THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
vaudois on les confesseurs de la ve'rite' dans les vallies du Piemont (1S49); L'lsracl des Alpes. Pre-
miere histoire complete des Vaudois du Piemont et de leurs colonics (1S51; Eng. transl., The Israel of the Alps: a Complete History of the Vaudois of Piedmont and their Colonies, Edinburgh, 1857); Les Vaudois des Alpes italiennes, de 1685 a 1694, poeme. Les Premiers Chants (Paris, 1S55); Les Nehemites, ou I'expulsion, I'exil et le retour des Vaudois dans teur patrie, de 1686 a 1690 (1850); La Gossen opprimee: histoire jusqu'ici inconnue des iglises Vaudoises (1850); Histoire populaire des Vaudois,
enrichie des documents inedits (1862); Valdisie, poeme (1S63); Le Prehistorique dans les pays de Montbeliard et les contrees circonvoisines (Montbeliard, 1SS7). He contributed papers on archeological subjects to the journal of the Soci6t6 Scientifique et Mddicale of Montbeliard.
MUTILATIONS AND MARKS, CEREMONIAL: In Deut. xiv. 1 the Hebrews are prohibited from practising two customs, cutting the person and " shaving between the eyes " for the dead; the
reason assigned for the prohibition in
The Legal verse 2 is that they are a people holy
Status. to Yahweh. Ezekiel, in his legislation
for the Hebrew Utopia (xliv. 20), forbids the priests to indulge in either of two extremes, shaving the head and wearing the hair long. The priestly law in Lev. xix. 27-28 goes still further, verse 27 forbidding the rounding of the " corners of the head " and " marring the corners of the beard." An illuminative translation of verse 28 (in SBOT) reads: " You (i.e., the Hebrew people) shall not make incisions in your skin for the dead; nor shall you tattoo any marks upon you." Lev. xxi. 5 forbids the priests to shave the head or to shave off the corner of the beard or to make cuttings in the flesh; and the connection (verses 1-5) implies that the practise prohibited is connected with mourning. The passages from Leviticus are from the " Holiness Code," and the reason assigned is the same as in Deuteronomy; the basis of the proscription is religious, which implies that the practises forbidden were also connected with religion.
Other passages, some of earlier date, which either refer to customs similar to those proscribed or use the customs rhetorically, imply that in these as in
other items the legislation cited is cor-
Biblical recting practises (mostly connected
Passages with mourning) which had hitherto
Showing been observed but were at the time of
Customs, the enactments deemed objectionable.
The earliest in time of these passages is Hos. vii. 14 (R. V. margin), and apparently the ceremony referred to is one of prayer and petition to deities for the gift of crops. In Amos viii. 10; Isa. iii. 24, xxii. 12; Micah i. 16; Ezek. vii. 18; and Job i. 20 the shaving of the head is either noted without disapproval, or commanded as from Yahweh, or predicted as signs of mourning which will result from certain calamities which are to occur by way of punishment for sin. Jeremiah makes frequent reference to such customs: xvi. 6 declares that the coming affliction will be so severe that the
rites of mourning, among them those of mutilation of the person by incisions and shaving of the head, will not be observed; xli. 5 records the fact of certain men coming with offerings from Samaria " to the house of the Lord " with beards shaven and garments rent — both of these customs usual in times of mourning; in the rhetorical passage xlvii. 5 baldness (when artificial, a sign of mourning) is predicted for Gaza (this passage does not involve that the habit was current among Philistines, against DB, i. 538) ; probably a similar explanation holds for xlviii. 37 (cf. Isa. xv. 2), where the same mark is to indicate that Moab will experience calamity (the rhetorical character of these passages prevents their use to prove the existence of the habit among Philistines and Moabites). Ex. xiii. 9, 16 (JE) seems to imply a (former?) custom of tattooing on forehead and hand which had religious significance, with which reference such a tender passage as Isa. xlix. 16 is to be compared. Contrast with this Deut. vi. 8, xi. 18, which represents a later stage when the symbols of religious faith wTere to be bound upon (not tattooed into) hand and forehead. It is difficult to decide whether the Exodus passage is purely figurative; at any rate it seems to know the custom of tattooing. Ezek. ix. 4-6 is expressive and characteristic, the literal rendering being " carve a Taw (i.e., the Hebrew letter T) upon the foreheads," etc. Some rabbinic commentators, probably erroneously, explain this by the ankh, the Egyptian sign of life, which, however, is quite different in form from the letter Taw. The habit of inscribing a sign of religious affiliation on the hand is referred to in the Old Testament as late as the exile, since the Deutero-Isaiah says (xliv. 5) " Another shall write on his hand ' Yahweh's ' " (cf. R. V. margin), the purpose being to designate a man as a servant or worshiper of Yahweh. I Kings xviii. 28 is not to be brought into connection with the phenomena under discussion, but is to be related with those treated under Ecstasy (q.v.). Also of slightly different character is the " mark " of Cain (Gen. iv. 15), which is most probably to be brought into connection with the clan mark common under totemism. The mark of Cain was to serve as a deterrent from murderous assault upon him, which is the way in which the clan mark operates, since the killing of a clansman is likely to cause a blood feud (cf. Comparative Religion, VI., 1, c. § 3). The references to the custom of mutilation or tattooing reappear in the Book of Revelation; thus in xiii. 16, 17, xiv. 9, 11, xix. 20, and xx. 4, those who belong to the beast and worship him are said to bear his mark in hand and forehead; while in vii. 3^ the servants of God are said to be " sealed in their foreheads."
The cases cited in the preceding from the Bible
fall under two categories, those which arise under
circumstances of mourning, and those
As which presuppose immediate connec-
Connected tion with deity. The former class is with by an increasing number of commen-
Mourning. tators related to the cult of the dead.
The cutting or tearing of the hair and
gashing of the flesh are customs common among
diverse peoples of the past and present. He-