ion. _He_ makes
_contents_ the nom. to _dies_, taken in its ordinary sense (rather an
unusual concord). _I_ take _dyes_ in the sense of tinges, imbues with, and
make it governed of _zeal_. But perhaps it is to the full-stop at
_presents_ that the "that's my thunder!" applies. I answer, that that was a
necessary consequence of the sense in which I had taken _dies_, and that
_their_ must then refer to _things_ maugre MR. ARROWSMITH. And when he says
that I "do him the honour of requoting the line with which he had supported
it," I merely observe that it is the line immediately following, and that I
have eyes and senses as well as A. E. B.

A. E. B. deceives himself, if he thinks that literary fame is to be
acquired in this way. I do not much approve either of the manner in which,
at least to my apprehension, in his opening paragraph, he seems to
insinuate a charge of forgery against MR. COLLIER. Finally, I can tell him
that he need not crow and clap his wings so much at his emendation of the
passage in _Lear_, for, if I mistake not, few indeed will receive it. It
may be nuts to him and MR. ARROWSMITH to know that they have succeeded in
driving my name out of the "N. & Q."

* * * * *

RED HAIR A REPROACH.

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:

"_Ros._ His very hair is of the dissembling colour.
_Celia._ Something browner than Judas'."

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