2. Tlie precisely opjiosite practice, as regards men, would seem to have i)revailed among the ancient As- syrians, and, indeed, among the Asiatics generally. In the Assyrian sculptures the hair
always appears long, combed close- ly down mion the head, and shed- ding itself in a mass of ciu-ls on the shoidders. "The beard also was allowed to groAv to its full length, and, descending low on the l)reast, was divided into two or three rows of curls. The mustache was also carefully trimmed and curled at the ends" (Layard's Ki?iereh, ii, Assyrian Manner of 327). Herodotus likewise testifies wearing tlie Hair that the Babylonians wore their hair long (i, 195). The very long hair, however, that appears in the figures on the monu- ments is supposed to have been partly false, r. sort of head-dress to add to the effect of the natural hair. The excessive pains bestowed by the ancient nations in ar- ranging the hair and beard apjicars almost foiijiish in contrast with their stern, martial character (Layard's Nineveh, ii, '254). See Heard. Tlie practice of the modern Arabs in regard to the length of their hair va- ries; generally the men allow it to grow its natural length, the tresses hanging down to the breast, and sometimes to the waist, affording substantial protection to the head and neck against the violence of the sun's ravs (Burckhardt's Notes, i, 49 ; Wellsted's Travels, i, 33, 53, 73).
3. Among the ancient Greeks, the general admiration of long hair, whether in men or women, is evidenced by the expression KapriKOjitowi'-is 'Axntoi ("well-combed Greeks"), so often occurring in Homer; and by the saying, which passed current among the people, that hair was the cheapest of ornaments ; and in the repre- sentations of their divinities, especially Bacchus and Apollo, whose long locks were a symbol of jierpetual youth. But the i)ractice varied. \\'hile the Spartans
(From sculptnr British ilusenm.)
Grecian Manner of wearing the Hair. (Hope's Costwmes.)
in earlier times wore the hair long, and men as well as women were wont to have it tied in a knot over the crown of the head, at a later period they were accus- tomed to wear it short. Among the Athenians, also, it is miderstood the later practice varied somewhat from
HAIR
24
HAIR
the earlier, though the information is less specific. The Komans passed through similar changes: in more an- cient times the hair of the head and beard was allowed to grow; but about three centunes before the Cliristian jera barbers began. to be introduced, and men usually wore the hair short. Shaving was also customary, and a long beard was regarded as a mark of slovenliness. An instance even occiu-s of a man, M. Livius, who had been banished for a time, being ordered by the censors to have liis beard shaved before he entered the senate (Uvy, xxvii, 34). See Diade.m.
This later practice must have been quite general m the GosjK'l age, so far as the liead is concerned, among the countries which witnessed the labors of the apostle Paul, since, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, he re- fers to it as an acknowledged and nearly universal fact. '•Doth not even nature itself teach you," he asked, " that if a man have long hair, it is a shame to him ? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her ; for her hair is given her for a covering" (1 Cor. xi, 14, 15). The only person among the more ancient Israelites who is expressly mentioned as having done in ordinary life what is liere designated a shame, is Absalom ; but the manner in which the sacred historian notices the ex- travagant regard he paid to the cultivation of his hair not ohsciu-ely intimates that it was esteemed a piece of foppish ett'eminacy (2 Sam. xiv, 20). To the Corinthi- ans tlie letter of Paul \vas intended to administer a time- ly reproof for allowing themselves to fall in with a style of manners which, by confounding the distinctions of the sexes, threatened a banefid influence on good mor- als ; and that not- only the Christian converts in that city, but the primitive Church generally, were led by this admonition to adopt simpler habits, is evident from the remarkable fact that a criminal, who came to trial under tlie assumed character of a Christian, was proved to the satisfaction of the judge to be an impostor by the liLxuriant and frizzled appeai-ance of his hair (Tertid- lian, ApoL; Fleury, Les Mmirs des Chritiennes). See Shaving. With regard to women, the possession of long and luxuriant hair is allowed by Paul to be an es- sential attribute of the sex— a graceful and modest cov- ering provided by nature; and yet the same apostle elsewhere (1 Tim. ii, 9) concurs with Peter (1 Pet. iii, 9) in launching severe invectives against the ladies of his day for the pride and passionate fondness they displayed in the elaborate decorations of their head-dress. See Plaiting the Haih. As the hair was pre-eminently the " instrimient of their pride" (Ezek. xvi, 39, margin), all the resources of ingenuity and art were exhausted to set it off to advantage and load it with tlic most daz- zling finery; and many, when they died, caused their longest locks to be cut off, and placed separately in an urn, to be deposited in tlieir tomb as the most precious and valued relics. In the daily use of cosmetics, they bestowed the most astonishing pains in arranging their long hair, sometimes twisting it round on tlie crown of the liead, where, and at the temples, by the aid of gum, whicli tliey knew as well as the modern belles, they wrought it into a variety of elegant and fancifid tleviccs —figures of coronets, harjw, wreaths, diadems, emblems of public temples and con((uered cities, being formed by the mimic skill of the ancient friseur; or else plaiting it into an increcUble number of tresses, which hung down the back, and which, when necessary, were lengthened by ribbons so a.s to reach to the ground, and were kept at full stretch by the weiglit of various wreatlis of pearls and gold fastened at intervals down to the ex- tremity. From some Syrian coins in his possession 1 lartmann {Die Iltbraerinn nm Pulztkche) has given this description of the style of the Hebrew coiffure; and many ancient busts and portraits which have been dis- coverofl exhibit so close a resemblance, to those of East- em ladies in the present day as to show that the same elaborate and gorgeous disposition of their hair has been the pride of Oriental females in every age. (See below.) From the great value attached to a profuse head of hair