OCR Text |
Show History sua fliystery ot tue coma. It would be curious to know what mystic meaning our forefathers attached to the simple act of combing the hair. We learn from old ohurch history that the hair of the priest or bishop wa combed several times during services by one of the inferior clergy. The comb is mentioned as one of the essentials for use during a high mass when sung by a bishop; mass combs of precious metals are reckoned among the costly possessions posses-sions of most European cathedrals. Besides Be-sides those made of gold and silver, the poorer churches have them of ivory, while in some the more common kinds are used. Among those especially known to history his-tory are those of St, Neot, St. Dunstan and Malachias. That belonging to St. Thomas, the martyr of Canterbury, is still kept in the church of St. Sepulcher, Thetford; that of St. Cuthbert, "the woman wo-man hater," at Durham cathedral. From sundry references in old legends to the use of the comb in divinations, and from its appearance in combination with pagan emblems on rudely sculptured stones in various parts of Scotland, it seems probable prob-able that this was one of the objects ol pagan veneration which early Christian teachers deemed prudent to adopt, investing in-vesting it with some new significance. St. Louis Republic. |