Occasionally, moreover, when the ground of the whole tissue was white, a border of fanciful scrolls, leaves, and flowers, intermingling their several tints, extended round the whole robe or mantle, which was sometimes also bedropped with asterisks of gold. Their flowered silks, and cloths of various colours, were worn, not only by ladies in their dresses, but occasionally, also, by vain young men, who thus exposed themselves to the derision of the multitude. Bed-curtains, too, and the hangings of apartments[1310] were of variegated stuffs. In the manufacturing of tapestry[1311] and drapery for the statues and temples of the gods, the greatest possible magnificence and beauty were displayed. Whole years were devoted to the production of a single piece, which exhibited views of landscapes and cities, together with figures of gods, and heroes, and groups of warriors, sometimes arranged in religious processions, at other times engaged in battle, where the scene, the combatants, their armour, their weapons, and the flowing gore were represented by various colours to the life.[1312] In the manufacture of carpets, the Greeks displayed great taste and elegance, whether we regard the figures of animals, trees, or flowers, with which they were inwrought, or their pile, softness, and texture.[1313] Many times when they had not been flowered by the hand of the weaver, they were adorned by the ladies themselves with sprigs, and leaves, and figures, in embroidery; sometimes of various bright colours, at others with threads of gold.[1314] Even napkins in Egypt were embroidered with golden flowers,[1315] as both these and all kinds of handkerchiefs still are throughout the East. In Greece, the fine soft vests which warriors[1316] wore beneath their shirts of mail were usually figured with rich embroidery by the females of their family. ----- Footnote 1310: Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 172. Athen. xv. 42. Footnote 1311: Hom. Il. γ. 125, sqq. Footnote 1312: Cf. Hom. Il. ζ. 289. 295. Footnote 1313: See Book III. chap. ii. Footnote 1314: