The first hands busy at the weaving craft undoubtedly were those of women. Chaldean gossip, repeated in history relates that Sardanphulees, an ancient Greek king, was often seen in woman’s garb carding purple wool from which his wives wrought rugs for floor coverings for the palace. Homer shows Helen of Troy setting the tale of her people’s war in the woof of her web, and also tells with Virgil of rugs that were laid under the thrones of kings or upon chariot horses. Ancient Hindu hymns show that these people made their textile fabrics studies of great beauty. The woman in the Proverbs of Solomon says: “I have woven my bed with cords; I have covered it with painted tapestry from Egypt.” One learns from the writings of Pliny of the large money value of rugs in ancient times. He wrote at length of a vast rug displayed at a banquet of Ptolemy Philadelphius, the value of which was placed at a fabulous sum. A later writer tells of the love of Cleopatra for rich rugs and tapestries that were woven in her palace or in the countries to the East. On the occasions of her meeting with Cæsar and Antony, the Egyptian queen enveloped herself in a superb rug which she had woven especially for the purpose of showing her renowned beauty to the best advantage. Akhar, emperor of Hindostan, spread a knowledge of the art of weaving throughout India. The earlier phases of the art of weaving may be traced through the land of the Pharaohs to Northern Africa, Southwestern Asia, and finally into the dawn of the Aryan civilization. The loom has not been materially changed, and it may be seen to-day as it was in the time when the priests of Heliopolis decorated the shrines of their gods with magnificent carpets and when Delilah wove the hair of Samson with her web and fastened it with a wooden pin. The ancient weavers attained high artistic standards in their fabrics. Pliny tells of Babylonian couch covers that had all the beauty of paintings and sold for great fortunes to the ancient Asiatic kings. In all ages fine rugs have been used for religious purposes. Early writings describe the use of rugs on the holy cars of pilgrimage to Mecca, at the tomb of the prophet at Medinah and throughout the mosques of the Orient. The abbot Egelric gave to the church at Croyland, before the year 892, two large rugs to be laid before the high altar on great festivals. At later periods rugs were used for similar purposes in the cathedrals of Southern Europe. The Oriental people ever have been devoted to symbols and naturally wove them into their fabrics. Their textiles were made to reproduce mythological stories in which the fauna and flora of a country figured prominently. There was the symbolism of form, color and animal life, of trees and flowers, of faith, and earthly and heavenly existence. The symbols were made to illustrate the conflict between light and darkness, the evolution of life, the decay of death and the immortality that awaits the blessed in paradise.