Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 191, June 25, 1853 - Various - Страница 4

I do not know the why or the wherefore, but in every part of England I have visited, there appears to be a deep-rooted prejudice in the eyes of the million against people with red hair. Tradition, whether truly or not must remain a mystery, assigns to Absalom's hair a reddish tinge; and Judas, the traitorous disciple, is ever painted with locks of the same unhappy colour. Shakspeare, too, seems to have been embued with the like morbid feeling of distrust for those on whose hapless heads the invidious mark appeared. In his play of As You Like It, he makes Rosalind (who is pettishly complaining of her lover's tardiness coming to her) say to Celia:

It will be apparent from this quotation, that in England, at any rate, the prejudice spoken of is not of very recent development; and that it has not yet vanished before the intellectual progress of our race, will, I think, be painfully evident to many a bearer of this unenviable distinction. It seems to be generally supposed, by those who harbour the doctrine, that red-headed people are dissemblers, deceitful, and, in fact, not to be trusted like others whose hair is of a different colour; and I may add, that I myself know persons who, on that account alone, never admit into their service any whose hair is thus objectionable. In Wales, pen coch (red head) is a term of reproach universally applied to all who come under the category; and if such a wight should by any chance involve himself in a scrape, it is the signal at once for a regular tirade against all who have the misfortune to possess hair of the same fiery colour.

I cannot bring myself to believe that there is any really valid foundation for this prejudice; and certainly, if not, it were indeed a pity that the superstitious feeling thus engendered is not at once and for ever banished from the memory.

T. Hughes.