similar type of silk is woven by the villagers of

Pumrieng in Surat Thani Province, in which every