Most Indians at all times carry knives of some kind and scalps are taken off with whatever knife they happen to be in possession of at the time.
When scalps are taken without loss on their side the whole party on their way back paint their faces a jet black with a mixture of grease and charcoal.
The Assiniboin, Blackfeet, Sioux, Cree, and Arikara also kill women and children and sing and dance as much for their scalps as for those of men.
There are no written nor marked records kept, either on graves or otherwise, of ages or of events, scalps taken, or war expeditions.
Scalps are very little valued by him who takes them.
Property by means of commerce having been acquired, rates of exchanges established, and hunting operations enlarged and facilitated, other things besides scalps became valuable in the eyes of the Indians.
The Indians," writes the Canadian Governor, "can be depended on to bring in the scalps of the English as long as we furnish ammunition.
From the pickets hung the scalps of dead Indians and on the sands lay the charred remains of white men.
This is the secret of his deadly hostility to that tribe, and, I am told, that among the scores and scores of scalps which grace his lodge, there is not one which has not been torn from the head of a Shawnee.
The lodge of Oonomoo is full of the scalps of the cowardly Shawnees, taken many moons ago," answered the Huron, his eyes flashing fire and his breast heaving at the remembrance of his exploits.
Volumes would be required to record all the exploits told of him--of the marvelous number of scalps which hung in his lodge, and of the many hair-breadth escapes he had had.
He had sworn eternal hatred against them, and in the interior of his lodge hung such an incredible number of their scalps that we decline to name it--knowing that we should be suspected of trifling with the credulity of our readers.
He counts the scalps that hang in our lodge, and wonders why they do not increase.
Now I can return to the lodges of my brothers as one coming from a far war trail, bringing the ponies and scalps of the enemies my hand has struck.
Then, chuckling grimly, he deposited the child by the bundle he had already prepared, and returning, took down from the tent pole the string of scalps which went to show how successful and how savage a warrior he had been.
They had also been attacked suddenly by a band of Blackfeet, but, being in a more open country, had got clear off, after killing two of their assailants, whose scalps hung at the horns of their saddles.
Before they could escape, the whites were upon them with loud shouts, and in three minutes the scalps of eleven were dangling from their saddle-horns.
Before each lodge a tripod of spears supported the arms and shields of the Yuta chivalry, and on many of them smoke-dried scalps rattled in the wind, former trophies of the dusky knights who were arming themselves within.
We could do nothin', for, before our guns were loaded, all three were dead and their scalps gone.
Thar was a hurroo when we rode in with the scalps at the end of our guns.
The brave, swelling with pride, then pointed to the fresh and bloody scalps hanging on the pole.
He's a fine youth," observed the chief Picheto; "before many years are over he will be able to count the scalps of the Blackfeet he has killed by hundreds.
We sha'n't surrender you; if we break with him we break ourselves and likely lose our scalps into the bargain.
When gold is scarce in the East, they substitute scalps and furnish Indians with scalping-knives by the thousand, that they may collect their dues at their own convenience.
The hope of scalps will have taken them all down close to the fort.
If we don't have the bad luck to come across some of the varmint in the woods, I expect we shall carry our scalps back to Fort William Henry.
The others are all paddling three, and, though Jonathan and I have beaten three before now, when our scalps depended on our doing so, it makes all the difference in the work whether you have a sitter to take along, or an extra paddle going.
They expect to get such a lot of scalps and plunder, when they take the fort, that the chance of three extra wasn't enough inducement for 'em to take much trouble over it.
He was taken to Fort Duquesne, and was there when the victorious Frenchmen and savages returned with the scalps and plunder taken from Braddock's vanquished army.
The Indians agreed to take them along as prisoners, notwithstanding at that period scalps commanded nearly as high a price as prisoners.
The men went as far as Hart's Sleeping Place, but they might just as well have remained at home; for the savages, with the scalps of the scout dangling from their belts, were then far on their way to Detroit.
When we remember that scalps were paid for at the British garrison at Detroit, the omission to scalp Guilliford appears almost inexplicable.
Add to this the fact that the valley was thinly populated, and the risk attending the hunting for scalps immeasurably great, small roving parties, on but two or three occasions, made their appearance in Tuckahoe.
