She slept beneath a tree－
Remembered but by me.
I touched her Cradle mute－
She recognized the foot－
Put on her carmine suit
And see!
Remembered but by me.
I touched her Cradle mute－
She recognized the foot－
Put on her carmine suit
And see!
(F.15/J.25)
[1] She:: cochineal, a scale insect used to produce red tint.
[2] me:: a cochineal farmer remembered to harvest.
[3] Cradle:: a basket to collect cochineals.
[5] carmine:: the color produced by cochineal.
In a well-attended Cochineal farm in Mexico, the plants are covered with insects. . . . The female insect alone is valuable for its dye. . . . The time of gathering the insect is just before the female produces her young, as she perishes immediately alter, and her body serves to cover the young brood, which is enveloped in a woolly covering resembling little nests. ─ Colonial Magazine and East India Review, Volume 9 (1846)
