"[151] The absence of facial
hair heightens aesthetic beauty of form, and is not felt to remove any
substantial sexual attraction.
That even the Egyptians regarded the beard as a mark of beauty
and an object of veneration is shown by the fact that the priests
wore it long and cut it off in grief (Herodotus, _Euterpe_,
Chapter XXXVI). The respect with which the beard was regarded
among the ancient Hebrews is indicated in the narrative (II
Samuel, Chapter X) which tells how, when David sent his servants
to King Hanun the latter shaved off half their beards; they were
too ashamed to return in this condition, and remained at Jericho
until their beards had grown again. A passage in Ordericus
Vitalis (_Ecclesiastical History_, Book VIII, Chapter X) is
interesting both as regards the fashions of the twelfth century
in England and Normandy and the feeling that prompted Ordericus.
Speaking of the men of his time, he wrote: "The forepart of
their head is bare after the manner of thieves, while at the back
they nourish long hair like harlots. In former times penitents,
captives and pilgrims usually went unshaved and wore long beards,
as an outward mark of their penance or captivity or pilgrimage.
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