As he lay watching them through the sheeted rain a tall and painted Indian leaped on Devil's Altar, fresh scalps dangling round his body in festoons, and his eyes blazing with fierce command.
What does the warrior want with the scalpsof women?
The Sioux win a hundred scalps and celebrate their victory with dance and song.
Track Maker has returned with more scalps than any, and the maidens welcome him as a hero, but he keeps gravely apart from all, and has no share in the feasting and merry-making.
Tall and invincible he comes among his people, boasting of his victories, Indian fashion, and stirring the scalps that hang at his breast.
As the victorious enemy rushed into the enclosure to secure the scalps of the dead he fell lifeless into the fire, and their jubilant yell was lost upon his ears.
He also proved his prowess by brandishing a belt of fresh scalps before the eyes of his warriors, and he had also brought a lump of salt.
Two of them have a golden hue, and these are thescalps of the children.
Enemies gave no thought to those that they had slain, after plucking off their scalps as trophies, though they sometimes added the indignity of mutilation in killing.
Those scalps I knew at the time must have been taken from our family by the color of the hair.
His rifle well aimed laid his enemies low: his tomahawk drank of their blood: and his knife flayed their scalpswhile yet covered with gore!
That being done they combed the hair in the neatest manner, and then painted it and the edges of the scalps yet on the hoops, red.
Absalom had already left the room, the clerk having made out the certificates, the chairman of the court casting the scalps into the open door of the stove, that they might be consumed by fire according to law.
The British officers offered rewards for scalps brought in, as under Proctor in the Northwest, and many scalpsof men and women murdered were exchanged for this horrible blood-money.
Its object was to convince the English, Scotch-Irish and German Pennsylvanians that they should fight to keep their own scalps on their heads even though they could not do this without accomplishing as much for the Quakers.
In conformity with this pledge the Tuscaroras made an attack on the Mattamuskeets, where they obtained thirty scalps and presented them to the authorities of the whites, of which they pretended to be pleased.
If you were brave, you would have twenty Iroquois scalpshanging from your belt.
When an Iroquois came to hunt in the woods, he shot the Iroquois and took his scalp; and this he did till he had twentyscalps on his belt.
He visited the palisaded fort and saw the gaping wounds in the stockade burnt by the assailants and saw the scalps of the Indians still flaunting from the pickets.
Many Ojibwa scalps were taken, and all through that autumn and into the following winter the scalp dance was danced nightly at every Dakota village on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, as far up as Lac-qui-parle.
Hennepin had been captured by a war-party, which descended the Father of Waters in their canoes, seeking for scalps among their enemies, the Miamis and Illinois.
Out of my sight, ye beggarly five hundred scalps of banker's-thousands: I will try for something other, or account my life a tragical futility!
I say again and again, had they counted the scalps alone, they had continued Chactaws, and no Chivalry or lasting victory had been.
What is it that thou have a hundred thousand-pound bills laid up in thy strong-room, a hundred scalps hung up in thy wigwam?
His hundred Thousand-pound Notes, if there be nothing other, are to me but as the hundred Scalpsin a Chactaw wigwam.
My five hundred scalps hang here in my wigwam: would to Heaven I had sought something else than the scalps; would to Heaven I had been a Christian Fighter, not a Chactaw one!
Especially after ye've took fifty-nine scalps to pay for yer one," added Oncle Jazon, replacing his cap over the hairless area of his crown.
Savages came in from far away with scalps yet scarcely dry dangling at their belts.
The Indians were soon anxious to gain his favor; and to bind them securely to him he offered liberal pay in rum and firearms, blankets, trinkets and ammunition for the scalps of rebels.
He'll get some o' yer scalps yet after he's guzzled all that brandy and slep' a week.
She entered her lodge and laid off her mantle, which was entirely composed of the scalps of women.
Before folding it, she shook it several times, and at every shake the scalps uttered loud shouts of laughter, in which the old hag joined.
They've taken a hundred scalps or more already on the Black Hills route.
They will no longer suffer you to make slaves of their children, and dance their scalps in your villages.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "scalps" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
