NOTE 4. - In Bengal Indigo factories artificial heat is employed to promote
the drying of the precipitated dye; but this is not essential to the
manufacture. Marco's account, though grotesque in its baldness, does
describe the chief features of the manufacture of Indigo by fermentation.
The branches are cut and placed stem upwards in the vat till it is three
parts full; they are loaded, and then the vat is filled with water.
Fermentation soon begins and goes on till in 24 hours the contents of the
vat are so hot that the hand cannot be retained in it. This is what Marco
ascribes to the sun's heat. The liquor is then drawn off to another
cistern and there agitated; the indigo separates in flakes. A quantity of
lime-water then is added, and the blue is allowed to subside. The clear
water is drawn off; the sediment is drained, pressed, and cut into small
squares, etc. (See Madras Journal, vol. viii. 198.)
Indigo had been introduced into Sicily by the Jews during the time of
Frederick II., in the early part of Polo's century. Jews and Indigo have
long vanished from Sicily. The dye is often mentioned in Pegolotti's Book;
the finest quality being termed Indaco Baccadeo a corruption of
Baghdadi. Probably it came from India by way of Baghdad. In the
Barcelona Tariffs it appears as Indigo de Bagadel. Another quality often
mentioned is Indigo di Golfo. (See Capmany, Memorias II. App. p. 73.)
In the bye-laws of the London Painters' Guild of the 13th century, quoted
by Sir F. Palgrave from the Liber Horne, it is forbidden to paint on
gold or silver except with fine (mineral) colours, "e nient de brasil,
ne de inde de Baldas, ne de nul autre mauveise couleur." (The
Merchant and the Friar, p. xxiii.) There is now no indigo made or
exported at Quilon, but there is still some feeble export of sappanwood,
ginger, and pepper.
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