The human hair : popularly and physiologically considered with special reference to its preservation, improvement and adornment, and the various modes of its decoration in all countries / by Alexander Rowland.

  • Rowland, Alexander.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The human hair : popularly and physiologically considered with special reference to its preservation, improvement and adornment, and the various modes of its decoration in all countries / by Alexander Rowland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    where his brethren have immersed him. The Moslem writer gecms to have paraphrased Pope's lines— Fair tresses, man's imperial race ensnare; And Beauty draws us with a single hair. Unlike Mahomedans generally, the Sindhian Beluchi cultivate the growth of the hair on the head as well as the beard. In Sindh the former is confined under the cap by a knot and comb, being thrown back from the forehead \ but in Cutch and the mountains it is allowed to fall in wild luxuriance over the shoulders, and is often twisted in with the folds of the turban, imparting a peculiarly wild and savage appearance. The hah- is dyed black when it becomes grey ; and holy characters use the henna plant to impart a red tinge to the beard and hair. The Affghans are marked by black hair, sometimes brown, and a profusion of beard of the same colour; but they shave the middle of the head. The women divide the hair on the brow, and plait it into two locks, which they fasten behind. The Belooches have black hair. The Brahoos frequently have brown hair and beard. The Booteas have scarcely any eyelashes, beard, or whiskers. At Allahabad, which is at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna, many thousands of pilgrims come yearly from all parts of India to bathe and purify themselves in the sacred stream. When a pilgrim arrives, he sits down on the bank of the river, and has his head and body shaved, so that each hair may fall into the water ; the sacred writings promising him one million of year's residence in heaven for every hair so deposited. Nature has given to the Singhalese a liberal supply of hair, which they universally allow to grow on their face as well as head, to a con- siderable length, conceiving that the beard does not deform, but im- proves the face; and in many instances it certainly has the effect of investing the countenance with a dignity that would be wanting under other circumstances. Among the qualifications of a Singhalese belle are, that her hair should be voluminous, like the tail of the peacock; long, reaching to the knees, and terminating in graceful cm-Is, and hex- eyebrows should resemble the rainbow. Both sexes of all ranks, except the very lowest, wear their hair long, divided smooth from the middle of the forehead, and turned up into a knot called a cundy; that of the men on the back of the head, is fastened in the maritime provinces with a large square comb of tortoiseshell, while the women allow theirs to rest on the neck as far