CHAPTER XL.

WHAT IS THE FATE OF THE SLAIN AMONGST THE ABIPONIAN VICTORS.

As soon as the Abipones see any one fall in battle under their hands, their first care is to cut off the head of the dying man, which they perform with such celerity that they would win the palm from the most experienced anatomists. They lay the knife not to the throat, but to the back of the neck, with a sure and speedy blow. When they were destitute of iron, a shell, the jaw of the palometa, a split reed, or a stone carefully sharpened, served them for a knife. Now with a very small knife they can lop off a man's head, like that of a poppy, more dexterously than European executioners can with an axe. Long use and daily practice give the savages this dexterity. For they cut off the heads of all the enemies they kill, and bring them home tied to their saddles or girths by the hair. When apprehension of approaching hostilities obliges them to remove to places of greater security, they strip the heads of the skin, cutting it from ear to ear beneath the nose, and dexterously pulling it off along with the hair. The skin thus drawn from the skull, and stuffed with grass, after being dried a little in the air, looks like a wig, and is preserved as a trophy. That Abipon who has most of these skins at home, excels the rest in military renown. The skull too is sometimes kept to be used as a cup at their festive drinking-parties.

Though you cannot fail to execrate the barbarity of the Abipones, in cutting off and flaying the heads of their enemies, yet I think you will judge these ignorant savages worthy of a little excuse, on reflecting that they do it from the example of their ancestors, and that of very many nations throughout the world, which, whenever they have an opportunity of venting their rage upon their enemies, seem to cast away all sense of humanity, and to think that the victors have a right to practise any outrage upon the vanquished. Innumerable are the forms of cruelty which the other savages throughout America exercise towards their slain and captive enemies. The Iroquois in Canada flay the heads of their enemies before they are dead. The Jesuit Lafitau, in his book intitled _Mœurs des Sauvages Américains, &c._ declares that he saw a woman of French extraction, who lived in good health for many years after having her head scalped by the Iroquois, and that she went by the name of _La Tête Pelée_. Many are said to have survived this scalping. Some of the Canadian Indians flay the whole body of the enemy they have killed, and exhibit his skin as a testimonial of their victory and valour. Sometimes the skin of the hand is converted into a tobacco-pouch. Although such treatment awaits the bodies of the dead, yet it is preferable to fall in battle than to be taken in captivity by the Iroquois. The more warlike of their captives whom they stand in fear of, along with the women, children, and old men, whom they consider incumbrances, are burnt the first day on the field of battle; others share the same fate the succeeding days, to expedite their return. If the fear of pursuers impose the necessity of haste, they bind their captives to trees, and set fire to those next them, that they may either be roasted by a slow fire, or if the flame should grow languid, be destroyed by hunger. The other captives, whom they think likely to be useful to them at home, they bind and carry away. At night, that they may not take advantage of the darkness, and flee, they stretch out their legs and arms in the form of the letter X, and bind them with a cord to a stake, to which they fasten two longer ropes one to tie the neck, the other the breast. The extremity of these the savage master holds in his hand, that if the captive endeavours to extricate himself he may be awakened. Painful indeed must the night be to these wretches, for as they are entirely naked, their bodies are bitten by swarms of ants and wasps, from which, being bound hand and foot, they cannot defend themselves. At the end of a miserable journey they are either condemned to wretched slavery, or to the pile. Similar barbarity is practised by the savages of South America towards their captives. The Brazilians fatten them for some time, and then publicly kill them by knocking them on the head with a club. The limbs are dissected and afford a feast to the whole horde; for they are cannibals, and engaged in perpetual wars with their neighbours. I cannot forbear mentioning a strange piece of cruelty practised by the Southern savages towards their captives. If they catch one of the enemy in the plain they do not kill him, but cut off both his feet and leave him there, so that unable to prosecute his journey, he dies a lingering death amidst the bitterest torments.

This wicked system of cruelty towards captives and enemies is abhorred by the Abipones, who never torture the dying. After taking a village of Spaniards or Indians, they do not promiscuously slay all the inhabitants. Unless highly irritated by some previous injury, they always spare the women and children. They pull the skins off the heads of the slain, and carry them home as testimonies of their warlike achievements, but never use them to cover themselves or their horses with, as some do. They show the utmost kindness towards their captives, as I have declared in the thirteenth chapter, on the Manners and Customs of the Abipones. According to Lafitau, the Hurons and Iroquois, though very savage in other respects, never ill-treat their captives at home, except they be of the number of those that are condemned to be burnt, by the sentence of the chiefs.