FLORAL TYPE OFfPATTERN

combined with the traditional love of sumptuous costume, have notonly tended to preserve the distinctive character of Eastern fabricsthroughout many centuries, but have always exercised a potentinfluence upon the construction and patterning of medieval Europeanfabrics.

Megasthenes, writing of the Indians, says: “ Their robes are

Fig. 22.—Silk Robe. X Century.

Found on the body of St. Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral. Purple and crimsonin colour, the pattern woven in gold.

WS&TS.

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WM

worked in gold, and with various stones, and they wear alsoflowered garments of the finest muslins.”

This passage, together with that of Periegetes, that “ theSeres (Chinese) make precious figured garments resembling incolour the flowers of the field,” clearly indicates the floral typeof pattern that characterised the ancient fabrics of China andIndia; a type that has remained so persistent a feature to thepresent day.

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