Rugs of this type, which seldom make their way to America, have been attributed to Mongolia. There are reasons for believing that this piece came direct from a temple in the borders of Tibet. It resembles in many ways the now famous rug in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for which the late J. P. Morgan paid $25,000. Although smaller than the Museum temple carpet, the one here reproduced is superior to it in textile quality and probably in age. Both have the imperial five-clawed dragons of the Ming, contesting over the “jewel” which is one of the Buddhist symbols. Both rugs also have across their lower end the sacred mountains and the sea, depicted in their ancient traditional form. There the resemblance may be said to end. It is in the symbols distributed throughout the field that this rug excels the other from the documentary standpoint. In addition to the cloud and cotyledon figures, with which both rugs are ornamented, this piece contains all the principal symbols of Happy Augury,--the Flaming Wheel, the Sacred Lotus, the Fishes, the Canopy, the Jewel, the State Tent, the Endless Knot, and the Conch Shell. Here appears also, in soft shades of brown, the bat, recognized as a symbol of longevity. In the top of the rug and extending from one side to the other, is a continuous festoon, made up of conventionalized buds and flowers of the lotus. This appears invariably in rugs woven for the draping of temple pillars, or for religious hangings, and it is never found save in fabrics made for some devotional purpose. It will be noted that this part of the rug, a space about eighteen inches wide, is very much worn. The most likely explanation of this condition is that the rug was used on an altar and that a rail or other barrier prevented the nearer approach of the devotees. This extraordinary carpet presents the most convincing illustration of what has been said in the text regarding the methods used to secure blush-red shades,--peach, apricot, and the like. In China it is customary to quilt the backs of nearly all small- and medium-sized rugs that are used on floors, benches or _kongs_ (built-in brick heating devices). Oftentimes the cotton cloth used to cover the bats of quilting cotton is brought up over the end of the rug and sewed fast. This piece was brought to America in some haste, and the quilting was not removed until after it arrived here. When it was taken off, the original color was revealed. It may be seen in the color plate, a brilliant stripe across the lower end of the rug. People are often misled by the absence of border from certain Chinese rugs, into the belief that they are not intact. This is of course an error, and it is worthy of note that the Sacred rugs, containing in their designs a high measure of religious symbolism, are almost invariably without borders.