In
any case they have in their pomp a touch of the bearded bulls
of Assyrian sculpture; and this strange fashion of curling if not
oiling the Assyrian bull gives the newcomer an indescribable and
illogical impression of the unnatural sublimity of archaic art.
In the Apocalypse somewhere there is an inspiringly unintelligible
allusion to men coming on the earth, whose hair is like the hair
of women and their teeth like the teeth of lions. I have never been
bitten by an Orthodox clergyman, and cannot say whether his teeth
are at all leonine; though I have seen seven of them together
enjoying their lunch at an hotel with decorum and dispatch.
But the twisting of the hair in the womanish fashion does for us
touch that note of the abnormal which the mystic meant to convey
in his poetry, and which others feel rather as a recoil into humour.
The best and last touch to this topsy-turvydom was given when a lady,
observing one of these reverend gentlemen who for some reason did
not carry this curious coiffure, exclaimed, in a tone of heartrending
surprise and distress, "Oh, he's bobbed his hair!"
Here again of course even a superficial glance at the pageant
of the street should not be content with its comedy.
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