rous triumph. 1) The fate of the prifoners remains fill undecided. The old men deliberate concerning it. Some are deftined to be tortured to death, in order to fatiate the revenge of the conquerors; fome to replace the members which the community has loft in that or former wars. They who are referved for this milder fate, are led to the huts of thofe whofe friends have been killed. The women meet them at the door, and if they receive them, their fufferings are at an end. They are adopted into the family, and, according to their phrase, are feated upon the mat of the deceased. They affume his name, they hold the fame rank, are treated thenceforward with all the tenderness due to a father, a brother, a hufband, or a friend. But if, either from caprice, or an unrelenting defire of revenge, the women of any family refufe to accept of the prifoner who is offered to them, his doom is fixed. No power can fave him from torture and death. Their indifference concerning their fate, and fortitude under torture. While their lot is in fufpenfe, the prifoners themselves appear altogether unconcerned about what may befal them. They talk, they eat, they fleep, as if they were perfectly at eafe, 1) Charlev. Hift. N. Fr. iii. 241. Lafitau, Moeurs, ii. 264. and no danger impending. When the fatal fentence is intimated to them, they receive it with an unaltered countenance, raise their death-fong, and prepare to fuffer like men. Their conquerors affemble as to a folemn feftival, refolved to put the fortitude of the captive to the utmost proof. A fcene enfues, the bare defcription of which is enough to chill the heart with horror, wherever men have been accuftomed, by milder inftitutions, to refpect their fpecies, and to melt into tenderness at the fight of human fufferings. The prifoners are tied naked to a stake, but fo as to be at liberty to move around it. All who are present, men, women, and children, rufh upon them like furies. Every fpecies of torture is applied that the rancour of revenge can invent. Some burn their limbs with red - hot irons, fome mangle their bodies with knives, others tear their flesh from their bones, pluck out their nails by the roots, and rend and twist their finews. They vie with one another in refinements of torture. Nothing fets bounds to their rage but the dread of abridging the duration of their vengeance by haftening the death of the fufferers; and fuch is their cruel ingenuity in tormenting, that by avoiding induftriously to hurt any vital part, they often prolong this scene of anguifh for feveral days. In fpite of all that they fuffer, the victims continue to chant their death-fong with a firm voice, they boaft of their own exploits, they infult their tormentors for their want of fkill in avenging their friends and relations, they warn them of the vengeance which awaits them on account of their death, and excite their ferocity by the moft provoking reproaches and threats. Το difplay undaunted fortitude in fuch dreadful fituations, is the nobleft triumph of a warrior. To avoid the trial by a voluntary death, or to fhrink under it, is deemed infamous and cowardly. If any one betray fymptoms of timidity, his tormentors often dispatch him at once with contempt, as unworthy of being treated like a man. m) Animated with thofe ideas, they endure, without a groan, what it seems almost impoffible that human nature fhould fuftain. They appear to be not only infenfible of pain, but to court it. Forbear," faid an aged chief of the Iroquois, when his infults had provoked one of his tormentors to wound him with a knife,,, forbear thefe ftabs of your knife, and rather let me die by fire, that those dogs, your allies, from beyond the fea, may learn by my example to fuffer like men. "n) This magnanimity, of which there are frequent inftances among the American warriors, infread of exciting admiration, or calling forth fympathy, exafperates the fierce fpirits of their tor m) De la Potherie, ii, 237. iii. 48. n) Colden, Hift. of Five Nations, i. 200. turers to fresh acts of cruelty. o) Weary at length of contending with men, whofe confancy of mind they cannot vanquifh, fome chief in a rage puts a period to their fufferings, by dispatching them with his dagger or club. p) Sometimes eat their prisoners. This barbarous fcene is often fucceeded by one no lefs fhocking. As it impoffible to appeafe the fell fpirit of revenge which rages in the heart of a favage, this frequently prompts the Americans to devour thofe unhappy perfons, who have been the victims of their cruelty. In the ancient world, tradition has preferved the memory of barbarous nations of cannibals, who fed on human flesh: But in every part of the New World there were people to whom this cuftom was familiar. It prevailed in the fouthern continent, q) in feveral of the islands. r) and in various diftricts of North America. s) Even in thofe parts, where circumftauces, o) Voyages de Lahont. i. 236. P) Charlev, Hift. N. Fr. iii. 243 &c. 385. Creuxii Hift. Canad. p. 73. Lafitau Moeurs, Hennep. Mours ii. 265. Tertre, ii. 4) Stadius ap. de Bry, iii. 123. Lery, ibid. 210. Biet, 384. Lettr. Edif. 23. 341. Pifo, 8. Condam. 84. 97. Ribas Hift. de los Triumph. 473. r) Life of Columb. 529. Mart. Dec. p. 18. Tertre, ii. 405. $) Dumont, Mem. i. 254. Charlev. Hift. N. Fr. i. 259. ii. 14. . 21. De la Potherie. iii. 50. with which we are unacquainted, had in a great measure abolifhed this practice, it feems formerly to have been fo well known, that it is incorporated into the idiom of their language, Among the Iroquois, the phrafe by which they exprefs their refolution of making war against an enemy is:,,Let us go and eat that nation." If they folicit the aid of a neighbouring tribe, they invite it to,, eat broth made of the flesh of their enemies. "t) Nor was this practice peculiar to rude unpolished tribes; the principle from which it took rife is fo deeply rooted in the minds of the Americans, that it fubfifted in Mexico, one of the civilized empires in the New World, and relicks of it may be difcovered among the more mild inhabitants of Peru. It was not fcarcity of food as fome authors imagine, and the importunate cravings of hunger, which forced the Americans to thofe horrid repafts on their fellow-creatures. Human flesh was never ufed as common food in any country, and the various relations concerning people, who reckoned it among the ftated means of fubfiftence, flow from the credulity and miftakes of travellers. The rancour of revenge firft prompted men to this barbarous action, u) The fierceft tribes devoured none but prifoners taken in t) Charley. Hift. N. Fr. iii. 208, 209. Lettr. Edif. 23. p. 277. De la Potherie, ii. 298. See NOTE XLIII. m) Biet, 383. Blanco, Converfion de Piritu. p. 28. Bancroft, Nat, Hift. of Guiana, p. 259, &c. |