HOLMES.] TEXTILE CHARACTERS IN ARCHITEC'TLtRAL ORNAMENT. 251 



decoration pervades architecture before the sculptor's chisel begins 

 to carve ornament in stonie and before architecture has developed of 

 itself the rudiments of a system of surface embellishment. Textile 



Fia. ;357. Portion of atapa stamp, showing its subtextile character. A palm leaf is cut to tht^desirbJ 

 shape and the patterns are sewed in or stitched on. 



art in mats, covers, shelters, and draperies is intimately associated 

 with floors and walls of houses, and the textile devices are in time 

 transferred to the stone and plaster. The wall of an ancient Pueblo 

 estufa, or ceremonial chamber, built in the pre-esthetic period of 

 architecture, antedating, in stage of culture, the first known step in 

 Egyptian art, is encircled by a band of painted figures, borrowed, 

 like those of the pottery, from a textile source. The doorway or 

 rather entrance to the rude hovel of a Navajo Indian is closed liy a 

 blanket of native make, unsurpassed in execution and exhibiting 

 conventional designs of a high order. 



The ancient "hall of the arabesques" at Chimu, Peru, is decorated 

 in elaborate designs that could only have arisen in the textile ai't 



