Terrible as the operation is,
there are not wanting great numbers of cases of persons who have
survived, and recovered from it. The scalps of enemies thus taken, even
when not paid for, as has been too often the infamous custom of their
white auxiliaries, claiming to be civilized, are valued as badges of
family honor, and trophies of the bravery of the warrior. On certain
days and occasions, young warriors take a new name, constituting a new
claim to honor, according to the number of scalps they have taken, or
the bravery and exploits of those from whom they were taken. This name
they deem a sufficient compensation for every fatigue and danger.
Another ludicrous superstition tends to inspire them with the most
heroic sentiments. They believe that all the fame, intelligence, and
bravery that appertained to the enemy they have slain is transferred to
them, and thenceforward becomes their intellectual property. Hence, they
are excited with the most earnest appetite to kill warriors of
distinguished fame. This article of Indian faith affords an apt
illustration of the ordinary influence of envy, which seems to inspire
the person whom it torments with the persuasion, that all the merit it
can contract from the envied becomes its own, and that the laurels shorn
from another's brow will sprout on its own.
He witnessed also their modes of hardening their children to that
prodigious power of unshrinking endurance, of which such astonishing
effects have just been recorded.
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