The Fashion of the BEARD has varied in different ages and countries; some cultivating and entertaining one part of it, some another. Thus the Hebrews wear a beard on their chin; but not on the upper lip or cheeks. Moses forbids them to cut off entirely the angle or extremity of their beard; that is, to manage it after the Egyptian fashion, who left only a little tuft of beard at the extremity of their chin; whereas the Jews to this 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. The Jews, in time of mourning, neglected to trim their beards, that is, to cut off what grew superfluous on the upper lips and cheeks. In time of grief and great affliction they also plucked off the hair of their beards.
Anointing the Beard with unguents was an ancient practice both among the Jews and Romans, and still continues in use among the Turks; where one of the principal ceremonies observed in serious visits is to throw sweet-scented water on the beard of the visitor, and to perfume it afterwards with aloes-wood, which sticks to this moisture, and gives it an agreeable smell, &c. In middle-age writers we meet with adlentare barbam, used for stroking and combing it, to render it soft and flexible. The Turks, when they comb their beards, hold a handkerchief on their knees, and gather very carefully the hairs that fall; and when they have got together a certain quantity, they fold them up in paper, and carry them to the place where they bury the dead.