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Radar Systems Analysis and
Design Using MATLAB®
Radar Systems Analysis and
Design Using MATLAB®
Fourth Edition

Bassem R. Mahafza, Ph.D

President and CEO
Phased n Research, Inc.
Huntsville, Alabama, USA
MATLAB® is a trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. and is used with permission. The MathWorks does not warrant
the accuracy of the text or exercises in this book. This book’s use or discussion of MATLAB® software or related
products does not constitute endorsement or sponsorship by The MathWorks of a particular pedagogical approach
or particular use of the MATLAB® software.

Fifth edition published 2022

by CRC Press
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and by CRC Press

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© 2022 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

First edition published by CRC Press 2000
Second edition published by CRC Press 2005
Third edition published by CRC Press 2013
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ISBN: 9780367507930 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781032191058 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003051282 (ebk)

DOI: 10.1201/9781003051282

Typeset in Palatino
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
 To

Hamsa, Zachary, Joseph, Jacob, Jordan

Contents

Preface........................................................................................................................................... xvii
Author Bio..................................................................................................................................... xxi
Companion: MATLABM® Code - Disclaimer........................................................................ xxiii

1 Radar Definitions and Nomenclature.................................................................................1

1.1 Radar Systems Classifications and Bands.................................................................. 1
1.1.1 High Frequency (HF) and Very HF (VHF) Radars (A- and B-Bands)....... 2
1.1.2 Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radars (C-Band)............................................2
1.1.3 L-Band Radars (D-Band)..................................................................................4
1.1.4 S-Band Radars (E- and F-Bands).....................................................................4
1.1.5 C-Band Radar (G-Band)...................................................................................4
1.1.6 X- and Ku-Band Radars (I- and J-Bands).......................................................5
1.1.7 K- and Ka- Band Radars (J- and K-Bands).....................................................5
1.1.8 Millimeter Wave (MMW) Radars (V- and W-Bands)..................................7
1.2 Radar Functional Block Diagram................................................................................7
1.3 Primary Radar Subsystems..........................................................................................8
1.4 Signal Classification.......................................................................................................9
1.4.1 Signal Expansion Functions.......................................................................... 11
1.4.2 Fourier Series Expansion............................................................................... 12
1.4.2.1 Trigonometric Fourier Series......................................................... 12
1.4.2.2 Complex Exponential Fourier Series............................................ 13
1.4.3 Properties of the Fourier Series.................................................................... 14
1.4.3.1 Addition and Subtraction............................................................... 15
1.4.3.2 Multiplication................................................................................... 15
1.4.3.3 Average Power................................................................................. 15
1.4.4 Fourier Transform........................................................................................... 16
1.5 Systems Classification................................................................................................. 17
1.5.1 Linear and Nonlinear Systems..................................................................... 17
1.5.2 Time Invariant and Time Varying Systems................................................ 18
1.5.3 Stable and Nonstable Systems....................................................................... 18
1.5.4 Causal and Noncausal Systems.................................................................... 19
1.5.5 Convolution Integral...................................................................................... 19
1.6 Simplified View of the Radar Receiver Subsystem................................................. 19
1.6.1 Measuring Target Range................................................................................ 20
1.6.2 Unambiguous Range......................................................................................22
1.6.3 Range Resolution............................................................................................ 24
1.6.4 Doppler Frequency......................................................................................... 26
1.6.4.1 Doppler Frequency Extraction – Method I.................................. 26
1.6.4.2 Doppler Frequency Extraction – Method II................................. 28
1.7 Coherence...................................................................................................................... 31
1.8 Decibel Arithmetic....................................................................................................... 32
Appendix 1.1: Fourier Transform Pairs and Properties Tables........................................ 35
Problems................................................................................................................................... 35
Answers to Selected Problems.............................................................................................. 37

 vii
viii Contents

2 Basic Radar Waveforms and Antenna............................................................................... 39

2.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................. 39
2.2 Common Radar Waveforms....................................................................................... 39
2.2.1 Continuous Wave............................................................................................ 39
2.2.2 Finite Duration Pulse..................................................................................... 40
2.2.3 Periodic Pulses................................................................................................ 41
2.2.4 Finite Duration Pulse Train...........................................................................42
2.3 Bandpass Signals..........................................................................................................44
2.3.1 Analytic Signal (Pre-Envelope)..................................................................... 46
2.3.2 Pre-Envelope and Complex Envelope of Bandpass Signals..................... 47
2.3.3 Linear Frequency Modulation Signal.......................................................... 49
2.4 Waveform Resolution..................................................................................................54
2.4.1 Range Resolution............................................................................................54
2.4.2 Doppler Resolution......................................................................................... 56
2.4.3 Combined Range and Doppler Resolution................................................. 57
2.5 Radar Antenna............................................................................................................. 58
2.5.1 Electromagnetic Waves (Radio Frequency Waves).................................... 58
2.5.2 Antenna Radiated Power............................................................................... 59
2.5.3 Radiation Intensity......................................................................................... 60
2.5.4 Radiation Pattern............................................................................................ 60
2.5.4.1 Half-Power Beam Width................................................................ 62
2.5.4.2 Sidelobes........................................................................................... 62
2.5.4.3 Beam Solid Angle............................................................................ 62
2.5.4.4 Forward/Backward Ratio..............................................................63
2.5.4.5 Voltage Standing Wave Ratio........................................................63
2.5.4.6 Antenna Bandwidth.......................................................................63
2.5.5 Directivity........................................................................................................63
2.5.6 Antenna Gain..................................................................................................63
2.5.6.1 Effective Isotropic Radiated Power...............................................64
2.5.7 Sidelobe Control..............................................................................................64
2.5.8 Antenna Effective Aperture..........................................................................64
2.5.9 Antenna Near and Far Fields........................................................................ 66
2.5.10 Antenna Beam Shape Loss and Scan Loss.................................................. 67
2.5.10.1 Beam Shape Loss............................................................................. 67
2.5.10.2 Antenna Scan Loss.......................................................................... 67
2.5.10.3 Antenna U-V Space......................................................................... 69
2.5.11 Polarization...................................................................................................... 70
Problems................................................................................................................................... 78
Answers to Selected Problems..............................................................................................80

