TROPHIES. 39 



thigh bones of the last monarch of Dinkira are still tro 

 phies of the court of Ashantee.&quot; Among the Hill-tribes 

 of India, the Kukis have this practice. In Persia, under 

 the stimulus of money payments, &quot; prisoners [of war] 

 have been put to death in cold blood, in order that the heads, 

 which are immediately dispatched to the king, . . might 

 make a more considerable show.&quot; And that among other 

 Asiatic races head-taking persists spite of semi-civilization, 

 we are reminded by the recent doings of the Turks; who 

 have, in some cases, exhumed the bodies of slain foes and 

 decapitated them. 



The last instance draws attention to the fact that this 

 barbarous custom has been, and is, carried to the greatest 

 extremes along with militancy the most excessive. Among 

 ancient examples there are the doings of Timour, with his 

 exaction of ninety thousand heads from Bagdad. Of 

 modern examples the most notable comes from Dahomey. 

 &quot; The sleeping apartment of a Dahoman king was paved 

 with skulls of neighbouring princes and chiefs, placed there 

 that the king might tread upon them.&quot; An.d the king s 

 statement &quot; that his house wanted thatch,&quot; was &quot; used in 

 giving orders to his generals to make war, and alludes to 

 the custom of placing the heads of the enemies killed in 

 battle, or those of the prisoners of distinction, on the roofs 

 of the guard-houses at the gates of his palaces.&quot; 



But now, ending instances, let us observe how this tak 

 ing of heads as trophies initiates a means of strengthening 

 political power; how it becomes a factor in sacrificial cere 

 monies; and how it enters into social intercourse as a con 

 trolling influence. 



That the pyramids and towers of heads built by Timour 

 at Bagdad and Aleppo, must have conduced to his 

 supremacy by striking terror into the subjugated, as 

 well as by exciting dread of vengeance for insubordina 

 tion among his followers, cannot be doubted; and that 

 living in a dwelling paved and decorated with skulls, 



