Grecian sculpture affords us the opportunity of studying the different modes in favour in that country, and it is astonishing to find what a variety of methods were adopted by the belles of ancient Greece for enhancing their charms. A loose knot, fastened by a clasp in the form of a grasshopper, was a favourite fashion. Cauls of network, metal mitres of different designs, and simple bands, and sometimes chaplets, of flowers, all confined at different periods, the luxuriant locks of the Helens, Penelopes, and Xantippes of ancient times. [Illustration: ANCIENT ROMAN.] It was a common custom among heathen nations to consecrate to their gods the hair when cut off, as well as that growing on the head, and it was either consumed on the altar, deposited in temples, or hung upon the trees. A famous instance of the consecration of hair is that of Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy Evergetes. It is related that when the king went on his expedition to Syria, she, solicitous for his safety, made a vow to consecrate her hair (which was remarkable for its fineness and beauty) to Venus, if he returned to her. When her husband came back she kept her word, and offered her hair in the temple of Cyprus. This was afterwards missing, when a report was spread that it had been turned into a constellation in the heavens, which constellation, an old writer tells us, is called _Coma Berenices_ (the hair of Berenice) to the present day. Another remarkable instance is that of Nero, who, according to Suetonius, cut off his first beard, put it in a casket of gold set with jewels, and consecrated it to Jupiter Capitolinus. [Illustration: ENGLISH HEAD-DRESS OF THE 13TH CENTURY.] The hair of the head and beard appears to have been held in great respect by most nations, and perhaps we may trace the use of human hair in spells and incantations to this fact. Orientals especially treat the hair which falls from them with superstitious care, and bury it, so that no one shall use it to their prejudice. [Illustration: HORNED HEAD-DRESS OF 15TH CENTURY. _From Effigy of Countess of Arundel in Arundel Church._] Roman matrons generally preferred blonde hair to their own ebon tresses, and resorted to wigs and dye when Nature, as they considered, had treated them unkindly. Ovid rebukes a lady of his acquaintance in the plainest terms for having destroyed her hair. [Illustration: STEEPLE HEAD-DRESS OF 15TH CENTURY.]