SCALP DANCE. 279 
the lungs, and discharged in murky streams 
from the olfactories. Ifa council be prepara- 
tory to a campaign, the warriors sometimes 
catch the tobacco smoke in the hand, anoiut- 
ing their bodies with it; which they fancy 
renders them, if not invulnerable, at least far 
more secure from the darts of their enemies. 
Although in their warfare they employ every 
wile and stratagem, and faithless subterfuge, 
to deceive their enemies, and in battle are re- 
lentless and cruel in the extreme, yet the 
seldom resort to those horrid punishments 
and tortures upon their prisoners which were 
wont to be inflicted by the savages of the in- 
terior of the United States, during their early 
wars with the whites. The practice of burn- 
ing their captives alive, said to have prevailed 
many years ago among some prairie tribes, 
seems now to have grown quite out of use. 
Upon returning from a campaign after a 
defeat, the village resounds for many days with 
the lamentations, the shrieks and wailings of 
the women and children; in which, not only 
the bereft families, but all the relatives and 
most of the friends of the deceased join. 
on the contrary, the warriors have been suc- 
cessful, and bring home scalps of their ene- 
mies, all join in their most famous festival, the 
scalp-dance. In this féte the savage trophies 
are usually elevated upon a pole in the centre 
of the dance; or perhaps the brave captors 
retain them in their hands, tossing and swing- 
ing them about their heads; at the same time 
vehemently apostrophizing these ghastly re- 
