604 
NATURE 
[ Oct, 22, 1885 
why, during the Krakatao outburst, the antipodes was 
more favourably situated for an eruption than the other 
volcanic regions of the earth. A similar tendency during 
former eruptions has not been recorded, and we must 
wait until another great outburst enables us to decide 
whether it is of any importance. 
The coloured drawings, twenty-five in number, are all 
by Mr. Schreuders, who accompanied Mr. Verbeek in 
October 1883, and give a faithful picture of the devastated 
regions as they appeared two months after the eruption. 
The most striking picture is that of the stupendous wall, 
832 metres high, which was laid bare by the destruction 
of the northern part of the peak. No one who has gazed 
upon this grandest of nature’s ruins can forget its solemn 
desolation. 
The careful typographical execution of the work 
reflects great credit on the Director of the Government 
Printing Office at Batavia. We can heartily congratulate 
the learned author on the successful completion of his 
most valuable and exhaustive work, interesting alike to 
the scientific and general reader. 
ON THE COLOUR-SENSE 
HERE is an interesting paper in the A7zmefeenth 
Century’ for February last in which the colour- 
nomenclature in the Homeric poems and that of the 
modern Hindtstani language are compared with modern 
English usage. The writer traverses to a great extent 
Mr. Gladstone’s suggestion ° that the ancient Greeks were 
deficient in colour-sense (ze. compared with modern 
Englishmen), and propounds the idea that the natives of 
India have a keen colour-sense. 
It will be shown below that the use of colour terms in 
modern English is not only loose, but even incongruous. 
Illustrations will be taken from both the papers referred 
to, with additions from the author’s experience in India. 
Natural Objects— Uniformity might surely be expected 
in the use of colour terms with bright-coloured natural 
objects. There is, however, no uniformity in their use, 
even when intended to be real colour designations ; and 
opposite and sometimes unnatural colours are—in a 
figurative sense—ascribed to a single object. 
Thus the colour of fresh blood and the tint arising 
therefrom in the healthy cheek and also in the blushing 
cheek (of a fair person) are probably among the most 
well-marked, definite, natural colours. Yet the blood it- 
self is styled blood-red, gory, crimson, red, scarlet, whilst 
the healthy cheek is described as carnation, vermetl, red, 
ruddy, rosy, and pink, and the blushing cheek as scar/e/, 
crimson, red, aflame (perhaps rather a heat than a colour 
term). These terms, though used as real colour designa- 
tions, are by no means synonymous, whilst in a figurative 
sense quite different and even unnatural colours are 
ascribed. Thus 4/we b/ood is used of aristocratic descent, 
black blood and white or pale blood of descent from dark 
or fair races. 
Again, healthy bile is bright yellow, and a yellowish 
tinge in the “white” of the eye is often called a dz/ous 
colour ; yet in the figurative sense black is ascribed to 
phe condition known as melancholy, atrabiliousness, black 
zle. 
The colour of good milk is so characteristic as to give 
rise to the term #7/k white, whilst skim-milk or poor 
milk which has merely a blueish tinge is styled sky-d/ue. 
Again, the parts of the human eye and of a bird’s egg 
styled from their characteristic tint the wAz/e of the eye 
and the wfz¢e of an egg, always bear the zame of white, 
although occasionally of a decidedly blueish tinge, stronger 
than that of skim-milk. 
Colour is usually ascribed to the human eye from the 
1 “ Light from the East on the Colour Question,” by W. J. Furrell, p. 321 
of Nineteenth Century for February, 1885. 
2 “The Colour Sense,” by the Right Honourable W. E. Glads‘one, M.P., 
Pp. 366 of Nineteenth Century for October, 1877. 
tint of the iris, probably as being the part most subject to — 
colour-variation—e.g. black, dark, pink, brown, hazel, 
green, blue, gray, light. Of these, black is loosely applied 
(e.g. in the phrase 4/ack-eyed) in the case of any dark- 
coloured iris, whilst g7eex and d/we are used in the case of 
a mere tinge of green or blue. 
On the other hand the phrase ved eyes indicates either 
redness of the eyes (as from weeping) or a bloodshot 
state of the “whites,” whilst a d/ack eye implies only a 
dark-coloured bruise of the skin near the eye; green in 
the eye is a figurative expression implying freshness or 
ignorance, and gveem-eyed is a condition ascribed to 
jealousy. 
The colour of sea-water varies from greenish (aqua- 
marine) to a deep blue (ultramarine) ; but a wide range of 
colour-names is applied to various seas—e.g. the Black 
Sea, Red Sea, Yellow Sea, White Sea, and this in many 
languages. 
The colour of river-water varies from turbid yellow to 
blueish and colourless ; but in this case there is an equally 
wide range of colour-name—e.g. Blackadder R., Black- 
water R., Red ®., Orange R., Green R., Blue R., Blue 
Nile, Grey R., White R., White Nile, Whiteadder R. 
Human Colouring.—Colour-terms, applied to races of 
men, or to the complexion or hair, are loosely used to 
cover a wide range of colour. Thus dlack, dark, dusky, 
swarthy, and nigger (lt. black), are applied to any merely 
dark skins; ved and cofpfery to the whole of the North 
American (so-called) Indians ; w/zte and fale to any fair 
skin. The terms dar and fair (shade- rather than colour- 
names) are loosely applied both to the complexion and to 
personal description. Thus any complexion darker than 
the average in a fair race, or fairer than the average in a 
dark race, is called dark or fair respectively; the two 
terms being merely ve/azive in this usage. 
Also among a fair race,a person with dark eyes and 
dark hair is called dark, and one with light eyes and fair 
hair is called fav, without reference to complexion. 
Again, the terms ved, carroty, fiery are often applied to 
hair which has merely a reddish tinge. 
Among races of different complexion in the same 
country curious figurative usages of the racial colour- 
termsarise. Thus zzgger (lt. black), black, dark, redskin 
are sometimes used by a (ruling) fair race to denote 
inferiority, and this usage is sometimes adopted even by 
the (ruled) dark race—e.g. occasionally by both negroes 
and natives of India. There is a curious restricted use of 
the phrase gorda Jog (Zt. fair people) in India to denote 
the British soldiery, but not the higher classes of 
English. 
Animal Colours.—Colour terms applied to animals 
have sometimes a technical meaning quite different to the 
fundamental colour. Thus éay and stvawberry, as applied 
to horses, are very different colours from those of the 
bay-leaf and strawberry ; thus also the Hindtstani term 
sabz, usually meaning green, denotes gray when applied 
to animals. Again, ved is applied to animals—e.g. cows, 
deer, foxes, squirrels, &c., whose coats are any sort of 
reddish-brown. A similar usage occurs in the Homeric 
poems—(e.g. gouré and its derivatives), and in the Hindt- 
stani word /d/ (/77. ruby). 
Colour-terms are sometimes applied to animals, plants, 
&e., even when only slightly affected with the named 
| colour, to indicate a particular variety of the object in 
question. Thus a é/uve pigeon, fox, or rabbit, is only 
slaty blue ; a wAzte elephant is only spotted with white 
pink patches ; a 4/ood orange may be only speckled with 
blood-markings ; a élack dion and black leopard are only 
dark with black markings. Colours differing from nature 
are also ascribed to animals on signboards—e.g. black, red, 
blue, white lion; blue bear, &c.; thus also green man ; 
also (in cookery) a gveex goose. 
Artificial Objects——Among artificial objects, even of 
strongly-marked hue, colour-terms are often strangely mis- 
es 
