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GENERAL REPORT OF THE JUDGES OF GROUP IX. by them, making a museum of Persian art in this department not surpassed by the collection at Kensington. The Persian carpets, or rather rugs, are made chiefly in Kurdistan, Khorassan, Feraghan, and Kerman (our principal authority for these statements being the notes on Persian art by Major R. Murdock Smith, R.E.), each district producing a distinctive kind in texture and style. The finest are those of Kurdistan. In these carpets the pattern does not represent flowers, bouquets, or other objects, thrown up in relief from a uniform ground, like so many of the inappropriate de signs of Europe, but looks more like a layer of flowers strewn on the ground, or a field of wild-flowers in spring. The borders are always well marked, and usually of brighter colors than the centre. Besides the ordinary “ Kali,” or pile carpet, others called “ Do-ru” are made at Kurdistan. These are smooth, without pile, and alike on both sides, and are used in traveling for spreading upon the ground. The carpets of Feraghan resemble those of Kurdistan in style, although the texture is looser and the pattern simpler. They are, consequently, cheaper and in more general use. Fine Kurdistan carpets cost from three to four pounds per square yard. The Fera ghan carpets cost from fifteen to eighteen shillings. The Khorassan carpets are somewhat superior in texture to those of Feraghan, but the patterns are usually more realistic. Kerman carpets are next in value to those of Kurdistan, but the designs are usually still more realistic than those of Khorassan. Besides flowers, figures of men and animals are not uncommon. According to Major Smith, the carpets of every description are made without even the simplest machinery, the loom being simply a frame on which the work is stretched. The woof consists of short threads woven into the warp by the fingers, without a shuttle. When a row of the woof is thus completed, a sort of comb is inserted into the warp and pressed or hammered against the loose rows of woof yarns until they are sufficiently tightened to the rest of the web. The pile is formed by merely clipping the ends of the woof until an even surface is obtained. The weaver sits with the reversed side of the web towards him; so that he depends solely upon his memory for the formation of the pattern. The Persian carpets are usually somewhat long and narrow,—a form adopted because more easily woven, while it is adapted to the usual narrow dimensions of the Persian houses. The space for car pets on the floor of these Persian apartments is still further narrowed by the habit of laying strips of felt at the upper end and along the sides of the room, the narrow carpet occupying the middle space.