THE FOLKLORE OF PLANTS: Indigo

Lisa Karen Miller

          Gala, the creator, loved blue, and so made the sky that color. His wish was that blue would be the first dye color found in a plant.  When snails chewed the indigo plant, each little hole had a blue halo around it.  A brave woman ventured into the forest and saw the plants with the blue holes. She picked some of the leaves and asked Gala what they meant.

          “Open your hand,” she was instructed.  Her fingers were stained blue. Ever since, humans have been using indigo to recreate the colors of the skies and the waters.  In many cultures, blue is the color of the afterlife.

          Indigo dyers on the Indonesian island of Sumba pass the secrets of the craft along female bloodlines only. They once tried to teach the men, but not even the wisest among them could understand.  

          Spirits and deities assist them in their work.  The knowledge for creating color, mixed with a whisper of witchcraft and a dash of divination, is passed from mother to daughter.

          Only a few Kodi women on the island now possess the wisdom of “moro,” or blueness.  They are known as the blue-handed women, and are considered to be intimately acquainted with death.

          The smell of the fermenting Indigofera tinctoria (not to be confused with Baptisia australis, or Blue False Indigo) pot was likened to that of a decaying corpse. A pot of indigo dye was poured onto the grave of someone who had suffered a “bad death,” or died by violence.

          It kept the deceased’s soul from wandering the earth to seek revenge.      

          Egyptian mummies have been found wrapped in indigo-dyed funeral cloths.  In central Asia, it was the color of choice for mourning garments. The Sutton Hoo burial site in England held fabrics dyed with indigo and woad (the substance Braveheart and his warriors used to paint themselves blue.)

          Westerners came to know indigo as the source of a dye for a new sturdy cloth for workmen’s trousers.  Once denim became the garment of choice for men engaged in difficult and dangerous work, the indigo trade soared.

          In 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patented their work pants whose pockets were reinforced with rivets (typically used in the shipbuilding industry). This kept them from ripping when tools were hung from them.

Blue jeans had been born. The word jeans is a corruption of Genoa fustian, a twilled cotton fabric from Italy. In 1886, they introduced their Two Horse logo, which depicted two horses trying to pull apart a pair of their overalls – a demonstration of the strength of the garment. Levi Strauss & Co. and Jacob Davis received a U.S. patent.

          Denims, dungarees, blue jeans – whatever you call them, they helped to build America.  

© Copyright 2023 Lisa Karen Miller