The above evidence appears to indicate that the belief of a man's
strength and vigour being contained in his hair is by no means confined
to the legend of Samson, but is spread all over the world. This
has been pointed out by Professor Robertson Smith, [334] Professor
Wilken and others. Sir J.G. Frazer also adduces several instances in
the _Golden Bough_ to show that the life or soul was believed to be
contained in the hair. This may well have been the case, but the hair
was also specialised, so to speak, as the seat of bodily vigour and
strength. The same idea appears to have applied in a minor measure
to the nails and teeth. The rules for disposing of the cut hair
usually apply to the parings of nails, and the first teeth are also
deposited in a rat's hole or on the roof of the house. As suggested
by Professor Robertson Smith it seems likely that the strength and
vigour of the body was believed to be located in the hair, and also to
a less extent in the nails and teeth, because they grew more visibly
and quickly than the body and continued to do so after it had attained
to maturity. The hair and nails continue to grow all through life, and
though the teeth do not grow when fully formed, the second teeth appear
when the body is considerably developed and the wisdom teeth after it
is fully developed. The hair grows much more palpably and vigorously
than the nails and teeth, and hence might be considered especially the
source of strength. Other considerations which might confirm the idea
are that men have more hair on their bodies than women, and strongly
built men often have a large quantity of hair. Some of the stronger
wild animals have long hair, as the lion, bear and wild boar; and
the horse, often considered the embodiment of strength, has a long
mane. And when anger is excited the hair sometimes appears to rise,
as it were, from the skin. The nails and teeth were formerly used
on occasion as weapons of offence, and hence might be considered to
contain part of the strength and vigour of the body.
Finally, it may be suggested as a possibility that the Roundheads
cut their hair short as a protest against the superstition that
a soldier's hair must be long, which originated in the idea that
strength is located in the hair and may have still been current
in their time. We know that the Puritans strove vainly against the
veneration of the Maypole as the spirit of the new vegetation, [335]
and against the old nature-rites observed at Christmas, the veneration
of fire as the preserver of life against cold, and the veneration
of the evergreen plants, the fir tree, the holly, and the mistletoe,
which retained their foliage through the long night of the northern
winter, and were thus a pledge to man of the return of warmth and
the renewal of vegetation in the spring. And it therefore seems not
altogether improbable that the Puritans may have similarly contended
against the superstition as to the wearing of long hair.