r the
first time, she knew that he would not allow her to enter his presence
if recognized, and therefore she cleverly had herself carried into his
palace wrapped in a rug of the finest texture. It may well be imagined
that the unexpected disclosure of the charms of this subtle Egyptian
shared largely in bringing the great Roman general into her toils.

Besides Biblical writers, Homer, AEschylus, Plautus, Metellus Scipio,
Horace, Pliny, Lucan, Josephus, Arrian, and Athenaeus all speak of rugs.
To persons interested in rugs the search for these allusions is a most
fascinating occupation.

The Egyptians bestowed the greatest care and patience upon the rugs they
wove, as upon all else of their handiwork. They spread them before the
images of their gods, and also on the ground for their sacred cattle to
lie upon. They loved Nature intensely; like true lovers, they seemed to
have reached her very heart, and they symbolized her works in their
artistic designs. Even to this day many Oriental rugs have symbolic
signs borrowed from the works of Nature.

In design and color the rugs woven to-day in the Orient are similar to
the Assyrian and Babylonian textile fabrics of 1000-607 B.C. (Fall of
Nineveh) and 538 (Fall of Babylon). At that early period these were used
for awnings and floor-coverings in the palaces of the Assyrian kings
Sargon, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Sardanapalus. The designs on the
stone slab from the palace of Koyunjik, Nineveh, and on the door-sill
from the palace at Khorsabad, are probably copied from rugs.

From Egypt and Chaldea the manufacture of rugs was carried into Assyria,
and then into Asia Minor. Ancient Egypto-Chaldean designs are
occasionally seen in modern rugs, but usually in a modified form. For a
long time the industry of rug-weaving was supreme in the countries
mentioned, but about 480 B.C. it arrived at a high degree of perfection
in Greece. Later, the art was corrupted by the Byzantine (Lower Roman)
influence. In the seventh and eighth centuries the Saracens came into
power in the Persian Empire after the fall of the Sassanian dynasty,
and in the African and Syrian provinces. The Saracens believed that all
labor tended to the glory of God; consequently, on their western
campaigns they carried rug-manufacture into Sicily, Spain, France, and
Italy; and thus it was introduced throughout Europe. It should be here
noted that the name Saracen was given by the later Romans and Greeks to
certai