15. Keeping hair unshorn during a vow
It was also the custom to keep the hair unshorn during the performance of a vow. “While his vow lasted a Nazarite might not have his hair cut: ‘All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head.’[35] The Egyptians on a journey kept their hair uncut till they returned home.[36] Among the Chatti tribe of the ancient Germans the young warriors never clipped their hair or their beard till they had slain an enemy. Six thousand Saxons once swore that they would not clip their hair nor shave their beards until they had taken vengeance on their enemies.”[37] Similarly, Hindu religious mendicants keep their hair long while they are journeying on a pilgrimage, and when they arrive at the temple which is their goal they shave it all off and offer it to the god. In this case, as the hair is vowed as an offering, it clearly cannot be cut during the performance of the vow, but must be preserved intact. When the task to be accomplished for the fulfilment of a vow is a journey or the slaying of enemies, the retention of the hair is probably also meant to support and increase the wearer’s strength for the accomplishment of his purpose.