Origin of the American Nations, 239. 



We are told by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, that the 

 women in the neighbourhood of Tunis ornament their neck, 

 face, arms, and {boulders, with flowers, ftars, and figures of 

 all kinds, which are burnt in with gunpowder ; and that 

 this is confidered as a mark of extraordinary beauty. The 

 women on the river Gambia, when young, form, on their 

 neck, breaft, and arms, with a hot needle, figures of all 

 kinds, which have the appearance of flowers worked on filk, 

 and which never are obliterated. In the kingdom of Widah, 

 young maids are prepared for the fervice of the great make, 

 which is their principal Fetifh, or deity, by fcratching out 

 various figures, particularly of fnakes, on their fkin with an 

 iron inftrument, by which means their (kin has the appear- 

 ance of fine figured fatin. This is a fign that fuch perfons- 

 are devoted to the great ferpent. 



The favages of "the ifthmus of Darien, in America, form 

 figures on their bodies in like manner. They make an out- 

 line of the figure they intend to paint, fays Wafer, and prick 

 it with a thorn till the blood guihes out; they then befmear 

 the place with the colour mod agreeable to them, and the 

 figures cannot afterwards be effaced. This cuftom was very 

 prevalent in many countries of America, fuch as Florida, 

 Virginia, Louiliana, and Canada, and even in the cold climate 

 of Greenland. The women, acccording to Anderfon, few, 

 with a thread which they have drawn through the foot of 

 their lamps, between the eyes, on the cheeks, chin, and 

 ears, all kinds of fmall characters between the fkin and the 

 fkfh, the black marks of which, when the wounds have 

 healed up, conftantly remain, and have a refemblance to the 

 well-known figures which thofe who vitit the holy fepulchre 

 caufe to be formed on their arms. 



8. Scalping Prif oners, or Enemies <wbo have been killed 

 in Battle. 



This operation wa9 performed in the following manner : 

 The (kin, being cut on the forehead, was torn off backwards 

 to the ears and the hind part of the head. The fkin, after a 

 certain preparation, was made to affume a round form, then 

 ftuck upon the end of a pole, and carried about in triumph. 

 A paffage in Herodotus relating to this fubjecl; has been im- 

 properly tranftated by Gronovius, for it alludes to the fcalp 

 taken from an enemy killed in battle. The Scythians freed 

 it from the flem adhering to it by means of the rib- bone of 

 an ox, and then gave it the fame preparation as their leather 

 in order to render it durable; * A remarkable paffage on this 

 fubjed, alfo, occurs in Orofius. Speaking of the" Gimbrie 



and 



