dom to be bought. They are in museums, or in the
hands of collectors who hold them in even a tighter fist.

Twenty years ago the warning was given that the choice old rugs were
growing scarce; the years following found fewer still upon the market. Two
or three years ago one of the largest wholesale houses in New York,
carrying a stock of half a million or a million dollars, had no antiques
to show. In the autumn of 1902, another large New York importer who had
just returned from Persia, Tiflis, and Constantinople admitted that he had
not brought back one valuable antique piece.

Nevertheless, the true enthusiast need not be discouraged. From wandering
dealers, in odd corners, at the unexpected or by chance, one may happen on
a choice specimen.

The very word "Persian" is a synonym for opulence, splendour,
gorgeousness; and "Oriental" means beauty and wonder and the magic of the
"Arabian Nights." From the Aladdin's cave of the mystical East, therefore,
we may still hope to gather treasure and spoil.

CHAPTER II

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

Most of the rugs of commerce in this country come from Persia, Turkey,
Asia Minor, Turkestan, the southern part of Russia, Afghanistan, and
Beluchistan; a few also from India. The rugs are named from the provinces
or cities where they are woven, and to the uninitiated, the names seem to
have been as fearfully and wonderfully made as the rugs themselves. They
are spelled one way on the maps and every other way in catalogues and
advertisements. In enumerating the most familiar ones it may be well to
write their names as nearly phonetically and conventionally as possible. A
few rugs have trade appellations only, without regard to topography; and,
often, unknown towns are called into requisition for fanciful titles to
please the purchaser.

Of course the names of rugs may mean nothing to your man-of-all-work,
whose duty it is to chastise them upon the lawn. But there is poetry in
the names of the roses, and you cannot half enjoy their beauty unless you
know a Mabel Morrison from the Baroness Rothschild; Cecile Brunner from
the Earl of Dufferin; or can give the proper rank and title to Captain
Christy, General Jacqueminot, and Marechal Niel. And who would dare to
talk of laces that could not give a French or Dutch or Irish name to them?
Or, when painted pictures instead of woven ones were under discussion, who
would venture to admit that he had heard for the first time the names