Brewer's: Red Boots

A pair of red boots. A Tartar phrase, referring to a custom of cutting the skin of a victim round the upper part of the ankles, and then stripping it off at the feet. A Tartar will say, “When you come my way again, I will give you a pair of red boots to go home in.”

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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