3 Radar Equation....................................................................................................................... 81
Part I: Pulsed Radar
3.1 Radar Range Equation................................................................................................. 81
3.1.1 Maximum Detection Range..........................................................................85
3.2 Low PRF Radar Equation............................................................................................ 89
3.3 High PRF Radar Equation.......................................................................................... 91
3.4 Surveillance Radar Equation...................................................................................... 93
3.4.1 Number of Beam Positions............................................................................ 97
Contents ix

3.5 Blake Chart.................................................................................................................... 98

3.6 Radar Equation with Jamming.................................................................................. 98
3.6.1 Passive Jamming Techniques...................................................................... 100
3.6.2 Radar Equation with Jamming................................................................... 101
3.6.3 Self-Protection Jamming Radar Equation................................................. 103
Burn-Through Range.................................................................................... 105
3.6.4 Support Jamming Radar Equation............................................................. 107
3.6.5 Range Reduction Factor............................................................................... 109
3.6.6 Noise (Denial) Jamming Techniques......................................................... 110
3.6.6.1 Barrage Noise Jamming............................................................... 110
3.6.6.2 Spot Noise and Sweep Spot Noise Jamming............................. 111
3.6.6.3 Deceptive Jamming....................................................................... 112
3.6.7 Electronic Counter-Counter Measure Techniques................................... 114
3.6.7.1 Receiver Protection Techniques.................................................. 114
3.6.7.2 Jamming Avoidance and Exploitation Techniques.................. 114
3.7 Bistatic Radar Equation............................................................................................. 115
3.8 Radar Cross-Section.................................................................................................. 117
3.8.1 RCS Prediction Methods.............................................................................. 119
3.9 Radar Losses............................................................................................................... 120
3.9.1 Transmit and Receive Losses...................................................................... 120
3.9.2 Antenna Pattern Loss and Scan Loss......................................................... 120
3.9.3 Atmospheric Loss......................................................................................... 121
3.9.3.1 Atmospheric Absorption.............................................................. 121
3.9.3.2 Atmospheric Attenuation Plots................................................... 123
3.9.4 Loss Due to Precipitation............................................................................. 126
3.9.5 Collapsing Loss............................................................................................. 129
3.9.6 Processing Loss............................................................................................. 130
3.9.6.1 Detector Approximation.............................................................. 130
3.9.6.2 Constant False Alarm Rate Loss................................................. 130
3.9.6.3 Quantization Loss......................................................................... 130
3.9.6.4 Range Gate Straddle Loss............................................................ 130
3.9.6.5 Doppler Filter Straddle................................................................. 132
Part II: Continuous Wave Radar
3.10 Overview of Continuous Wave Radars.................................................................. 133
3.10.1 CW Radar Equation...................................................................................... 134
3.10.2 Frequency Modulation................................................................................. 135
3.10.3 Linear Frequency Modulated CW Radar.................................................. 139
3.10.4 Multiple Frequency CW Radar................................................................... 141
3.11 MATLAB Program “range_calc.m”......................................................................... 142
Problems................................................................................................................................. 144
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 147

4 Radar Wave Propagation.................................................................................................... 149

4.1 Earth’s Impact on the Radar Equation.................................................................... 149
4.2 Earth’s Atmosphere................................................................................................... 149
4.3 Atmospheric Models................................................................................................. 152
4.3.1 Index of Refraction in the Troposphere..................................................... 152
4.3.2 Index of Refraction in the Ionosphere........................................................ 153
x Contents

4.3.3 Mathematical Model for Computing Refraction...................................... 155

4.3.4 Stratified Atmospheric Refraction Model................................................. 157
4.4 Four-thirds Earth Model........................................................................................... 160
4.4.1 Target Height Equation................................................................................ 161
4.5 Ground Reflection...................................................................................................... 163
4.5.1 Smooth Surface Reflection Coefficient....................................................... 163
4.5.2 Divergence..................................................................................................... 167
4.5.3 Rough Surface Reflection............................................................................. 168
4.5.4 Total Reflection Coefficient������������������������������������������������������������������������� 169
4.6 Pattern Propagation Factor....................................................................................... 170
4.6.1 Flat Earth........................................................................................................ 173
4.6.2 Spherical Earth.............................................................................................. 174
4.7 Diffraction................................................................................................................... 177
Problems................................................................................................................................. 183
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 183

5 Elements of Signal Processing of the Radar Receiver................................................. 185

5.1 Radar Receiver Block Diagram................................................................................ 185
5.2 Correlation.................................................................................................................. 186
5.2.1 Correlation Coefficient................................................................................. 186
5.2.1.1 Energy Signals............................................................................... 186
5.2.1.2 Power Signals................................................................................. 189
5.2.2 Correlation Integral – Energy Signals....................................................... 189
5.2.3 Relationship between Convolution and Correlation Integrals.............. 190
5.2.4 Effect of Time Translation on the Correlation Function......................... 191
5.2.5 Correlation Function Properties................................................................. 191
5.2.5.1 Conjugate Symmetry.................................................................... 192
5.2.5.2 Total Signal Energy....................................................................... 192
5.2.5.3 Total Area under the Autocorrelation Function....................... 192
5.2.5.4 Maximum Value for the Autocorrelation Function.................. 193
5.2.5.5 Fourier Transform for the Correlation Function...................... 193
5.2.6 Correlation Integral – Power Signals......................................................... 193
5.2.7 Energy and Power Spectrum Densities..................................................... 194
5.2.8 Correlation Function for Periodic Signals................................................. 195
5.3 Discrete Time Systems and Signals......................................................................... 196
5.3.1 Sampling Theorem....................................................................................... 197
5.3.1.1 Lowpass Sampling Theorem....................................................... 197
5.3.1.2 Bandpass Sampling Theorem...................................................... 199
5.3.2 Z-Transform................................................................................................... 200
5.3.3 Discrete Fourier Transform......................................................................... 201
5.3.3.1 Discrete Power Spectrum............................................................. 202
5.3.4 Spectral Leakage and Fold-Over................................................................ 203
5.3.4.1 Spectral Leakage........................................................................... 203
5.3.4.2 Spectral Fold-Over........................................................................ 205
5.3.5 Windowing Techniques............................................................................... 205
5.3.6 Decimation and Interpolation..................................................................... 209
5.3.6.1 Decimation..................................................................................... 209
5.3.6.2 Interpolation................................................................................... 211
5.4 Radar Receiver Noise Figure.................................................................................... 211
Contents xi

