House Gr Garden 
GLIMPSES OF MODERN PERSIA. 1 
[concluded] 
III. THE RUG AND ITS USES. 
N that period, now so sharply caricatured, 
when Americans made their hand-satchels 
and house-slippers of Brussels carpet, they 
seem to have been in closer thought-relation 
than at any other time with their brothers 
of the East. It was unconscious, no doubt, 
for one may hardly believe that the inventor 
of the ante-bellum carpet-bag ever heard of 
a mafrash. But in the Fiast a wooden or 
leathern trunk or portmanteau is not to 
be found. The 
mafrash is the bag¬ 
gage of Asia, and 
it is woven, some¬ 
what in the man¬ 
ner of the Soumak 
rug, —pileless and 
of an amazingly 
hard finish. It is 
oblong in shape, 
and along its edges 
has stout loops of 
goat’s -hair by 
means of which 
it can be lashed. 
Two mafrashes will 
hold more than two 
ordinary Saratogas, 
and may be packed 
on a horse, one 
on either side. 
Against them the 
baggage-smasher is 
impotent. 
The stockings of 
the Persian, which 
serve him as foot¬ 
wear in the house, 
and are protected 
by sandals only 
when he goes out of doors, are likewise knit 
in rug designs. 
The parallel is interesting, but probably 
of no significance. It is cited here solely to 
show to what universality of uses the carpet 
idea is turned among the people of the Orient, 
who seem to have more of contentment than 
1 Continued from the May and August numbers of House and 
Garden. 
we, although they are so far behind us in 
invention. The saddle-cloth of the Persian, 
and more particularly of the Kurd—whether 
he ride upon ass, horse or camel, is “rug,” 
and sometimes, even now, of fabulous texture, 
color and design. The saddle-bags and 
shoulder-bags in which he packs his smaller 
belongings are so admirable that they are 
bought by collectors, ripped up and used to 
cover divan pillows in most ornate Western 
homes. All told, perhaps the carpet, in its 
various forms and usages, is the most prom¬ 
inent feature in all Eastern living. Sure that 
he will come upon no hotel or wayside inn 
where even the 
plainest comforts 
of life are pro¬ 
vided, the Persian 
who goes upon a 
journey carries all 
h i s conveniences 
with him. Where 
he spreads his big 
kilim , whether un¬ 
der the stars or 
within the buggy 
walls of some mud 
caravansary, there 
is his home, for a 
night. Upon the 
kilim is cast his 
thick felt mattress, 
made from clipp¬ 
ings of the carpet- 
pile, over that his 
softest rug, and at 
the head the sad¬ 
dle-bags for a pil¬ 
low. He sets his 
servant at work 
making tea, eats 
his simple meal, 
smokes his cigar¬ 
ette, unrolls his 
prayer-rug, performs his slow devotions and 
without removing any share of his dress goes 
to sleep, rug-covered, calm in the sense of 
Allah’s protection. 
Eastern cradles are of felt or shawl-work, 
and the most elaborate of rugs are woven to 
cover the flat tombstones of the Persian 
dead; so that from birth to death and after, 
literally from the cradle to the grave, the rug 
429 
