366 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



same group as red, and belongs to a neighboring part of the spectrum, 

 even this phenomenon can scarcely be said to clash seriously with the 

 general uniformity.* 



If we turn to Australia, whither the anthropologist often turns in 

 order to explore some of the most primitive and undisturbed data of 

 early human culture still available for study, we find the preference for 

 red very well marked. In times of rejoicing the tribes at Port Mackay, 

 Curr remarked, paint themselves red; in times of mourning, white. In 

 describing the paintings and rock carvings of the Australians, Mathews 

 states that red, white, black and occasionally yellow pigments were used, 

 precisely the four pigments which Karl von den Steinen found in use 

 in Central Brazil. Prof. Baldwin Spencer and Mr. Gillen, in their valu- 

 able work on the natives of Central Australia, have pointed out the 

 significance and importance of red ochre. One of the most striking 

 and characteristic features, they say, of Central Australians' implements 

 and weapons is the coating of red ochre with which the native covers 

 everything except his spear and spear-thrower. The hair is greased and 

 red-ochred, and red ochre is the most striking feature in decoration 

 generally. For ages past the Australian native has been accustomed to 

 rub this substance regularly over his most sacred objects, and then over 

 ordinary objects. 



There is, however, no need to go so far afield in order to illustrate 

 the primitive use of red ochre. Our own European ancestors followed 

 exactly the same methods, and the German woman of early ages used 

 red and yellow ochre to adorn her face and body, while the finds of the 

 ice age at Schussenquelle, described by Praas, included a brilliant red 

 paste (oxide of iron with reindeer fat) evidently intended for purposes 

 of adornment. Moreover, the early artists of classic times had pre- 

 cisely the same predilections in color as the aboriginal Australian 

 artists. Red, white, black and yellow are the dominant colors in the 

 Iliad, and Pliny mentions that the most ancient pictures were painted 

 in various reds, while at a later date red and yellow predominated. He 

 also mentions that yellow was the favorite color of women for garments, 

 and was specially used at marriages, while red being a sacred color and 

 apt to provoke joy, was used at popular festivals, in the form of minium 

 and cinnabar, to smear the statutes of Jupiter. 



This well-nigh universal recognition of the peculiarly intense emo- 

 tional tone of red is reflected in language. The color words of civilized 

 and uncivilized peoples have been investigated with interesting and on 

 the whole remarkably harmonious results. It is only necessary here to 

 refer to them briefly in so far as they are related to our present subject. 



* A further partial exception is furnished by the tendency to prefer green which may be found 

 in certain countries, now or formerly Mahommedan, such as North Africa and to a large ex- 

 tent Spain, which have an arid and more or less desert climate. 