Appendix 5.1 Table of Z-Transform Pairs......................................................................... 215

Problems................................................................................................................................. 217
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 219

6 Matched Filter...................................................................................................................... 221

6.1 Matched Filtering....................................................................................................... 221
6.1.1 Output Signal Power....................................................................................222
6.1.2 Output Noise Power.....................................................................................223
6.1.3 Signal-to-Noise Ratio....................................................................................223
6.1.4 Matched Filter Impulse Response..............................................................225
6.1.5 The Replica.....................................................................................................225
6.1.6 Mean and Variance of the Matched Filter Output................................... 226
6.2 General Formula for the Output of the Matched Filter........................................ 226
6.2.1 Stationary Target Case................................................................................. 227
6.2.2 Moving Target Case...................................................................................... 228
6.3 Range and Doppler Uncertainty.............................................................................. 230
6.3.1 Range Uncertainty........................................................................................ 230
6.3.2 Doppler (Velocity) Uncertainty................................................................... 233
6.3.3 Combined Range-Doppler Uncertainty.................................................... 233
6.4 Target Parameter Estimation.................................................................................... 237
6.4.1 What Is an Estimator?.................................................................................. 237
6.4.2 Amplitude Estimation.................................................................................. 238
6.4.3 Phase Estimation........................................................................................... 239
Problems................................................................................................................................. 239
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 240

7 Pulse Compression.............................................................................................................. 243

7.1 Time-Bandwidth Product......................................................................................... 243
7.1.1 Radar Equation with Pulse Compression................................................. 244
7.1.2 Basic Principle of Pulse Compression........................................................ 245
7.2 Correlation Processor................................................................................................ 247
7.3 Stretch Processor........................................................................................................ 251
7.4 Stepped Frequency Waveforms............................................................................... 259
7.4.1 Range Resolution and Range Ambiguity in SFW.................................... 263
7.5 Effect of Target Velocity on Pulse Compression.................................................... 265
7.5.1 SFW Case....................................................................................................... 265
7.5.2 LFM Case....................................................................................................... 269
7.6 Range-Doppler Coupling in LFM............................................................................ 272
Problems................................................................................................................................. 274
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 275

8 Radar Ambiguity Function................................................................................................ 277

8.1 Ambiguity Function Definition............................................................................... 277
8.2 Effective Signal Bandwidth and Duration............................................................. 279
8.3 Single Pulse Ambiguity Function........................................................................... 280
8.3.1 Time-Bandwidth Product............................................................................ 281
8.3.2 Ambiguity Function..................................................................................... 282
xii Contents

8.4 LFM Ambiguity Function......................................................................................... 283

8.4.1 Time-Bandwidth Product............................................................................284
8.4.2 Ambiguity Function..................................................................................... 285
8.5 Coherent Pulse Train Ambiguity Function............................................................ 288
8.5.1 Time-Bandwidth Product............................................................................ 288
8.5.2 Ambiguity Function..................................................................................... 289
8.6 Pulse Train with LFM Ambiguity Function.......................................................... 292
8.7 Stepped Frequency Waveform Ambiguity Function............................................ 294
8.8 Nonlinear Frequency Modulation........................................................................... 295
8.8.1 Concept of Stationary Phase....................................................................... 296
8.8.2 Frequency-Modulated Waveform Spectrum Shaping.............................300
8.9 Ambiguity Diagram Contours................................................................................. 301
8.9.1 Range-Doppler Coupling in LFM Signals – Revisited............................ 303
8.10 Discrete Code Signal Representation......................................................................304
8.10.1 Pulse-Train Codes.........................................................................................305
8.11 Phase Coding..............................................................................................................309
8.11.1 Binary Phase Codes......................................................................................309
Barker Code................................................................................................... 310
Pseudo-Random Number Codes................................................................ 313
Linear Shift Register Generators................................................................. 314
Maximal Length Sequence Characteristic Polynomial............................ 316
8.11.2 Polyphase Codes........................................................................................... 317
Frank Codes................................................................................................... 317
8.12 Frequency Codes........................................................................................................ 318
8.13 MATLAB Ambiguity Plots for Discrete Coded Waveforms................................ 321
Problems................................................................................................................................. 322
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 324

9 Radar Clutter........................................................................................................................ 325

9.1 Clutter Definition....................................................................................................... 325
9.2 Volume Clutter........................................................................................................... 325
9.2.1 Volume Cell.................................................................................................... 326
9.2.2 Rain................................................................................................................. 326
9.2.3 Chaff............................................................................................................... 327
9.2.4 Radar Range Equation in Volume Clutter................................................. 328
9.2.5 Volume Clutter Spectra................................................................................ 328
9.3 Area Clutter................................................................................................................ 330
9.3.1 Constant γ Model.......................................................................................... 330
9.3.2 Signal to Clutter, Airborne Radar............................................................... 332
9.4 Clutter RCS, Ground-Based...................................................................................... 333
9.4.1 Low PRF Case................................................................................................ 333
9.4.2 High PRF Case.............................................................................................. 336
9.5 Amplitude Distribution............................................................................................ 339
Problems.................................................................................................................................344
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................346

10 Moving Target Indicator and Pulsed Doppler Radars................................................ 347

10.1 Area Clutter Spectrum.............................................................................................. 347
10.2 Concept of a Moving Target Indicator....................................................................348
Contents xiii

