In mourning, the Persians shave themselves; and Herodotus relates one instance when they also cropped the manes and tails of their horses in honor of their leader Mardonius.
One wiseacre of a Sultan is said to have shaved his Beard, saying "his councillors should never lead him by it, as they had done his forefathers!" forgetting that he had still left them the convenient handle of his nose—by which, as you know, ladies and gentlemen, people have been led from time immemorial. Let me hope, therefore, no one will cite this as an historical precedent for shaving.
He was fortunately succeeded by wiser men, and the Sultan is yet distinguished by a goodly Beard:[1] as is also the Shah of Persia, and all the Arabs 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 hair from the Sultan's Beard.—(May the Russians 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.)
