INDIGO. 



309 



evaporated, leaves a kind of paste, which is cut into 

 small pieces of the form in which we see it brought 

 tons." This passage of the Italian ought at least 

 to have prevented the Germans from considering the 

 product as a mineral which they were to seek in the 

 bowels of the earth ; but illiberal ignorance had thrown 

 discredit on Marco Polo and ranked him among those 

 travellers whose lies were proverbial. At two other 

 places in India, Guzzerat and Kambaia, Marco 

 speaks of indigo as an article of extensive manu- 

 facture. Much curious information in regard to the 

 trade in this article at the middle of the fourteenth 

 century is contained in the works of Francesco 



