E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Red Indians (of Newfoundland).
So called because they daub their skin, garments, canoes, weapons, and almost everything with red ochre.
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“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.
