'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎425] (456/582)

HISTORY OF THE JOASSAMEE PIRATES.
425
an association as that of an equality with infidels and strangers to
the Word, and, that the promulgator of such disgrace ought there
fore to receive the punishment due to his crime. The spark once
kindled, the flame of holy pride soon blazed more ardently, and,
quickened by zeal, raged at length with ungovernable fury in every
breast. The obnoxious ambassador was first disgraced and ren
dered contemptible, by having his beard plucked out by the roots,
and his face smeared with human excrement; when, in this state,
he was placed on an ass, with his face towards its tail, and thus
driven by the women and children round the town, as an object of
derision to all beholders *
Several minor incidents of ambiguous interpretation gradually
* When the messengers of David were sent from Jerusalem unto Hanun, the King of the
Ammonites, at his capital beyond the Jordan, to offer him condolence for the loss of his father
Nahash, these were suspected by the Ammonitish courtiers to be spies; on which occasion,
the punishment inflicted on them was that of having one-half of their beards shaved off, and
their garments " docked even to their buttocks/' as the Scripture phrase is, when they were
sent away. This loss of the beard was thought to be of so much importance, that David,
when he heard of it, sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed; and the
King said, " Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return."—2 Sam. c. x.
verse 1—6. ^ , ,
It was one of the most infamous punishments of cowardice in Sparta, to cause those who
turned their backs in the day of battle, to appear abroad with one-half of their beards shave ,
and the other half unshaved.— Burders Illustrations, vol. i. p. 72. , .
D'Arvieux mentions an instance of an Arab, who, having received a wound m h.s jaw,
chose to hazard his life rather than suffer his beard to be taken off to facilitate the cure.
These instances show the antiquity of the punishment, and the ep-ee o isgrace w "
is supposed to imply. Though these refer to cases are mentioned of off the
punishment on certain Jews, who, as he says, had married wtves of As ^ od ' f ^ m ™ n ;Tarth
Moab, and like Solomon, the beloved of God, and unequalled among the kings of the earth,
had been led by these outlandish women into sin.—Memio , c. xm. v. , ■
As a refinement of this cruelty, they sometimes put hot ashes on the kin, after hey
* *4- THniQ thpv served adulterers sit AtnenSj 3.s
torn off the hair, to make the pam more This"nd of punishment was eom-
is observed by the Scholiast on A h instead of off the
mon in Persia. King Artaxcrxes says Plutarch m h« Apot g ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
hair of such of his generals as had been gmy b ' hil ° her Apollonius to be shaved.
The Emperor Domitian caused the hair and beard ot p P
—Philostratus, lib. iii. c. 24.
3 i