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THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
400 
sen ted what have been called primary colours. Red 
seems to have been most used in the outside deco- 
ration of buildings; Giving results of an investi- 
gation of Mr. Flinders Petrie’s specimens, Air. W. 
J. Russell states that the red pigment was a ferric 
oxide, an oolitic hematite, with a little clay, — the 
proportion of ferric oxide varying from 70 to 80 
per cent. It was a natural pigment, unaffected by 
sunlight, heat or acids. Another colour was a dull 
yellow, and this also consisted of oxide of iron, 
combined with alumina, lime and some water — 
being essentially a kind of coloured clay. A repro- 
duction of the mixture was fadeless in light, but 
was changed by heat. An orange about 4000 B.C. 
by one of the first pyramid builders, was a mix- 
ture of the red and yellow. The maker mixed his 
colours with gum. A very bright yellow contained 
arsenic, and was in fact orpiment, which is now 
produced artificially. Beaten gold was the mineral 
called chrysolite, but in later times a kind of glass 
or frit coloured with oxide of copper was used, and 
gave various shades. It could be rubbed down in 
a mortar, and was probably applied with gum. 
The white pigment used was sulphate of lime‘ 
known also as gypsum and alabaster. A pale pink 
color contained 99 per cent of sulphate of lime, 
the rest being an organic compound believed to 
be madder. 
A Modern Golgotha. 
One by one the links that bind us to the past 
arc being broken and slowly but surely old-world 
customs and manners are being relegated to a lim- 
b > of well merited oblivion. There is perhaps 
no people in Europe more conservative, more te- 
nacious of its traditional customs and manners 
than are the Maltese, but even they are now giving 
way before the irresistable, onward march of scien- 
ce and common seuse, and are adopting the new 
regim ° . 
In common with most European nations they 
formerly interred their dead beneath their churches, 
and it was to this cause that much of the disease 
and death that formerly devastated the islands Avas 
due. On the continent, the practice has been in abey- 
ance for many years whereas in Malta its suppres- 
sion is of quite recent date. A few years ago the 
British Government caused a large cemetery to be 
built outside the fortifications and to this the con- 
tents of most of the charnel-houses were taken 
and buried. A few churches, however, escaped 
the edict among which may be mentioned the sub- 
terranean crypt which is situated beneath the 
Monastery of the Capuchins at Floriana, a su- 
burb of Valletta,. This Modern Golgotha was in 
existence, and could be visited by any one up to 
within 12 months ago, upon obtaining permission, 
from the prior. It consisted of a vast subterranean 
chamber, with numerous galleries branching off 
from it, the walls of which were hollowed into 
niches in which the dead bodies of the members 
of the confraternity who had died in the institu- 
tian, were placed. After death the corpse was 
disembowelled, and hermetically sealed in a small 
heated chamber having a perforated bottom where 
it was left until quite shrivelled and dry, after 
which it was dressed in its monkish robes and 
chained in an upright position in the niches where 
it was left to decay' To the casual visitor the 
appearance presented by these specimens of deca- 
yed humanity was most weird and awful. On 
many of them their garments hung in tatters ex- 
posing the skeleton limbs beneath, while others 
had their garments still intact but exhibiting 
ghastly shrills either wholly or partially denuded 
of every vestig§ of flesh. Some stood bolt upright 
others leaned forward, while others again had 
dropped to the length of their chain and hung 
from it in the most grotesque and fanciful postu- 
res. When they were in such an advanced state 
of decay as to literally fall to pieces the skull and 
bones were collected and were affixed to the walls 
thus forming a kind of ornamentation which was 
quite in keeping with the gruesome surroundings. 
There were nearly two hundred of these grim fi- 
gures around the walls when the edict was passed 
for their dispersal about eight months ago. For- 
mer]}" the place was open to the general public on 
the second day of November, upon which occasion 
great numbers of people flocked to the vaults to 
perform their devotions. Restrictions were after- 
wards placed upon the time of entrance, but still 
no difficulty was placed in the way of those who 
desired to visit the place, and it has accordingly 
been a point of attraction for visitors to the islands 
for many years past. 
