"Il en vint que, le plus souvent.
On disoit venir du Levant;
Il en vint des bords de l'Ibère.
Il en vint d'arriver n'agueres
Des pays septentrionaux."
What these points were it would be difficult to state. In the inventory of Henry VIII. is marked down, "a purle of morisco work."
One of the pattern-books gives on its title-page—
"Dantique et Roboesque
En comprenant aussi Moresque."
A second speaks of "Moreschi et arabesche."[[308]] A third is entitled, "Un livre de moresque."[[309]] A fourth, "Un livre de feuillages entrelatz et ouvrages moresques."[[310]] All we can say on the subject is, that the making cloths of chequered lace formed for a time the favourite employment of Moorish maidens, and they are still to be purchased, yellow with age, in the African cities of Tangier and Tetuan. They may be distinguished from those worked by Christian fingers from the absence of all animals in the pattern, the representation of living creatures, either in painting, sculpture, or embroidery, being strictly forbidden by Mahommedan law.