The horizontal looms we have been describing belong to this period, and the artists have not shown any reeds with them. My studies of primitive looms lead me to think that these Egyptian looms are of a date far anterior to the invention or the application of a reed. It has also, I believe, been remarked by those who have examined cloths of this date, that the irregular array of the warp threads is good proof that reeds could not have been in use. I have already pointed out that in the evolution of the loom the reed puts in a late appearance, but apart from this fact, I do not think the artist would have omitted such an important tool had it been in use in his time.
[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Reed in Cairo Museum. Length 66 cm. (26 in.) It consists of two wooden frames fitted with flat iron wires. String is wound round the frames binding them together. Then a kind of canvas(?) cover in placed over the frames to cover up the projecting ends of the wires, but this has disappeared in places.]
Dr. Garstang points out that although the surrounding tombs contained Middle Empire objects, the reeds were found in a tomb _without_ any other remains. This can hardly be considered evidence tending to prove that they belonged to the period named, and it is certainly weakened by the accompanying statement that the reeds are _exactly_ similar to the modern reed, for that is almost sufficient to prove that they are _not_ 3900-3700 years old. To me they seem comparatively modern and very similar to one in the Cairo Museum which MM. Brugsch and Quibell are inclined to think is Coptic with this difference, that in Dr. Garstang's reeds the divisions appear to be of cane or wood, while in the Cairo reed they are of iron (?steel). The sketch of this Coptic reed, Fig. 25, has been drawn specially for me, and Miss W. M. Crompton, Assistant Keeper in Egyptology in the Manchester University Museum, has kindly examined the sketch with the article and pronounced it correct. We may, I think, safely conclude that the reed found by Dr. Garstang is Coptic and not Ancient Egyptian.
As regards the actual work of weaving, balls of thread have been found and so have very flat bobbins and pieces of stick with thread wound round which may have been spools as indicated in the drawing, Fig. 7. There is no reason why balls of thread should not have been used as they are in uncivilised countries at the present day, as, for instance, in Tibet, as reported by W. W. Rockhill in _Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Thibet_, Washington, 1894, p. 41.