Note 217 — Chapter V · PERSONAL RANK. THE FREEMAN. THE NOBLE.

There were differences in this respect among the different races, and in some, the long hair may have been confined to the noble families. Among the Saxons, however, it seems that it was also used by the free: gif freo wíf, locbore, lyswæs hwæt gedó, if a free woman, that wears long hair, do any wrong. Lex Æðelb. § 73. To cut a freeman’s hair was to dishonour him. Lex Ælfr. § 35. See also Grimm, Deut. Rechtsalt. pp. 240, 283. Eumenius speaks of the Franks as “prolixo crine rutilantes.” Paneg. Constant. c. 18.