232 AMERICA. 



ing to the distribution made by the elders, he is to be delivered to 

 supply the loss of a citizen. If those who receive him have their fa- 

 mily weakened by war or other accidents, they adopt the captive 

 into the family, of which he becomes a member. But if they have no 

 occasion for him, or their resentment for the loss of their friends be 

 too high to endure the sight of any connected with those who were 

 concerned in it, they sentence him to death. All those who have met 

 with the same severe sentence being collected, the whole nation is as- 

 sembled at the execution as for some great solemnity. A scaffold is 

 erected, and the prisoners are tied to the stakes, where they commence 

 their death-song, and prepare for the ensuing scene of cruelty with 

 the most undaunted courage. Their enemies on the other side, are 

 determined to put it to the proof, by the most refined and exquisite 

 tortures. They begin at the extremity of his body, and gradually 

 approach the more vital parts. One plucks out his nails by the roots, 

 one by one ; another takes a finger into his mouth, and tears off the 

 flesh with his teeth ; a third thrusts the finger, mangled as it is, into 

 the bowl of a pipe, made red hot, which he smokes like tobacco ; then 

 they pound the toes and fingers to pieces between two stones; they 

 pull off the flesh from the teeth, and cut circles about his joints, and 

 gashes in the fleshy parts of his limbs, which they sear immediately 

 with red-hot irons, cutting, burning, and pinching them alternately ; 

 they pull off this flesh, thus mangled and roasted, bit by bit, devour- 

 ing it with greediness, and smearing their faces with the blood in an 

 enthusiasm of horror and fury. When they have thus torn off the 

 flesh, they twist the bare nerves and tendons about an iron, tearing 

 and snapping them, whilst others are employed in pulling and ex- 

 tending their limbs in every way that can increase the torment. This 

 continues often five or six hours ; and sometimes, such is the strength 

 of the savages, days together. Then they frequently unbind him, to 

 give a breathing to their fury, to think what new torments they shall 

 inflict, and to refresh the strength of the sufferer, who, wearied out 

 with such a variety of unheard-of torments, often falls into so profound 

 a sleep, that they are obliged to apply the fire to awake him, and re- 

 new his sufferings. He is again fastened to the stake, and again they 

 renew their cruelty ; they stick him all over with small matches of 

 wood, that easily take fire, but burn slowly ; they continually run 

 sharp' reeds into every part of his body ; they drag out his teeth with 

 pincers, and thrust out his eyes ; and lastly, after having burned his 

 flesh from the bones with slow fires ; after having so mangled the 

 body that is all but one wound ; after having mutilated his face in 

 such a manner as to carry nothing human in it ; after having peeled 

 the skin from the head, and poured a heap of red-hot coals ©r boiling 

 water on the naked skull, they once more unbind the wretch, who, 

 blind and staggering with pain and weakness, assaulted and pelted up- 

 on every side with clubs and stones, now up, now down, falling into 

 their fires at every step, runs, hither and thither, until one of the 

 chiefs, whether out of compassion, or'weary of cruelty, puts an end 

 to his life with a club or a dagger. The body is then put into the 

 kettle, and this barbarous employment is succeeded by a feast as 

 barbarous. 



The women, forgetting the human as well as the female nature, 

 and transformed into something worse than furies, even outdo the 

 men in this, scene of horror; while the principal persons of the coun- 

 try sit round the stake, smoking, and looking on without the least 



