INDIGO, 311 



branch of industry with the Germans. A prohibition 

 was therefore issued against its use in Saxony, and 

 in order to raise a prejudice against it in the minds 

 of the people, and that they might be blinded by the 

 imposition of a name, it was classed among those 

 substances already prohibited as devil's dyes, and 

 this prohibition was for some years enforced with 

 great vigilance and severity. The people of Nurem- 

 berg, who at that time cultivated woad, went still 

 farther. They made a law that their dyers should 

 annually take an oath not to use indigo. Although 

 the dyers do not scruple to avail themselves in the 

 present day of the superiority of this colouring matter 

 the oath is still enforced ; and this strange unrepealed 

 edict may be classed among those demoralising relics 

 of defective government which take from an oath its 

 sanctity, and prepare the minds of the people to 

 dread the penalty rather than to abhor the crime of 

 perjury. The use of indigo was likewise forbidden 

 in France from 1596 to 1669, when Colbert showed 

 more enlightened views on the subject and the pro- 

 hibition was repealed *. 



It was not until after the discovery of America that 

 indigo was obtained in any very large "quantities in 

 Europe. The plant from which it is prepared was 

 found growing wild in most of the tropical parts of 

 the western hemisphere. Its application was like- 

 wise well known. We learn from the authority of 

 more than one traveller, that the Aztecs, the unfor- 

 tunate aborigines of Mexico, were well aware of its 

 value as a dye, and that it was commonly employed 

 by them in giving a beautiful hue to their cotton 

 fabrics. During the last century the cultivation of 

 indigo has been almost entirely neglected by the 

 Spanish Mexicans, from the preference given in 

 Europe to the indigo of Guatimala, or central Ame- 

 * Beckmann. 



