by weight, being as costly as gold. The familiar description of Goliath of Gath, the weight of whose coat of mail "was five thousand shekels of brass," and whose "spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron," will serve to show that articles in the inferior metals were at that time estimated according to weight by the Hebrews and their neighbours, the Philistines. Of the weighing of wool we find no instance, but it is quite possible that it was from the practice of weighing wool that Absalom when he "polled his head, (for it was at every year's end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king's weight" (2 Sam, xiv. 26). But it is perhaps more probable that the habit of weighing a child's hair against gold or silver to fulfil a vow (which was almost certainly Absalom's motive) may have suggested the employment of the scales for wool[1].
- ↑ Mr J. G. Frazer gives me the following interesting note: As to the cutting off a child's hair and weighing it against gold or silver, the facts are these. (1) Among the Harari in Eastern Africa when a child is a few months old, its hair is cut off and weighed against silver or gold money; the money is then divided among the female relations of the mother. Paulitschke, Beiträge zur Ethnographie und Anthropologie der Somâl, Galla und Hararî (Leipzig, 1886), p. 70. (2) Mohammed's daughter Fâtima gave in alms the weight of her child's hair in silver. W. Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia, p. 153. (3) Among the Mohammedans of the Punjaub a boy's hair is shaved off on the 7th or 3rd day after birth, or sometimes immediately after birth. Rich people give alms of silver coins equal in weight to the hair. Punjab Notes and Queries, I., No. 66. (4) When the Hindus of Bombay dedicate a child to any god or purpose, they shave its head and weigh the hair against gold or silver. Id. II. No. 11. (5) In the inland districts of Padang (Sumatra) three days after birth the child's hair is cut off and weighed. Double the weight of hair in money is given to the priest. Pistorios. Studien over de inlandsche Huisponding in de Padangsche Bovenlanden, p. 56; Van Hasselt, Volksbeschrijving van Midden-Sumatra, p. 268. (6) There is the Egyptian custom, for which we have the evidence of Herodotus, II. 65, and Diodorus, I. 8.
