1828.] Historical and Literary. 255 



hypothetical impossibility of the fact ? Surely it is too much to believe 

 that so absurd a custom could either be adopted by the inhabitants of a 

 civilized country, or be tolerated by those who act as its magistrates." 

 Between two such learned Thebans I hardly know how to decide. 

 Pagenstecher stands up for the truth of the Frenchman's story, and 

 declares that the burgomasters of Hardenberg were so elected in the 

 commencement of the eighteenth century. But I should doubt the 

 correctness of his information, because the Germans have always been 

 close imitators of the fopperies of France ; and the beard was decried as 

 a barbarous deformity some years before that time by those who regu- 

 lated the freaks and fashions of its light-hearted inhabitants. I should 

 venture to draw the same conclusion from a passage in Mencken's excel- 

 lent treatise on the Charlatanerie of Men of Letters, written about the 

 same time. It is not, when all men are bearded, that the strolling buf- 

 foons of the day clothe themselves in long beards to excite the laughter 

 of t^ie mob; and yet he says that the most certain mode of collecting a 

 crowd in Saxony, was for an impudent varlet so dressed to mount upon a tub, 

 and to begin to bawl out at the height of his lungs, " I am the celebrated 

 beard of iron (Sideropogon). Listen to him, who is the envy of the 

 present, and the admiration of the future generation/' Such an annun- 

 ciation was considered as a challenge to mirth and good fellowship, and 

 was generally rewarded by a liberal recompense, if the mountebank 

 could go through his part with reasonable dexterity A 



It is a long leap from Saxony to Spain ; but the plan of my narrative 

 requires me to take it, and therefore, in spite of all difficulties, take it I 

 will. Suppose me, then, alighted in the centre of Castile, and busily 

 engaged in the examination of its ancient records. Pelagio and his 

 Visigoths pass in review before me, with all the chivalry of ancient Spain. 

 I behold a long succession of hardy warriors, equally conspicuous for 

 bravery and for beard. Ruy Diaz de Bivar is in the midst of them, and 

 deserves his title of the " Accomplished Beard,"* no less by the courtesy 

 of his demeanour, than by the hirsuteness of his chin. The Count de 

 Garcias is deploring with bitter tears of grief and rage the insolent com- 

 plaint he made to the Cortes against its enormous bushiness, which he 

 said was intended to surprise one half of the world and to frighten the 

 other. " I thank God," exclaims the Cid Campeador " I thank God, 

 the governor of heaven and earth, my beard is long, because I have 

 always taken pleasure in nursing it; what objection have you, Sir 

 Count, to urge against it ? Never has child of woman dared to touch it 

 never has son of Moor or Christian brought a razor near it. But it 

 is not so with your's, Sir Count ; for when I took your castle of Cabra, 

 and held you by the throat, there was not a lad in my troop who did not 

 pluck away part of your's and that part which I pluck'd away 

 myself, and blew into your face, has never sprouted again, and never 

 will." In vain does the exasperated Count join with his relations, the 

 Infantas of Carion, to revenge this insult. He falls in the closed lists, to 

 which he is challenged, and, as he dies, beholds the Cid laying his hand 

 proudly on his beard, as a proof that he is satisfied with the expiatory 

 sacrifice offered to its honour. But, though neither Moor nor Christian 

 dared to touch " the fringe and tassel" of the Cid's face, while he was yet 

 alive, an unbelieving Jew attempted to pull it while the body was lying 

 in state near the high altar of the Cathedral of Toledo. The spirit of 



. . * See Sismondi's " De la Litterature du Midi de 1'Europe." Tom 3, p. 123^ \ 



