One skill is practised in almost every household in this area, namely weaving. The local wool is too coarse to make into clothing but it does make excellent rugs (kilims), saddlebags and grainsacks. The wool is washed, spun, dyed and woven exclusively by the women, and it is rare to see a woman relaxing without a spindle in her hand. Almost every household has a simple household loom, at which the girls work when there is nothing else to do, learning the traditional patterns from their mothers. Every girl is expected to weave for her own trousseau, and her skill enhances her bride-price. Carpets are also woven by hand in many villages but this is a more skilled job. No household in Sakaltutan, and few in Elbashï knew how to weave carpets; this skill is usually a sign of greater wealth and prestige. The village supplies its own needs: the saddlebags and sacks with their bay colours are everywhere in use, and every guest room is carpeted with village-made kilims and carpets, but a great many are sold as well. Allowing for the cost of the wool, which would have been sold raw, and for the dyes which have to be purchased, the profit per day's labour is exceedingly small. On the other hand this work is all done by women in time when they would otherwise be idle. Weaving is peculiar in being the only craft practised by women, the only craft which produces for export from the village area, and the only craft which processes raw materials produced by village agriculture.
Traditionally many villages in Turkey must have grown fibres and, with the help of home-produced wool, made at least some of their own clothing. Some distant villages in the area were known to weave cloth, but all the cloth in the villages I knew is now factory produced. The women make it up into clothes for themselves and their menfolk. Occasionally people