G 
THE NATURAL SCIENCE JOURNAL. 
slightest details are worked out with au 
accuracy aud precision that is marvelous. 
Very often the ancient religion of Per¬ 
sia has been drawn npon for symbolic 
designs — the lion representing the sun, 
the dragon the night, the phamix for the 
splendors of the day. These, together 
with more or less perfect representations 
of trees and flowers, are used to typify 
the struggle between good and evil, the 
evolution of life, the decay of death, and 
the eternal bliss of Paradise. 
Further than this, the handsomest 
specimens are often designed to com¬ 
memorate some national event. Some 
prophets or the edict of a king will be 
worked out with the utmost care ; when 
the rugs are designed to be the property 
of a mosque, tlie knotting of the threads 
is considered a sacred privilege, and the 
work is undertaken only by men and women 
of a most devote and pious mind. Those 
pieces used in the palaces, about the 
altars, and in the homes of the rich are 
frequently interwoven with threads of gold 
and silver, and are of priceless value. 
The Persian loom consists of tv;o 
rough, upright poles which are nailed to 
one of the rafters in the roof and secured 
in holes in the floor. AVedged in between 
these poles are tw'o others, running paral¬ 
lel with the floor, and on these the web is 
stretched. The w^eaver works from a 
ladder which is placed opposite the face 
of the loom; this enables him to keep 
pace with the progress of the work as it 
approaches the roof. The tools which 
are used in weaving comprise an ordinary 
knife, a comb or shanch, as it is designed 
by the weaver, and a pair of native scis¬ 
sors. This description of Persian weav¬ 
ing and loom equipment practically 
applies to Turkey aud India as well. 
In the case of India, the finest weaves 
were produced prior to the downfall of 
the Mohammedan dynasty. Since that 
time, however, the government has given 
this especial industry its undivided atten¬ 
tion, with the result that the more mod¬ 
ern Indian weaves are attaining rapidly 
their old-time value and merit. Private 
carpet manufacturing enterprises are be¬ 
ing launched all the time, aud it is only 
a question of a few years when the gov¬ 
ernment will cease its operations entirely, 
leaving a thoroughly equalized compe¬ 
tition. 
Granting it to be true that Persia was 
the means of introducing the art of weav¬ 
ing into India, aud notwithstanding the 
fact that many Indian carpets are, to a 
very great extent, copies of Persian de¬ 
signs, there is one quality for which the 
Indian modern and antique weaves are 
notable, namely, the superiority aud sta¬ 
bility of their colorings. The Indian 
weaver invariably adheres strictly to fast 
aud best vegetable dyes, which fact 
accounts for the undoubted and univer¬ 
sal popularity of his productions. 
The pile of Indian carpets is thick, 
wdiile the grounds are usually dark or 
cream colored, with small red or blue 
designs ; no given rule may be laid down 
as to the character or size of their de¬ 
signs, for the Indian weave embraces a 
greater variety of patterns than all oth¬ 
ers combined. 
Of what use were the gem points, 
which form so large a proportion of the 
arrowheads found in AYash., Ore., N. 
M., Ariz. etc.? The idea has been re¬ 
cently expressed that they were undoubt¬ 
edly poisoned and perhaps after all, this 
is as near the truth as anything yet 
known concerning them. 