10.2.1 Single Delay Line Canceler.......................................................................... 350

10.2.2 Double Delay Line Canceler........................................................................ 351
10.2.3 Delay Lines with Feedback (Recursive Filters)......................................... 353
10.3 PRF Staggering........................................................................................................... 354
10.4 MTI Improvement Factor.......................................................................................... 357
10.4.1 Two-Pulse MTI Case..................................................................................... 359
10.4.2 The General Case.......................................................................................... 361
10.5 Subclutter Visibility................................................................................................... 362
10.6 Delay Line Cancelers with Optimal Weights........................................................ 363
10.7 Pulsed Doppler Radars............................................................................................. 365
10.7.1 Pulse Doppler Radar Signal Processing.................................................... 367
10.8 Ambiguity Resolution............................................................................................... 369
10.8.1 Range Ambiguity Resolution...................................................................... 369
10.8.2 Doppler Ambiguity Resolution.................................................................. 373
10.9 Phase Noise................................................................................................................. 376
Problems................................................................................................................................. 381
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 383

11 Random Variables and Random Processes.................................................................... 385

11.1 Random Variables...................................................................................................... 385
11.2 Multivariate Gaussian Random Vector................................................................... 387
11.2.1 Complex Multivariate Gaussian Random Vector..................................... 390
11.3 Rayleigh Random Variables...................................................................................... 391
11.4 The Chi-Square Random Variables......................................................................... 392
11.4.1 Central Chi-Square Random Variable with N Degrees of Freedom..... 392
11.4.2 Non-Central Chi-Square Random Variable with N Degrees of
Freedom.......................................................................................................... 393
11.5 Random Processes..................................................................................................... 393
11.6 The Gaussian Random Process................................................................................ 394
11.6.1 Lowpass Gaussian Random Processes...................................................... 395
11.6.2 Bandpass Gaussian Random Processes..................................................... 396
11.6.3 The Envelope of a Bandpass Gaussian Process........................................ 397
Problems................................................................................................................................. 398
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 399

12 Target Detection – Single Pulse Case.............................................................................. 401

12.1 Single Pulse with Known Parameters..................................................................... 401
12.2 Single Pulse with Known Amplitude and Unknown Phase...............................404
12.2.1 Probability of False Alarm..........................................................................408
12.2.2 Probability of Detection............................................................................... 409
Problems................................................................................................................................. 412
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 413

13 Detection of Fluctuating Targets...................................................................................... 415

13.1 Pulse Integration........................................................................................................ 415
13.1.1 Coherent Integration.................................................................................... 416
13.1.2 Noncoherent Integration.............................................................................. 417
13.1.3 Improvement Factor and Integration Loss................................................ 418
13.2 Target Fluctuation: the Chi-Square Family of Targets......................................... 419
xiv Contents

13.3 Probability of False Alarm Formulation for a Square Law Detector................. 420
13.3.1 Square Law Detection..................................................................................422
13.4 Probability of Detection Calculation....................................................................... 424
13.4.1 Detection of Swerling 0 (Swerling V) Targets...........................................425
13.4.2 Detection of Swerling I Targets................................................................... 426
13.4.3 Detection of Swerling II Targets................................................................. 427
13.4.4 Detection of Swerling III Targets................................................................430
13.4.5 Detection of Swerling IV Targets................................................................430
13.5 Computation of the Fluctuation Loss......................................................................433
13.6 Cumulative Probability of Detection...................................................................... 435
13.7 Constant False Alarm Rate....................................................................................... 437
13.7.1 Cell-Averaging CFAR (Single Pulse).......................................................... 437
13.7.2 Cell-Averaging CFAR with Noncoherent Integration............................. 439
13.8 M-out-of-N Detection................................................................................................ 441
13.9 Radar Equation-Revisited.........................................................................................443
13.9.1 Detection Range with Pulse Integration...................................................443
Coherent Integration case:...........................................................................445
Noncoherent Integration Case:...................................................................446
Appendix 13.1 Gamma Function........................................................................................ 447
Incomplete Gamma Function................................................................................... 447
Problems................................................................................................................................. 449
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 451

14 Radar Cross-Section............................................................................................................ 453

14.1 Radar Cross-Section Definition............................................................................... 453
14.2 RCS Dependency on Aspect Angle and Frequency..............................................454
14.3 Target Scattering Matrix........................................................................................... 458
14.4 RCS of Simple Objects............................................................................................... 459
14.4.1 Sphere............................................................................................................. 460
14.4.2 Ellipsoid......................................................................................................... 461
14.4.3 Circular Flat Plate.........................................................................................463
14.4.4 Truncated Cone (Frustum).......................................................................... 465
14.4.5 Cylinder.......................................................................................................... 469
14.4.6 Rectangular Flat Plate.................................................................................. 470
14.4.7 Triangular Flat Plate..................................................................................... 473
14.5 RCS of Complex Objects............................................................................................ 476
14.6 RCS Prediction Methods........................................................................................... 477
14.6.1 Computational Electromagnetics............................................................... 478
14.6.2 Finite Difference Time Domain Method................................................... 478
14.6.3 Finite Element Method................................................................................. 481
14.6.4 Integral Equations......................................................................................... 482
14.6.5 Geometrical Optics.......................................................................................484
14.6.6 Physical Optics..............................................................................................484
14.6.6.1 Rectangular Plate..........................................................................484
14.6.6.2 N-Sided Polygon............................................................................ 485
14.6.7 Edge Diffraction............................................................................................ 486
14.7 Multiple Bounce......................................................................................................... 487
Problems................................................................................................................................. 487
Answers to Selected Problems............................................................................................ 489
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The GIRL from SAMARCAND

