Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/89

 Sculpture. n Fig. 284. — Modern Syrian Shoe/ Lortet, La Syrie. rare ; whilst the cloak, which completely shrouds them, yields no opportunity for observing the under-garments. Details common to almost all these figures, male and female, are the pointed cap or tiara and the turned-up shoes, recalling those in vogue in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Figs. 262, 269, 276, 280, 282). Tip-tilted boots, shoes, and slippers are worn at the present day all over the East, be it Anatolia, Syria or Egypt (Figs. 284, 285). It is probable that in olden times, notably among the warlike Hittltes, they partook of the character of a mili- tary boot, suitable for forced marches, and not left in every quagmire, as would a Turkish slipper. The semi-high boot, open on the instep and fastened round the leg by leather thongs in true mountaineer fashion, should be noticed (Fig. 282).^ This pecu- liarity of the national foot-covering was observed by the two great nations of antiquity with whom the Hittltes were brought in contact. As before stated, it was figured with intentional exaggeration, both at Thebes in the Ramesseum, and on the black obelisk of Shalmaneser, where tribute- bearers, in the Hittlte tunic, Phrygian cap, and curled shoes, are said to have come from Cappadocia, held at that time by Hittite and cognate tribes.^ Finally, the ^ Some have thought to recognize thisboot in the Hittite hieroglyphs (Figs. 256,277, 280 (Wright, Plate XX. Fig. 3 ; XXI. Fig. 2 ; XXV.). But that the sign in question was designed for the actual foot is abundantly proved in numbers of instances, where the ankle is distinctly drawn (Fig. 277). The engraver was so accustomed to see the foot shod, that he unconsciously gave it the characteristic curve of the boot, to make its meaning more clear. Moreover, the foot was not the only limb that had been requisitioned ; the head, arm, hand, leg, etc., had each in turn furnished signs to the Hittite alphabet (Fig. 256). natural consequence did not reproduce it in their drawings. Professor Sayce, in his visit to Thebes in 1884, was the first to call the attention of his fellow-travellers to Fig. 285.— Syrian Boot. Lortet.
 * This detail had escaped Rosellini, Lcpsius, and subsequent scholars, who as a