Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/450

 142 Colour Symbolism.

The fundamental belief in the potency of colour, as an expression or revelation of divine influence, can be traced not only in Ancient Egypt from the earliest times but in almost every part of the world. As the colours of stones indicated the virtues they possessed, so did the colours of deities reveal their particular attributes. A wealth of colour, or a definite colour scheme, was displayed by supernatural beings, and these displayed the colours chiefly because they were supernatural beings, the colours being in themselves operating influences. The following Chinese text is of importance in this connection :

" A dragon in the water covers himself with five colours. Therefore he is a god.'" ^

In the Central American Popol Vuh the importance of colour is emphasised in the account of Creation :

" At first there was stillness and darkness in the shades, in the night. Alone also the Creator, the Former, the Dominator, the Serpent covered with feathers. Those who fertilise, those who give life, are upon the water like a growing light. They are enveloped in green and blue {de vert et d'azur) ; hence their name is Gucumatz."

A footnote explains : " Gucumatz is a serpent covered with green and blue. . . . They are also called by this name because they are enveloped, shadowed in green and blue." ^ A complex Ancient Egyptian Deity, recognised by one of the cults as the supreme god, symbolised " the power of the sun that created the world," and was styled " the beautiful green disc which shineth ever." This Deity was proceeded from Nu and who possesses many colours and many forms." ^
 * ' the creator of whatsoever is and whatsoever shall be, who

^ De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 63, section 2. 2 Abbe Brasseur, Popul Vuh Le Libre sacre et les Mythes de I'Antiquite Americane, 1861.

^ Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, vol. ii. 356.