By E. HOFFMANN PRICE

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from

Weird Tales May 1929.
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As her guest set the dainty bone china cup on the onyx-topped, teak
tabouret and sank back among the embroidered cushions, Diane
knew to the syllable the words which were to filter forth with the
next breath of smoke; for three years as Hammersmith Clarke's wife
had convinced her that that remark was inevitable.
"My dear, where did you ever get those perfectly gorgeous rugs?"
And Diane, true to form, smiled ever so faintly, and luxuriated in the
suspicion of a yawn: the ennui of an odalisk hardened to the
magnificence of a seraglio carpeted with an ancient Feraghan rug,
and hung with silken witcheries from the looms of Kashan. Diane
saw the wonder permeate her friend's soul and heard it surge into
words.
"The rugs? Why—well, I married them along with Ham, you might
say. Yes, they are rather pretty, aren't they? But they're an awful
pest at times——"
"Naturally," agreed Louise, who lived in a loft in the Pontalba
Building, where she could look down into the Plaza where Jackson
reins in his brazen horse and lifts his brazen hat in salutation to the
French Quarter of New Orleans. "You simply couldn't let the maid
clean——"
"Maid? Lord help us, but I daren't touch them myself! I tried it,
once. That heaven-sent prayer-rug"—Diane indicated an ancient
Ghiordes, a sea-green splendor worth more than his right eye to any
collector—"looked a bit dingy. And Ham caught me at it. What was
left of my hair just fell short of a close shingle. Do you know, one
day I caught him filling the bathtub with milk——"
"What?"
"Precisely. Seems some expert claimed a milk bath improves the
luster. So the little Bokhara—that blood-red creature beneath your
feet—got a treatment fit for a Circassian beauty. I'm just waiting for
him to bring home a duster of bird-of-paradise plumes for this
venerable wreck."
Diane stroked what was left of the peachblow, sapphire and gold
nap of an age-old Senna woven on a silken warp.
"The truth of it is," continued Diane, "I feel guilty of bigamy. The
man was married to his rugs long before he ever met me. 'Member
how we speculated on the pros and cons of polygamy the other day
at Arnaud's? Well, here I am, one lone woman competing with a
dozen odd favorites, and a new rival added to the harem every so
often."
"Good lord, Diane, what next! You are unique. Why, one would think
you were jealous of them."
"Well, I am!"
"Outlandish as that fantastic husband of yours. I don't know which is
the more outré, his mania for these beautiful things with the
impossible names, or your—heavens above, it does really seem like
resentment against them. Now, if you'd married Peter"—Louise
laughed metallically—"he'd never have given you time to be jealous
of a rug."
"That's just it," flared Diane. "I could forgive flirtations and black
eyes, and a reasonable degree of non-support. But these damned
rugs—look at that!"
Diane dug her cobraskin toe into the closely worn nap of the
Feraghan carpet.
"Look at it! Just a rug, the first time. But live with it day after day.
See the witchery sparkling in it at sunset. Catch yourself losing
yourself in the thrill of its three hundred years, wondering that all
the ecstasy ever lost in the entire world could be imprisoned in a
rug. Then see your one and only and otherwise adequate husband
sitting of an evening, hours at a stretch, staring at it and dreaming
of all the richness and glamor he's lost through becoming civilized,
learning to wear shoes, and having only one woman, and she his
wife, about the house. Yes, I called you up to have you listen to me
get the indignation out of my soul. The truth of it is, Lou, that if I
don't get out of this atmosphere soon, I'll go utterly mad. Some day
I'm going to move in on you in your attic—anything to get away
from all this!"
"Do you mean to say," began Louise with wide-spaced deliberation,
"that you'd actually leave Ham because he likes to mess and poke
around with his rugs, and spend most of his waking moments talking
about them? Honestly, now——"
"Good Lord, I could stand his talking about them. But"—Diane
shuddered—"Lou, he loves them. Sits there, transfigured, like a saint
contemplating the dewdrop glistening in the lotus cup."
"When I suggested, over at the Iron Gate, that you move in with
me, I didn't know that you were married—they all called you la belle
Livaudaise, and you were the life of everything—and least of all, I
never suspected anyone had you enshrined in magnificence like this.
Better think it over, Di—I've been through the mill, and I know."

Diane from the first had been fascinated by the exotic atmosphere in
which Clarke had planted her after their marriage; but in the end,
seeing how they had become a part of him, she half consciously
hated them and their everlasting song of Bokhara and Herat of the
Hundred Gardens: an unheard song to which Clarke listened, and
replied in unspoken syllables. And thus it was that Diane learned
that to live in Clarke's apartment would be to become an accessory
to those precious fabrics that were his hard-ridden hobby; for no
woman would fit into the dim, smoky shadows of that titled salon
unless bejeweled and diaphanously veiled she could dance with
curious paces and gestures beneath the sullen glow of the great
brazen mosque lamp as became the favorite of a khan in far-off
Tartary. From the very beginning, Diane fought to keep her
individuality untainted by the overwhelming personality of those
damnably lovely fabrics from Shiraz and the dusty plains of
Feraghan.
And Diane was right; for they dreamed, those old weavers, of the
roses of Kirman, of the evening star that danced on the crest of
Mount Zagros, of dancing girls in the gardens of Naishapur, of
fountains that sprayed mistily in the moonlit valley of Zarab-shan;
and all this they wove into what we now learn to catalogue as
Sixteenth Century Persian, or whatever our best guess may be. Into
his masterwork the weaver wove his soul; so that whoever lives with
one of those imperishable sorceries that come out of the East must
in the end feel its presence unless he be somewhat duller than the
very wood of the loom on which it was woven.
Look upon wine as often as you wish, but beware of a Bokhara when
it is red—red as the blood of slaughter—red as the embers of a
plundered city—a redness charged with the quartered octagons of
Turkestan—for in the end you will become enslaved to the silky
splendor that once graced the tent floor of a Tekke prince....
Diane was right; though Diane never suspected, even dimly, what in
the end really did happen to Hammersmith Clarke. For, naturally
enough, neither she nor anyone else saw or heard the Yellow Girl;
that is, no one but Clarke: and he saw and heard too much.
Had she suspected—but she couldn't have. For who would imagine
Fate riding to the crossroads in a truck of the American Express
Company? It just isn't done; not until one looks back and sees that it
could have happened in no other way.
But unheard-of things happen in Turkestan; and while one may
pause for an evening's glamor beside some moon-kissed fountain in
the valley of Zarab-shan, and then march on, forgetting, there is that
which does not forget, being undying and everlasting; so that
though forgotten, it reaches forth across time and space, not only
clinging to the pile of a rug from Samarcand, but resorting even to
express trucks to carry it the last step toward capturing the forgetful
one....
All this Diane knew without knowing why she knew: and it seemed
so reasonable that there was nothing incongruous in shuddering and
saying as she often had, "I'm afraid of the damned things...."

