Note 46 — CHAP. VIII. Of Whiskers.

Some authors attribute the honour of inventing whiskers to the Arabians. Plutarch, in his life of Theseus, gives the glory of it to the Abantes, an ancient people of the isle of Euboe, which we call Negropont, of whom Herodotus makes honourable mention, book i. chap. 146. As the Abantes were a very war-like people, they shaved all the forepart of their head, in order that their enemies might have nothing to lay hold of in fight; and at the same time they let their hair grow out on the back part, to show them they were not afraid of being taken in flight. Recherches fur la barbe, par le P. Oudin, Jesuite.