276 FISHBERG 



over like a hairy garment." ^ The reference to David as '' ruddy " 

 is explained by the Targum as "red-haired." Jacobs ^ com- 

 ments on this as showing that the Jews of the time when the 

 Targum was written (about 600 A. D.) where not averse to re- 

 garding the typical Jewish king as rufous. Painters in the early 

 centuries of this era represented Christ with light hair, and Mary 

 Magdalene is almost always depicted as having light hair. 

 Judas Iscariot is considered to have been a typical red-haired 

 individual, although the New Testament makes no mention of 

 it. Besides this it must be mentioned that in ancient Egyptian 

 monuments the Canaanites are pictured as having red hair and 

 red beards. The Edomites, if we may trust the etymology of 

 the Avord " edom," were also red-haired. The red hair of the 

 modern Jews is thus considered by many archeologists to be 

 derived from the ancient red-haired individuals and races in 

 Palestine in ancient times. 



The hair of the beard in men is usually lighter than that of 

 the head, and red beards are more frequent than red heads. 

 Observations on the color of the beards of 587 Jews show the 

 following distribution : 



Color. Number Percent. 



Black 175 29.82 



Brown 118 20.10 



Chestnut 8i 13.80 



Light chestnut 34 5.79 



Blond 115 19-59 



Red 164 10.90 



Total 587 100.00 



From these figures we find that red hair is nearly three times 

 as common in the beard as in the hair of the head. This is not 

 at all surprising to any one who has observed the Jews closely 

 for the beard is quite frequently red and very often has at least 

 a rufous tinge of frizzly character. I find that red beards are 

 more frequently found among the Jews of Galicia than among 

 those of other countries. Besides the red beards we find from 



^ Genesis, XXV, 25. 



'^Journal Anthropological Institute, XV, pp. 23-62. 



