32 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 79 



fore not uncommon. The hair, according to tlie idea of the Indians, 

 is the seat of the soul or the vital power. 



Since the tsantsa itself is an object charged with supernatural 

 power, it is intelligible that many arrangements at its preparation 

 are of a magical nature or depend on superstitious ideas of one kind 

 or another. This holds good, for instance, of the ceremony with 

 the three heated stones, described before. Likewise, the arrange- 

 ment with the red-painted chonta pins, with which the lips are 

 pierced, and the red cotton string wound round them, as well as the 

 blackening of the trophy, do not serve any reasonable practical 

 purpose, but must be set down to pure superstition. The Jibaros 

 themselves, who mostly try to give as natural an explanation of 

 their strange {practices as possible, say that the chonta pins are 

 applied with a view to keeping the mouth of the trophy closed, and 

 that the red-painted cotton string is merely a decoration. Since, 

 however, the Indians ascribe a special mysterious power to the 

 hardwood of the spring chonta palm — a power fiirther increased 

 through the red paint — and red-painted cotton string likewise plays 

 a part in their superstitious practices, it is more than probable that 

 the real aim of the ornaments mentioned is to keep the soul of the 

 murdered enemy under a constant magical force, perhaps also to 

 paralyze the curses proceeding from the mouth of the victim. With , 

 the same view the tsantsa is at the feast generally held tied to a 

 lance of chonta. 



The pre])aration of the head troph}'^ requires great skill and care, 

 for through some slight carelessness, for instance, at the removal of 

 the scalp, or at the burning, the whole thing may easily be entirely 

 spoiled. The young Jibaro who has killed an enemy for the first 

 time is therefore instructed in its preparation by an older warrior. 

 Nor can an Indian prepare the head alone. Hence, when a Jibaro 

 warrior has killed an enemy alone and taken his head he needs the 

 help of another man, at least for the skinning of the head. This 

 assistant necessarily ought to he a warrior who likewise has earlier 

 killed some enemy. Another Indian would not have " a good hand " 

 for the Avork and would not do. 



The stronger the killed enemy had been in life, the more valiantly 

 he had fought, the more difficult it had been to deprive him of life, 

 the greater is the honor the victor earns by his deed, the greater 

 is the power of the trophy made of his head. Notwithstanding this, 

 it sometimes occurs among the Jibaros that tsantsas are prepared 

 even of heads of women. 



But the Jibaro Indian does not make trophies solely of the heads 

 of his human enemies but also of the heads of certain animals. There 

 is one animal especially which in this respect plaj^s a curious part in 



