More Red-Haired Mummies

A brief reference to Egyptian mummies with "reddish" hair now. From an 1878 work titled: Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought. The particular passage comes from a section on the origins of the Egyptians.

"From the ethnological work of Dr. Barnard Davis, as descriptive of Egyptian mummies, these extracts are taken: "Short locks of flowing, reddish brown hair. - Has long reddish brown hair, which is plaited and fastened behind. - Orthognathous face, which is almost in the form of a triangle. - Has a narrow face, with long, slender nose. - Hair in short, very curly, reddish brown locks. - A large head, with a long pointed nose, and rather broad face."

Not especially revealing, and the context is a little vague, but it's yet another example to add to our collection.

Red Hair & The Red Heifer

Back to longer posts now. This one is a passage about the "red heifer". I'll share the entire thing for the sake of context. It's also quite an interesting read in general.

It's from:

The Bible cyclopædia: or, Illustrations of the civil and natural history of the sacred writings [ed. by W. Goodhugh, completed by W.C. Taylor]. 1841.

"HEIFER parah, or rather parah adummah, "the red heifer," a young cow used in sacrifice at the Temple. Moses and Aaron were instructed to deliver the Divine command to the children of Israel, that they should procure a "red heifer without spot," that is, one that was entirely red, without one spot of any other colour, "free from blemish, and on which the yoke had never yet come," that is, which had never yet been employed in ploughing the ground, or in any other work. The animal was to be delivered to the priest, who was to lead her forth out of the camp, and there to slay her; the priest was then to take the blood with his finger, and sprinkle it seven times before the tabernacle; and afterwards to burn the carcass; then to take cedar wood and hyssop, and scarlet wood, and cast them into the flames. The ashes were to be gathered up, and preserved in a secure and clean place, for the use of the congregation, by the sprinkling of which ashes in water it became a water of separation. Spencer and some other writers think that the selection of this victim was in opposition to the superstitions of Egypt. The Egyptians never sacrificed cows, which were sacred to Isis; the Israelites generally offered males in sacrifice, but on this occasion they were directed to choose a heifer; it was also to be red, which is the only occasion on which any direction is given in this respect, a circumstance to which the priests of Egypt gave much attention*. Red hair was held in abhorrence by them, as they believed Typhon, the Satan of their religious system, to be of that colour, and to whom, according to Plutarch, they offered red bulls in sacrifice.

It is thought that a red heifer, under this law, was sacrificed every year, and the ashes distributed to all the towns and cities of Israel. But the Rabbins differ on this point, which is thus stated by Maimonides: - "Nine red heifers have been sacrificed between the delivering of this precept and the desolation of the second temple. Our master, Moses, sacrificed the first; Ezra offered up the second; and seven more were slain during the period which elapsed from the time of Ezra to the destruction of the (second) temple; the tenth, King Messiah himself shall sacrifice; by his speedy manifestation he shall cause great joy. Amen: may he come quickly."

With regard to not putting under yoke animals offered in sacrifice, it may be observed, this was a custom among the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, as they considered animals that had been made to serve other purposes were unworthy to be offered to the gods.

*Sir William Ouseley has with considerable ability discussed this subject, and shown that almost all over the East idols were painted or smeared with red."

A Spanish Proverb About Red Hair

Another super short one (I knew these finds weren't all long). This time it's simply an old Spanish saying about redheads. It comes from an English/Spanish dictionary published in 1726.

"A lame ass, and a red-hair'd man, and the devil, are all one."

For some similarly unflattering sayings about red hair, only this time from Italy, see below.

Italian Sayings and Proverbs about Red Hair

Jumbee Jamaican Red-Haired Devil

Another shorty. Here we have a piece linking the devil with red hair. It's from an 18th century letter which states that the slave population of Jamaica believed that after death men would..

"..go down below into the Earth, to live along with Jumbee, viz. the Devil, whom they insist upon, to be of neither White nor Black, but of a red Mullatto Colour, without Horns, Tail, or cloven Hoofs: However, they all agree, that he has long Red Hair growing on his Breast."

The letter can be found as part of the collection of letters that make up the following work:

A Natural History of Nevis (1745)

Some More 19th Century Mentions of Red Hair

A couple of quick quotes about red hair from 19th century ethnographers now. Yet again, the language is somewhat dated, so apologies. Of course, it's worth remembering that although these writers held views or used language that we would now find unpalatable it doesn't necessarily mean they were horrible, hate-filled people. In days gone by it wasn't uncommon for men to view women as less intelligent, but that didn't mean they didn't love their wives and daughters dearly. So we should perhaps bear this in mind and extend some tolerance to them as we seek tolerance ourselves.

