Umbrellas and their History | Page 4

delineate.]
In Persia the Parasol is repeatedly found in the carved work of Persepolis, and Sir John Malcolm has an article on the subject in his "History of Persia." In some sculptures--of a very Egyptian character, by the way--the figure of a king appears attended by a slave, who carries over his head an Umbrella, with stretchers and runner complete. In other sculptures on the rock at Takht-i-Bostan, supposed to be not less than twelve centuries old, a deer-hunt is represented, at which a king looks on, seated on a horse, and having an Umbrella borne over his head by an attendant.
This combination of business and comfort forcibly reminds us of a certain wet day in Carlsruhe, where we witnessed from the window of the H?tel d'Angleterre a stout, martial-looking national guardsman marching to the exercising-ground with an Umbrella over his head, and a maid-servant diligently tramping through the mud behind him, bearing his musket.
As in Assyria, so in most other Eastern countries, this use of the Parasol carried with it a peculiar and honourable significance. The tradition relating to its origin in China has been already alluded to, and we can trace notices of its use a very long way back indeed.
According to Dr. Morrison, Umbrellas and Parasols are referred to in books printed about A.D. 300, but their use has been traced still further back than this. A very ancient book of Chinese ceremonies, called "Tcheou-Li, or The Rites of Tcheou," directs that upon the imperial cars the dais should be placed. "The figure of this dais contained in the Chinese edition of Tcheou-Li, and the particular description of it given in the explanatory commentary of Lin-hi-ye, both identify it with an Umbrella. The latter describes the dais to be composed of 28 arcs, which are equivalent to the whalebone ribs of the modern instrument, and the staff supporting the covering to consist of two parts, the upper being a rod 3/18ths of a Chinese foot in circumference, and the lower a tube 6/10ths in circumference, into which the upper half is capable of sliding."
In the second Tartar invasion of China the emperor's son was taken prisoner by the Tartar chief, and made to carry his Umbrella when he went out hunting.
Starting from the royal significance attached to the Umbrella, came a feeling of veneration for it, very different from the contempt with which we are now-a-days too apt to regard it. It was represented by many ancient nations as shading their gods. In the Hindoo mythology Vishnu is said to have paid a visit to the infernal regions with his Umbrella over his head. One would think that in few places could an Umbrella have been less appropriate, but doubtless Vishnu knew what he was about, and had his own reasons for carrying his Parapluie under his arm. Perhaps like Mrs. Gamp he could not be separated from it. So much for the ancient history of our subject in the East. We may now go on to countries about which we know a little more than of ancient China and Assyria.
In Greece, as Becker tells us in his "Charicles," the Parasol was an indispensable adjunct to a lady of fashion. It had also its religious signification. In the Scirophoria, the feast of Athene Sciras, a white Parasol was borne by the priestesses of the goddess from the Acropolis to the Phalerus. In the feasts of Dionysius (in that at Alea in Arcadia, where he was exposed under an Umbrella, and elsewhere) the Umbrella was used, and in an old has-relief the same god is represented as descending ad inferos with a small Umbrella in his hand, like Vishnu before mentioned.
There was also another festival in which they appeared, though without any mystical signification. In the Panathen?a, the daughters of the Metceci, or foreign residents, carried Parasols over the heads of Athenian women as a mark of inferiority,
"tas parthenons ton metoikon skiadaephorein en tais rompais aenankazon." --OElian, V. H., vi. 1. [Footnote: "They compelled the maidens of the Metceci to act as umbrella-bearers in the processions."]
Its use seems to have been confined to women. In Pausanias there is a description of a tomb near Phar?, a Greek city. On the tomb was the figure of a woman--
"themapaina de autae prosestaeke skiadeion pherousa." --Pausanias, lib. vii., cap. 22, Section 6. [Footnote: "And by her stood a female slave, bearing a parasol."]
Aristophanes seems to mention it among the common articles of female use--
"aemin men gar son eti kai nun tantion, o kanon, oi kalathiokoi, to skiadeion." --Aristophanes, Thesmoph., 821. [Footnote: "For now our loom is safe, our weaving-beam, our baskets and umbrella."]
It occurs frequently on vases, and is in shape like that now used. It could be put up and down.
"ta d' ota g'an son, nae AL', exepetannuto osper skiadeion, kai