s packed in cotton were
put into a wooden chest, two of which chests were a sufficient load
for an elephant: the screen filled another chest. The walls of the
tent--tent-poles and tent-pins, which were of massy gold, loaded five
more elephants; so that for the carriage of the whole were required
seven elephants. This magnificent tent was displayed on all festivals
in the public hall at Herat, during the remainder of Nadir Shah's
reign.

Sir J. Chardin tells us that the late King of Persia caused a tent to
be made which cost 2,000,000_l._ They called it the House of Gold,
because gold glittered everywhere about it. He adds, that there was an
inscription wrought upon the cornice of the antechamber, which gave it
the appellation of the Throne of the second Solomon, and at the same
time marked out the year of its construction. The following
description of Antar's tent from the Bedouin romance of that name has
been often quoted:--

"When spread out it occupied half the land of Shurebah, for it was the
load of forty camels; and there was an awning at the door of the
pavilion under which 4000 of the Absian horse could skirmish. It was
embroidered with burnished gold, studded with precious stones and
diamonds, interspersed with rubies and emeralds, set with rows of
pearls; and there was painted thereon a specimen of every created
thing, birds and trees, and towns, and cities, and seas, and
continents, and beasts, and reptiles; and whoever looked at it was
confounded by the variety of the representations, and by the
brilliancy of the silver and gold: and so magnificent was the whole,
that when the pavilion was pitched, the land of Shurebah and Mount
Saadi were illuminated by its splendour."

Extravagant as seems this description, we are told that it is not so
much exaggerated as we might imagine. "Poetical license" has indeed
been indulged in to the fullest extent, especially as to the size of
the pavilion; yet Marco Polo in sober earnest describes one under
which 10,000 soldiers might be drawn up _without incommoding the
nobles at the audience_.

It is well known that Mohammed forbade his followers to imitate any
animal or insect in their embroideries or ornamental work of any sort.
Hence the origin of the term _arabesque_, which we now use to express
all odd combinations of patterns from which human and animal forms are
excluded. That portion of the race which merged in the Moors of Spain
were especially remarked for the