The first quote comes from an 1850 work titled The Races of Man And Their Geographical Distribution.

"The fact of red hair occurring amongst the Negroes of Congo has been alluded to by Blumenbach, who saw many Mulattoes with red hair."

The second quote, or passage rather, comes from a book published in 1878 titled The Temperaments.

"In regard to red hair, observation has convinced us that it is closely related, both physiologically and as a sign of Temperament and character, to black hair. In the crosses of the Negro with the Caucasian, black hair is the most persistent sign of the dark blood, holding its place after all trace of the African taint has disappeared from the complexion, and never furnishing examples of even the darkest brown, much less of yellow, but even in mulattoes (half-bloods) red hair or wool not very infrequently appears. Of this we have observed several instances in Charleston, S. C., and elsewhere."

Language aside both quotes are interesting as they speak to this notion that red hair occurs in mixed populations.

Charles I - Auburn Hair ?

A neat little one now, concerning Charles I. As ever with these 19th century publications the language is a little dated, so forgive it. The passage is from an 1881 publication titled The Sunday Magazine, and the particular article in which it's found is titled "Grey Hairs", by a Rev. J. G. Wood.

"The amount of red colouring matter in hair, for example, is very great, and often exists where it is unsuspected. Some years ago when red hair was at a discount, and ladies with black hair heaped derision on their red-haired sisters, they would not have felt much flattered if they had been told that their hair had quite as much of the red pigment as that of the most fiery-locked of the despised "carrots."

Yet the hair of William Rufus and of the blackest negro possess an equal amount of red matter, only in the latter the red is over-powered by the addition of black particles.

In the true auburn hair, where the black colouring matter is replaced by brown, the red is visible through the darker hue, and in the sunbeams makes the hair look as if mixed with threads of shining gold. In the museum at Oxford there is a lock of hair taken from the head of Charles I. Though it has lain for so many years in the tomb, it still retains its bright auburn, and in the sunlight the golden threads sparkle in it as if it belonged to a young girl."

I've included the first two paragraphs as they relate to another topic discussed on these pages. Namely that people with dark hair have the red pigment in their hair too, it's just masked or "over-powered" by the darker pigment. Today we would say that people with darker hair also have the pheomelanin that makes red hair red, but that they also have high levels of eumelanin that mask it - which redheads do not have (or have, but to a relatively lower extent).

As for Charles the First we already have a redhead page for him.

See here: https://redheadsinhistory.blogspot.com/2018/06/226-charles-i-of-england.html

It would perhaps be a little cheeky to claim him as a redhead, but it does seem that his hair at least had some reddish elements. I also came across this article which supposedly shows some of his hair.

https://news.justcollecting.com/king-charles-i-beard-hair-auction/

The article states that one Sir Henry Halford, a physician to King George III, who was part of a group that inspected the newly discovered tomb of Charles back in 1813, described the hair as:

"..thick at the back part of the head and, in appearance, nearly black. A portion of it, which has since been cleaned and dried, is of a beautiful dark brown colour. That of the beard was a redder brown."

So in this account the hair is somewhat darker. In the images accompanying the article the hair also appears fairly dark, though it's often hard to judge such images due to variations in lighting and photographic methods. So doubt is the order of the day. Especially given that the tomb of Charles was said to have been opened on the 1st of April, 1813 (!)

Mary, Queen of Scots: The Auburn Wig

This one will be short :)

It follows on from that last post. At the very start of the section about hair we referenced there was a mention of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her hair. We've discussed Mary and her possible red hair many times on here before, so I couldn't forgo this one.

This time it's stated that Mary had "dark and luxurious tresses", but wore "an auburn wig" over the top.

As with the last post the writing has a certain charm, so I'll quote in full.

THOUGH THE HAIR is certainly the loveliest frame that could be devised for the human face, and though we see it constantly in an infinite number of beautiful colours and shades, it is a curious fact that few women are quite satisfied with the colour of their own hair. Even those to whom nature has been as liberal in point of quality as in that of quantity, think they might look better if there was "just one more shade of gold," or "a richer dash of chestnut," or "a more decided black," in the chevelure. Even, Mary Queen of Scots was dissatisfied with her dark and luxuriant tresses, scented always with violets, and wore over them an auburn wig, the colour fashionable in the time of la reine rousse, Elizabeth. The love of change extends from the dress to the hair itself, and some wilful beauties would like to wear a different coloured coiffure with each costume.

The idea that Mary wore a wig is not a new one (it's said that when she was executed her severed head dropped from her wig as the executioner tried to lift it aloft to the watching crowd). The above is no doubt following in that tradition. Given that the work we're quoting from here was published in 1882 and Mary died in 1587 this account doesn't really add anything new. It's interesting nonetheless though.