HISTORY OF 



to have entertained different prejudices, at diffe- 

 rent times, in favour of one part or another of 

 the beard. Some have admired the hair upon 

 the cheeks on each side, as we see with some 

 low-bred men among ourselves, who want to be 

 fine. Some like the hair lower down; some 

 choose it curled; and others like it straight, 

 " Some have cut it into a peak ; and others 

 shave all but the whisker. This particular part 

 of the beard was highly prized among the Spa- 

 niards ; till of late, a man without whiskers was 

 considered as unfit for company, and where na- 

 ture had denied them, art took care to supply the 

 deficiency. We are told of a Spanish general, 

 who, when he borrowed a large sum of money 

 from the Venetians, pawned his whisker, which he 

 afterwards took proper care to release. Kingson 

 assures us, that a considerable part of the reli- 

 gion of the Tartars consists in the management 

 of their whiskers ; and that they waged a long 

 and bloody war with the Persians, declaring them 

 infidels, merely because they would not give 

 their whiskers the orthodox cut. The kings of 

 Persia carried the care of their beards to a ridi- 

 culous excess, when they chose to wear them 

 matted with gold thread ; and even the kings of 

 France, of the first races, had them knotted and 

 buttoned with gold. But of all nations, the 

 Americans take the greatest pains in cutting 

 their hair, and plucking their beards. The un- 

 der part of the beard, and all but the whisker, 

 they take care to pluck up by the roots, so that 

 m.any have supposed them to have no hair natu- 



