The eastern females wear their hair, which the prophet
emphatically calls the “instrument of their pride,” very long, and
divided into a great number of tresses. In Barbary, the ladies all
affect to have their hair hang down to the ground, which, after they
have collected into one lock, they bind and plait with ribands. Where
nature has been less liberal in its ornaments, the defect is supplied by
art, and foreign is procured to be interwoven with the natural hair. The
Apostle’s remark on this subject corresponds entirely with the custom of
the east, as well as with the original design of the Creator: “Does not
even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a
shame unto 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. The men in the
east, Chardin observes, are shaved; the women nourish their hair with
great fondness, which they lengthen by tresses, and tufts of silk down
to the heels. But among the Hebrews the men did not shave their heads;
they wore their natural hair, though not long; and it is certain that
they were, at a very remote period, initiated in the art of cherishing
and beautifying the hair with fragrant ointments. The head of Aaron was
anointed with a precious oil, compounded after the art of the
apothecary; and in proof that they had already adopted the practice, the
congregation were prohibited, under pain of being cut off, to make any
other like it, after the composition of it, Exod. xxx, 32, 33. The royal
Psalmist alludes to the same custom in the twenty-third Psalm: “Thou
anointest my head with oil.” We may infer from the direction of Solomon,
that the custom had at least become general in his time: “Let thy
garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment,” Eccles.
ix, 8. After the hair is plaited and perfumed, the eastern ladies
proceed to dress their heads, by tying above the lock into which they
collect it, a triangular piece of linen, adorned with various figures in
needlework. This, among persons of better fashion, is covered with a
_sarmah_, as they call it, which is made in the same triangular shape,
of thin flexible plates of gold or silver, carefully cut through, and
engraven in imitation of lace, and might therefore answer to השהרנים,
the moonlike ornament mentioned by the prophet in his description of the
toilette of a Jewish lady, Isaiah iii, 18. Cutting off the hair was a
sign of mourning, Jer. vii, 29; but sometimes in mourning they suffered
it to grow long. In ordinary sorrows they neglected their hair; and in
violent paroxysms they plucked it off with their hands.
John Baptist was clothed in a garment made of camel’s hair, not with a
camel’s skin, as painters and sculptors represent him, but with coarse
camlet made of camel’s hair. The coat of the camel in some places yields
very fine silk, of which are made stuffs of very great price; but in
general this animal’s hair is hard, and scarcely fit for any but coarse
habits, and a kind of hair cloth. Some are of opinion that camlet
derives its name from the camel, being originally composed of the wool
and hair of camels; but at present there is no camel’s hair in the
composition of it, as it is commonly woven and sold among us.
emphatically calls the “instrument of their pride,” very long, and
divided into a great number of tresses. In Barbary, the ladies all
affect to have their hair hang down to the ground, which, after they
have collected into one lock, they bind and plait with ribands. Where
nature has been less liberal in its ornaments, the defect is supplied by
art, and foreign is procured to be interwoven with the natural hair. The
Apostle’s remark on this subject corresponds entirely with the custom of
the east, as well as with the original design of the Creator: “Does not
even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a
shame unto 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. The men in the
east, Chardin observes, are shaved; the women nourish their hair with
great fondness, which they lengthen by tresses, and tufts of silk down
to the heels. But among the Hebrews the men did not shave their heads;
they wore their natural hair, though not long; and it is certain that
they were, at a very remote period, initiated in the art of cherishing
and beautifying the hair with fragrant ointments. The head of Aaron was
anointed with a precious oil, compounded after the art of the
apothecary; and in proof that they had already adopted the practice, the
congregation were prohibited, under pain of being cut off, to make any
other like it, after the composition of it, Exod. xxx, 32, 33. The royal
Psalmist alludes to the same custom in the twenty-third Psalm: “Thou
anointest my head with oil.” We may infer from the direction of Solomon,
that the custom had at least become general in his time: “Let thy
garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment,” Eccles.
ix, 8. After the hair is plaited and perfumed, the eastern ladies
proceed to dress their heads, by tying above the lock into which they
collect it, a triangular piece of linen, adorned with various figures in
needlework. This, among persons of better fashion, is covered with a
_sarmah_, as they call it, which is made in the same triangular shape,
of thin flexible plates of gold or silver, carefully cut through, and
engraven in imitation of lace, and might therefore answer to השהרנים,
the moonlike ornament mentioned by the prophet in his description of the
toilette of a Jewish lady, Isaiah iii, 18. Cutting off the hair was a
sign of mourning, Jer. vii, 29; but sometimes in mourning they suffered
it to grow long. In ordinary sorrows they neglected their hair; and in
violent paroxysms they plucked it off with their hands.
John Baptist was clothed in a garment made of camel’s hair, not with a
camel’s skin, as painters and sculptors represent him, but with coarse
camlet made of camel’s hair. The coat of the camel in some places yields
very fine silk, of which are made stuffs of very great price; but in
general this animal’s hair is hard, and scarcely fit for any but coarse
habits, and a kind of hair cloth. Some are of opinion that camlet
derives its name from the camel, being originally composed of the wool
and hair of camels; but at present there is no camel’s hair in the
composition of it, as it is commonly woven and sold among us.