550 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ized us with this custom that illustrations are needless. How in some 

 cases, after a victory, " scalps are fixed on a pole " and danced round 

 how they are " highly prized as trophies, and publicly exhibited at 

 feasts," need not be proved in detail. But one piece of evidence, 

 supplied by the Shoshones, may be named ; because it clearly shows 

 us the use of the trophy as an accepted evidence of victory a kind 

 of legal proof regarded as alone conclusive. We read that 



" Taking an enemy's scalp is an honor quite independent of the act of van- 

 quishing him. To kill your adversary is of no importance unless the scalp is 

 brought from the field of battle ; and were a warrior to slay any number of his 

 enemies in action, and others were to obtain the scalps or first touch the dead, 

 they would have all the honors, since they have borne off the trophy." 



Though we usually think of scalp-taking in connection with the North 

 American Indians, yet it is not restricted to them. Herodotus de- 

 scribes the Scythians as scalping their conquered enemies; and at the 

 present time the Nagas of the Indian hills take scalps and preserve 

 them. 



Preservation of hair alone, as a trophy, is less general; doubtless 

 because the evidence of victory which it yields is inconclusive; one 

 head might supply hair for two trophies. Still there are cases in 

 which an enemy's hair is displayed in proof of success in war. Speak- 

 ing of a Naga, Grange says his shield " was covered over with the 

 hair of the foes he had killed." The tunic of a Mandan chief is de- 

 scribed by Catlin as " fringed with locks of hair taken by his own 

 hand from the heads of his enemies." And we are told of the Cochi- 

 mis that "at certain festivals their sorcerers .... wore long robes 

 of skins, ornamented with human hair." 



Among easily-transported parts carried home to prove victory, 

 may next be named hands and feet. By the Mexican tribes, Ceris 

 and Opatas, " the slain are scalped, or a hand is cut off, and a dance 

 performed round the trophies on the field of battle." So, too, of the 

 Californian Indians, who also took scalps, we are told that "the yet 

 more barbarous habit of cutting off the hands, feet, or head, of a fallen 

 enemy, as trophies of victory, prevailed more widely. They also 

 plucked out and carefully preserved the eyes of the slain." Though 

 this is not said, we may assume that either the right or the left foot 

 or hand was the trophy; since, in the absence of any distinction, vic- 

 tory over two enemies instead of one might be alleged. Hands were 

 trophies among ancient peoples of the Old World also. The inscrip- 

 tion on a tomb at El Kab in Upper Egypt tells how Aahmes, the son 

 of Abuna, the chief of the steersmen, " when he had won a hand " (in 

 battle), "he received the king's commendation, and the golden neck- 

 lace in token of his bravery ; " and a wall-painting in the temple of 

 Medinet Abou, at Thebes, shows the presentation of a heap of hands 

 to the king. 



