Handspring Visor Deluxe Handheld - Manual (Page 256)

Page 248 Non-ASCII Characters for Login Scripts
Literal characters
The backslash ( \ ) character defines that the next character is
transmitted as a literal character, and is not subject to any special
processing ordinarily associated with that character.
Examples:
\^ Includes a caret as part of the string
\< Includes a < as part of the string
\\ Includes a backslash as part of the string