There were a great many prisoners and scalps taken in all the different raids. When he has struck two or three blows, the savage quickly seizes his knife, and makes an incision around the hair from the upper part of the forehead to the back of the neck. Then he puts his foot on the shoulder of the victim, whom he has turned over face down, and pulls the hair off with both hands, from back to front, just as described before in connection with the scout dance. This hasty operation is no sooner finished than the savage fastens the scalp to his belt and goes on his way. Then he wants to take away proof of his valor.
Savages always announce their valor by a deathcry, when they have taken a scalp.
The English call it scalping. When a savage has taken a scalp and is not afraid he is being pursued, he stops and scrapes the skin to remove the blood and fibres on it. He makes a hoop of green wood, stretches the skin over it like a tambourine, and puts it in the sun to dry a little. The skin is painted red, and the hair on the outside is combed. But as he nears each place on his way, he gives as many cries as he has scalps to announce his arrival and show his bravery.