must learn them by
experience. The rug dealers, for the most part, seem to treat their wares
merely as so much merchandise, and what knowledge concerning them they are
willing to impart is so contradictory as to be almost valueless. Few of
them would agree upon the name of an example which might be out of the
ordinary, or be able to tell where it was made. Ask of them what a "Mecca"
is, and they will stammer in their varying answers. And yet the Armenians
who handle most of the rugs in this country are often highly educated, and
fully appreciate the beauty of their wares. Their taste, however, is not
always our taste, and all the Orientalists seem to retain their barbaric
fondness for crude and startling colours. When we would turn to books for
information in the matter we find that the authorities are not many. They
might be numbered on your fingers and thumbs. These few books, moreover,
have been published only in limited editions at high prices, and are not
easily obtainable. One of the most important of such works is the
sumptuously illustrated, elephantine folio, issued in Vienna in 1892 by
the Imperial and Royal Austrian and Commercial Museum. And, elaborate as
this authority is, the modest editor, by way of apology, says in the
preface that "no pretensions are made toward perfection owing to the
little information that we can fall back upon." A recent authority on the
subject is John Kimberly Mumford, and his volume on Oriental Rugs,
published in 1900, has thrown much light on the subject. Too great praise
cannot be given to this work and to his later studies in the same field.

Still, no one knows it all, and the mystery of Oriental rugs only deepens
as we try to learn. The little that any one may really know of them
through experience, through questioning and elusive answers, through
conversations with obliging and polite vendors, and through foreign travel
even, is, when all is said, only a patchwork of knowledge. Consider how
stupendous and hopeless would be the task of one who would dare endeavour
to analyze, criticise, classify, and co-ordinate the paintings of the past
five centuries, were no names signed to them or no appreciable number of
pictures painted by the same known artist.

He who would write of rugs has a like condition to face.

And alas! also, whoever would write on this subject must now treat of it
principally as history. The characteristic rugs, the antique rugs, the
rare specimens, are sel