Noble women were trained to weave and spin: "Theirs was the device with which the loom was held; the divided cord; the skein; the heddle; the cane stalks; the wide sword, one made of bone; the small batten with which they worked designs; the thick straws; the flail; the spindle whorl; the spinning bowl; chalk; the shallow spindle whorl when they spun with feathers; the basket for unspun cotton, one for rabbit fur, one for cotton thread, the basket for feathers, and the pottery bowl for feathers; the rack for yarn; the colored wood with which they dyed cotton when they wove; the bowl for colors in which they dissolved pigments; the paper patterns from which they took the shape of whatsoever they made; maguey thorns, with which they picked the cotton threads."