As the door clicked behind the departing expressman, Clarke clipped

the leaden seals of the cylindrical bale, cut its stitching, and thrilled
at the thought of the rug he was about to unwrap; for the bale was
from Siraganian of New York, who by dint of persistent reaching into
the East must finally have succeeded in executing Clarke's
impossible order.
A tawny, golden silkiness smiled from the gaping burlap sheath.
Just a glimpse of that wonder in buff and cream, with its lotus-bud
border, and frets and meanders in blue and coral and peach, told
Clarke that this of all things was as far as possible from what he had
ordered Siraganian to get, cost what it might. For in place of Persian
intricacies in deep wine reds and solemn green, florid magnificence
that Ispahan had given to the world before the splendor died, Clarke
was confronted by an ancient rug from Samarcand—silken
Samarcand in the valley of Zarab-shan—thick-napped and luxurious,
mysterious with its Mongolian cloud bands and asymmetrical corner
pieces, bats and dragons, and five-medallioned firmaments of blue
that could come from none but the vats of Turkestan.
"Good God! It's silk!" marveled Clarke as he stroked the lustrous
pile. "Silk, and by the Rod, on a linen warp!"
He wondered how Siraganian could have made that incredible
mistake, sending him such a rug in place of what he had ordered. If
it were a case of sending something just as good—an unheard-of
procedure with that Armenian merchant-prince—he certainly had
been crafty enough, for no connoisseur who once touched that rich
pile, whose eyes were once dazzled by those insinuant colors, whose
senses were stricken by the sorcery of cabalistical designs, could
ever return it and say that he had ordered something else. Rather
would he thank Siraganian for his error.
A silk pile on a warp of blue linen, and woven in the days when
Persian Hafiz was called to account by that fierce Mongol for a verse
wherein the poet bartered the prince's favorite cities, Samarcand
and Bokhara, for the smile of a Turki dancing girl, and the mole on
her left breast: unbelievable fortune had sent him this incredible rug.
And then Clarke's wondering, triumphant eyes clouded as he
thought of a girl beside whom Samarcand and Bokhara were but the
tinkle of brazen anklets—a very long time ago, when there was no
Diane, when Clarke pursued rugs for that same Siraganian who now
sought them for Clarke.
"Egher an Turki bedest ared dili mara," muttered Clarke, forgetting
all but the glamorous perils that had lured him far into lost cities and
high adventure. Hafiz was right.
And for a moment the rug from Samarcand, its five by seven feet of
tawny, silken perfection putting to confusion the priceless Feraghan
on which it had been unrolled, gleamed unregarded as Clarke's mind
whirled to the sonorous accent with which the divine Hafiz had
enslaved the East and its savage conquerors.
"Egher an Turki——"
Strange, how after all this time one would remember. It must be that
one could never quite forget.
The telephone rang; but Clarke ignored it until the jangling became
too insistent, when he muffled the bell with several towels and a
small cushion.
"Too bad," he apologized, as he took the cord from his lounge robe
and completed the throttling of the almost stifled annoyance, "but I
simply can't be disturbed."
In which he was wrong: for to contemplate that wonder from
Samarcand was more disturbing than any voice that could creep in
over the wire. He fingered the rings of dull, hand-hammered gold
that were sewed to one of the selvaged sides; he wondered what
palace wall had been enriched by that precious fabric—and with it all
came the knowledge that that very rug had been a part of his own
past. The life that had been knotted into its pile and the sorcery that
had been woven into its pattern were speaking to one of Clarke's
forgotten selves. Yet he was certain that he had never before seen
it; for one could never have forgotten such as this, though seen but
for an instant. Truly, the rug was a stranger, but the presence that
accompanied it was demanding recognition.
In the meanwhile, Diane tired of hearing the operator's "They don't
answer," and abandoned her efforts to remind Clarke of an
engagement.
"I wonder," she mused, as she finally set aside the useless
telephone, "what deviltry my bien aimé is devising."
And then she sought the rendezvous unattended, and made the
customary apologies for Clarke's unaccountable absence.
He might have retreated into that dusky inner kingdom which from
the very beginning he had held against Diane—a silence into which
he plunged unaccompanied, not lacking appreciative company, but
rather loving solitude and electing seclusion rather than the sharing
of the fancies that twisted and the thoughts that writhed in his
strange brain.
As Diane made her well-rehearsed apologies and frothed behind her
vivacious mask, Clarke noted the manila envelope that was fastened
to the web of the rug from Samarcand, and addressed to him: a
letter, doubtless from Siraganian.
"We regret," wrote the Armenian, "that thus far we have had no
success in finding at any cost a rug of the weave you ordered.
However, we take pleasure in forwarding you this rug which a
caravan stopping at Meshed left with our agent in that city with
instructions to forward it to our New York office and thence to you.
We are pleased that your agent saw fit to use our facilities for
forwarding it to you, and wish to congratulate you on having
obtained such a priceless specimen. Should you at any time care to
dispose of it, be so kind as to give us an option on it, for we are in a
position to offer you a better price than any dealer or collector in the
United States...."
The rug itself was improbable enough—but Siraganian's letter! An
insoluble riddle. It couldn't be a jest. Then who——?
True enough, Colonel Merbere's expedition must have passed
through Samarcand, Yarkand, and Kashgar on its way into the
unknown stretches of Chinese Turkestan; but his acquaintance with
the colonel was slight, and he had no friend in the colonel's train.
And what obscure acquaintance of the "wish you were here" postal-
card banality would send a rug which in the old days served as a gift
from one prince to another?
Diane's arrival cut the thread of fancy.
"Oh, Ham, but it is gorgeous," enthused la belle Livaudaise as she
entered the roseate duskiness of Clarke's studio. And to herself,
"Another rival...."
Then she rehearsed the excuses she had offered for Ham's absence,
and hoped he'd absent-mindedly contradict her the first time he
deigned to speak for himself. That done, one must consider the
latest addition to the seraglio.
Clarke detailed the story of the rug and its riddle.
"But who in the world would send you such a gift," wondered Diane.
"Exactly no one, très chère."
"Unless," Diane pointed out, "it might be one of your lost loves in
those Asiatic playgrounds you've never entirely left."
Clarke laughed, but his derision was unconvincing, and Diane knew
that he had been deep in the blacknesses of Asian nights; knew that
her arrival had been an intrusion, that he was but a friendly stranger,
babbling to her, a friendly stranger, of loveliness whose intoxication
forced him to speak of it to anyone, even her.
The others were bad enough, with their everlasting song of Bokhara,
and Herat of the Hundred Gardens—an unheard song to which
Clarke listened, and replied in unspoken syllables; they were bad
enough, they, and those monstrous fancies which at times he
smilingly expressed with deliberate vagueness, but this yellow witch
from Samarcand——

