The
central idea is the bedpost, fashioned out of the stem of an
olive-tree growing in the court, and inlaid by Ulysses himself with
gold, silver, and ivory, and bands of dyed purple ox-hide. The stone
walls and roof were built over to cover it in, as it stood yet rooted
in the ground.[461]

The illustration is a very quaint delineation of a Chaldean
four-roomed house, where the rooted tree with its stem and branches is
suggestive of the state of the domestic art of the architect and the
upholsterer in those Archaic days.[462]

[Illustration: Fig. 24.
Assyrian delineation of Chaldean House.]

Furniture has been the excuse and the vehicle for embroideries, from
the footstool and the cushion to the window curtain and the
bed-hangings.[463]

Such curtains are the most permanently important features in the
economy, or rather the luxury of the house. Let us begin with the
decorations of the state bedroom.

Now the shape of the bed must regulate the design. If there is only a
canopy--like that over a throne--one may have fine work for the head
of the bed inside the canopy, and a rich border round its valance;
this should contrast with the walls; and the curtains should marry the
two together, by the embroidered borders belonging to the fashion of
the bed, and accompanying the window curtains; while the plain surface
should match with the wall hangings. Another method is to have the bed
and curtains hung with plain materials, to contrast with embroidered
or tapestried hangings on the walls.

This style of bed canopy absolutely belongs to the decoration of the
wall to which it is attached. But when we have to deal with a large
four-post bed--"a room within a room," as poor Prince Lee Boo
said--the bed may, in its own decoration, be totally independent of
the wall hangings; and care must be taken that we do not injure the
effect of both by too much contrast or too much similarity. Every room
has its own individuality, and the first beginning of its decoration
must be the key-note to guide the rest of the furnishing and
adornment. I am anxious to point out that the bed and its belongings
are a most important element in the beauty and dignity of style of the
room and the house that contains it. It is a splendid opportunity for
displaying the embroideries of the women of the family, and for
exercising their taste. "The chamber of Dais," as it was called in old
times, was always carefully adorned for the welcome of th