With the spirit of a (safe) adventure, I'm continuing my online search for references to colors and images used to describe the Christian devil.

I consider this online search an "adventure" because I don't know where the Google Internet seach will lead me and what historical, folkloric treasures I might find. I consider this adventure to be "safe" because I'm mounting this search from the comfort & security of my own home using relatively "free" internet services, with no concern that what I repost will land me in any legal difficulties* or will lead to any physical harm to my body or to my mind.

*As I understand it, the mandate if not the policy of Mudcat Cafe (also known as Mudcat Discussion Forum) is to help ensure the preservation & dissemination of folkloric articles on the Internet. One way this "mandate" is achieved is by providing hyperlinks to the "original" posted articles and by Mudcat members and guests liberally posting excerpts from those articles onto this site.

The assumption is that Mudcat, which was launched in 1997 and has continually been online since then (except for periodic brief interruptions of service for some technical reason or the other), will continue to remain free and available on the Internet for a long period of time for its members as well for any "guest" who happens upon it.("Guests" usually visit a particular Mudcat discussion thread by entering a key word or key words into an Internet search engine such as Google or Yahoo and then clicking on the hyperlinks that are given). A "thread" is a series of comments on a particular subject.)

Concomittedly, the concern Mudcatters have is other websites (which perhaps don't have as dedicated a founder/owner, moderators, and community as Mudcat), may disappear from the Internet with no notice at all or may close off their access to the general public, again without any prior notice or warning. And then-were it not for inforamtion posted on Mudcat threads such as this one-information contained on those no longer accessible sites would once again be lost to the general public or the general public would have a much more difficult time trying to find such information in physical libraries located in far flung cities whic would take much more effort than Internet searching to visit.

All this to say, if I understand Mudcat "policies" correctly, not witstanding the confusion that still exist over how & when Internet material can be used in other documents, I don't worry about being prosecuted (or persecuted) because I'm freely re-posting these excerpts from other websites.

I should also say that having had home dial up Internet service for several years before upgrading two years ago to broadband service, I remember how difficult it was on dial up to use hyperlinks to travel from one website to another. That's another reason why I post excerpts along with their hyperlinks (web addresses/URLs).

I know that I'm fortunate to the time to engage in this online research. And I know that I'm fortunate to have a home computer (I recently upgraded to a lap top!). I also know that I'm fortunate to have the money to pay for broadband Internet service that is readily available in my city.

I recognize that for me this thread is mostly a "presentation [of information] thread rather than a "discussion thread'. I'm learning a lot from this research but I realize that this information is probably not of interest to most of the members of this forum. However, I appreciate the opportunity to share what I'm finding here with (and for) those who may also be interested in it.

I continue to post this information on Mudcat (rather than elsewhere on the Internet) because this material is folkloric and Mudcat Cafe isn't just about folk music.

All of this to say, my thanks to Max Speigel, Mudcat owner & founder, for launching and maintaining Mudcat Cafe and thereby providing me and others with a forum to share such interesting, thought provoking material.

Best wishes,

Azizi Powell