Summary

148-149: The Tuareg wear richly dyed robes that stain their skin blue. Their name means “abandoned by God,” since they refused to convert to Islam, but they call themselves Imahog, “free men.” American Christians hold prayer sessions for them.

150: Plato considered both color and poetry dangerous drugs, just as the Reformation zealots found decoration idolatrous. Before the arrival of ultramarine in western markets, which made blue holy, indigo blue was called “the devil’s dye” to discourage it from competing with wood.

151-152: A “wicked logic” makes expensive things holy (#151). The holiness of ultramarine is based on a mistake: the veins in lapis lazuli are only fool’s gold. Blue has been used throughout history in ritual burial, ritual sacrifice, battle, and slave trades. It is more carnival than festival.

153-155: Most children pick red as their favorite color, but half the adults...