Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/258

 250 chap. 30. Πυρρος may fairly be taken to imply red hair. A red complexion would usually have reddish hair with it). From a comparison of this passage with chap. 73 and Diodorus, i, 88 (quoted by Parthey ad loc.), we may infer that these red-haired men were sacrificed to Set-Typhon. I do not venture to suggest any reason why these men should be disliked: whether the prejudice was racial (we are told that only a few of the πυρροι were Egyptians, most foreigners), or connected with the colour (red asses, as we saw, were sacrificed, and so were red oxen); but it would seem premature to explain the European prejudice in a way which does not explain this. Did the Hebrews get it from Egypt?