284 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



GENIUS AND HAIR-COLOR 



BY CHARLES KASSEL 



FOBT WOETH, TEXAS 



OF the physiognomy of man — so interesting in its every phase — no 

 feature can boast a more varied interest than the hair. Remnant 

 of the coarse fur which once covered the body of the human animal — 

 withdrawn at last, after a losing battle with time, to its invincible re- 

 treat and stronghold upon the head — this relic of beast life grew with the 

 process of the suns into a thing of use and meaning, — a mark of race, 

 an emblem of rank, a symbol of religion, and lastly, but chief of all, 

 into an adornment of surpassing beauty affording to Cupid a most 

 potent weapon in his merry warfare against the sons and daughters 

 of men. 



The place of the hair in the religious life of the race has been 

 unique. Among the Greeks and Romans, the hair, worn long until the 

 fourteenth year, was then severed from the youth's head and dedicated 

 to a river-god ; and the sailors of both these countries, after a shipwreck 

 or other dire calamity at sea, thought it a fitting propitiation of the 

 angered deities to remove and cast away the hair. It is highly note- 

 worthy that not only in the Roman Catholic and Hindu churches, but 

 throughout nearly all the ancient world, the tonsure in one form or 

 another was a sacred rite. This was true of the vestal virgins as it has 

 been true of the Roman Catholic nuns and monks, and a like custom 

 among the Tartars of old survives in the queue of the Chinese. 



As a mark of honor the hair in the old time played no less distinctive 

 a part. To the ancient Persians, Goths and Gauls, long, flowing locks 

 spoke of high rank, and among the ancient Germans the same adorn- 

 ment told of noble or royal birth. Even so lately as the reign of Henry 

 VIII. in England long hair was a token of gentility, and readers may 

 still recall the love-locks of the cavaliers of Charles I. — an amiable 

 vanity which was given short shrift by their Puritan victors. 



Seeing the large place which the hair has filled in the religious and 

 social life of the race, it is in no wise remarkable that the fancy of 

 mankind should have sought to attach to that feature of the phy- 

 siognomy a much deeper meaning. Thus, in all ages, stiff and wiry 

 hair has been deemed a sign of dishonesty or low birth, while softly 

 clustering curls humanity has ever been prone to associate with gentle- 

 ness and innocence. Coarse hair has been looked upon as a sign of a 

 coarse organization, but the " poet's ringlets " have always formed a 

 part of the popular conception of the poetic character. 



In a general way, the well-known facts of ethnology have given a 



