THE PSYCHOLOGY OF YELLOW 459 



fore they reached India, which with its brilliant yellow as of the 

 rising sun has been used by the men of many lands from the earliest 

 ages. It was perhaps connected with sun-worship, as turmeric appears 

 to be to-day in India. 11 In Persia saffron possessed magic qualities 

 and even in the medieval Europe saffron was worn in little bags and 

 constantly used in the preparation of food. The Soma, it may be 

 added, is of a golden color and is still used in Persia as a yellow dye. 

 The Buddhists, again, hold yellow in highest honor, and the sacred 

 flower of the Buddhists is yellow. In Persia, yellow is a favorite color, 

 as it was with the Hebrews, for in the Song of Songs the bride is com- 

 pared to saffron. In China, yellow is the fortunate color, though 

 largely sharing this virtue with green and red. In the Malay states, 

 white is holiest of all and is used to conciliate demons, but after white 

 yellow is by far the most sacred color. According to Malay annals, a 

 certain sultan prohibited the wearing of yellow garments in public, 

 and even the use of yellow handkerchiefs or curtains, because yellow is 

 too sacred for ordinary mortals, and ever since yellow has been the 

 royal color in all Malay states. 12 It may be added that on the western 

 borders of Asia, in ancient Egypt, although yellow was not the su- 

 preme color, it was still held in high honor; the favorite combination 

 to express splendor was gold and lazuli. 13 



Even in classic Europe, at the highest moments of the civilization 

 we inherit to-day, yellow, though not occupying the sacred position it 

 has always held in Asia, was yet a preferred color, always mentioned 

 with an affective tone of delight. In both Greece and Rome — some- 

 what curiously, in view of what we have had to note of the psychic 

 reaction to it in modern times — though red was the most sacred color, 

 yellow was the color for the festival garments of women and children, 

 and was especially worn, Pliny states, by women at marriage. It was 

 also the color of the priests of Cybele. Eed and yellow, according to 

 the same author, were the colors that dominated in ancient pictures. 

 The four primary colors, according to Empedocles, are white, black, 

 red and yellow, exactly the four colors which Nietzsche, discussing the 

 philology of classic color-words, states that the Greek world seems to 

 have been made of. Yellow was with red the favorite color of Homer, 

 and Latin poetry is specially rich in synonyms for yellow. 



What is the meaning of this clash of feeling between the modern 

 European world, on the one side, and, on the other, the ancient classic 

 world and the universal sentiments of Asia ? It is not obvious why 

 we should have ceased to delight in a color that to the men of another 



u An interesting study of the sacred uses of yellow in India has been written 

 by Dymock, ' On the Use of Turmeric in Hindoo Ceremonial,' Journal Anthro- 

 pological Society of Bombay, 1890, pp. 441-448. 



" W. W. Skeat, ' Malay Magic,' p. 32. 



13 Flinders Petrie, ' Egyptian Tales,' pp. 83 and 95. 



