[Aztlan] Maya blue, etc.

[Bunny]

Forgive me if some of this has already appeared, but I have read only a few of the postings in this discussion.  Listeros who don't already know about it might be interested in a pair of articles on the subject of so-called "Seri blue," a bright blue pigment used by Seri Indian women of the northern Sonoran coast as face paint.  It is made by mixing the root bark of Franseria dumosa, the sap of Guaiacum coulteri, and a clay in which layers of montmorillonitic layers predominate.  Experimentation has shown different shades of blue can further be achieved by mixing the resin from Guaiacum coulteri and water with such clays as bentonite, kaolinite, halloysite, and attapulgite.  
    These articles are by Mary Beck Moser, "Seri Blue," and "Seri Blue -- An Explanation," both published in the Kiva, the quarterly journal of the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society, Vol. 30, no. 2 (December, 1964), pp. 27-32 and 33-39.
    No doubt someone has already pointed out that many American Indian groups lack separate glosses for "blue" and "green," lumping them together under one label and distinguishing shades by adding modifiers (e.g., "like the sky" or "like the leaves on the trees").
    Bunny Fontana