The doctors, like the priests, are distinguished from other people by the fashion of wearing their hair. Thunberg states in one place that they shaved the whole head; in another, that they had the option of retaining all their hair, like the boys and women. According to Titsingh, physicians shave the head, and surgeons wear the hair. Of surgery, however, they know next to nothing. All the male Japanese who are neither priests nor physicians, from the time the beard begins to grow, shave the head from the forehead to the nape of the neck. The little hair left about the neck and on the temples is well oiled, turned up in a cue, and tied with several rounds of white string made of paper. The hair above the tie is cut off, leaving about the length of a finger, which, being stiffened with a sort of pomatum, is so bent that the tip of it is made to stand against the crown of the head. This arrangement is strictly attended to, the head being shaved every day, that the stumps of the growing hair may not disfigure it. Women who have parted with their husbands also shave their heads—at least Thunberg met with one such instance; but, in general, the women retain all their hair, which they make smooth with oil and mucilaginous substances, and either put close to the head all round, or else (in the case of single women and serving-maids) make it stand in puffs on each side of the face. The ends are fastened together in a knob at the crown of the head, just before which is stuck a large comb, made, in the case of the poorer people, of lackered boxwood, and among the richer of tortoise-shell. The rich wear also several long ornaments of tortoise-shell, stuck through this knob, which, with a few flowers, constitute the whole of their head decorations. “Vanity,” says Thunberg, “has not yet taken root among them to that degree as to induce them to wear rings or other ornaments in their ears. No caps, hats, or bonnets are worn, except a conical cap, made of reeds, when travelling. Otherwise the parasol or fan is all the shelter they use against the sun or the rain.”