Annotation - Chapter 16, Page 187

• (187:21) "Mort your clof with Saul & Peter (Dy it red)"

A mordant is a substance used by dyers to fix a color in a fiber. The word comes from the French word mordre, meaning "to bite"; many mordants are acidic or alkaline, and have a sharp taste or smell. They work by making it chemically possible for the dye's molecules to bond directly with those of the fiber. The red dye might be the natural dye that can be made from the root of the madder plant. BJB

The mordant being used here, saltpeter or potassium nitrate, is a white crystalline salt that can be mined from the ground or processed from manure. Like Goodparley's earlier analysis of St. Eustace, the names Saul & Peter refer to religious stories that dovetail with the action of the novel: Saul was a ruthless government official who, after being struck and temporarily blinded by a divine light, gave up his name to become the Apostle Paul; Peter, first among Jesus' twelve disciples, was named after stone.