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bcr of other examples of this kind might be produced, 
which do as much honour to whilkers as to the good faith 
of tliofe days. 
In Louis XIII’s reign, whilkers attained the higheft de¬ 
gree of favour, at the expence of the expiring beards. 
In tliofe days of gallantry, not empoifoned by wit, they 
became the favourite occupation of lovers. A fine black 
vvhifker, elegantly turned up, was a very powerful mark 
of dignity with the fair fex. Whilkers were frill in falhion 
in the beginning of Louis XIV’s reign. The king, and 
all the great men of his court, took a pride in wearing 
them. They were the ornament of Turenne, Conde, 
Colbert, Corneille, Moliere, &c. It was then no uncom¬ 
mon tiling' for a favourite lover to have his whilkers turn¬ 
ed up, combed, and pomatumed, by his miftrefs; and, 
for that purpofe, a man of fafiiion took care to be always 
provided with every little necetfary article, elpeciaily 
whifker-wax. It was highly flattering to a lady to have 
it in her power to praife the beauty of her lover’s vvhif- 
kers; which, far from being difgufting, gave his perfon 
an air of vivacity : feveral even thought them an incite¬ 
ment to loVe. It feerns the levity of the French made 
them undergo feveral changes both in form and name : 
there were Spanijk , Turkijk, guard-dagger, &c. whilkers, 
in Ihort, royal ones, which were the laft worn: their fmall- 
nefs proclaimed their approaching fall. 
The Confecration of the Beard was a ceremony among 
the Roman youth, who, when they were fhaved the firlt 
time, kept a day of rejoicing, and were particularly care¬ 
ful to put the hair of their beard into a (liver or gold box, 
. and make an offering of it to fome god, particularly to Ju¬ 
piter Capitolinus, as was done by Nero, according to Sue¬ 
tonius. The Turkifh wives kifs their hu(bands beards, 
and children their fathers,' as often as they come to falute 
them. The men kifs one another’s beards reciprocally on 
both tides, when they falute in the (treets, or come off 
from any journey. 
The Fajhion of the Beaud has varied in different ages 
and countries ; fome cultivating and entertaining one part 
of it, fome another. Thus the Hebrews wear a beard on 
their chin ; but not on the upper lip or checks. Moles 
forbids them to cut off entirely the angle or extremity of 
their beard ; that is, to manage it after the Egyptian fa¬ 
lhion, who left only a little tuft of beard at the extremity 
of their chin ; whereas the Jews to this day fufl'er 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 in a pretty long bunch. The Jews, in time of 
mourning, negletffed to trim their beards, that is, to cut 
off what grew fyperfluous on the upper lips and cheeks. 
In time of grief and great affliction they alfo plucked off 
the hair of their beards. 
Anointing the Beard with unguents is an ancient prac¬ 
tice both among the Jews and Romans, and (till continues 
in ufe among the Turks ; where one of the principal cere¬ 
monies obferved in ferious vilits is to throw (weet-fcented 
water on the beard of the vilitant, and to perfume it after¬ 
wards with aloes-wood, which (licks to this moilture, and 
gives it an agreeable fmell. In middle-age writers we 
meet with adlcntarc bar bent, iifed tor flroking and combing 
it, to render it foft and flexible. The Turks, when they 
comb their beards, hold a handkerchief on their knees, 
and gather very carefully the hairs that fall ; and, when 
they have got together a certain quantity, they told them 
up in paper, and carry them to the place where they bury 
the dead. 
Beard of a Comet. See Astronomy, vol. ii. p. 402. 
Beard of a Horse, that part underneath the lower 
mandible on the outllde and above the chin, which bears 
the curb. It is alfo called the chuck. It thould have but 
little flefh, without any chops, hardnefs, or fwelling; 
and be neither too high railed nor too flat, but fitch as 
the curb may reft in its right place. 
