ted and frequently kept for years as trophies.
The more scalps a warrior takes, the greater favorite he becomes
with his tribe; and finally, having obtained a given number, he is
considered eligible to fill the office of War Chief, provided he has
other qualifications, such as the power of quickly conceiving the
right plan on which to act in case of emergency. When a party of
Indians in the Rocky Mountains have been on a war trail, met the enemy
and vanquished them, they appoint a brave who is honored as being the
scalp-bearer. This warrior carries a long pole, to which, at suitable
distances from each other, the scalps are attached. When the party
returns to, and enters their own village, this brave is the observed
of all observers. Eagerly, by the old men, women, and children, these
bloody trophies are counted, for each of them offers an occasion for
rejoicing, to be at separate intervals of time. They are, then, each
synonymous with the phrase, a fete day, and the scalp-bearer is looked
upon with the same jealous eye which greets the color-bearer of an
army after having been engaged in some great battle which has proved
successful to his standard. An Indian will not remove, as a general
thing, a scalp which contains grey hairs. This he considers to be a
business fit only for women. The scalp which is to cause a general
jubilee, on an appointed evening, is attached to the top of a long
pole, planted in the earth at a suitable place. The warriors who have
been instrumental in tearing it from the head of its owner, form a
circle around the pole, outside of which are arranged the spectators.
By the aid of one drum-stick, the person who has been detailed for
this duty, keeps up a beating motion on a sort of kettle-drum, the
noise of which serves the purpose of marking time. The voices of the
dancers make the music. At first the song is a mere humming sound, but
after a time, it grows gradually louder, until the participants in the
dance, being excited to the highest attainable pitch with interest
in the ceremonies, it becomes terribly hideous. Almost naked, with
tomahawk and hunting-knife in hand, the warriors imitate the process
of dispatching and tearing off the scalps of their victims. So excited
do the dancing savages sometimes become while reveling in these
fantastical scenes, that they frequently are aroused to a pitch
which borders on frenzy. The spectators of these sights get so deeply
interested that it is not an