rs, it is parted on the
forehead, and falls equally on both sides; it is with them a matter to
which they give special attention." We are told, besides, that they
sprinkled it with gold-dust, and plaited it in small bands, which they
ornamented with pearls and precious metals.

Whilst persons of rank were distinguished by their long and flowing hair,
the people wore theirs more or less short, according to the degree of
freedom which they possessed, and the serfs had their heads completely
shaved. It was customary for the noble and free classes to swear by their
hair, and it was considered the height of politeness to pull out a hair
and present it to a person. Fredegaire, the chronicler, relates that
Clovis thus pulled out a hair in order to do honour to St. Germer, Bishop
of Toulouse, and presented it to him; upon this, the courtiers hastened to
imitate their sovereign, and the venerable prelate returned home with his
hand full of hair, delighted at the flattering reception he had met with
at the court of the Frankish king. Durinig the Merovingian period, the
greatest insult that could be offered to a freeman was to touch him with a
razor or scissors. The degradation of kings and princes was carried out in
a public manner by shaving their heads and sending them into a monastery;
on their regaining their rights and their authority, their hair was always
allowed to grow again. We may also conclude that great importance was
attached to the preservation of the hair even under the kings of the
second dynasty, for Charlemagne, in his Capitulaires, orders the hair to
be removed as a punishment in certain crimes.

The Franks, faithful to their ancient custom of wearing the hair long,
gradually gave up shaving the face. At first, they only left a small tuft
on the chin, but by degrees they allowed this to increase, and in the
sixth and seventh centuries freemen adopted the usual form of beard.
Amongst the clergy, the custom prevailed of shaving the crown of the head,
in the same way as that adopted by certain monastic orders in the present
day. Priests for a long time wore beards, but ceased to do so on their
becoming fashionable amongst the laity (Figs. 406, 407). Painters and
sculptors therefore commit a serious error in representing the prelates
and monks of those times with large beards.

As far as the monumental relics of those remote times allow us to judge,
the dress as worn by Clovis underwent but trifing modifications