514 CAKPET MANUFACTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



Nowhere among these semi-nomadic tribes do there exist any workshops, or any 

 regularly organized systems of carpet making, but it is still performed in the most 

 primitive manner, and exclusively by women, who, after shearing the sheep belong- 

 ing to their families, select the quantity of wool which they consider necessary, and 

 after thoroughly cleaning, washing and combing the same, spin it with the distaff, 

 and dye it the various colors required. 



The looms which these women make use of are formed of two wooden cross-bars, 

 separated by two smaller parallel ones. It is upon this rude scaffolding, placed per- 

 pendicularly, that the warp is put, while the operation of weaving is by means of a 

 ball of woof without the aid of a shuttle. 



To give statistics respecting the quantity of carpets thus produced would be im- 

 possible, as nothing can determine, with any degree approaching precision, a produc- 

 tion which follows the producers thereof in their wanderings about the country 

 looking after pastures for their sheep and woik for their camels. This is also the 

 reason why these carpets are sold throughout Asia Minor, now here, now there, by 

 persons who follow these tribes in their peregrinations and purchase their product 

 from them, which is not known to be exported. 



ERHARD BISSINGER, 



Consul. 



UNITED STATES CONSULATE, 



Beirut, September 18, 1889. 



PERSIA. 



REPORT KY CONSUL-GENERAL BENJAMIN, OF TEHERAN. 



[From Consular Reports, No. 42, Vol. 13.] 

 PERSIAN CARPETS AND RUGS. 



I have the honor to submit herewith some remarks upon the carpet 

 manufacture and trade of Persia, which forms one of the most impor- 

 tant features of its industries and commerce. 



It is doubtless generally known that the Persian carpets and rugs are 

 not in the ordinary sense of the term manufactured ; that is, they are 

 not produced by any regular and complicated machinery, such as is 

 capable of repeating the same design ad libitum. The weaving of these 

 fabrics rather suggest large needlework, in which the worker, conscious 

 of his innate sense of the beautiful, allows a lively fancy to guide the 

 ready fingers, and is satisfied with irregularities in the detail sometimes, 

 provided the general effect is agreeable and artistic. 



The carpets of Persia are rarely of large size, and they are woven 

 chiefly by the women and children of the peasantry in the villages. A 

 countryman will thus have a rug made in his own house, and when it 

 is done he takes it to the neighboring city and sells it for what he can 

 get after long bargaining. The rooms of the peasantry are small, and 

 this doubtless has something to do with regulating the size of most of 

 the rugs in the Persian market. But a large house in Manchester, 

 which has several branch houses in Persia, has entered so largely into 



