SCALPING IN AMERICA, 431 



In vSoiith America we find two foci where the habit of scalping pre- 

 vailed, namely, in northern Argentina, Paraguay, Chaco, and the 

 Giiayanas. ^ The method here consisted of decapitation (cutting olf 

 the entire head) and then the painstaking removal of the scalp; and 

 in general it underwent no change during several hundred years. 

 The scalp lock was also not as highly prized as among the Indians 

 in Xorth America. It is true that it was an object of pursuit and 

 regard, worn by the women in the scalp dance and flaunted at the 

 enemy before combat ; but. besides the scalp, there could be found 

 in the hut of the Chaco Indians also other trophies, such as skulls, 

 calvaria, pieces of skin, prepared beards, etc. Furthermore, the 

 custom did not spread in time to any large extent. The trophy of 

 the majority of the South American tribes was the whole head. 

 The limited extent of the practice of scalping even among the Chaco 

 peoples can probably be attributed to the absence of firearms and 

 steel knives, as well as that of scalp premiums, such as were oti'ered 

 elsewhere b}- the whites. The absence of firearms was due to strict 

 rules made by the Spanish against their introduction among the 

 natives. 



Concerning Guiana, Ave have the trustworthy statement of Sted- 

 man that scalping was practiced by the Carib. As to the Antilles 

 we know but little. Cohnnbus found some heads, in all probabilities 

 trophies, in the dwellings of the aborigines of eastern Cuba. On 

 his second voyage his men found the heads of their comrades, who 

 had been left ashore and were killed by the natives, in the hands 

 of the Haitian. Chanca found skull trophies among the Carib of 

 Guadalupe, and in another place Ave read of a head in a cooking 

 joot. The boiling of the head serA'ed to make its cleaning easier. 

 Besides heads, there Avere found in the huts of the Carib the Avhole 

 upper part of the skeleton, flutes made from human bones, and arrow 

 points from the same material. According to all indications, the 

 head Avas the princij)al form of trophy all over the Antilles and eA^en 

 in the Guianas. 



The negroes of the Guianas and the Maroons in the Antilles 

 brought Avith them their OAvn forms of trophies. These Avere first 

 of all prepared right hands, but also heads, Avith Avhich the negroes 

 played ninepins, and lower jaAvs, Avith portions of the scalp, Avhich 

 Avere used in Avitchcraft practices. Pinckard reports, hoAvever, CA^en 

 true scalping among the Bushmen settled in the Guianas, though no 

 such custom Avas met there previously by Stedman. 



The question arises as to hoAV the occurrence of scalping in the 

 Guianas is to be explained. It Avas not introduced by the negroes, 

 for, Avith the exception of its occurrence in the nineteenth century in 

 Dahomey, it was not knoAvn on the Dark Continent. The custom 

 was highly de\^eloped among the Timucua peoples in Florida, yet the 



