366 



BEARD. 



Beard, minished. The Lombard women, it is said, when 

 /""*-' accompanying their husbands to the field of battle, 

 contrived t;> assume the appearance of beards, by an 

 ingenious disposition of the hair of their heads upon 

 their cheeks ; and the Athenian women, according to 

 Suidas, did the same thing in a similar case. 



The American savages have thin and scanty beards, 

 which they are in general solicitous to extirpate by 

 the roots. The beard of the negro is short and 

 bushy, like his hair; that of the Grecnlander, Sa- 

 moiede, and of all savages who live a life of hardship 

 and penury, is generally thin, and stinted in its 

 growth. The fashion of the beard has greatly va- 

 ried in different ages and countries ; for sometimes it 

 has been deemed honourable and becoming to perpiit 

 it to grow to its utmost extent ; and sometimes it 

 has been fashionable to cut it off entirely, or to per- 

 mit it to remain only on a particular part of the face, 

 or cut into a particular form. In mentioning the 

 most remarkable of these peculiarities, we shall speak, 

 1st,' Of the eastern nations; 2dly, Of the ancient 

 Greeks and Romans ; and, 3dly, Of the modern in- 

 habitants of Europe. 



I. Among the eastern nations, the ancient Egyp- 

 tians left only a little tuft of hair at the extremity of 

 the chin. The Hebrews wore a beard on the chin, 

 but not on the upper lip ; and they were prohibited' 

 by Moses to manage their beards after the Egyptian 

 fashion. The Jews of the present day suffer a little 

 fillet of hair to grow from the lower end of their ears 

 to their chins, where, as well as on their lower lips, 

 their beards are iu a pretty long bunch. Strabo re- 

 lates, that the ancient Indian philosophers, called 

 Gymnosophists, were particularly solicitous to have 

 long beards, as symbolical of wisdom. The ancient 

 Assyrians and Persians also prided themselves on the 

 length of their beards 5 and Chrysostom informs us, 

 that the kings of Persia had their beards interwoven, 

 or matted, with gold thread ; a practice which was 

 also adopted by some of the first kings of France. 



According to Le Compte, the Chinese greatly af- 

 fect long beards ; which, however, nature has denied 

 them ; and there is nothing on account of which 

 they are more envious of Europeans than the great 

 length of their beards. The Tartars, out of a reli- 

 gious principle, as Kingson assures us, waged a long 

 and bloody war with the Persians, considering them 

 as infidels, because they would not cut their whiskers 

 after the Tartarian mode, though, in other respects, 

 of the same faith with themselves. The Persians are 

 almost the only Mahometans who clip the beard, and 

 shave above the jaw ; and on this account are deemed 

 heretics by their neighbours. The Arabs make the 

 preservation of their beards a capital point of reli- 

 gion, because Mahomet never shaved his. Among 

 the Turks there is nothing more infamous than to 

 have the beard cut off. The slaves in the seraglio 

 are shaved, as a mark of servitude ; and are only per- 

 mitted to allow their beards to grow when they re- 

 gain their freedom. The custom of anointing the 

 beard prevails among the Turks, as it did among the 

 ancient Jews and Romans ; and one of the principal 

 ceremonies observed in the serious visits of this people, 

 is to throw sweet-scented water on the beard of the 

 guest, and to perfume it afterwards with aloes-wood, 



which adheres to this moisture, ami give it an agree- 

 able smell. The Turks, when they comb their 

 beards, hold a handkerchief on their knees, and care- 

 fully gather the hairs that fall, which they afterwards 

 deposit iu <he place where they bury the dead. The 

 Turkish wives salute their husbands, and the chil- 

 dren their fathers, by kissing the beard ; and the 

 same ceremony is used by the men when they reci- 

 procally salute one another. 



II. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, the 

 beard was scarcely less venerated than among the 

 eastern nations. Homer speaks in high praise of the 

 snow beards of Nestor and king Priam ; and Virgil 

 celebrates that of Me/.entius, which was so long and 

 thick as to cover all his breast. Pliny the younger 

 mentions the white beard of Euphrates, a Syrian phi- 

 losopher, which, he says, inspired the people with 

 respect, mingled with fear ; and Plutarch speaks of 

 the long white beard of an old Laconian, who, being 

 asked why he allowed it to grow so luxuriantly, re- 

 plied, " In order that, having my white beard con- 

 tinually in view, I may do nothing unworthy of ita 

 whiteness." The Greek philosophers distinguished 

 themselves from the vulgar by the length of their 

 beards : a practice, according to Laertius, first intro- 

 duced by Antisthenes, (1. 6.) The Roman philoso- 

 phers affected the same distinction, as we find iu Ho- 

 race ; 



Beard. 



-Tempore quo me 



Solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam. 



Hok. 1. ii. sat. iii. v. 31. 



The Greeks continued to wear their beards till the 

 time of Alexander the Great, as Athenaeus informs 

 us, from Chrysippus ; adding, that the first who cut 

 his beard at Athens, ever after bore the appellation 

 of xo<r$, or shaven. The Macedonians, however, 

 appear to have cut their beards before this period ; 

 as Philip, the father of Alexander, and Amyntas and 

 Archelaus, his predecessors, are represented on me- 

 dals without beards. The reason assigned by Plu- 

 tarch, for Alexander commanding the Macedonian* 

 to be shaven, was, that their beards might not give 

 a handle to their enemies in the day of battle. Before 

 one of Alexander's battles, we are told, when Par- 

 menio presented himself, to give an account of his 

 arrangements, and to inquire, whether any thing re- 

 mained to be done ? " Nothing," said Alexander, 

 " but that the men should shave." " Shave!" cried 

 Parmenio : " Yes," replied the king, " do you 

 not consider what a handle a long beard affords to 

 the enemy ?" (Dornav. Amphilh. Sapient ice.) The 

 Greeks continued to shave the beard till the time 01 

 Justinian, under whose empire long beards came 

 again into fashion, and so continued till Constanti- 

 nople was taken by the Turks. 



The Romans anciently wore long beards and hair, 

 as we find by a variety of authorities. Thus Livy, 

 speaking of the senators who remained in Rome, af- 

 ter the entrance ot the Gauls, mentions, that they 

 wore a long beard : ut turn omnibus promixsa eraf, 

 (lib. v.) ; and Cicero, in his oration for Cash us, men- 

 tions the barba horrida quain in statuis antiqttit ct 

 imaginibus videmus. According to Pliny, the Ro- 

 mans knew nothing of shaving till the year of Rome 



