e represents, diminishes the credit
due the enemy, and resolves every doubt against him.

Now the Indian has a way of arriving at the truth of such matters which
is infinitely more satisfactory than that of his white brother. He knows
just as well as any one what boasters all men are on matters relating to
their own exploits, and especially those relating to war, and in order
that there shall be no humbug about such matters, he will give no
credence to any statement that is not accompanied by the most
irrefragable proof. When a warrior comes home and says, "I killed six
enemies on my last raid," he is confronted with the demand to produce
his evidence, and the only evidence admissible is the scalps of the dead
enemies. Should he make such an assertion without the proof, he would be
laughed out of the camp as a silly boaster.

Most people think the practice of scalping an enemy, generally indulged
in by the Sioux, is a wanton desire cruelly to mutilate the foe. Such is
not the case at all; he is prompted solely by the desire of procuring
proof of his success, and he will take more chances to get a scalp than
he would for any other object in life. Among the Sioux, and I believe
most of the tribes of North America, for every enemy killed a warrior
is entitled to wear a head-dress with an eagle feather in it, which to
him fills the same place in his character and reputation as the Victoria
cross or the medal of the legion of honor, or any other of the numerous
decorations bestowed upon white men for deeds of bravery and honor; and
to gain this distinction he is moved by the same impulse that actuated
Hobson in sinking the Merrimac in the harbor of Santiago, or the actors
in the thousand and one daring deeds in which men in all ages have
freely risked their lives.

Scalping is an art, and the manner in which it is done, depends wholly
upon the circumstances of the occasion. A complete and perfect scalp
embraces the whole hair of the head, with a margin of skin all round it
about two and a half inches in width, including both ears with all their
ornaments. This can only be obtained when the victor has abundant time
to operate leisurely. When he is beset by the enemy, all he can do, as a
general thing, is to seize the hair with the left hand and hold up the
scalp with it and then give a quick cut with his knife, and get as big a
piece as he can. By this hurried process he rarely gets a piece larger
than a small saucer, and g