As soon as the Abipones see any one fall in battle under their hands, their first care is to cut off the head of the dying man, which they perform with such celerity that they would win the palm from the most experienced anatomists. They lay the knife not to the throat, but to the back of the neck, with a sure and speedy blow. When they were destitute of iron, a shell, the jaw of the palometa, a split reed, or a stone carefully sharpened, served them for a knife. Now with a very small knife they can lop off a man's head, like that of a poppy, more dexterously than European executioners can with an axe. Long use and daily practice give the savages this dexterity. For they cut off the heads of all the enemies they kill, and bring them home tied to their saddles or girths by the hair. When apprehension of approaching hostilities obliges them to remove to places of greater security, they strip the heads of the skin, cutting it from ear to ear beneath the nose, and dexterously pulling it off along with the hair. The skin thus drawn from the skull, and stuffed with grass, after being dried a little in the air, looks like a wig, and is preserved as a trophy. That Abipon who has most of these skins at home, excels the rest in military renown. The skull too is sometimes kept to be used as a cup at their festive drinking-parties. Though you cannot fail to execrate the barbarity of the Abipones, in cutting off and flaying the heads of their enemies, yet I think you will judge these ignorant savages worthy of a little excuse, on reflecting that they do it from the example of their ancestors, and that of very many nations throughout the world, which, whenever they have an opportunity of venting their rage upon their enemies, seem to cast away all sense of humanity, and to think that the victors have a right to practise any outrage upon the vanquished. Innumerable are the forms of cruelty which the other savages throughout America exercise towards their slain and captive enemies. The Iroquois in Canada flay the heads of their enemies before they are dead. The Jesuit Lafitau, in his book intitled _Mœurs des Sauvages Américains, &c._ declares that he saw a woman of French extraction, who lived in good health for many years after having her head scalped by the Iroquois, and that she went by the name of _La Tête Pelée_. Many are said to have survived this scalping. Some of the Canadian Indians flay the whole body of the enemy they have killed, and exhibit his skin as a testimonial of their victory and valour. Sometimes the skin of the hand is converted into a tobacco-pouch. Although such treatment awaits the bodies of the dead, yet it is preferable to fall in battle than to be taken in captivity by the Iroquois. The more warlike of their captives whom they stand in fear of, along with the women, children, and old men, whom they consider incumbrances, are burnt the first day on the field of battle; others