e he gave
him a hair from his beard and was imitated by his followers. In the
Arthurian legends we find "Then went Arthur to Caerleon; and thither
came messages from King Ryons who said, 'even kings have done me
homage, and with their beards I have trimmed a mantle. Send me now thy
beard, for there lacks yet one to the finishing of the mantle.'" The
association between short hair and slavery arose from the custom of
taking hair from the slain. It existed among the Greeks and Romans, and
was well known among the indigenous tribes of this continent. Among the
Shoshones he who took the most scalps gained the most glory.

In speaking of the prisoners of the Chicimecs Bancroft says they were
often scalped while yet alive, and the bloody trophies placed on the
heads of their tormentors. In this manner we readily see that long hair
among the indigenous tribes and various Orientals, Ottomans, Greeks,
Franks, Goths, etc., was considered a sign of respect and honor. The
respect and preservation of the Chinese queue is well known in the
present day. Wishing to divide their brother's kingdom, Clothair and
Childebert consulted whether to cut off the hair of their nephews, the
rightful successors, so as to reduce them to the rank of subjects, or
to kill them. The gods of various people, especially the greater gods,
were distinguished by their long beards and flowing locks. In all
pictures Thor and Samson were both given long hair, and the belief in
strength and honor from long hair is proverbial. Hercules is always
pictured with curls. According to Goldzhier, long locks of hair and a
long beard are mythologic attributes of the sun. The sun's rays are
compared to long locks or hairs on the face of the sun. When the sun
sets and leaves his place to the darkness, or when the powerful summer
sun is succeeded by the weak rays of the winter sun, then Samson's long
locks, through which alone his strength remains, are cut off by the
treachery of his deceitful concubine Delilah (the languishing,
according to the meaning of the name). The beaming Apollo was,
moreover, called the "Unshaven;" and Minos cannot conquer the solar
hero, Nisos, until the latter loses his golden hair. In Arabic
"Shams-on" means the sun, and Samson had seven locks of hair, the
number of the planetary bodies. In view of the foregoing facts it seems
quite possible that the majority of depilatory processes on the scalp
originated in sun-worship, and through various phase