THE HUMAN HAIR. 75 



quishcd Gauls, and sent it to the Roman market for 

 sale, and the cropped head was regarded in the 

 conquered provinces as a hadge of slavery. 



To such a pitch of absurd extravagance did the 

 Roman ladies at one time cany the business of 

 adorning the hair, that upon the introduction of 

 Christianity, in the first and second centuries, the 

 apostles and fathers of the church launched severe 

 invectives against the vanity and frivolity of the 

 practice. It must be confessed the ancient ladies 

 did outdo their modern sisters. The artistic, pro- 

 fessional hair-dressers of old Rome were employed 

 at exorbitant prices to form the hair into fanciful 

 devices, such as harps, diadems, wreaths, emblems 

 of public temples and conquered cities, or to plait 

 it into an incredible number of tresses, which were 

 often lengthened by ribbons so as to reach to the 

 feet, and loaded with pearls and clasps of gold. No 

 wonder such exhibitions of vanity excited the 

 wrath of that stubborn old bachelor, St. Paul, and 

 called forth his maledictions. It would be curious 

 if, before the present fashion of arranging the hair 

 among the ladies runs out, the extreme customs of 

 a pagan age should come round again. 



In ancient times people grew old as they do 

 now, and the frosts of age blanched the raven locks 

 of youth, and also there were those with hair glow- 

 ing with red, or other tints not deemed desirable. 