Beard of a Muscle, oyfter, or the like, denotes an 
affemblage of threads or hairs, by which tliofe animals fal- 
Vol. II. No, 105. 
B E A 82g 
ten theinfelves to (Jones. The hairs of this beard termi¬ 
nate in a flat fpongy lubftance, which being applied to the 
furface of a (lone, (licks thereto, like the wet leather ufed 
by boys. 
Beards, J. in the hiftory of infefts, are two fmall ob¬ 
long flefliy bodies, placed juft above the trunk, as in the 
gnats, and in the moths and butterflies. 
Beard, a town of France, in the department of the 
Nievre, and chief place of a canton, in the diftridt of De- 
cize, on the Loire : ten miles fouth-eaft of Nevers. 
To B ea rd, v. a , To take or pluck by the beard, in con¬ 
tempt or anger : 
No man fo potent breathes upon the ground. 
But I will beard him. Shahejpeare. 
To oppofe to the face ; to fet at open defiance.—The de- 
(ign ot utterly extirpating monarchy and epifcopacy, the 
prefbyterians alone begun, continued, and would have 
ended, if they had not been bearded by that new party, 
with whom they could not agree about dividing the fpoil. 
Swift. 
BEARD'ED, adj. Having a beard: 
Old prophecies foretel our fall at hand, 
When bearded men in floating caftles land. Dryden. 
Having (harp prickles, as corn : 
As when a field 
Of Ceres, ripe for harveft, waving bends 
Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind 
Inclines them. Milton. 
Barbed or jagged : 
Thou (liould’ft have pull’d the fecret from my bread:. 
Torn out the bearded fteel to give me reft. Dry den. 
Bearded Women have been all obferved to want the 
menftrual difeharge ; and feveral inftances are given by 
Hippocrates, and other phyficians, of grown women, efpe- 
ciully widows, in whom, the menfes coming to (lop, beards 
appeared. Eufebius Nierembergius mentionsa woman who 
had a beard reaching to her navel. Of women remarkably 
bearded we have feveral inftances. In the cabinet of cu- 
riofities of Stutgard in Germany, there is tire portrait of 
a woman called Bartel Graetje, whole chin is covered with 
a very large beard. She was drawn in 1587, at which 
time (he was but twenty-five years of age. There is like¬ 
wife in the fame cabinent another portrait of her when (he 
was more advanced in life, but likewife with a beard. It 
is (aid, that the duke of Saxony had the portrait of a poor 
Svvifs woman taken, remarkable for her long bufhy beard ; 
and thole who were at the carnival at Venice in 1726, faw 
a female dancer aftonifh the fpedfators not more by her ta¬ 
lents than by her chin covered with a black bufhy beard. 
Charles XII. had in his army a female grenadier : it was 
neither courage nor a beard that (lie wanted to be a man. 
Site was taken at the battle of Pultowa, and carried to 
Peterfburgh, where (he was prefented to the czar in 1724 : 
her beard meafured a yard and a half. We read in the 
Trevoux Dictionary, that there was a woman feen at Pa¬ 
ris, who had not only a bufhy beard on her face, but her 
body likewife covered all over with hair. Among a num¬ 
ber of other examples of this nature, that of Margaret, 
the governefs of the Netherlands, is very remarkable. 
She had a very long ftiff beard, which (lie prided herfelf 
on ; and, being periuaded that it contributed to give her 
an air of majefty, (lie took care not to lofe a hair of it. 
This Margaret was a very great woman. It is faid, that 
the Lombard women, when they were at war, made them- 
felves beards with the hairs of their heads, which they in- 
genioufly arranged on their cheeks, in order that the ene¬ 
my, deceived by the likenefs, might take them for men. * 
BEARD'LESS, adj. Without a beard. 
BEAR'ER,jfi [from to bear. ] A carrier who conveys 
any thing from one place or perfon to another: 
He fltould the bearers put to fudden death, 
Not (hriving time allow’d. Shakefpeare. 
10 B Forgive 
