t be treated as deadly. Holding such a position,
it must doubtless act as a sexual allurement. "Allah has specially created
an angel in Heaven," it is said in the _Arabian Nights_, "who has no other
occupation than to sing the praises of the Creator for giving a beard to
men and long hair to women." The sexual character of the beard and the
other hirsute appendage is significantly indicated by the fact that the
ascetic spirit in Christianity has always sought to minimize or to hide
the hair. Altogether apart, however, from this religious influence,
civilization tends to be opposed to the growth of hair on the masculine
face and especially to the beard. It is part of the well-marked tendency
with civilization to the abolition of sexual differences. We find this
general tendency among the Greeks and Romans, and, on the whole, with
certain variations and fluctuations of fashion, in modern Europe also.
Schopenhauer frequently referred to this disappearance of the beard as a
mark of civilization, "a barometer of culture."[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.
Now almost all the world wear crisped hair and beards, carrying
on their faces the token of their filthy lust like stinking
goats. Their locks are