Name That List, #50
What is this a list of? The answer is below in extended.
Answer:
They're all ingredients from which color pigments have been made (or have been rumored to have been made).
Source: "Treasures from the Color Archive," The New Yorker.
Thanks to Jenny Beatty for the suggestion!
- The rare mineral cuprorivaite
- Weathered copper-carbonate azurite
- Blood from the wounds of dragons locked in mortal combat with elephants
- Resin secreted from trees growing on the islands of Socotra and Sumatra
- Murex shell from the Eastern Mediterranean
- The rendered bodies of Egyptian mummies
- Scale insects that swarm on prickly-pear cacti
- Unripe buckthorn berries
- The urine of cattle who have eaten mango leaves
Answer:
They're all ingredients from which color pigments have been made (or have been rumored to have been made).
Source: "Treasures from the Color Archive," The New Yorker.
Thanks to Jenny Beatty for the suggestion!
Comments
I was sure this list was from an online fantasy game.
agent j
agent j
Posted by agent j on 11/02/18 at 09:54 AM
Then they aren't ingredients in the Wizard of Id's potion?
Posted by Virtual on 11/02/18 at 10:41 AM
My guess was things which have been sold as both aphrodisiacs and abortifacients.
Posted by Phideaux on 11/02/18 at 10:56 AM
Dragon blood, Murex and cattle urine give it away for me. The first two I read about years ago and the cattle urine was in a BBC News article last month.
Posted by eddi on 11/02/18 at 10:02 PM
Got it in one.
By the way, the dragons' blood and the Socotra/Sumatra resin are one and the same: the dried sap of Dracaenea trees. As for the prickly pear bugs, cochineal is still used and somewhat infamous.
By the way, the dragons' blood and the Socotra/Sumatra resin are one and the same: the dried sap of Dracaenea trees. As for the prickly pear bugs, cochineal is still used and somewhat infamous.
Posted by Richard Bos on 11/03/18 at 06:01 AM
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Category: Name That List