.NzkwMg.NTcxOA

been accomplished with the same sagacity and patience that have preserved to the world the other famous fabric of Ardebil. Portions of the heavier trees have been omitted, and branches which it was necessary to supply have been woven in without regard to their original position, in such direction as would best aid in saving some other portion of the fabric, or in the utilization of some small piece which in all likelihood a more impulsive artist would have thrown away. The limitation referred to in the matter of color finds parallel in the design, and the consistency - seemingly intuitive - which prevails in all rugs woven under the highest teaching, is particularly noticeable here. The motive and suggestion of the carpet is life - vigorous, beautiful, sacred and perpetual. To that end the design of the field concerns itself only with the tree device - emblem of renewal - in its principal known decorative forms. At the bottom, in a transverse row, are cypress trees showing considerable effort at elaboration, and suggesting in their treatment the Khorassan or Indian form of the cone or pear pattern. The trees of this lower row are contained in pots, a touch often seen to this day in the prayer rugs of Turkish races farther West. By way of enrichment, other growths are represented, more or less stiffly drawn. The remaining space is occupied by different arboreal forms, arranged in rows, and in these, again, alternately according to their kinds. There are two varieties of