Artificial baldness, by shaving, was a sign of mourning, not only among the Jews, but among other races. Bion s comment on its folly, nuasi calvitii) mirror Icvetur, is quoted by Cicero (fuse. Disp. iii. 26). In this manner Mardonius and his army mourned for Ma.si.stiua, cutting otl" not only their own hair, but that of their horses (Herod. ix. 24; see also Patroclus' fiinrral, II. xxiii. 40: also Odyss. iv. 198; Seneca, Ifijiiml. 1176). Micah bids the women of ^larcshali niaKe themselves bald (1"), and enlarge their baldness as the nesher or neophron (Kgyi). vulture), which has a featherless head. Baldness, produced by cutting otf the hair, is a-ssociated with mourning in Is lo'' 22", Jer 48" 16', Ezk 27", and Am 8'". It is used metaphorically for mourning in Jer 47' and Ezk 7".
Syniliolii al baldness by shaving was the sign of the expiry ol the Nazirite's vow (Nu 6"). At the expiry oi his vow St. Paul shaved his head at
Cenchreoe, and he fulfilled later the ritua4 oi purification (Ac IS'* 21**). Shaving in connexion with vows was not peculiar to the Jews ; thus the people of Argos shaved their heads in token of their vow to recover Thyra;a (Herod, i. 82). Shaving the forehead was not permitted to the Jews (Beehorat 43. 3, and Sifre on Nu). These shavings were essentially representative sacrihces ; in the usual heathen form, they were intended to propitiate the deity invoked. The Jewish tonsure was partly thanksgiving, hence the hair was burnt in the fire of the peace-oB'ering (Nu 6") ; it was also partly purificatory, ' as if by this, deficiencies in religious service were cut off' (Rabanus Maur. de Cleric. Inst. i. 3). Shaving was on this account part of the ceremony of the purification of Levites (Nu 8'). Among some races partial tonsure is a tribal mark, as, for example, the occipital tonsure of the Philippine iEtas.
The primitive Christian tonsure was votive, and was falsely supposed to have been invented by St. Peter (Greg. Tour, de gloria Martyr, i. 28), but really dates from the 5th cent. The Petrine or Rom. crown-tonsnxe represented the crown of thorns (Raban. i. 3). 'The Eastern or Pauline tonsure was total shaving or close croppin" of the head, and was derived from Egypt. The Celtic or Johaniiine tonsure, which was a shaving of the front of the head in front of the ears and vertex, existed in Spain, where it was forbidden by the 4th Council of Toledo (Canon xli.) ; it was also practised in Celtic Britain (Gildas, Epist. ii.), Ireland, and Scotland (Bede, Uist. Eccl. iv. 1, v. 2), as well as among the Saxons (Apollinaris Sidonius, Epist. ad Lamprid. viii. 9). It was probably the survival of a pre-Christian badge of servitude, as the word Maol, ' bald-headed,' for servant existed in pre-Christian times, as in the names Maolduin and Maoldarach. Lucat - Maol was a heathen antagonist of St. Patrick. Tonsure of women was, in the judgment of St. Paul, shameful (1 Co 11°), and the early Church decided at the Council of Gangra that it a woman polled her head she should be excommunicated (Socrates, HE iii. 42). See Barber, Hair, Shaving.
A. Macalister.
BALM (1< zdri, 'y.f zlrt ; LXX fntTiv-n ; resimt). —It is impossible to determine, on philological grounds, the substance intended by zOri ; and as the ancient translations do not agree on the sig- nification of the word, it must remain uncertain. The substances with which it is mentioned (Gn 37", cf. 43") make it probable that it was an aromatic gum or spice. If the substance alluded to by Jeremiah (S"'' 4(i" 51') be the same, powerful medicinal virtues were attributed to it. It was clearly an article of commerce in Gilead, dealt in by Judah and Israel (Ezk 27"). No mention is made of a balm tree as growing in Gilead. It is not certain from the expressions, ' Is there no balm in Gilead ? ' and ' Go up into Gilead and take balm,' that the substance was produced there, any more than from the expression that ' Judah ami the land of Israel, they were thy merchants, they traded in balm,' implies that it was produced in their country. Gilead was an indefinite geo- graiihical expression for the district stretching eastward from the Jordan to the Euphrates and an unknown extent southward. A portion of the commerce of Arabia passed through it, and spices and balms and incense formed an imjiortant part of the wares carried by the Ishmaelites through this territory. Whether the substance was produced in it or not, Gilead would seem to have been an entrepot for it. This is all we know from Scrip- ture as to the substance or substances intended. Any attempt to identify them must be conjectural, and he who hazards a gness will be largely in
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BALNUUS
BAND
lluenced by his opinion as to whether balm was a prtKluct of Gileaa or an article of commerce there ami in Pal. If we assume that it was a product of (iilead, we have no known tree in tliat region whicli produces a medicinal aromatic gum or spice. Mn.stkh has been supposed by some to be the substance. The tree which produces it, how- ever, although abundant along the coast and lower mountains of W. Pal., has not been reported E. of the Jordan. The author searched for it in the forests of Gilead and Bashan without finding it. .Moreover, the Ishm.ielites (Gn 37^) brought it, with Arabian gums and spices, throiigli Gilead to Uotlian on their way to Egypt. Mastich is, and alwa3-s has been, a leading product of Chios and other islands of the ALgean Sea, and was certainly not a product of Arabia. Pliny (Nat. Hist. xil. 3ti), indeed, speaks of a mastich produced in India and Arabia, but it was produced by a 'prickly shrub,' and therefore cannot be the gum hovaPistacia Lentiscua, L. In other places he calls the true mastich resin of /t'n/i,?A-(.\.\iv. 22. 28). He attributes to it a long list of virtues, princip.-illy astringent and detergent.