colored winds & little gowns

'... there are four winds and eight sub-winds, each with its own color. The wind from the east is a deep purple, from the south  a fine shining silver. The north wind is a hard black and the west is amber. People in the old days had the power of perceiving these colors and could spend a day sitting quietly on a hillside watching the beauty of the winds, their fall and rise and changing hues, the magic of neighbouring winds when they are interweaved like ribbons at a wedding. It was a better occupation than gazing at the newspapers. The sub-winds had colours of indescribable delicacy, a reddish-yellow half-way between silver and purple, a greyish-green which was related equally to black and brown. What could be more exquisite than a countryside swept lightly by cool rain reddened by the south-west breeze!'