436 SCALPING IN AMERICA. 



mestizos, the hair and skin of which can not, in many cases, be dis- 

 tinguished from those of full bloods. 



Such a state of affairs lasted for several decades, continuing past 

 the French invasion and well up to the eighties. The rewards offered 

 reached, in 1863 to 1870, the large sums of $200 to $300 for each ordi- 

 nary scalp and $500 for that of a chief of the Indians. 



In Central and South America we find no scalp premiums and no 

 scalp hunting. 



The part of the white population most directly concerned in scalp- 

 ing were the frontiersmen, with the hunters, trappers, and miners. 

 Their mode of life and their frequent dealings with the Indians, of 

 friendly as well as unfriendly nature, developed in these men and 

 even women, who were for the most part the descendants of the 

 Scotch-Irish, manners which were not always in accord with those of 

 civilization. * * * 



In some cases the Indians and after them the whites severed not 

 only the scalp, but also other hairy parts of the skin or other pieces, 

 and some of these were utilized for tobacco pouches, straps, belts, etc. 

 Such pieces of skin became even, in some instances, articles of trade. 

 In the summer of 1779 the farmers in the neighborhood of Prickets 

 Fort, in West Virginia, killed an Indian who was wounded in a 

 fight, and the body was scalped and skinned. The skin was tanned, 

 and from it were made a saddle, ball bags, and belts. One of the 

 bags is said by Mr. Thwaites to be preserved to this day by a grand- 

 uncle of one of the farmers who did the skinning. But even the 

 Avhites ^^'ere not always safe before other whites in this respect; thus 

 we read in Norton's Redeemed Captive that during the war in 1746 a 

 French youth cut off an arm of a slain New Englander for the pui*- 

 pose of making himself a tobacco pouch. 



It is but natural that a custom of such a force and duration as 

 scalping left some ]oermanent traces, which are best recognizable in 

 the language. The word scalp is commonly used as a synonym for 

 the hair-covered skin of the head. It was applied to animals, and one 

 hears to this day about the " scalp " of the puma, bear, wolf, etc. 

 Premiums for wolf scalps were an important item of income and 

 expense among the colonists. In ordinarj^ conversation the term 

 found and to some extent still finds many applications ; thus " may 

 I never see a scalp " was a form of oath ; and there were the expres- 

 sions " There can be no scalping between us," " To go a-scalping," "A 

 company of expert hair-dressers," etc. The railroad ticket " scalper " 

 is still a well-known figure. Figuratively, the word was used to 

 denote social conquests, etc. 



At the present time scalping in North America has ceased to exist. 

 It has been prohibited, under heavy penalties, by the law, and had to 



