The Hebrew word for ink is deyo, so called from its blackness. As primitively prepared for ritualistic purposes and for a continuing period of more than two thousand years, it was a simple mixture of powdered charcoal or soot with water, to which gum was sometimes added. The Arabian methods of making ink (alchiber) were more complex. Lampblack was first made by the burning of oil, tar or rosin, which was then commingled with gum and honey and pressed into small wafers or cakes, to which water could be added when wanted for use. About 1200 years before the Christian era, the Chinese perfected this method and invented "Indian Ink," ostensibly for blackening the surface of raised hieroglyphics, which "was obtained from the soot produced by the smoke of pines and the oil in lamps, mixed with the isinglass (gelatin) of asses' skin, and musk to correct the odour of the oil." Du Halde cites the following, as of the time of the celebrated Emperor Wu-Wong, who flourished 1120 years before Christ: "As the stone Me (a word signifying blackening in the Chinese language), which is used to blacken the engraved characters, can never become white; so a heart blackened by vices will always retain its blackness." That the art of dyeing was known, valued and applied among early nations, is abundantly clear. The allusions to "purple and fine raiment," to "dyed garments," to "cloth of many colours," &c., are numerous in the Bible. In a note to the "Pictorial Bible, after an allusion to the antiquity of this art, and to the pre- eminence attached by the ancients to purple beyond every other color, it is remarked: "It is important to understand that the word purple, in ancient writings, does not denote one particular colour." Many of the names of the dyestuffs have come down to us, some of them still in use at this time and others obsolete. They were employed sometimes as ink, and certain color values given to them, of which the more important were blue, red, yellow, green, white, black, purple, gold and silver. Some colors were estimated symbolically. White was everywhere the symbol of purity and the emblem of innocence, and, just opposite, black was held up as an emblem of affliction and calamity. Green was the emblem of freshness, vigor and prosperity. Blue was the symbol of revelation; it was pre-eminently the celestial color blessed among heathen nations, and among the Hebrews it was the Jehovah color, the symbol of the revered God. Hence, it was the color predominant in Mosaic ceremonies. Purple was associated as the dress of kings, with ideas of royalty and majesty. Crimson and scarlet, from their resemblance to blood, became symbolical of life, and also an emblem of that which was indelible or deeply ingrained. Later, in Christian times, only five colors were recognized as fitting for theological meaning or expression: white, red, green, violet and black.