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Oct. 22, 1885] 
applied (sometimes apparently by contrast with the 
characteristic colour). Thus all wines which are not of 
some red tint are loosely styled whzte wines, though 
their real colours are various shades of yellow, golden, 
and orange. Again, light-coloured hats, usually light 
gray, drab, or brown, are often styled w/z¢e hats, probably 
in contrast with the black chimney-pot hat so common in 
England. The colour-term gveen with the figurative 
sense of “fresh,” is applied to unseasoned timber and to 
freshly-quarried stone. 
Metals.—Whilst some few metals have a sufficiently 
striking colour to give rise to a special colour-name—e.g., 
coppery, bronze, brazen, golden, aureine, steel-blue, leaden, 
ztvon-grey, argent, silvery, the most of them have a general 
similarity of tint, and are loosely called whzfe (probably 
in contrast to the coloured metals), whilst a mere tinge of 
blue in some of them leads to their being called d/we (e.g., 
lead, zinc, steel). 
Curious applications occur in trade names : thus, wife 
metal is used of any cheap alloy resembling silver in 
appearance; white brass is a whitish alloy of copper and 
zinc ; gvay 7rom and white tron are cast iron whose frac- 
ture is grey or white ; whilst whz/e lead, sinc white, white 
arsenic are the white oxides of the metals in question ; 
red lead is the red oxide of lead, and d/ack lead is really 
plumbago (which resembles lead only in its property of 
marking paper) ; whzte, yellow, orange, and red, when 
applied to gold, denote alloys of gold in which the golden 
colour is modified ségh¢/y in the directions indicated ; 
red-short is an epithet descriptive of malleable metals 
which are brittle when hot. 
Blue and Black.—There is a curious confusion between 
dark blue and black in both English and Hindtistdni. 
Thus, in English there are 4/ue-dlack, invisible blue (both 
used of a very deep blue almost black), dlack and blue 
(applied toa bruise), 4/ack as ink and inky black (although 
most inks are nowadays blueish) often applied to rain- 
clouds (nimbus) and to the deep indigo blue of the deep 
sea, quite like the Hindtistanf phrase £d/é pani (Ut. black 
water) used of the sea. Dark blue cloth is by some (even 
by ladies) habitually called d/ack; the writer has also 
known d/ackberries miscalled d/aeberries (by a Scotch- 
woman), although é/ae is literally blue ; this is quite like 
the Hindtstani word £é/d, which is used for both é/ack and 
dark blue, especially in cloth. This confusion is curious 
in English, wherein the terms jet-dlack, jetty, coal-black, 
exist for a true black. In the melody, “ The Coal-black 
Rose,” the colour is attributed really to a person of the 
name of Rose. 
Physical States.—Colour-terms are applied to physical 
states, sometimes in an exaggerated sense (the name of a 
bright colour being ascribed to any faint tint of the same), 
and sometimes in a special and almost inexplicable sense. 
Thus we speak of the black death, as black as death, black 
looks, looking as black as thunder, scarlet fever, yellow 
fever, jaundice, turning green with sickness, being beaten 
black and blue, blue with cold, a fit of blue devils, pale or 
white with iliness or with loss of blood. 
Mental, &c., States.—The connection of colour terms 
with mental and moral emotions, conditions, and actions, 
is curious and often inexplicable. 
Thus é/ack is associated with the idea of evil—e.g. the 
blackest of lies, black as sin, blackened with crime, as black 
as the devil; and also with degradation in both English 
and Hindtstini—e.g. to blacken one’s face (Hind. munh 
kdld karnd) implies disgrace in both languages. Again 
black, purple, crimson, red, scarlet, pink, livid, pallid, 
and wie are all ascribed to rage; whilst crzmson, red, 
and scarlet are also ascribed to shame, in both cases 
doubtless from their effect on the hue of the cheek. Further 
crimson, red, and scarlet are associated with crime 
(probably from their connection with blood), and also 
with sin generally—e.g¢. red-handed, sins as scarlet, the 
scarlet woman, &c. Next black, yellow, and blue are all 
NATURE 
605 
used of depression of spirits—e.g. in the words melancholy, 
atrabilious, jaundiced, a fit of the blues. Again, green 
and verdant are used of the freshness of youth and of the 
state of a novice, and in this use both these colour-terms 
are oddly attributed to the eye; whilst gveew is also 
applied to (unusual) freshness in old age. The terms 
green, blue (e.g. a blue funk), pale, pallid, livid, ashy, 
gray, and whz¢e are all used as descriptive of fear ; simil- 
arly the words xA@pos (commonly translated gee) in 
Homer and sard (commonly translated yed/ow) in 
Hindistani are used of fear. 
Again, 4/we is sometimes associated with religious feel- 
ing, and also with literary or scientific pursuits among 
women, ¢.¢., blue-stocking. Lastly, whzte is associated 
with the idea of good (perhaps in contrast to black, which 
goes with evil), e.g. whzte de (¢.e. a slight or venial lie), 
to be whztewashed (¢.e. freed from debt), and extreme 
whiteness is associated with purity (probably from the 
pure whiteness of snow) eg. sus shall be as white as 
snow, white-robed angels, &c. 
Summary.—With such a looseness in the use of colour- 
terms in modern English and Hindtistanf as exemplified 
above, it seems (to the writer) that it is hardly possible 
to draw inferences as to the strength of the colour-sense 
in either the past or present from the (supposed) correct 
or incorrect application of colour-terms by other nations. 
Paucity of colour-terms is probably fair evidence of a 
poor colour-sense, whilst an abundance of the same is 
probably good evidence of a fine colour-sense. Viewed 
by this test, the colour-sense evidenced in the Homeric 
poems is certainly poor, and that of the natives of India 
is also poor compared with that of modern western 
nations ; as to the latter, it may be said that a great deve- 
lopment of colour-sense is now going on, and much more 
rapidly than in the past, judging from the frequent addi- 
tions to the stock of dyes and pigments of late years, 
especially since the discovery of aniline and its derivatives. 
Natives of India —The author of “Light from the 
East on the Colour Question ” considers that there is a 
“highly-developed colour-sense among the natives of 
India,” and adduces the Indian coloured textile fabrics 
and works of art as evidence of this. This does not 
agree with the present writer’s experience from a resid- 
ence extending over twenty-three years in North India. 
The textile fabrics have certainly a good blending of 
colours ; the cloth dyes and colours laid on pottery and 
other art-productions are also often beautiful. But the 
cloth-workers, dyers, potters, and other artisans in colours, 
and the educated classes, are the few among whom the 
colour-sense is well developed, and they are few among 
the 250,000,000 of India. The colour-terminology of 
Hindustani is poor, especially out of the classes above- 
named. Moreever, in the writer’s experience the eyesight 
of the uneducated masses in India is defective in every 
way. They have great difficulty in threading a needle, in 
reading small type or small MS., also in reading at all 
except in a strong light, in discriminating colours, and 
(strangest of all) in making anything out of a picture, 
engraving, or photograph. This last defect is at first 
sight most surprising to an Englishman: it would seem 
as if a certain “ picture-education” were necessary to 
develop a “picture-sense.” A villager in India, ora quite 
uneducated servant, will sometimes examine a picture 
sideways, or even upside down, and will hazard the most 
incongruous ideas as to the subject, even when it is that 
of an object quite familiar to him. 
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM 
ENSILAGE 
V E have observed with satisfaction, if we may be 
allowed to say so, the increasing attention which 
is being devoted to the subject of ensilage in this country, 
not only in view of the importance of this method of 
