Soot and smoke-blackening

Meaning

Suye is concrete soot adhering to chimneys and smoke-blackened ceilings. Its smell, bitterness and darkening power become sensory evidence in the author's account of volatile excrement.

II.3.28 attributes foul fumes to oily combustible sulphur and argues that their residue retains something of burnt bodies and salts' dregs. The dark coating obstructs light, whereas the purest bodies shine most brilliantly. Soot therefore connects a familiar household observation with the work's larger opposition of obscurity and purity. The inference is historical: it does not establish a modern chemical identity from smell or taste, and the lexical explanation is not an invitation to sample soot or unknown salts.

The English keeps chimneys and ceilings rather than turning the example into abstract “impurity.” The sensory predicates remain the author's asserted evidence, distinct from the modern note on his cited authorities.