therine I. confirmed all the
edicts relating to the beard in the ukase dated 4th August 1726.

A decree was issued by Peter II. in 1728 permitting peasants employed in
agriculture to wear their beards. Fifty roubles had to be paid by all
other persons, and the tax was rigidly enforced. The Empress Anne took a
firm attitude against the beard. In 1731 she promulgated a ukase by
which all persons not engaged in husbandry retaining their beards were
entered in the class of Raskolnicks, in addition to paying the beard tax
of fifty roubles, double the amount of all other taxes.

In 1743 the Empress Elizabeth confirmed the existing decrees in all
their force. Peter III., on his accession to the throne in 1762,
intended to strengthen the laws of his predecessors, and prepared some
stringent measures; but his sudden death prevented them from being put
into force. His widow, Catherine II. (1762), did not share his feelings
in this matter, and immediately on obtaining sovereign power she removed
every restriction relating to the beard. She invited the Raskolnicks,
who had fled from the country to avoid the objectionable edicts, to
return, and assigned land to them for their settlement.

[Illustration: Russian Beard Token, A.D. 1705.]

During thirty-eight years in Russia, the beard-token or Borodoraia (the
bearded), as it was called, was in use. As we write we have one of these
tokens before us, and on one side are represented a nose, mouth,
moustaches, and a large flowing beard, with the inscription "dinge
vsatia," which means "money received"; the reverse bears the year in
Russian characters (equivalent to "1705 year"), and the black eagle of
the empire.

Our facts are mainly drawn from a paper by Mr Walter Hawkins in the
"Numismatic Chronicle," volume vii., 1845. He says that beard-tokens
are rare, and he thinks that the national aversion to their origin
probably caused their destruction or dispersion after they had served
their purpose for the year.

POWDERING THE HAIR

In the olden days hair-powder was largely used in this country, and many
circumstances connected with its history are curious and interesting. We
learn from Josephus that the Jews used hair-powder, and from the East it
was no doubt imported into Rome. The history of the luxurious days of
the later Roman Empire supplies some strange stories. At this period
gold-dust was employed by several of the emperors. "The hair of
Commodus," it is stated on t