MAI.LERY.] COLORS IN THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH AMERICA. 53 



IN BRITISH GHANA. 



Everard F. im Thurn, op. cit, p. 31G, gives the following details: 



The dyes used by the Indians to paint their own bodies, and occasionally to draw 

 patterns on their implements, are red faroah, purple caraweera, blue-black lana 

 white felspathic clay, and. though Very rarely, a yellow vegetable dye of unknown 

 origin. 



Faroah is the deep red pulp around the seed of a shrub ! Bixa orellana >. which grows 

 wild on the hanks of some of the rivers, and is cultivated by the Indians in their 

 clearings. Mixed with a large quantity of oil, it is then either dried and so kept in 

 lumps which can he. made soft again by the addition of more oil, or is stored in a 

 liquid condition in tubes made of hollow bamboo-stems. When it is to be used, either 

 a mass of it is taken in the palm of 1he hand and rubbed over the skin or other surface 

 to be painted, or a pattern of tine lines is drawn with it by means of a stick used as a 

 pencil. The True Caribs also use faroah large I \ to stain their hammocks. 



Caraweera is a somewhat similar dye, of a more purplish red, and by no means so 

 commonly used. It is prepared fiom the leaves of a yellow flowered biguonia (B. 

 chicTca), together with some other unimportant ingredients. The dried leaves are boiled 

 for a few minutes over a tire, aud then some fresh-cut pieces of the bark of a certain 

 tree and a bundle id' twigs and fresh leaves of another tree are added to the mixture. 

 The whole is then boiled for about twenty minutes, care being taken to keep the bark 

 and leaves under water. The pot is then taken from the lire, and the contents, being 

 poured into bowls, are allowed to subside. The, clear water left at the top is poured 

 away, and the sediment, of a beautiful purple colour, is put into a cloth, ou which it is 

 allowed to dry ; after this it is scraped off and packed in tiny baskets woven of the 

 leaves of the cokerite palm. The pigment is used for body-painting, with oil, just as 

 is faroah. 



LaDa is the juice of the fruit of a small tree ( Genipa americana), with which, without 

 further preparation, blue-black lines are drawn in patterns, or large surfaces are 

 stained on the skin. The dye thus applied is for about a week indelible. 



One or more of the three body paints already mentioned is used by most Indiaus 

 aud in large quantities. But the white, and still more the yellow, pigments are used 

 only rarely, in lines or dots, and very sparingly, by some of the Savannah Indians. 

 The white substance is simply a very semi-liquid felspathic clay, which occurs in 

 pockets in one or two places on the savannah ; this is collected and dried in lumps, 

 which are then pierced, threaded, and so put aside for future use. The nature of the 

 yellow dye I was never able to trace; all that the Indians could or would say was 

 that they received it in small quantities from a tribe living beyond the Wapianas, 

 who extracted it from a tree which only grows in that neighborhood. 



Paul Marcoy, in Travels iu South America : N. Y., 1875, v'ol. II, p. 353, 

 says the Passes, Yuris, Banes, aud Chuuiauas, of Brazil, employ a de- 

 coction of iudigo or genipa in tattooing. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF COLORS. 



Significance has beeu attached to the several colors among all peoples 

 and in all periods of culture. That it is still recognized in the highest 

 civilizations is shown by the associations of death and mourning con- 

 nected ■with black, of innocence and peace with white, danger with red, 

 and epidemic disease, officially, with yellow. Without dwelling upon 



