recognize, but oftener showing new thoughts and methods. This fifth division we call Indian. If only we can content ourselves right here with apparently slow progress, by making a close examination of these main features in rugs in which they are distinct and evident, we shall be ready to study carefully the designs with which, in spite of ourselves, we have become familiar. We shall find much side light thrown upon our task by observing all sorts of other art manifestations in metal, porcelain, wood, etc., for purposes of comparison, which will reveal to us the mental attitude of the Oriental craftsman toward the decoration of whatever object he was beautifying. CHAPTER XI RELIGION OF the religious beliefs which have most effectually influenced pattern, those that led to nature-worship were necessarily the earliest, the sources of life being most profoundly reverenced. These early beliefs left legacies to the weavers among the ancients, and Art owes to them a debt she cannot often enough acknowlledge. In approaching this most absorbingly interesting subject, we can touch only lightly upon it, gleaning such information as will materially assist us in a general comprehension of the thought-life of the people of the Orient, that we may understand their allusions and symbols. During the development of the chaotic conditions. in which were the elements of later religions, the observations and reflections of man were more or less independent and largely indicative of reverence for one supreme God. When teachers arose, on through the centuries, who purported to be the embodiment of Deity or His special prophets or messengers, their names were given to their systems of worship, and they have figured in history as founders of the great religions. Those beliefs which have most effectually influenced pattern are indicated in the six-pointed star in the rug chart, and through these we may trace. |