SHAWL, a square or oblong article of dress worn in various ways dependent from the shoulders. The term is of Persian origin (shál), and the article itself is most characteristic and important in the dress of the natives of north-western India and Central Asia; but in various forms, and under different names, essentially the same piece of clothing is found in most parts of the world. The shawls made in Kashmir occupy a pre-eminent place among textile products; and it is to them and to their imitations from Western looms that specific importance attaches. The Kashmir shawl is characterized by the great elaboration and minute detail of its design, in which the “cone” pattern is a prominent feature, and by the glowing harmony, brilliance, depth, and enduring qualities of its colours. The basis of these excellences is found in the raw material of the shawl manufacture, which consists of the very fine, soft, short, flossy under-wool, called pashm or pashmina, found on the shawl-goat, a variety of Capra hircus inhabiting the elevated regions of Tibet. There are several varieties of pashm, according to the districts in which it is produced, but the finest is a strict monopoly of the maharaja of Kashmir, through whose territory it comes. Inferior pashm and Kirman wool—a fine soft Persian sheep’s wool—are used for shawl weaving at Amritsar and other places in the Punjab, where colonies of Kashmiri weavers are established; but just in proportion to the quality of the pashm used are the beauty and value of the resulting shawl. In Kashmir the shawl wool is sorted with patient care by hand, and spun into a fine thread, a work of so much delicacy, owing to the shortness of the fibre, that a pound of undyed thread may be worth £2, 10s. The various colours, costly and ...