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.