BEARD, the hair which grows upon the chin and contiguous parts of the face, in males, and some times, though rarely, in females, at the age of puber ty. The growth of the beard, in men, is a sign of maturity, or approaching manhood ; and takes place. at the period when the seminal secretion commences. When that secretion stops, from any derangement of the system, it is said that the beard falls off ; and when the secretion discontinues, in old age, the beard grows thin, and flaccid. The beard has, therefore, an intimate sympathy, with this change in the cons stitution of the male. Bearded women are all said to want the menstrual discharge ; and various instances are given by Hippocrates, and other physicians, of grown females, especially widows, in whom beard& appeared upon the discontinuance of this discharge.
Many instances are recorded, by different writers, of women with remarkably long beards. Eusebius Nie rembergius mentions a woman whtthad a beard reach ing even to her navel. Charles XII. had in his army a female grenadier, who, both by her courage and her beard, might well have passed for a man. She was taken at the battle of Pultowa, and carried t© Petersburg, where she was presented to the czar in 1724 ; at which time her beard measured a yard and a half. We read in the Dictionary of Trevoux, that there was a woman seen at Paris, who had not only a bushy beard on her face, but likewise her whole body covered over with hair. The celebrated Mar garet, governess of the Netherlands, had likewise a very long stiff beard, on which she greatly prided herself, and was very, solicitous to preserve it undi minished. The Lombard women, it is said, when accompanying their husbands to the field of battle, contrived to assume the appearance of beards, by an ingenious disposition of the hair of their heads upon their cheeks ; and the Athenian women, according to Snidas, did the same thing in a similar case.
The American savages have thin and scanty beards, which they are in general solicitous to extirpate by the roots. The beard of the negro is short bushy, like his hair ; that of the Greenlander, Sa moiCale, and of all savages who live a life of hardship and penury, is generally thin, and stinted in its growth. The fashion of the beard has greatly va ried in different ages and countries ; for sometimes it has been deemed honourable and becoming to permit it to grow to its utmost extent ; and sometimes it has been fashionable to cut it off entirely, or to per mit it to remain only on a particular part of the face, or cut into a particular form. In mentioning the most remarkable of these peculiarities, we shall speak, 1st; Of the eastern nations ; 2dly, Of the ancient Greeks and Romans ; and, 3d1y, Of the modern in habitants of Europe.
I. Among the eastern nations, the ancient Egyp tians left only a little tuft of hair at the extremity of the chin. The Hebrews wore a beard on the chin, but not on the upper lip ; and they were prohibited. by Moses to manage their beards after the Egyptian fashion. The Jews of the present day suffer a little fillet of hair to grow from the lower end of their ears to their chins, where, as well as on their lower lips, their beards are in a pretty long bunch. Strabo re lates, that the ancient Indian philosophers, called Gymnosophists, were particularly solicitous to have long beards, as symbolical of wisdom. The ancient Assyrians and Persians also prided themselves on the length of their beards ; and Chrysostom informs us, the kings of Persia had their beards interwoven, or matted, with gold thread ; a practice which was also adopted by some of the first kings of France.
According to Le Compte, the Chinese greatly af fect long beards ; which, however, nature has denied them ; and there is nothing on account of which they are more envious of Europeans than the great length of their beards. The Tartars, out of a reli gious principle, as Kingson assures us, waged a long and bloody war with the Persians, considering them as infidels, because they would not cut their whiskers after the Tartarian mode, though, in other respects, of the same faith with themselves. The Persians are almost the only Mahornetans who clip the beard, and shave, above the jaw ; and on this account are deemed heretics by their neighbours. The Arabs make the preservation of their beards a capital point of reli gion, because Mahomet never shaved his. Among the Turks there is nothing more infamous than to have the beard cut off. The slaves in the seraglio are shaved, as a mark of servitude ; and are only per mitted to allow their beards to grow when they re gain their freedom. The custom of anointing the beard prevails among the Turks, as it did among the ancient Jews and Romans ; and one of the principal ceremonies observed in the serious visits of this people, is to throw sweet scented water on the beard of the guest, and to perfume it afterwards with aloes-wood, which adheres to this moisture, and give it an agree able smell. The Turks, when they comb their beards, hold a handkerchief on their knee's, and care fully gather the hairs that fall, which they afterwards deposit in the place where they bury the dead. The Turkish wives salute their husbands, and the chil dren ,their fathers, by kissing the beard ; and the same ceremony is used by the men when they reci procally salute one another.