Frère Gabriel Sagard (b) says (about 1636) of the Hurons that they tattooed by scratching with a bone of bird or fish, a black powder being applied to the bleeding wounds. The operation was not completed at once, but required several renewals. The object was to show bravery by supporting great pain as well as to terrify enemies.
In the Jesuit Relation for 1641, p. 75, it is said of the Neuter Nation that on their bodies from head to foot they marked a thousand diverse figures with charcoal pricked into the flesh on which beforehand they have traced lines for them.
Lemoyne D’Iberville, in 1649, Margry (b), remarked among the Bayogoulas that some of the young women had their faces and breasts pricked and marked with black.
In the Jesuit Relation for 1663, p. 28, there is an account that the head chief of the Iroquois, called by the French Nero, had killed sixty enemies with his own hand, the marks of which he bears printed on his thigh, which, therefore, appears covered over with black characters.
Joutel, in Margry (c), speaks of tattooing among the Texas Indians in 1687. Some women make a streak from the top of the forehead to chin, some make a triangle at the corners of their eyes, others on the breast and shoulders, others prick the lips. The marks are indelible.
Bacqueville de la Potherie (b) says of the Iroquois:
They paint several colors on the face, as black, white, yellow, blue, and vermillion. Men paint snakes from the forehead to the nose, but they prick the greater part of the body with a needle to draw blood. Bruised gunpowder makes the first coat to receive the other colors, of which they make such figures as they desire and they are never effaced.
M. Bossu (a) says of tatooing among the Osages in 1756:
It is a kind of knighthood to which they are only entitled by great actions; they suffer with pleasure in order to pass for men of courage.
If one of them should get himself marked without having previously distinguished himself in battle he would be degraded, and looked upon as a coward, unworthy of an honor. * * *