This old meaning of the colour yellow was well known and understood in the old Roman Catholic Church. Therefore Dante, who wrote much of his great _Divine Comedy_ consciously or unconsciously to interpret these old ideas and to enshrine them in poetry for evermore, says when he has reached the highest part of heaven and is once more with Beatrice:-- “Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal ... Me Beatrice drew.” The Pope (on the fourth Sunday in Lent) presents a golden rose of jewels to any person greatly beloved by the Church. One can notice in the world at present a deep and increasing love for all yellow colours,[7] for it is a colour that gives the appearance of sunlight to the most cheerless rooms. May we not also hope that it is a sign that the world is now striving after unity, and the desire to understand the other person’s point of view? The yellow robe donned by the Buddhist is a symbol that he is now on the path that is to lead to spirituality. The _Light of Asia_ tells us that Buddha taught his supreme truths “to his own, them of the yellow robe.” He taught them to practise “yoga.” What is “yoga”? To the Western mind it usually means a kind of magic--even charlatanism, but the real meaning of the word is “union.” The belief of these yellow-robed men is that they have within them a spark of the Godhead, and that, by suppressing the bodily desires and by concentrating their whole mental and psychic energies towards trying to understand this higher part of their nature, they will become united with the Supreme Spirit and will understand how to do many things and see many things that the ordinary man cannot do or see. [7] See Appendix IV. Vishnu is clad in yellow for the same reason. In the vision of Ezekiel, God is seen in the colour amber; at least, the amber colour is the outward sign of the presence of God. In the ceremony of making a child become a Brahmin a piece of saffron cloth is bound to his arm with a yellow cord. The Mexicans gave the name Kan to the god who supported the sky. The same word meant yellow. Yellow is the royal colour of China, and the privilege of wearing yellow is most jealously guarded, for does it not show that its possessor is a Son of the Sun? Similarly the saffron robes of the ancient Irish nobility were a sign of their rank. Yellow is the marriage colour in India, and the bride stains her hands yellow as a sign of the happiness and unity she expects in her married life. The Roman bride wore a crocus-coloured veil and yellow shoes. Among the Jews marriage may be performed under the Talis, an orange silk robe stretched on four posts. The bride and her maids walk round it seven times, which is said to be in memory of the siege of Jericho. It might also be noted, in Calderon’s picture of Ruth and Naomi, that Ruth, who wishes ever to be with Naomi, wears a yellow robe--perhaps by chance, perhaps by design, or perhaps by intuition.