Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/474

 1 66 Colour Syn)ibolis7n.

Irish god Crom Cruach had an image of gold which faced the south : ^ the other idols (standing stones) that sur- rounded him were decorated with bronze.

As the Egyptians made progress with their metallurgic experiments they discovered that gold and silver were united in electrum. A green electrum was found in situ : it is a natural alloy in Egypt. " Green gold " is referred to in the Egyptian texts. ^ It was used by the jewellers. The priestly experimenters, who were engaged not only in discovering how to work metals but in prying into the sacred secrets of the universe, found in time that they could separate the gold from the silver of natural electrum by employing quicksilver.^ The process reduced quick- silver to a black powder. This black powder " was sup- posed," says Budge, " to possess the most marvellous powers and to contain in it the individualities of the various metals. ... In a mystical manner this black powder was identified with the body which the god Osiris was known to possess in the Underworld, and to both were attributed magical qualities, and both were thought to be sources of life and power." ^

The importance attached to the black powder dates back, like malachite symbolism, to the Pyramid Age when, as Maspero notes,^ " the green powder (mazit) and the black powder (maszimit) formed part of the offerings considered indispensable to the deceased."

The black powder was also identified with the black mud on the banks of the Low Nile which was quickened into life by the Green Nile. It appears to have been con- nected, too, with the Black Hathor, the mother of night

^ Revile Celtiqiie, vol. xvi. and De Jubainville, op. cit. chap. v. section 7. 2 Cairo Scientific Journal, vol. iii. no. 32.

^ Gold and .'silver ultimately symbolised the god and goddess. Gilded silver-plate was favoured by early Christians. 5 The Dawn of Civilization, p. 54, note 4.
 * Budge, Egyptian Magic (London 1899).