Home / O'Callaghan, E.B., ed. The Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. I. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Co., 1849. / Passage

Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. I

O'Callaghan, E.B., ed. The Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. I. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Co., 1849. 303 words

If there be several tribes in the war party, each paints the animal of his tribe with the scalps and

prisoners it has made, as before, but always after that which is head of the party.

When they have scalps they give them to one or two men who suspend them behind them to their girdle.

These men who carry these scalps follow the others at a distance, that is to say, at a quarter of a league, because they pretend that when they retreat and have scalps, if these precede the others

they cannot march any further because they are seized with terror at the sight of the dripping blood.

But this is only the first day, sometimes the second and third when they are pursued. When they come again together, they proceed to notify the others and then each one takes his station or awaits the

enemy.

When night falls they make a hole in the earth where they kindle a

fire with bark to cook their meat, if they have any, and that during three or four days.

They tie the prisoners to stakes set in the ground, into which they fix their leg or rather foot, and They place a man at each side who stake is closed by another tied together at a man's height. sleeps near them and who is careful to visit the prisoners from time to time during the night. tliis

When they have lost any men on the field of battle they paint the men with the legs in the air, and without heads and in the same number as they have lost; and to denote the tribe to which they belonged, they paint the animal of the tribe of the deceased on its back, the paws in the air, and if it be