A FRAGMENT OF HISTORY 167 



for the horrible operation. Let any one offer to 

 touch it, and he will soon feel the weight of the 

 wearer 's club." 



"I hope the Gaels did not have that abominable 

 custom." 



"They had one that was worse: they carried not 

 only the scalp, but the whole head, which they dried 

 in the sun, after nailing it by the ears to the entrance 

 of the hut in the midst of hunting trophies, boars' 

 heads and wolves' heads. Those were their titles of 

 nobility." 



"And we are descended from those frightful sav- 

 ages?" 



6 ' The tattooed Gaels with red hair, nailing the en- 

 emy 's head to their door, are, as far back as history 

 can show, the first inhabitants of our country; we 

 count them as among our earliest ancestors. Some 

 of their barbarous customs have come down to us, 

 greatly modified, it is true. I have just given you an 

 example, in tattooing; I give you another in the mat- 

 ter of trophies of the chase. After the manner of 

 the ancient Gaels, it is still the custom in the country 

 to nail to the big barn-doors wolves' and foxes' heads 

 and the dead bodies of hawks and owls." 



"Those who do that," said Louis, "little suspect 

 to what horrible custom their practice is related. ' ' 



"Your tattooed hunters interest me very much," 

 Emile declared. "Their houses, dress, furniture 

 how about all those things?" 



"In those wretched times a shelter under rocks, a 

 natural excavation, a grotto, were the first dwelling- 



