658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Besides scars resulting from lacerations made in propitiation of 

 dead relatives, dead chiefs, and deities, there are scars resulting from 

 wounds received in battle. The presence of many such implies many 

 conflicts with enemies ; and hence, all the world over, they are held 

 in honor and displayed with pride. The sentiment associated with 

 them among ourselves in past times is indicated in Shakespeare by 

 sundry references to "such as boasting show their scars." Lafeu 

 says, "A scar nobly got, or a noble scar, is a good livery of honor; " 

 and Henry V. foretells of an old soldier that " then will he strip his 

 sleeve and show his scars." 



Animated as are savages in still higher degrees than civilized by 

 the feelings thus indicated having no other kind of honor than that 

 derived from the reputation for bravery what may be expected to 

 result? Will not the anxiety to bear honorable scars sometimes lead 

 to the artificial making of scars? We have evidence that it does. 

 Lichtenstein tells us that the priest among the Bechuanas makes a 

 long cut in the skin from the thigh to the knee of each warrior who 

 has slain some of the enemy in battle. There is a kindred usage 

 among the Bachapin Caffres. Among the Damaras, "for every wild 

 animal that a young man destroys, his father makes four small inci- 

 sions on the front of the son's body as marks of honor and distinction." 

 And then Tuckey, speaking of certain Congo people who make scars, 

 says that this is "principally done with the idea of rendering them- 

 selves agreeable to the women : " a motive which is intelligible if such 

 scars originally passed for scars got in war, and implying bravery. 

 American races yield some evidence of like meaning. We read that 

 " the Itzaex Indians [in Yucatan] have handsome faces, though some 

 of them were marked with lines as a sign of courage." Facts fur- 

 nished by other American tribes suggest that the infliction of torture 

 on entering maturity originated from the habit of making scars 

 artificially in imitation of scars bequeathed by battle. If self-injury 

 to avoid service in war has in all times been frequent among those 

 lacking courage, we may reasonably infer that among the more coura- 

 geous, who have received no wounds, self-injury might be not unfre- 

 quent, where there was gained by it that character for bravery de- 

 sired above everything. Though at first secret and exceptional, the 

 reputation achieved might make it gradually more common and at 

 length general ; until, finally, public opinion, vented against those 

 who did not follow it, made the usage peremptory. When we read 

 in Dobrizhoffer that, among the Abipones, " boys of seven years old 

 pierce their little arms in imitation of their parents, and display 

 plenty of wounds," we are shown the rise of a feeling, and a con- 

 sequent practice, which, growing, may end in a system of initiatory 

 tortures at manhood. Hence, when of the Arawaks Schomburgk 

 tells us that after a Mariquarri dance the blood will be running down 

 their swollen calves, and strips of skin and muscle hang down the 