Diane knew that more than a rug had emerged from that bale
whose burlap winding-sheet still littered the floor.
At last it seemed that she was intruding on a tête-à-tête,
eavesdropping on a monologue; so that when Clarke would emerge
from his reveries, Diane resented the inevitable thought that he was
robbing himself to keep her company. But patience reaches its limit,
finally....
She saw it, one night, twinkle and smile through a lustrous haze that
played over its surface, smile the slow, curved smile of a carmine-
lipped woman through the veils of her mystery; saw Clarke sitting
there, eyes shearing the veil and half smiling in return, a devotee in
the ecstatic contemplation of a goddess shrouded in altar fumes....
"Ham!"
"Yes," answered Clarke's lips. He had now perfected the trick of
having his body act as his proxy.
"Are you taking me to that show tonight?"
"What show?" Clarke the simulacrum stirred lazily in the depths of
the cushion-heaped lounge. "The truth of it is, my dear," he resumed
after a pause during which some memory of the proposed
entertainment must have returned, "truth of it is I'm awfully busy
tonight——"
"Busy sitting there staring at nothing and sipping Pernod!" flared
Diane, the wrath of months flashing forth. Then, as she saw Clarke
settle back into the depths: "Listen, once for all: this nonsense has
lasted too long. I might as well have married a mummy! Either get
that thing out of the house, or I'll leave you to your pious
meditations indefinitely——"
"What? Good Lord, Diane, what's this?"
"You heard me. You used to be half human, but now you're utterly
impossible. And if you can't show me a little attention, I'm leaving
here and now. For the past many weeks you've acted like a model
for a petrified forest. Ever since that yellow beast——"
"Yellow beast?"
"Exactly! That damned rug is driving me crazy——"
"Is, or has driven?" suggested Clarke.
"Lies there like a beast of prey just ready to wake. And you sit there,
night after night, staring at it until you fall asleep in your chair. Does
it go, or do I?"
"What do you want me to do? Throw it away?"
"I don't care what you do with it. Only I won't stay in the house with
it. It gives me the creeps. You've said entirely too much in your
sleep lately—first yellow rugs, and now it's a yellow girl. I'm
through!"
Clarke's brows rose in Saracenic arches. And then he smiled with
surprizing friendliness and a touch of wonder.
"Di, why didn't you tell me sooner? I could understand your craving
alligator pears at 3 in the morning—I might have understood that,
but hating a rug is really a new one on me——"
"No, stupid, it's nothing like that! I just hate the damned thing, and
no more to be said."
"Well, lacking the infallible alibi"—Clarke glared and assumed his
fighting face—"if you mean I choose between you and the rug, I'll
call a taxi right now."
"Don't bother. I'll walk."
The door slammed.
Clarke twisted his mustache, and achieved a laugh; not merry, but
still a laugh. And then he sank back among the cushions.
"Yellow Girl, I thought you were fantastic...."

Le Vieux Carré wondered when the next morning it was rumored

that la belle Livaudaise had been seen hurrying down Saint Peter
Street without speaking to any one of the several acquaintances she
had met; but when at the Green Shutter and the Old Quarter
Bookstore it was announced that Diane was living in a loft of the
Pontalba Building, wonder ceased. For Diane's friend Louise had
been no less garrulous than she should have been, so that the
habitués of the French Quarter were prepared for the news.
And then it was said that to gain admittance to Clarke's studio one
must know the code of taps whereby someone who at times left a
certain side door bearing bottles of Pernod announced his arrival; for
Clarke answered neither doorbell nor telephone. The vendor of
Pernod was certainly a discreet person; yet even a discreet seller of
absinthe could see no harm in mentioning that his patron found
enormous fascination in watching the play of sunlight and the dance
of moonbeams on the golden buff pile of a rug that was more a
sleeping, breathing creature than any sane child of the loom.
Finally the courier failed to gain admittance, despite his tapping in
code. And this he thought worthy of Diane's ear.
"He starves himself, petite—since three days now he has not
admitted me. All the while she lies there, gleaming in the moon, that
awful rug—mordieu, it is terrible...."
Diane had stedfastly denied that which had been clamoring for
recognition. But when this last bit was added to what had gone
before, logic gave way, and Diane's fears asserted themselves. That
rug was haunted, was bewitched, was bedevilling Clarke; logic or no
logic, the fact was plain.
Driven by that monstrous thought, Diane exhumed the little golden
key-ring and started up Royal Street, determined to cross the barrier
before it became impassable. But her determination wavered; and
before fitting the well worn key into the lock, she applied her ear to
the keyhole, listened, and heard Clarke's voice.
Diane resisted the temptation to use her key and stage a scene that
even in the imperturbable Vieux Carré would be sensational for at
least a week. Then her pride conquered, and she achieved a most
credible smile of disdain.
"Sly devil, pretending it was a rug he was so absorbed in...."
And, since it was but an amorous escapade, Diane's unbelievable
speculations were replaced by thoughts reasonable enough not to be
terrifying.

