a standard that probably will never again be reached. In the land where glide the Indus and the Ganges stand temples, erected by the descendants of the house of Tamerlane, before which the beholder, even if familiar with the wonders of St. Peter’s, is lost in admiration of the intricate delicacy of detail, the majesty of proportions, and the gorgeous splendour of colour with which some of the spirit of the East is expressed in material form. When we realise that in these different lines of artistic effort the genius of Asia has rivalled and surpassed that of Europe and America, we become the better prepared to believe that choice specimens of woven fabrics, in weaving which every class of every country of Asia has been engaged from time immemorial, are to be regarded as works of the highest art.

However pleasing the design or elaborate the detail, it is principally in the colouring that these rugs claim our interest and admiration. The colours which are derived from vegetable or animal dyes grow more mellow and beautiful with passing years, and applied to wools of finest texture acquire a lustre and softness which in the choicest specimens are like the radiant throat of a humming bird, or tints at the close of an autumn day. The different shades have different moods, expressing peace, joy, pensiveness, sorrow, the deep meaning of which the Oriental mind with its subtle and serious imagination has grasped as has none other. Moreover, in all truly fine pieces there is perfect harmony of tone. It is in this richness, suggestiveness, and harmony that the greatest artistic value lies.

That all do not appreciate these qualities is not because they do not exist; for the keen perception of colour, like the keen perception of music, is a faculty granted to one person but denied to another. Even to those who take delight in colour there are different degrees of appreciation. “The fact is,” said John Ruskin, “we none of us enough appreciate the nobleness and sacredness of colour.” But as the ear can be cultivated to a higher taste for music, so can the eye be cultivated to a higher taste for colour; and to fully appreciate the beauties of Oriental rugs it is necessary to develop this faculty to its fullest extent.

And yet it is not alone as works of art that Oriental rugs interest us. They suggest something of the life and religious thought of the people who made them. Some seem redolent with the fragrance of flowers, others reflect the spirit of desert wastes and wind-swept steppes. So, too, in the colours and designs of some appear the symbols of that mysticism with which the minds of the followers of Zoroaster in their effort to commune with the unseen forces of the universe were imbued; and though the original meaning of many of these symbols has been forgotten, the study of others leads to a better understanding of the life-thought of the weavers.

Realising, then, that Asia has been the cradle from which has come the highest expression of many forms of artistic achievement, and that the Western mind is now assigning to its woven fabrics their proper place in the galleries of art, we may begin the study of Oriental rugs with the assurance that the further it is pursued the greater will be the appreciation and delight. It will take us among strange and interesting people, and over fields that were historic grounds before the walls of Rome were built. It will lead beyond the dome of St. Sophia to the land of the Arabian tales, where the splendour of former days is reflected in tomb and mosque, and where, perhaps, when the Western world grows old, there will rise again from crumbling ruins another nation that will revive the poetic and artistic genius of the East with all the majesty and creative power of the past.

CHAPTER II

PHYSICAL FEATURES AND HISTORY OF THE RUG-PRODUCING LANDS

HE artistic character of Oriental rugs, like every other artistic impulse, is subject to the influence of physical environment. This influence is not alone that to which an individual weaver has been subjected, but is the transmitted effect of the accumulated experiences of many generations. It appears in the colours which simulate tones displayed by varying phases of nature, and also in the designs or symbols which, derived from older types by a long process of evolution, partially reflect feelings engendered in a people of highly imaginative and poetic temperament by long contact with elemental forces. Moreover, the quality of material used depends almost exclusively on the climate and physical conditions of countries where it is produced. Accordingly, the artistic and essential characteristics of rugs are better understood by a knowledge of the salient physical features of the countries where they are woven.3

The principal Oriental countries that continue to produce rugs are China, India, Afghanistan, Beluchistan, Persia, Turkestan, Caucasia, and Asia Minor. As all of them are contiguous, they may be regarded as a geographic unit; and though there is much diversity of detail, there is also much in common. From near the western boundary of Asia Minor a vast plateau stretches eastward into Central Asia, increasing in altitude towards the east.

Its mean elevation in Asia Minor is from two thousand to three thousand feet, and as it extends beyond the Zagros Mountains and crosses the northern half of Persia, it rises from four thousand to five thousand feet. Continuing eastward through Southern Turkestan and Afghanistan it increases in altitude until it has risen to nearly twelve thousand feet in the lofty table-lands of Central Asia, where it begins to descend as it extends farther into the desert of Gobi. From the western part of this plateau a spur extends northward between the Black and Caspian seas, to form the high table-land of Caucasia, which has a mean elevation of about seven thousand feet.

The general topographic features of this plateau include great stretches of comparatively level land, broad tracts from which there is no drainage to the sea, and sandy desert wastes. On almost every side it is bounded by mountain chains and is intersected by transverse ridges that lift still higher peaks where rests the perpetual snow. Throughout the deserts and large parts of the table-lands the rainfall is slight, so that there are but few important river courses.

The cultivated portions of this vast area are relatively small, and consist largely of strips of land in fertile valleys, through which flow perennial streams. From time immemorial these streams have been used for irrigation, and the inhabitants of the districts have prospered by abundant harvests. In one or another of these valleys have been built the principal cities, within the walls of which were imposing temples that stimulated religious fervour, schools of learning to quicken the intellect, and gardens where perfumed flowers and the songs of birds delighted the aesthetic senses. In these cities science, philosophy, religion, and art received their highest development. In them lived the most skilled artisans and artists of the Orient; and the products of the loom were of the finest quality.

Beyond these valleys are great stretches of uncultivated tracts consisting of plains, hills, and mountains. Some of these tracts are naturally fertile and could be made productive, but at present are used only for pasturage, and over them numberless tribes of fierce nomads drive their flocks of sheep. On