Taking a reference to an enumerated list is not the same as using
square brackets--instead it's the same as creating a list of
references!

    @list = (\$a, \@b, \%c);
    @list = \($a, @b, %c);      # same thing!

As a special case, `\(@foo)' returns a list of references to the
contents of `@foo', not a reference to `@foo' itself. Likewise for
`%foo', except that the key references are to copies (since the keys
are just strings rather than full-fledged scalars).