[1038] Sibree, loc. cit. p. 211.
[1039] Cf. Wallace, ‘Travels on the Amazon,’ p. 493; v. Weber, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 197.
[1040] Lewin, loc. cit. p. 240.
[1041] Riedel, loc. cit. p. 292.
[1042] Harmon, loc. cit. p. 288.
[1043] Moseley, ‘On the Inhabitants of the Admiralty Islands,’ in ‘Jour. Anthr. Inst.,’ vol. vi. p. 400. Short hair is often regarded as a symbol of chastity. Every Buddhist ‘novice’—that is, a person admitted to the first degree of monkhood—has to cut off his hair, in order to prove that ‘he is ready to give up the most beautiful and highly-prized of all his ornaments for the sake of a religious life’ (Monier Williams, ‘Buddhism,’ p. 306); and, in Mexico, the religious virgins, as also men who decided upon a life of chastity, had their hair cut (Acosta, loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 333; Bancroft, loc. cit. vol. ii. pp. 251, et seq.). A similar idea probably underlies the custom which requires that women, when they marry, shall be deprived of their hair, the husband trying in this way to preserve the fidelity of his wife (see Wilkes, loc. cit. vol. iii. p. 354; Waitz-Gerland, loc. cit. vol. vi. p. 567; Palmer, in ‘Jour. Anthr. Inst.,’ vol. xiii. p. 286; de Rubruquis, loc. cit. p. 32; Heriot, loc. cit. p. 335); whilst many men in New Guinea and Bornu deprive their wives of all ornaments (‘Ymer,’ vol. vi. p. 154; Barth, ‘Reisen,’ vol. iii. p. 31, note). Even at Sparta and Athens, as well as among the Anglo-Saxons, the bride or newly-married wife had her hair cut short (Rossbach, loc. cit. p. 290). Mr. Wright suggests (‘Womankind in Western Europe,’ p. 68) that, among the people last mentioned, this was done in order to show that she had accepted a position of servitude towards her husband, as the cutting of hair in either sex indicated slavery. But that this explanation cannot be applied to every case of hair-cutting appears from the fact, reported by Heriot (loc. cit. p. 333), that, among the Tlascalans, it was customary to shave the head of a newly-married couple, both man and woman, ‘to denote that all youthful sports ought in that state to be abandoned.'
[1044] Sparrman, ‘Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope,’ vol. ii. p. 80.
[1045] Bonwick, ‘Daily Life of the Tasmanians,’ pp. 25, et seq.
[1046] v. Martius, loc. cit. vol. i. p. 217.
[1047] Angas, ‘South Australia Illustrated,’ no. 22.