Fig. 242.—Ear-drop; from Layard.
Figs. 243, 244.—Ear-drops; from Layard.
Figs. 248, 249.—Gold buttons. British Museum.
Fig. 245.—Necklace. British Museum.
The habits and tastes of the Oriental saddler have not changed since the days of antiquity. We cannot get a better idea of Assyrian harness than by examining the sets exposed for sale in the present day in the bazaars of Turkey, Persia, and India. More than once, when some Kurdish bey rode past him on his Arab, Sir H. Layard felt as if he had seen a vision from one of the Ninevite reliefs. The leather stitched with bright coloured threads, the housings of gaudy wool, the hawk’s bells tinkling round the horse’s neck, were all survivals from the past. The equipment of a Spanish mule, or the harness that used to be worn by the waggon teams of Eastern France within the memory of men not yet old, gives some idea of the effect produced.
Figs. 246, 247.—Moulds for trinkets; from Layard.