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Does Bull Rage at the Red Cape in Matadore's Hand?
As my head was one among the rest in the area around the Paseillo, I was badly perspiring with some gruesome images in my mind, images of bull blood being splattered by the matadores. I was waiting for the moment when the small red coloured cape, muleta, would be waved through the air in order for Bull to rage and charge at the matadores. I just imagined the deadly red colour flowing through my brain which helped me in overcoming my fear and become ferociously passionate about the battle in the Paseillo. Red, the colour of anger, danger, strength and power as defined by blood and fire creating a violent ambience, is considered to be increasing heart rate and hence our physical reactions. But wait a minute! What about magenta and golden So basically magenta and golden are the two colour used in making flags in the first stage of Bull Fighting, in order to check for bull's ferocious action. On one hand magenta is responsible for bringing about a developed, balanced outlook in life whether it be spiritual, physical, social, mental or cultural in order to create peace, geniality and amity in the world. On the other hand, golden is supposed to be the colour for love, accord, benevolence, embellishment and lightening up of lives in the world. These positive colours can surely not be held responsible or used for making the bull vicious. Then what this means is that there is something else responsible for bull's response. Also, it is crucial to consider what science says. Like all other cattle, bulls are colour blind to red which can further claim that colours are not to be blamed here. Basically, bulls suffer from dichromacy such that they only have two out of three colour receptors, scientifically known as cone cells. These are short and medium wavelength cone cells. Long wavelength cone cells are missing such that a certain section of light spectrum where colours have long wavelength will be missing. These include green and red. But this does not stop them from seeing the movement and the shape of the cloth. I must remind you that the cape is in movement, i.e. it is flicked through the air in order to compel the bull to charge. So what this means is, if two men dressed in red are standing close to one another then the bull is likely to knock down the one who is moving rather than the one who has not moved from his stationary position.Hence, there is no way by which bulls reaction can be a result of the colours. The only thing that remains is the movement of the cape which enrages the bull. Now the question arises that why the red colour is chosen for the last and final stage of this game if the colours do not influence the extent to which a bull would charge at the matadores. The answer is that it is chosen in order to hide the grotesque blood splatter from the bull. Since in the first stage of the battle, the bull is not killed and is just tested for its viciousness, red is not needed to hide the blood splatter.
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