He was a mighty fighter, as you may see by looking at his neck." He wore a peculiar necklace which seemed to De Catinat to consist of blackened bean pods set upon a string.

As he stooped over it he saw to his horror that they were not bean pods, but withered human fingers.
"They are all right fore-fingers," said Du Lhut, "so everyone represents a life.

There are forty-two in all.

Eighteen are of men whom he has slain in battle, and the other twenty-four have been taken and tortured." "How do you know that ?" "Because only eighteen have their nails on.

If the prisoner of an Iroquois be alive, he begins always by biting his nails off.