§ 16. EARLY STYLE OF COLOUR. 21 



which have been considered rather than the harmony of their 

 colours, are so distressing in their obtrusive roses and cornu- 

 copias, the incomprehensible and oft-repeated interlaced 

 design of the old Turkish carpet seems never to weary." 



Those coloured oriental fabrics also show how superior 

 were the earlier to the later productions ; and how in recent 

 times there has been a tendency to admit a greater admixture 

 of green* and other compound colours. And though Orientals 

 have deviated less than most people from the purity of their 

 early taste, they have introduced a more artificial manner 

 into some of their modern carpets and other coloured orna- 

 ments. They admit fewer innovations than Europeans in 

 their customs and tastes, and the change in colour is also less 

 marked among them ; but a false taste seems to be gradually 

 influencing some of their modern fancy-works (accelerated 

 perhaps by the selection of the purchasers), though they still 

 exhibit a far greater perception of the harmony of colour 

 than the western more civilised and more artificial com- 

 munities. To such a degree do the Arabs possess this faculty, 

 that were any of their children furnished by chance with 

 a number of colours, and requested to form them into a 

 pattern, they would be sure to arrange them in some pleas- 

 ing concord ; and many a toy they make is remarkable for 

 the beauty of its coloured ornaments. Thirty or forty years 

 ago, even in the streets of Cairo (where early taste has 

 so long been corrupted, and where it is so inferior to that 

 of the Arabs), the most striking combinations of colour 

 might be seen in the hands of the unsophisticated mem- 

 bers of the community; and the artistic judgment of our 

 Consul-Greneral, the late Mr. Salt, aided by long acquaintance 

 with the oriental practice of harmonising colours, often 

 induced him to buy some of the playthings of children, for 



* Not only in grounds, but in mixed patterns. Sec below, on " Grounds,'" 

 Sect. LX. 



C 3 



