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In mourning, the Persians shave themselves; and Hero-
dotus relates one instance when they also cropped the
manes and tails of their horses in honor of their leader
Mardonius.
Oue wiseacre of a Sultan is said to have shaved his
Beard, saying " his councillors should never lead him hy
it, as they had done his forefathers!" forgetting that he
had still left them the convenient handle of his nose—hy
which, as you know, ladies and gentlemen, people have
heen led from time immemorial. Let me hope, therefore,
no one will cite this as an historical precedent for shaving.
He was fortunately succeeded hy wiser men, and the
Sultan is yet distinguished hy a goodly Beard :* as is also
the Shah of Persia, and all the Arahs and their Chiefs.
Greeks.
The ancient Greeks were world-famous for their Beards.
All Homer's heroes are "bearded, and Nestor the Sage is
described as stroking his as a graceful prelusion to an
oration. Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Vulcan,
Mercury, are represented with Beards. Apollo is without,
as an emblem of perpetual youth. Hercules and the demi-
* It used to be considered one of the almost impossible feats of
Chivalry to pluck a hah- from the Sultan's Beard—(May the Bus-
sians find it quite so!) The romance of Oberon is founded on this
notion, and Shakspeare makes Benedict say in a spirit of bravado,
" I'll fetch you a hair off the great Cham's Beard." (i.e. Khan of
Tartary's Beard.)
