MOHENJO-DAEO — MACKAY 443 



beautify the dwelling rooms, unless embroidered hangings took the 

 place of the sculptures and paintings and inlay work of the other 

 peoples of those days. Hangings, whether of cotton material or 

 wool, would inevitably have perished, leaving no trace behind. One 

 tiny piece of cotton fabric that had most fortunately survived, em- 

 bedded in and preserved by the patina on a silver jar, proved on 

 microscopical examination to be true cotton — the first known in the 

 history of the world. 



Cooking was done, as by the Sindhi woman of to-day, over little 

 fires of brushwood between brick supj)orts for the cooking vessels; 

 of the latter many are found, both in pottery and copper. Grinding 

 stones, pestles and mortars, and strainers there are in plenty; and 

 little dishes divided into four compartments probably served as 

 cruets. Spoons were cut from shells of varying sizes and have a 

 strange 1-sided shape, wliich, curiously enough, was afterwards 

 copied in pottery. Beef, mutton, pork, fish, and even turtle and the 

 flesh of the fish-eating crocodile served as food, according to the 

 evidence of rubbish piles and household refuse jars. And flint 

 knives were struck as required from large flint cores, save in the 

 larger houses where copper knives had already come into use. 



Grain and other foodstuffs were kept in huge pottery jars that 

 remind one of the story of Ali Baba; they were probably set in 

 wooden stands, and often in brick-lined depressions in the floors, to 

 keep them upright, for none of them have a stable base and many are 

 actually pointed below. Clothing, too, may have been stored in these 

 jars — as is done in the modern Sindhi village — to protect it from the 

 attentions of rats and various insects. 



Though as yet it is uncertain how the women dressed, they clearlj'- 

 attended to their personal beauty; for besides the many ornaments 

 unearthed, such as necklaces of beads of gold, silver, copper, glaze, 

 and semiprecious stones, earrings, bracelets, rings, and even nose 

 studs, cosmetic jars are found in their hundreds. All are small, but 

 they are of several different shapes; and they had covers to keep 

 their valued contents clean and safe from the danger of drying up. 

 The men seem to have worn a kind of kilt, not unlike the dhoti of the 

 modern Hindu, and a shawl, which was patterned according to the 

 evidence of one of the statues found, just as are the shawls of the 

 Sindhis of to-day in hand-printed colors. This garment was thrown 

 over the left shoulder and drawn round under the right arm like the 

 Roman toga. 



Two aspects in particular of the daily lives of these remotely an- 

 cient people bring home to us their common humanity with ourselves, 

 their love of children and their weakness for a game of chance. The 

 number and variety of toys found in street and home is remarkable. 



