It ain't necessarily so
		Whether the information sources are written or oral, sometimes my head whirls as I try to find out the origin or the use of an artefact seen or collected during our travels. Some examples: The apple bag: In 1972 we found ourselves in Herat, our first foray into the world of rugs. In a small rug shop we asked about an attractive oddly shaped bag hanging on the wall. There was some talk in Dari between the shopkeeper and our translator, a young boy. Eventually the boy told us confidently, 'It is for keeping apples in.' The bag was of course, a namakdan, commonly known as a salt bag. The telephone mat: Kabul, 1974. Sami Noor, in the clothing business at that time, took us to his father's shop. His father had been in the rug trade, and still had a small business. I noticed an attractive small dark rectangle of carpet with goat hair tassels, on the father's desk under the telephone. I asked what it was. Again the consultation in Dari, and finally Sami informed me that it was for putting the telephone on. (It was actually a camel knee pad made by Koochi weavers.) Dubious stories may be passed on through misunderstanding, lack of knowledge, or an unscrupulous desire to sell a rug. Published work on carpets is often confusing and contradictory. Try to reconcile all of the accounts of the origins of Baluchis and their carpets and kilims for example, or the origins of Uzbek weavings.
			Are Salt Bags for keeping salt in?
				We've seen hundreds of salt bags over the years, with never a sign of salt. We're told authoritively that the salt is kept in the larger square lower half of the bag and that the small square neck is folded over to keep the salt in. Salt is precious and expensive. Maybe. Tanavoli's book Bread and Salt has a photo of a shepherd with his salt bag on a stick over his shoulder, and relates how the shepherd will sprinkle some salt on a rock for the sheep to lick. Salt is also kept in the bags in the home or tent. However, a close examination of most salt bags shows that they are not particularly practical for the purpose. The floating weft brocade strands inside the bag, and the shape of the bag itself, would make it difficult to get the salt out of the bag. Tanavoli devotes a lot of space in his book to the symbolism of salt - salt is a symbol of trustworthiness and friendship. I suspect that most salt bags that we've seen have not been used as storage bags at all, but actually play some symbolic role in the lives of the owners.
		What are these bags used for?
	In the 1970s there was a fair number of the Uzbek felt bags, now known as uk bash, available in the market. They were always made in pairs, but getting a good matching pair was difficult. Occasionally they were made of woven wool instead of felt, and there were similar smaller pairs of bags made of embroidered silk. We called them all shield bags, and became obsessed with finding what they had been used for. The felt bags often had a small slit at the top, and we suggested that the bags might have been used for holding a goatskin water bag, with the neck of the water bag coming through the slit of the felt bag. Or, the bags would comfortably hold a loaf of Afghan bread. Or a swaddled baby perhaps? The only reference book available at the time was Lindahl and Knorr's Uzbek, an exhibition catalogue. A similar felt bag, but with a square bottom, was described as being used to hold crockery. In most current literature they are described as tent pole covers. It was the late Mustafa Khonesheen who finally put us right, in the late 70s. One day, in exasperation, he said in his good but not quite right English: 'Leigh, these people are famous people. They have these bags to show that they are famous.' That sums it all up really. Uk bash are not really made for covering tent poles or holding tent pegs. They are to show that 'the people are famous'. Most qorjins are not saddle bags - they might have had their origins in something that would go over the back of a horse or a camel or a donkey, but now that sort of utility is redundant. They are made simply to show that 'the people are famous'. The same goes for chuvals or torbas, or almost any type of finely made bag. Or possibly, as another Afghan once put it, 'Everything is for the wedding.'

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