Word: damask
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Florida in the early 1560s. There he saw Indians-and concluded that there had to be a likeness between them and the lost tribes of primitive Britain. Hence the delicate Amazon, who might have stepped out of a court masque. Her tribal body painting is transmuted into an exquisite damask of skin tattoos; every detail of Le Moyne's image, from the green, parklike landscape and the rippling blonde hair to the jaunty flutter of tassel and petal, adds to the sense of a new-minted Arcadia. It is, of course, completely artificial...
Ghana Second. The climax of the ceremony came that night, as the city lay bewitched in the jungle moonlight, and the Manhyia Palace flickered with torches. In a great field near by sat 27 paramount chiefs glittering with gold under huge, richly colored damask and velvet umbrellas. In a secret room inside the palace, observed by only six of his subjects, the King underwent the most sacred part of the tradition. After being ritually cleansed, he was seated briefly three times upon the Ashantis' sacred Golden Stool for the final ascension to power or "enstoolment." Only then...