DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0120
4-6 WIDESPREAD CUSTOM OF HAIR-OFFERINGS
Primitive are still to be found among primitive races the World over.1 The h '
haiSef- is regarded by them as a main source of life and strength. So much
in?: lwif indeed, is this the case that its cutting off was very generally arrm, !
source of . r . .. • . , , . ' ""-cpierj
life and as a substitute tor human sacrifice,2 an idea humorously played on bv
strength. Qv;,js ;n his imaginary conversation between King Numa and Jupiter
The God, consulted as to the propitiation necessary to avert his
thunderbolts, demands the cutting off of the head of a man, on which the
King—after a preliminary attempt to whittle down 'head' to that of an
onion—would make Jupiter content himself with the top hair.4 Accord-
ing to primitive ideas the hair of the crown of the head was in a special
way connected with human life.3 In general the hair was a supreme
personal offering in the case of the living and a potent means of placino-
the person of the votary in the hands of the divinity both in life and
death.
The hair regarded as the source of bodily strength is well brought out
in the biblical episode of Samson and Delilah.0
Besides death, the chief occasions for these ceremonial hair-cuttings
were after birth, on embarking on some special enterprise or on its successful
result, and, as here, on entering on the adult stage, in the case of both
sexes.
Such hair-offerings were often made to springs and rivers as the most
visible embodiment of the divine life inherent in the Earth. The Arabs,
like the Hebrews,' offer them at springs. With the ancient Greeks, as is
well'known, the long hair of childhood was dedicated to a whole series ot
local river-Gods. So we read that Achilles' golden locks had been vowed
by his father to the Spercheios, though destiny led the hero himself to fulfil
the vow at the pyre of Patroklos, where he laid them in his beloved
' See on this, especially G. A. Wilken, Das from the top of the head, and that the cutting
Saaroffir (in his Verspreide Gachriften, Pt. off of the hair there facilitated its escape on
III (1912), p. 401 seqq.), and his monograph death. So, too, the Kanikars, amouna
Ueber'das Hdarofifer wideinige andere Trauer- tribe of Travancore, cut off the top-*
gebraiklie bei den Volhern Indouesiens, Heft it, the deceased (see Frazer, Burial U
Amsterdam, 1887. p. 83, note). t Si*
"- Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii, p. 399 seqq., c See, too, Wilken, loi- at-t and ' ,^.
and cf. Krause, Die Alilosung der Men- sonsage (Gids, rSSS, No. 5). and cf' K° „„,
sclienoger, p. 77. son Smith, The Religion of the Semites, P- J- '
' Fasti, iii, 339 seqq.; the story is more and n. 2. nl.
literally given by Plutarch (Numa, xv). ' Ephraem Syrus (Op- Syr., 1, 24 '' „.
"■ 'Summos, ait ille, capillos'. meriting on Lev. xix. 27. Cf. K°
'" The Tibetans think-that the soul issues Smith, of. cit., p. 325, note r.
Primitive are still to be found among primitive races the World over.1 The h '
haiSef- is regarded by them as a main source of life and strength. So much
in?: lwif indeed, is this the case that its cutting off was very generally arrm, !
source of . r . .. • . , , . ' ""-cpierj
life and as a substitute tor human sacrifice,2 an idea humorously played on bv
strength. Qv;,js ;n his imaginary conversation between King Numa and Jupiter
The God, consulted as to the propitiation necessary to avert his
thunderbolts, demands the cutting off of the head of a man, on which the
King—after a preliminary attempt to whittle down 'head' to that of an
onion—would make Jupiter content himself with the top hair.4 Accord-
ing to primitive ideas the hair of the crown of the head was in a special
way connected with human life.3 In general the hair was a supreme
personal offering in the case of the living and a potent means of placino-
the person of the votary in the hands of the divinity both in life and
death.
The hair regarded as the source of bodily strength is well brought out
in the biblical episode of Samson and Delilah.0
Besides death, the chief occasions for these ceremonial hair-cuttings
were after birth, on embarking on some special enterprise or on its successful
result, and, as here, on entering on the adult stage, in the case of both
sexes.
Such hair-offerings were often made to springs and rivers as the most
visible embodiment of the divine life inherent in the Earth. The Arabs,
like the Hebrews,' offer them at springs. With the ancient Greeks, as is
well'known, the long hair of childhood was dedicated to a whole series ot
local river-Gods. So we read that Achilles' golden locks had been vowed
by his father to the Spercheios, though destiny led the hero himself to fulfil
the vow at the pyre of Patroklos, where he laid them in his beloved
' See on this, especially G. A. Wilken, Das from the top of the head, and that the cutting
Saaroffir (in his Verspreide Gachriften, Pt. off of the hair there facilitated its escape on
III (1912), p. 401 seqq.), and his monograph death. So, too, the Kanikars, amouna
Ueber'das Hdarofifer wideinige andere Trauer- tribe of Travancore, cut off the top-*
gebraiklie bei den Volhern Indouesiens, Heft it, the deceased (see Frazer, Burial U
Amsterdam, 1887. p. 83, note). t Si*
"- Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii, p. 399 seqq., c See, too, Wilken, loi- at-t and ' ,^.
and cf. Krause, Die Alilosung der Men- sonsage (Gids, rSSS, No. 5). and cf' K° „„,
sclienoger, p. 77. son Smith, The Religion of the Semites, P- J- '
' Fasti, iii, 339 seqq.; the story is more and n. 2. nl.
literally given by Plutarch (Numa, xv). ' Ephraem Syrus (Op- Syr., 1, 24 '' „.
"■ 'Summos, ait ille, capillos'. meriting on Lev. xix. 27. Cf. K°
'" The Tibetans think-that the soul issues Smith, of. cit., p. 325, note r.