chap, xii INDIGO
9
pieces
of the shape and size of a hen's egg cut in two—that is to say, flat
below and pointed above. But the indigo of Ahmadabad is flattened and
made into the shape of a small cake.1 It is to be
particularly remarked, that the merchants, in order to escape paying
custom on useless weight, before sending the indigo from Asia to Europe
are careful to sift it, so as to separate the dust attached to it,
which they afterwards sell to the people of the country, who make use
of it in their dyes. Those who are employed to sift the indigo observe
great precautions, for while so occupied they hold a cloth in front of
their faces, and take care that all their orifices are well closed,
only leaving two small holes in the cloth for the eyes, to see what
they are doing. Moreover, both those who sift the indigo and the
writers of sub-merchants of the Company who watch them sifting, have to
drink milk every hour, this being a preservative against the subtlety
of the indigo. All these precautions do not prevent those who are
occupied for eight or ten days, sifting indigo, from having all that
they expectorate coloured blue for some time. I have indeed on more
than one occasion observed that if an egg is placed in the morning near
one of these sifters, if it is broken in the evening, it is found to be
altogether blue inside, so penetrating is the dust of indigo.
As
the men take the paste from the baskets with their fingers steeped in
oil, and mould it in pieces, they expose them to the sun to dry. When
the merchants buy the indigo they always burn some pieces in order to
see if there is any sand mixed with it. For the peasants who take the
paste out of the baskets to separate it into pieces, after they have
dipped their hands in oil, place it in the sand, which mingles with the
paste and makes it heavier ; but when burnt the indigo is reduced to
ashes and the sand remains entire. The Governors do all they can to
stop this fraud, but there are always some who practise it.2
1
Tor a similar account of indigo manufacture see Mundy, ii. 221 ff. It
will be noticed that there is no reference to the boiling of the
precipitated dye after its removal from the vats, a common practice in
Northern India, but not essential (Yule, Marco Polo, 1st ed., ii. 312, 317; Garcia da Orta, Simples and Drugs of India, 51; Watt, Diet. Economic Products, iv. 443).
* Adulteration of indigo still occurs in some places (Watt, Diet Econ. Prod., iv. 435).
