accepted, ear piercing among them was heathenism. Whether this is so or not, it is certain that the descendants of Ishmael were in covenant with such a god.
Judges, viii, 24, 25: "And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that you should give me every man the ear-rings of his prey. For they had golden ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites. And they answered. We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the ear-rings of his prey." And the suggestion of the same thing is very strong in Genesis, xxxv, 4: "And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their ear-rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem."
This sign of covenant with some other god than Jehovah crept at an early day, like so many other customs of heathenism, into the Christian Church. It has gradually disappeared. Lippert says that in the early Church it was customary to have the ears pierced, at the same time invoking the protection of saints against disease. Gradually this dwindled to invocation of a single saint's assistance against a single class of diseases—those of the eye. A remnant of this still lingers among those people who, in our own day and land, claim that they pierce their ears to help their eyesight. Such persons present us the last picture in a series the first of which is a savage man, whose ears are pierced merely to shed blood for the gratification of a deity whose aid he desires to secure.
We have thus considered a large number of curious and interesting points regarding dress and adornment. We have seen how the curious deformations so widely practiced have arisen, and how they are useful. We have queried as to the motives which have led to dress development and its results. We have emphasized the influence that the desire for adornment has exercised upon man's progress. We have lastly shown how a large number of articles of dress and ornament have come to have a religious significance, and how many other deformations have begun in connection with acts of worship.