That very night, Clarke was sitting cross-legged on the floor of his
studio, full under the red glow of a tall bronze mosque lamp. Before
him, shimmering in the moonlight that streamed in through the
French windows, lay the rug from Samarcand, mysterious and
golden, with its pale sapphire corner pieces glittering like a distant
sea viewed through a cleft between two mountain crests.
All the witchery and ecstasy that had ever been lost in the entire
world were reassembled, pulsing in the silken pile which he
contemplated. And this was the night; the Night of Power, when Fate
stalked through the corridors of the world like a colossus just risen
from an age-old throne of granite, resistless and unconquerable.
Clarke had spent so many nights and days of staring that it was
inevitable that there must be such a night. He saw more than the
wonder before him: in place of the marvel woven by deft, forgotten
hands, there gleamed enchantingly as through moon-touched mist a
garden in the valley of Zarab-shan.
Then came a faint, oddly accented drumming and piping, music to
whose tune dead years reassembled their bones and danced forth
from their graves. And their ghosts as they danced exhaled an
overwhelming sweetness that made Clarke's brain reel and glow,
and his blood surge madly in anticipation of that which he knew
must follow.
Then out of the blackness just beyond the range of the ruddy
mosque lamp and full into the moonlight that marched slowly across
the rug came a slim Yellow Girl, diaphanously garbed and veiled. Her
anklets clicked faintly; and very faint was the tinkle of the pendant
that adorned her unusual coiffure.
"All these many days I have sought you, my lord," she began, as she
extended her arms in welcome. "But in vain, until tonight, when at
last I parted the veil and crossed the Border."
Clarke nodded understandingly, and looked full into her dark, faintly
slanted eyes.
"And I have been thinking of you," he began, "ever since someone
sent me this rug on which you stand. It is strange how this rug could
bridge the gap of twenty years and bring into my very house a
glimpse of the valley of Zarab-shan. And stranger yet that you could
escape from your father's house and find me here. Though strangest
of all, time has not touched you, when by all reason you should be
old, and leathery, and past forty.... Yet you are lovelier now than you
were then, by that fountain in a garden near Samarcand."
 "You are lovelier now than you were then, by that fountain
in a garden near Samarcand."

"It is not strange," contradicted the Yellow Girl, as she pirouetted

with dainty feet across the moon-lapped silk. "For you see me now
as I was when I wove my soul into this very rug."
Clarke smiled incredulously: which was illogical enough, since,
compared with the girl's presence, nothing else should be incredible.
"How can that be, Yellow Girl, seeing that we two met one evening
twenty years ago, whereas this rug was woven when the Great Khan
sat enthroned in Samarcand and reproved the Persian Hafiz for his
careless disposal of the Great Khan's favorite cities. This was the joy
of kings hundreds of years before you and I were born——"
"Before the last time we were born," corrected the Yellow Girl. "But
the first time—at least, the first time that I can recollect—the barred
windows of a prince's palace failed to keep you from me. And
eunuchs with crescent-bladed simitars likewise failed. But in the end
—why must all loveliness have an end?—a bowstring for me, and a
swordstroke for you...."
The Yellow Girl shuddered as she stroked her smooth throat with
fingers that sought to wipe off the last lingering memory of a cord of
hard-spun silk.
"And from the first," continued the girl, "I knew what our doom
would be. So I started weaving, and completed my task before they
suspected us and the bowstring did its work. My soul, my self, being
woven cunningly and curiously into silk rich enough to hang on the
wall of the khan's palace, waited patiently and wondered whether
you and I could have our day again. Thus it was in the beginning
——"
"Ah ... how it does come back to me," interrupted Clarke, "as in a
dream dimly remembered. How compactly and stiflingly they would
wrap me in a bale of silk and carry me past the guards and into your
presence. And by what devious routes I would leave you ... yes, and
how painlessly swift is the stroke of a simitar...."
The Yellow Girl shuddered.
"A simitar truly wielded is really nothing, after all," continued Clarke.
"I might have been sawn asunder between planks.... Well, and that
meeting in the garden these short twenty years ago was after all not
our first ... it seems that I knew then that it was not the first.
Though but for an evening——"
"Yes. Just for an evening. So to what end were we spared
bowstrings and the stroke of swift simitars, since we had but an
evening?" And thinking of the empty years of luxurious
imprisonment that followed, she smiled somberly. "For only an
evening. And then you forgot, until this rug—this same rug I wove
centuries ago—interrupted your pleasant adventuring, and reminded
you.
"Death stared me in the face. The end of life more vainly lived than
the first. I knew that I was leaving this avatar after having lived but
one stolen evening. So I sent a trusted servant to carry this very rug
to Meshed. For when we met in the garden, you were hunting rugs
for him who now seeks them for your delight. And I knew that he
would find you if you still lived. Thus it is that I have crossed the
Border, and stand before you as I did once before—this time on that
very rug which I wove centuries ago, while living in hope of another
meeting and in dread of the bowstring I knew would in the end find
me."
The moon patch had marched toward the end of the rug from
Samarcand, and was cutting into the blue web at its end. Clarke
knew that when there remained no more room for her tiny feet, she
would vanish, not ever to reappear. But Clarke hoped against
knowledge.
"Yellow Girl," he entreated, "my door will be barred to friend and
acquaintance alike, if you will but return on whatever nights the
moon creeps across our rug...."
Had Diane, listening at the door, understood, she would have used
her key. But Diane merely heard:
"And I shall wait for these nights as long as life remains in me. For
all that has happened since then is nothing and less than nothing;
and all has been a dream since that one night in a garden of Zarab-
shan."
Very little remained of the moon patch. The Yellow Girl stepped a
tiny pace forward, to prolong her stay yet another few moments. All
but the moonlit strip of the rug from Samarcand glowed bloodily in
the flare of the brazen mosque lamp.
"No, forgetful lover," chided the Yellow Girl, "I can not return. I can
not cross the Border again. In Samarcand, eight hundred years ago
we mocked for a while the doom that hung over us, and in the end
called the bowstring but a caress of farewell. Again, in the garden of
Zarab-shan we met, we parted, and you forgot: so this time I take
no chances. While I can not return, you at least can follow me ... if
you will ... for it is very easy...."
She edged along the ever narrowing strip of moon-bathed silk, and
with an embracing gesture, lured Clarke to rise and follow her.
"It is so easy ... move lightly ... but be careful not to disturb your
body or overbalance it...."
Had Diane not turned away from the door; were she not even now
strolling insouciantly down Royal Street——
"Yellow Girl, you and I have had enough of farewells!"
Something left Clarke, tottered perilously on the two handbreadths
of moonlight that remained, then caught the Yellow Girl by the hand
and took the lead.
The blue web of the rug from Samarcand gleamed for another
moment in the moonlight, then sweltered in the red glow of the
mosque lamp.
 *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRL FROM
SAMARCAND ***

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