MUTILATIONS. 77 



lie will be enabled thereby to coerce their ghosts if not 

 himself, still by the help of the medicine-man. He has a 

 parallel reason for preserving a part cut from one whom he 

 has enslaved : both he and the slave think that he so obtains 

 a power to inflict injury. Remembering that the sorcerer s 

 first step is to procure some hair or nail-parings of his 

 victim, or else some piece of his dress pervaded by that 

 odour which is identified with his spirit; it appears to be 

 a necessary corollary that the master who keeps by him a 

 slave s tooth, a joint from his little finger, or even a lock of 

 his hair, thereby retains a power of delivering him over to 

 the sorcerer, who may bring on him one or other fearful 

 evil torture by demons, disease, death. 



The subjugated man is consequently made obedient by 

 a dread akin to that which Caliban expresses of Prospero s 

 magically-inflicted torments. 



367. The evidence that mutilation of the living has 

 been a sequence of trophy-taking from the slain, is thus 

 abundant and varied. Taking the trophy implies victory 

 carried to the death; and the derived practice of cutting 

 off a part from a prisoner implies subjugation of him. 

 Eventually the voluntary surrender of such a part expresses 

 submission; and becomes a propitiatory ceremony because 

 it does this. 



Hands are cut off from dead enemies; and, answering 

 to this, besides some identical mutilations of criminals, we 

 have the cutting off of fingers or portions of fingers, to 

 pacify living chiefs, deceased persons, and gods. Noses are 

 among the trophies taken from slain foes; and we have loss 

 of noses inflicted on captives, on slaves, on transgressors of 

 certain kinds. Ears are brought back from the battle-field; 

 and occasionally they are cut off from prisoners, felons, 

 or slaves; while there are peoples among whom pierced 

 ears mark the servant or the subject. Jaws and teeth, 

 too, are trophies; and teeth, in some cases knocked out in 



