NAZAIUTE. Numbers vi. 18 : The Nazarite shall shave the head.' The Hindus, after a vow, cease to cut their hair during the term of the vow ; at the expiration of which time they shave it off at the place where the vow was made. It is a very ancient form of votive offering. It is uncertain (Acts xviii. 18; Romans xvi. 1) whether Paul or Aquila, or both, shaved their heads at Cenchrea. It is probable that Paul had become a Nazarmus votivus, and consequently had bound himself to serve the law of the Nazarites for a certain time. The Nazarmi votivi (Numbers vi.) were required to abstain from wine, grapes, and all inebriating liquors during the time of their separation. They were also to let their hair grow without cutting till the days of their vow were fulfilled ; then it was to be shaved off, and the appointed sacrifice to be offered in the temple. Consecrating the hair, in times of danger, etc., to the heathen divinities, Lucian represents as of frequent occurrence, and he himself had com plied with the custom. The emperor Nero is said, by Suetonius, to have cut off his first beard, and to have devoted it to Jupiter Capitolinus, placing it in a golden box, set with jewels. Nazaritism was partly a religious institution, and partly civil and prudential. Its laws were promotive of the strictest sanctity, and calculated to preserve the health, sobriety, and temperance of the community.
Hence we read, Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk.' (Lamentations iv. 7.) Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist, and, according to the rabbins, Absalom, were Nazarites, and Joseph is said to have been Nazir echaiv, which we translate 'separated brethren,' but which the Vulgate renders Nazarmi inter fratres suos.' Persons recovering from sickness, or preserved from danger, frequently took upon them the vow. At the present time in Persia, if a Muhammadan child be sick, the mother fre quently makes a vow that the razor shall not come upon his head for a certain time, and some times for life, as in 1 Samuel i. 11. When the time that is limited expires, the child's head is shaved, money is collected from the relatives, and sent as nazr or offerings to the mosque, and consecrated. Homer speaks of parents dedicating to some deity the hair of their children which was cut off when they came to manhood, and conse crated to the gods. Achilles cut off his golden locks at the funeral of Patroclus, and threw them into the river, his father having dedicated them to the river-god Sperchins. In the south of India, at the sacred hill of Triputty, thousands of both sexes annually cut off their hair, and leave it as a votive offering.—Milner's Seven Churches, p. 110; Iliad, xxiii. 149, etc. ; i. 698.