444 THE RUINED FORT OF MIRAN CH. XXXVIII
top coats of lacquer after the fashion of sgraffito paintings. The bronze rivets found in some pieces also served for ornamentation. For the purpose of lateral fastening the longer sides of the scales, which measure from about two and three-quarter to four and a quarter inches in different sets, were placed so as to overlap, and were then laced closely together by means of thongs passed in a cleverly designed fashion through sets of holes which are always placed near to the edges, but vary in number. The vertical attachment was effected in a similar fashion by thongs running through two pairs of holes cut near the top end and towards the middle of each scale.
In all probability the scales overlapped upwards, in a fashion curiously differing from the classical and mediaeval examples of Europe, but in accord with the specimens of scale armour which Central-Asian and Graeco-Buddhist art reproduces. The illustration given in Fig. 138, 26 of such a set of scales, found with its lacing still intact, will help to explain these details. Curiously enough, all the scales, being oblong, appear to have belonged to the skirt part of mail coats. Probably this suffered most from wear. Of the breast portion, which judging from frescoes and relievos seems to have always been made up of scales having their top ends rounded, not a single piece was found. But an elaborately worked fragment of large size, which manifestly was meant to protect the throat or arm-hole (Fig. 138, 24), proves that the armour also for the upper portion of the body was worked in lacquered leather.
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