Bald locust (Hastings' Dictionary)

See Locust. BALDNESS, loss of the hair.— Two forms are contra.stcd in Lv 13^""*^, nrni} or crown-baldness (if>a\dKpuixa, LXX), and n-;j or forehead baldness ; the Heb. name referring to the fictitious appear- ance of height which it gives to the head {di'a(pa- XcLVTuina., LXX). These forms are also distinguished by Aristotle (//w<. An. iii. 11. 8).

Baldness did not render the Israelite ceremonially unclean, and thus dill'ered from the Dahereth z'traath or spot of the contagious parasitic disease Tineatonsu;ans or ringworm, the condition described by Celsus aa ophiasis ; while the other form of spot mentioned along with it in Lv 13, Buhah or psoriasis, is nut BALDNESS BALM 235 contagious (Lv 13*"), and did not therefore make the sullerer unclean.

Baldness is not a sign of old a''e in the Bible, like grey hair ; but is re- garded as due to excessive lauour with exposure to the sun, as in those employed in the siege of Tyre ( Ezk 2'J"), among whom it may have been induced by the salt water and a salt hsh diet, supposed in Shetland to cause baldness. An Arab, poet calls crown-baldness the baldness of slaves, while the other form is called noble baldness, as due to the pressure of a helmet.

It was to be a sign of the degradation and serv-itude of backsliding Israel, that instead of curled and dressed hair they were to show baldness (Is 3"). ' Bald-head ' was a term of reproach (2 K 2^*), as was calmis among the Romans, and <j>a\aKpis among the Greeks (see Suetonius in Cics. 45. 3, and Aristo- phanes, Nubes, 240 ; Equitcs, 550). Synesius wrote a defence of baldness of which an Eng. tr. was published by Fleming in 1579.

A more famous Qefence was Hucbald's remarkable alliterative j)oem of 136 lines, de laudibus calvitii, each word of which begins with the letter C (Domavius, Amphi- theatro Sapient. Socrat. i. 290). Baldness seems not to have been common in Bible- lands, nor is it very frequently noticed among the Jews to this day. The name of Kareah, father of Johanan (2 K 25*'), means ' bald-head,' and Korah refers to baldness, as Lat.

name Calvus (Gn 36'- ", Ex 6'^')- Possibly, the frequency of ceremonial shaving of the head may have had some effect in preventing it. This reason is given by Hero- dotus for its rarity in Egypt (iii. 12). Slummy heads, though often shaven (see Gn 41"), are seldom bald. I have found only three bald heads out of 500. Egyptians generally concealed baldness by wear- ing wigs, and one female head in the Camb. Mus. had loclts of hair gummed on over the bare scalp. In Papyrus Ebers (c. B.C.

1500) there are eleven pre.scrii>tions to prevent baldness. But, although rare in Egj'pt, Leo Africanus says it is common in Barbary. Alany of the Egyp. priests were shaven, and arc therefore called Fclcct or bald-headed ; and perhaps it was for contrast that baldness disqualified for the priesthood in I.sr. (Lv ei**, LXX), although it did not preclude them from partaking of the .sacred food. Even shaving the head was for- bidden to the priest (Lv 21°).

A similar contrast is implied in the prohibition of ' rounding the corn-rs' of the head (Lv 19") among ordinary Israelites to distinguish them from their heathen neighbours, who cut their hair in a circular form, as that of Dionysus was cut (Herod, iii. 8). The modem Egj-ptians and Bishari adopt a similar mode of cutting ; while the Pal.

and Arabian Jews keep the Levitical custom, and, at the huUika or first cutting of the hair at the age of four years, do not cut the corners (Schechter, Jewish Quart. Jicv. U. 16). Artificial baldness, by shaving, was a sign of mourning, not only among the Jews, but among other races. Bion s comment on its folly, nuasi calvitii) mirror Icvetur, is quoted by Cicero (fuse. Disp. iii. 26). In this manner Mardonius and his army mourned for Ma.si.

