126* Cohje&ures rtfpeBing the 



The Scythians on the Boryfthenes, according to the teftimony 

 of Herodotus, cropped the,ir hair on the interment of their 

 kings. This offering to the dead is often mentioned both by 

 |he Greek and Latin poets; for fuch is the name given by 

 G\id to this ceremony, when he fays that Hecuba left her 

 tears, together with her gray hairs, on the grave of her foil 

 He&or, as an offering to the dead. Petronius, fpeaking of 

 the well-known matron of Ephefus, fays that (he placed the 

 hair torn from her head on the bread of her deceafed huf- 

 band. Bufbek, ambaffador from Ferdinand king of Hun- 

 gary to Soliman the Turkifh fultan, fays, that tufts of 

 human hair are found on the graves of raoft of the Servians, 

 as a mark of the forrow of the relations for the lofs of the 

 deceafed. Though the Servians are not now heathens, but 

 Chriflians, and, consequently, thefe tufts of hair can no 

 longer be confidered as an offering to the dead ; yet conftant 

 experience (hows, that in all the changes of religion which 

 take place among nations, fome remains of the old religion 

 are always retained. 



Inftances of this practice may be found even in modern 

 times. In the year 17 16, one of the Chinefe embaffy, hav- 

 ing died at Samarow-jam, a fmall town at the mouth of the 

 river Irti(h, his oldeft domeftic cut off a lock of hair from 

 his head, and threw it into the funeral pile as an offering to 

 the deceafed. The mataram, fupreme prince of the ifland 

 of Java, when he eaufed his rebellious brother to be interred 

 with great funeral pomp, as a token of his grief cut off his 

 hair. The Caribs in the Antilles crop their hair when in 

 mourning, and the women cut it off entirely. The women 

 in Virginia ftrew their hair around the burying-ground, or 

 throw it upon the grave. The Brazilian women fhave their 

 heads, and their mourning is not at an end till their hair has 

 grown again. When the Apalachit.es, a people of Florida^ 

 are deflrous of exprefiing their forrow for the death of a rela- 

 tion, they cut off a part of their hair : at the death of their 

 prince they (have their heads entirely, and do notfuffer their 

 hair to grow again till the body has been depofited in the earth, 

 which is never done till the expiration of two years. 



The Iroquefe of both fexes teftified their grief alfo by cut- 

 ting off their hair. The women, on this occarion, durft not go 

 out of their huts till their hair had grown again ; but as this 

 required a long time, they at prefent, with the permiffion of 

 their relations, cut off only a fmall portion, which they ftrew 

 over the graves of their deceafed huibands. It is here to be 

 obferved, that the women in Canada confider it as the greateft 

 indignity that can be offered to them if any one cuts off their 



hair; 



