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eternal life and the almond tree of love, and the Persian textile 
near Case 1 shows cypress trees with almond trees planted in 
front of them. What may be called the ‘cypress-almond’ 
motive may sometimes be much reduced and obscure, but it is 
present in most of Persian decorative art and in that of Asia 
Minor as well, although the latter also shows Turkish influence. 
The two Asia Minor brocades on the wall in the corner both 
illustrate this motive. In the first, where late tulips are con- 
spicuously employed, the alternating clusters of leaves in twos 
and threes are designed from the cypress tree with a row of al- 
mond blossoms along the central axis. In the second, the prin- 
cipal design is a palmette derived from the carnation flower, 
while the cypress-almond motive appears in the two narrow leaves 
just below the flower.” 
ORIENTAL RUGS 
“Tt may be of interest to you at this point to say a word or 
two about oriental rugs, a number of which are in exhibit in this 
room. The rugs of the Orient were pictures, and usually asso- 
ciated with religious motives. Those of the Caucasus were cold 
in color and full of geometric designs; Indian rugs show exact 
copies of foliage and flowers; Persian rugs are possibly the best 
examples of floral patterns used as motives only; while Chinese 
rugs contain both floral and geometric motives with various 
mystic symbols, many of them being unequaled in beauty and 
priceless in value. The key to the Turkish rug is the ‘prayer 
niche,’ which pointed toward Mecca. The space in the niche 
was usually blue, which, according to Persian ideas, signified 
“sincere silence.’ 
“You noticed that the Persian hanging which we passed a 
short time ago was very thin and contained no knots. This 
was true of all the early rugs, the knots being added to give 
thickness and body to them used on cold or damp ground. Only 
two kinds of knots—really loops—were employed in oriental 
rugs. The number of knots to the square inch determined the 
compactness of the fabric and the direction of the pile had a 
marked influence on its color.” 
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