stiua, cutting otl" not only their own hair, but that of their horses (Herod. ix. 24; see also Patroclus' fiinrral, II. xxiii. 40: also Odyss. iv. 198; Seneca, Ifijiiml. 1176). Micah bids the women of ^larcshali niaKe themselves bald (1"), and enlarge their baldness as the nesher or neophron (Kgyi). vulture), which has a featherless head. Baldness, produced by cutting otf the hair, is a-ssociated with mourning in Is lo'' 22", Jer 48" 16', Ezk 27", and Am 8'".

It is used metaphorically for mourning in Jer 47' and Ezk 7". Syniliolii al baldness by shaving was the sign of the expiry ol the Nazirite's vow (Nu 6"). At the expiry oi his vow St. Paul shaved his head at Cenchreoe, and he fulfilled later the ritua4 oi purification (Ac IS' 21*). Shaving in connexion with vows was not peculiar to the Jews ; thus the people of Argos shaved their heads in token of their vow to recover Thyra;a (Herod, i. 82).

Shaving the forehead was not permitted to the Jews (Beehorat 43. 3, and Sifre on Nu). These shavings were essentially representative sacrihces ; in the usual heathen form, they were intended to propitiate the deity invoked. The Jewish tonsure was partly thanksgiving, hence the hair was burnt in the fire of the peace-oB'ering (Nu 6") ; it was also partly purificatory, ' as if by this, deficiencies in religious service were cut off' (Rabanus Maur. de Cleric. Inst. i. 3).

Shaving was on this account part of the ceremony of the purification of Levites (Nu 8'). Among some races partial tonsure is a tribal mark, as, for example, the occipital tonsure of the Philippine iEtas. The primitive Christian tonsure was votive, and was falsely supposed to have been invented by St. Peter (Greg. Tour, de gloria Martyr, i. 28), but really dates from the 5th cent. The Petrine or Rom. crown-tonsnxe represented the crown of thorns (Raban. i. 3).

'The Eastern or Pauline tonsure was total shaving or close croppin" of the head, and was derived from Egypt. The Celtic or Johaniiine tonsure, which was a shaving of the front of the head in front of the ears and vertex, existed in Spain, where it was forbidden by the 4th Council of Toledo (Canon xli.) ; it was also practised in Celtic Britain (Gildas, Epist. ii.), Ireland, and Scotland (Bede, Uist. Eccl. iv. 1, v. 2), as well as among the Saxons (Apollinaris Sidonius, Epist. ad Lamprid. viii.

9). It was probably the survival of a pre-Christian badge of servitude, as the word Maol, ' bald-headed,' for servant existed in pre-Christian times, as in the names Maolduin and Maoldarach. Lucat, Maol was a heathen antagonist of St. Patrick. Tonsure of women was, in the judgment of St. Paul, shameful (1 Co 11°), and the early Church decided at the Council of Gangra that it a woman polled her head she should be excommunicated (Socrates, HE iii. 42). See Barber, Hair, Shaving. A. Macalister.

BALM (1< zdri, 'y.f zlrt ; LXX fntTiv-n ; resimt). —It is impossible to determine, on philological grounds, the substance intended by zOri ; and as the ancient translations do not agree on the sig- nification of the word, it must remain uncertain. The substances with which it is mentioned (Gn 37", cf. 43") make it probable that it was an aromatic gum or spice. If the substance alluded to by Jeremiah (S"'' 4(i" 51') be the same, powerful medicinal virtues were attributed to it.

It was clearly an article of commerce in Gilead, dealt in by Judah and Israel (Ezk 27"). No mention is made of a balm tree as growing in Gilead. It is not certain from the expressions, ' Is there no balm in Gilead ? ' and ' Go up into Gilead and take balm,' that the substance was produced there, any more than from the expression that ' Judah ami the land of Israel, they were thy merchants, they traded in balm,' implies that it was produced in their country.

