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Red Indians (of Newfoundland)

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So called because they daub their skin, garments, canoes, weapons, and almost everything with red ochre.

“Whether it is merely a custom, or whether they daub their skin with red ochre to protect it from the attacks of mosquitos and black-flies, which swarm by myriads in the woods and wilds during the summer, it is not possible to say.”—Lady Blake: Nineteenth Century, Dec. 1888, p. 905.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Red Cross (The)
Red Cross Knight
Red Feathers (The)
Red Flag (A)
Red Hand of Ulster
Red-handed
Red Hat (The)
Red Heads
Red Herring (The)
Red Herring
Red Indians (of Newfoundland)
Red Kettle (A)
Red-laced Jacket
Red Land (The)
Red-lattice Phrases
Red Laws (The)
Red-letter Day
Red Man
Red Men
Red Rag (The)
Red Republicans