"The chain (سلسلۀ [genealogy]) that binds them is His musky hair (جعد [lock of hair])"
-Baha'u'llah quoting Rumi in the Four Valleys
Mason Remey's Journal on the Token of Blood and Hair
"Just before I left Haifa Shoghi Effendi came to me with a sealed package containing some of the precious blood and some of the priceless hair of Baha'u'llah, delivering this to me as a most treasured possession. The inscriptions upon the outer and the inner cover of this precious package read as follows:
"Of all the remants [sic] of Baha'u'llah's all sacred person, the most hallowed, the most precious confidentially* delivered in the hands of my brother and co-worker in the Cause of God, Mr. Remey
(signed) Shoghi. March, 1922
"Coagulated drops of Baha'u'llah's all sacred blood and ringlets of His most Blessed Lock presented as my most precious possession to `Abdu'l Baha's dear son, Mr. Charles Mason Remay as a token of my Baha'i affection and brotherly love.
(signed} Shoghi."
(Sealed with the Greatest Name)
I have received many precoius Holy relics of the Cause, but of all this is the most precious of my Baha'i possessions."
(pg. 52-53, Copy 19, Box 1 vol 3 Notes from 1922 Pilgrimage, Stanford U. Collection)
*on the envelope the word is not 'conifdentially' but 'confidently', perhaps this was a slip by Mason showing the level of confidentiality this relationship with AB seems to have been held.
Other Tokens:
"I designed a silver case to be attached to the left arm-- this to hold a protection Tablet. Then a small gold locket to be worn on a chain bracelet (these chains were at that time worn by many men of fashion), this locket to contain a few drops of the Blood of Baha'o'llah that had been given to me upon a previous visit to the Holy Land, by the Greatest Holy Leaf. Then a silver holder for the Master's photograph, and lastly a gold ring setting for a stone engraved with the burial inscription. These were articles I had wanted for some time. I took them to Haifa with me and one day when I was with the Master I asked HIm to bless these articles, which He did, touching each carefully, holding them in His hands for a few moments with his face upturned in prayer." pg. 101 vol. 2 Remey on tokens.
Some Notes:
In 1922 MR was asked by AB's wife to visit with them and the family before returning to the States.
I have documented tokens of hair being given and tokens of blood being given but not a token of blood and hair being given to anyone but Mason Remey
Esselmont was also given a token of blood, as well as others, from Shoghi Effendi:
http://pixbox.co.uk/ct/downloads/RN.The_Student_Shoghi_Effendi.pdf this happend around 1919
The fact that Shoghi called Mason his brother although a sign of personal endearment, he uses this term for instance for his very intimate friend Ali Yazdi, does not necessarily connote "familyship"
The BUPC argue that the token is a sign of adoption. Citing a work from 1899 on the Bible as a legal document. I have not been able to find any statements from any Baha'i authority stating that they viewed the token of blood and hair as a token of adoption, actually it's not even part of Islamic custom ,not that we should assume that AB's views on adoption were based on Islam, nonetheless there is no independent evidence that the token is even necessary for adoption or in fact proof of adoption by AB of Mason Remey. The BUPC cite this work pg. 104 as viewing the token as institutive evidence,
"Institutive evidence is that which is created or adopted as a memorial of a fact and for the purpose of being evidence of the fact. The stone set up for a boundary; the giving of a clod of earth or a twig in livery of seizing as evidence or the transfer of the title [etc]...." (Sagebeer, The Bible in Court, p. 104.)
http://www.classicapologetics.com/s/bibsage.pdf
this viewpoint can be seen here on the Neal Chase aligned website, http://www.bupc.org/hair-and-blood.html sometimes on internet forums they represent this as Ottoman Law, which this original work of Sagebear is not about at all.
Also See Kafala