the hair growing on the chin, and adjacent parts of the face, chiefly of adults and males.

Various have been the ceremonies and customs of most nations in regard of the beard. The Tartars, out of a religious principle, waged a long and bloody war with the Persians, declaring them infidels, merely because they would not cut their whiskers, after the rite of Tartary: and we find, that a considerable branch of the religion of the ancients, consisted in the management of their beard. The Greeks wore their beards till the time of Alexander the Great; that prince having ordered the Macedonians to be shaved, for fear it should give a handle to their enemies. According to Pliny, the Romans did not begin to shave till the year of Rome 454, when P. Ticinius brought over a stock of barbers from Sicily.—Persons of quality had their children shaved the first time by others of the same or greater quality, who, by this means, became godfather, or adoptive father of the children. Anciently, indeed, a person became godfather of the child by barely touching his beard: thus historians relate, that one of the articles of the treaty between Alaric and Clovis was, that Alaric should touch the beard of Clovis to become his godfather.

As to ecclesiastics, the discipline has been very different on the article of beards: sometimes they have been enjoined to wear them, from a notion of too much effeminacy in shaving, and that a long beard was more suitable to the ecclesiastical gravity; and sometimes again they were forbid it, as imagining pride to lurk beneath a venerable beard. The Greek and Roman churches have been long together by the ears about their beards: since the time of their separation, the Romanists seem to have given more into the practice of shaving, by way of opposition to the Greeks; and have even made some express constitutions de rendendis barbis. The Greeks, on the contrary, espouse very zealously the cause of long beards, and are extremely scandalized at the beardless images of saints in the Roman churches. By the statutes of some monasteries it appears, that the lay-monks were to let their beards grow, and the priests among them to shave; and that the beards of all that were received into the monasteries, were blessed with a great deal of ceremony. There are still extant the prayers used in the solemnity of consecrating the beard to God, when an ecclesiastic was shaven.

Le Comte observes, that the Chinese affect long beards extravagantly; but nature has balked them, and only given them very little ones, which, however, they cultivate with infinite care: the Europeans are strangely envied by them on this account, and esteemed the greatest men in the world. The Russians wore their beards till within this half century, when Peter the Great enjoined them all to shave; but notwithstanding his injunction, he was obliged to keep on foot a number of officers to cut off by violence the beards of such as would not otherwise part with them. Chrysothem observes, that the kings of Peria had their beards wove or matted together with gold-thread; and some of the first kings of France had their beards knotted and buttoned with gold.

Among the Franks, shaving or mutilating the beard was the greatest affront that could be offered any person. Taking away a single hair was an injury scarce to be forgiven. Among the Turks, it is more infamous for any one to have his beard cut off, than among us to be publicly whipt, or branded with a hot iron. There are abundance in that country, who would prefer death to this kind of punishment. The Arabs make the preservation of their beards a capital point of religion, because Mahomet never cut his. Hence the razor is never drawn over the Grand Signior's face. The Persians, who clip them, and shave above the jaw, are reputed heretics. It is likewise a mark of authority and liberty among them, as well as among the Turks. They who serve in the keraglio, have their beards shaven, as a sign of their servitude. They do not suffer it to grow till the sultan has set them at liberty, which is bestowed as a reward upon them, and is always accompanied with some employment.

Consecration of the Beard was a ceremony among the Roman youth, who, when they were shaven the first time, kept a day of rejoicing, and were particularly careful to put the hair of their beard into a silver or gold box, and make an offering of it to some god, particularly to Jupiter Capitolinus, as was done by Nero, according to Suetonius.

Kissing the Beard. The Turkish wives kiss their husbands' beards, and children their fathers, as often as they come to salute them. The men kiss one another's beards reciprocally on both sides, when they salute in the streets, or come off from any journey.

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 is 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 beards of the visitant, 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 adenture barbae, 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.

Beard of a Comet, the rays which the comet emits towards that part of the heaven to which its proper motion seems to direct it; in which the beard of a comet is distinguished from the tail, which is understood of the rays emitted towards that part from whence its motion seems to carry it.

Beard of a Horse, that part underneath the lower mandible on the outside and above the chin, which bears the curb. It is also called the chuck. It should have but little flesh upon it, without any chops, hardines, or swelling; and be neither too high raised nor too flat, but such as the curb may rest in its right place.

Beard of a Mule, oyster, or the like, denotes an assemblage of threads or hairs, by which those animals fasten themselves to stones. The hairs of this beard terminate in a flat spongy substance, which being applied to the surface of a stone, sticks thereto, like the wet leather used by boys.

Beards, in the history of insects, are two small, oblong, fleshy bodies, placed just above the trunk, as in the gnats, and in the moths and butterflies.

Bearded, denotes a person or thing with a beard, or some resemblance thereof. The faces on ancient Greek and Roman medals are generally bearded. Some are denominated pogonati, as having long beards, e.g., the Parthian kings. Others have only a languo about the chin, as the Seleucid family. Adrian was the first of the Roman emperors who nourished his beard; hence all imperial medals before him are beardless; after him, bearded.

Bearded Women have been all observed to want the menstrual discharge; and several instances are given by Hippocrates, and other physicians, of grown women, especially widows, in whom the menses coming to stop, beards appeared. Eusebius Nicombergius mentions a woman who had a beard reaching to her navel.