Tora (Kiyoshi Atsumi), our feckless itinerant peddler, dreams he's leading his relatives in a pursuit of the bluebird of happiness, which takes them to a veritable Shangri-La.

From Zimmer’s Batman scores, via the many knockoffs for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to Marco Beltrami’s score for World War Z, the main ingredients — churning strings hectically repeating the same four- or five-note motif, with a BRAAAM dropping every so often — are both pulse-quickening and exhausting.

This was blithe news; for really we were wearied with going about, and hearing yon Sicilians chatter in a tongue that was as unmeaning as a dog's youff.

There were other types of looms for producing various specialised types of cloth, for example fustians and velvets, but there is not space here to discuss these.