Before charging the foe the Osage warriors paint themselves anew. This is called the death paint. If any of the men die with this paint on them the survivors do not put on any other paint.
All the gentes on the “Left” side use the “fire paint,” which is red. It is applied by them with the left hand all over the face. And they use prayers about the fire: “As the fire has no mercy, so should we have none.” Then they put mud on the cheek, below the left eye, as wide as two or more fingers. The horse is painted with some of the mud on the left cheek, shoulder, and thigh.
The following extract is from Belden (b):
The sign paints used by the Sioux Indians are not numerous, but very significant. When the warriors return from the warpath and have been successful in bringing back scalps, the squaws, as well as the men, paint with vermilion a semicircle in front of each ear. The bow of the arc is toward the nose and the points of the half-circle on the top and bottom of the ear; the eyes are then reddened and all dance over the scalps.
John Lawson (a) says of the North Carolina Indians:
When they go to war * * * they paint their faces all over red, and commonly make a circle of black about one eye and another circle of white about the other, while others bedaub their faces with tobacco-pipe clay, lampblack, black lead, and divers other colors, etc.
De Brahm, in documents connected with the History of South Carolina (a), reports that the Indians of South Carolina “painted their faces red in token of friendship and black in expression of warlike intentions.”
Rev. M. Eells (a) says of the Twana Indians of the Skokomish reservation that when about to engage in war “they would tamanamus in order to be successful and paint themselves with black and red, making themselves as hideous as possible.”
The U. S. Exploring Expedition (b), referring to a tribe near the Sacramento river, tells that the chief presented them with a tuft of white feathers stuck on a stick about 1 foot long, which was supposed to be a token of friendship.
Dr. Boas, in Am. Anthrop. (b), says of the Snanaimuq that before setting out on war expeditions they painted their faces red and black.