ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS COLE. 131 



designs of the very ancient Chinese. Their complex rectangular 

 ornaments of abstract and sjanbolical character, as well as the counter- 

 version of them rendered in curves and spirals are, I think, even 

 more remarkable and intricate than anything based on corresponding- 

 elements in Egyptian, Assyrian, and Grecian ornament. In all like- 

 lihood textiles ornamented with all the familiar devices were then 

 made in China, though none probably is in existence now. Still, in 

 view of the conservative habits of the Chinese, I think we can get 

 from modern examples some fair idea of the appearance of ornament 

 in old Chinese cut-pile carpets, such as are likely to have been used 

 in north China, Manchuria, and Mongolia — as well as of jnodified 

 ornament made by Asiatics along or in touch with the trade route 

 across the Western Chinese Empire. 



Plate 1, fig. 3 is from some rough sketches I have made of details 

 in cut-pile Chinese and other Asiatic rugs. The two first are a 

 central ornament or disk shape and a border of key pattern devised 

 upon the swastika emblem (the crooked end cross). The same orna- 

 ment is to be seen on Chinese bronzes of 1000 B. C, as well as in old 

 Chinese enamels, where it sometimes is terminated with a dragon's 

 head; variants made with curved instead of rectaiigular winding 

 forms are similarly terminated. Swastika and dragon ornament is, 

 I think, a possible parent of Mohammedan arabesques, which we shall 

 come to later on. Below the Chinese details are others that I took 

 from rugs made by weavers in Turkestan, Bokhara, and Caucasia, 

 some in tapestry, some in close short stitch embroidery, and some in 

 cut-pile material. The first of them is not peculiarly characteristic; 

 the one below it with incipient key devices seems to have a Chinese 

 flavor; near it are various cross forms, some of which are Chinese 

 swastikas; others with scrolled limbs, as in the octagon, are perhaps 

 of Tibetan descent. Below an S shape is the knot or interlocked de- 

 vice which we found in the Coptic Egypto-Roman floor or couch 

 cover, and it may be symbolical of a recommendation, said to have 

 been made by Confucius, that Taouists would do better if they gave 

 up writing and took to making knots on strings. I am not quite 

 clear if Confucius was satirical and poking fun at his puj^ils. A 

 large panel or seal-shaped ornament contains what may be imitations 

 of the eight trigrams of Chinese divination (Pa-Kua). The long- 

 narrow ornament, with two hexagons, may be an adaptation of a 

 form of band that was often woven into Syrian and Egypto-Roman 

 linen tunics about the sixth or seventh century A. D., and the last 

 panel of later date is of semiabstract shapes and of conventional lotus 

 buds. 



The upper ornaments in the next slide (pi. 2, fig. 1) are from Chi- 

 nese cut-pile rugs, and are both realistic and symbolical. The circu- 

 lar forms may reflect veneration for the disk ; one to the left contains 



