[As illustrative of the above remarks reference may be made to the seven locks in which Samson's hair was arranged, these being probably plaits into which his hair was divided. This also is probably what Josephus intends in the description he gives of the style in which Herod dressed his hair when called in his youth before the Sanhedrim ; he ap peared Tip tccOaXip KEICOCT/AMAgPOS KOI.tns (Ant4. xiv. 9. 4). When Judith was about to go to the camp of Holofernes &Irate rds rptxas 'she braided her hair' (A. V.) On the Assyrian monuments figures appear with the hair parted into several bands or plaits, and curled at the extremities, but whether the hair in these is natural or artificial remains matter of doubt. Writing of the Turkish ladies, Lady Mary Wortley Montague says, The hair hangs at its full length behind, divided into tresses, braided with pearl or ribbon, which is always in great quantity. . . . In one lady's head,' she adds, I have counted a hundred and ten of these tresses, all natural' (Letters, etc., edited by Lord Wharncliffe, 372). This style of dressing the hair, and the practice of fixing pearls or ornaments of precious stones or metals in the hair, is referred to by St. Paul and St. Peter as a thing to be avoided by Christian women (t Tim. ii. 9 ; l'eter 3), partly perhaps be cause of the undue cost of such modes of dressing the hair, partly also because the practice was asso ciated with usages not compatible with true female modesty (comp. with the a.Ng7/.4ara of the one apostle and the 471-Nod? of the other, the 7r epi7rXo. KaL ircupwal rav rpLxi4 of Clem. Alex. Pwelag 11). lt is to this style of dressing the hair that Isaiah seems to allude under the expression ritnp r1!)y9 (iii. 24) well-set hair' A. V., rather braided hair,' i,e., hair artificially made up into braids and interwoven, and stiffened with ribbands and other materials' (Henderson, in Zoe.) In the Song of Songs are various allusions to modes of dressing the hair. Thus (ch. v. r r) we have cp5*-1, /owing, waving locks, from to vibrate (Sept.
iXdrat • Vulg. tlatbee pahnorum); in vii. 6 we have co'tyr, = locks arranged in rows like channels • - : by which water is conveyed (A.V. 'galleries,' by mistake [GALLERY]) ; and in the same verse (' hair,' A.V.) means hanging tresses (Sept irX6Kiov, Syr.130 mintorsiones, eineinni), from rb-r to hang down, be pendulous ; comp. Ar. dalya,
the pendulous filaments at the top of the lofty palm. Whether rlpy (iv. r, 3 ; vi. 7) and. pu (iv. 9) refer to the hair is doubtful ; the former probably means veil, and the latter necklace. In Ezek. viii. 3 the word rir$ occurs, denoting a lock, perhaps a forelock., curling round the fore head like a flower (rv).
In the Talmud frequent references are made to women who were professional hair-dressers for their own sex, and the name applied to whom was n970 femina gnara alere crines' (Maimon. in 7'r. Shabbath x. 6; comp. also Wagenseil, Sota p.
137 ; Jahn, Areherol. P. vol. 2, p. r14). As 1-15-m is formed from to twine or Alit, it may be presumed that the principal duty of these artistes was to plait the hair into locks or arrange it in tresses.] From the great value attached to a profuse head of hair arose a variety of superstitious and emble matic observances, such as shaving parts of the head, or cropping it in a particular form ; parents dedicating the hair of infants (Tertullian, De Anima) to the gods; young women theirs at their marriage; wa-riors after a successful campaign ; sailors after deliverance from a storm ; hanging it up on consecrated trees, or depositing it in temples; burying it in the tomb of friends, as Achilles did at the funeral of Patroclus; besides shaving, cutting off, or plucking it out, as some people did ; or al lowing it to grow in sordid negligence, as was the practice with others, according as the calamity that befel them was common or extraordinary, and their grief was mild or violent.
Various metaphorical allusions are made to hair by the sacred writers, especially the prophets. • Cutting off the hair' is a figure used to denote the entire destruction of a people by the righteous retributions of Providence (Is. vii, 20). Gray hairs here and there on Ephraim' portended the decline and fall of the kingdom of Israel (Hos. vii. 9). Hair as the hair of women' forms part of the description of the Apocalyptic locusts, and his tenically points, as some suppose, to the prevailing head-dress of the Saracens, as well as the volup tuous effeminacy of the Antichristian clergy (Rev. ix. 8). And finally, ` hair white as wool' was a prominent feature in the appearance of the glorified Redeemer, emblematic of the majesty and wisdom that belong to him (Rev. 1. K.