Gilead was an indefinite geo- graiihical expression for the district stretching eastward from the Jordan to the Euphrates and an unknown extent southward. A portion of the commerce of Arabia passed through it, and spices and balms and incense formed an imjiortant part of the wares carried by the Ishmaelites through this territory. Whether the substance was produced in it or not, Gilead would seem to have been an entrepot for it.

This is all we know from Scrip- ture as to the substance or substances intended. Any attempt to identify them must be conjectural, and he who hazards a gness will be largely in :36 BALNUUS BAND lluenced by his opinion as to whether balm was a prtKluct of Gileaa or an article of commerce there ami in Pal. If we assume that it was a product of (iilead, we have no known tree in tliat region whicli produces a medicinal aromatic gum or spice. Mn.stkh has been supposed by some to be the substance.

The tree which produces it, how- ever, although abundant along the coast and lower mountains of W. Pal., has not been reported E. of the Jordan. The author searched for it in the forests of Gilead and Bashan without finding it. Moreover, the Ishm.ielites (Gn 37^) brought it, with Arabian gums and spices, throiigli Gilead to Uotlian on their way to Egypt. Mastich is, and alwa3-s has been, a leading product of Chios and other islands of the ALgean Sea, and was certainly not a product of Arabia.

Pliny (Nat. Hist. xil. 3ti), indeed, speaks of a mastich produced in India and Arabia, but it was produced by a 'prickly shrub,' and therefore cannot be the gum hovaPistacia Lentiscua, L. In other places he calls the true mastich resin of /t'n/i,?A-(.\.\iv. 22. 28). He attributes to it a long list of virtues, princip.-illy astringent and detergent. Mecca balsnm, the product of Balsamodendron (Hlenden.ie, Kth., and B. Opobalsnmum, Kth., has the weight of tradition in its favour. Jos. {A7it.

viii. vi. ti) says that the Jews believe that the queen of Sheba, who doubtless had botanical gardens in many places, gave Solomon a root of it ; and we have evidence that it was cultivated in the lower Jordan Valley. Tristram says, ' From Jericho Cleopatra obtained plants for her gardens at Heliopolis ; an imperial guard was placed ovei the gardens, and twice was the balm tree exhibited in triumph in the streets of Rome.' It has, however, now disappeared.

The product of these trees is known in Arabic by the name of balasAn, from which BaKatxnov, bnlsnmum, balsnm, and balm are probably derived. The balasAn tree is defined by the Arab, lexicographers as ' a certain kind of tree or shrub, resembling the camphire (f^cnnn), haWng many leaves, inclining to white, in odour resem- bling the rue, the berry of which has an oil wliich is more potent than the berry, as the berry is than the wood.'

Avicenna speaks of its properties and virtues at length, and quotes Dioscorides to the etlect that the tree 'grows only in the country of the Jews, which is Palestine, in the Ghor.' He probably alludes to the plantations in the neighbourhood of Jericho, but is mistaken in supposing that this was the only or the principal station for the tree. That Avicenna does not confound it with the ma.

stich is clear from the fact that he presently says that ' some prefer to mix this unguent (gum) with other unguents (gums), as unguent of the green berry, and unguent of camjihire (henra), and unguent (gum) of the mastich tree.' IJalm of Gileaa was formerly much used even in Europe, but it has now passed out of the pharmacopoeias. The monks of Jericho have adopted the zaklcvm, Balanites ACgyptiaca, Del., as the Balm of Gilead.

They prepare an oily gum from the frtiit of this species, which is sold in tin cases to travellers as the Balm of Gilead. It is said also to be beneficial in the treatment of wounds and sores. G. E. Post. BALNUUS (A ^aXvovoi, B BoXvoCs), 1 Es 9»».— BlNNUl in Ezr ICF', which see.