768 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



are extremely beautiful in tlieir decay. The Seljuk architecture 

 is Persian with a development of its own." Here are mosques, 

 or temples, and a palace constructed with sun-dried brick, which 

 are declared by this high authority to be beautiful even in their 

 decayed condition. 



A somewhat similar development was reached in Peru, but 

 with different materials. Squier, in his Land of the Incas, de- 

 scribes the palace of Chimu, where the adobes, or sun-dried bricks, 

 were covered with stucco, on which beautiful arabesques were 

 produced in relief.* From these ornaments he calls one of the 

 great apartments the " Hall of Arabesques " ; * of which he speaks 

 in warm admiration, and adds, "No description can give an idea 

 of the character of these rilievos." In describing other ornamen- 

 tation of the same kind, he says, " Here, as elsewhere, there are 

 traces of color." f 



I understand that the higher developed condition of this style 

 of architecture in Persia was attained by covering the mud walls 

 with glazed tiles. The tiles, it must be understood, were covered 

 with ornament. 



The interior of a mud building may also be decorated with 

 glazed tiles ; but in Persia gatch, or gypsum, is plentiful, and 

 where ornament is required it is much used. In an old tomb, at 

 Sarrakhs, I saw some particularly good ornament in this ma- 

 terial ; and it appeared to me to be all hand-work. I chanced to 

 come upon one room that impressed me with the capabilities of 

 this manner of decoration. It was at a place called Mazinan, on 

 the first march eastward within the Khorassan frontier. There 

 appeared to be the remains of more than one town here ; I strolled 

 over to that which was nearest, and found that it was all formed 

 of mud. The mass forming the mound was artificial, for I found 

 bits of red burned bricks or vessels imbedded in it. The top was 

 a curious maze of rooms, courts, stairs, and roofs, much of it in a 

 tumble-down condition. The solid mass of mud or earth was 

 about twenty feet high, and the houses were above that ; still, 

 they were not all on the same level, for I went up and down short 

 flights of steps. The whole was of mud or sun-dried bricks. The 

 mud must have been carefully put on at first, but the high finish 

 was produced by gatch, or gypsum. There were very handsome 

 niches all round the walls, and the fireplace had been elaborate, 

 but some act of destruction had taken place, and the fragments 

 lay on the floor where they had fallen. The ornament was sim- 

 ple ; there were some slight moldings on the space between the 

 niches. Lines had been drawn into the gypsum, and an ornament 



* Peru, or the Land of the Incas, p. 135. 

 f Ibid., p. 154 ; also at p. 411. 



