These are brandished about in the course of the dance, with cries, shouts, and furious gestures.

The women, who commence as spectators, becoming excited with the scene and the music which their own discordant notes help to make more deafening, rush in, seize the scalps from the hands of the owners, and toss them frantically about, with the screams and yells of demons.

I have seen as many as forty or fifty scalps figuring in one dance.

Upon one occasion one was borne by an Indian who approached quite near me, and I shuddered as I observed the long, fair hair, evidently that of a woman.

Another Indian had the skin of a human hand, stretched and prepared with as much care as if it had been some costly jewel.