During their march they oblige their prisoners to sing their death-song, which generally consists of these or similar sentences: “I am going to die, I am about to suffer; but I will bear the severest tortures my enemies can inflict with becoming fortitude. I will die like a brave man, and I shall then go to join the chiefs that have suffered on the same account.” These songs are continued with necessary intervals, until they reach the village or camp to which they are going.
When the warriors are arrived within hearing, they set up different cries, which communicates to their friends a general history of the success of the expedition. The number of the death-cries they give, declares how many of their own party are lost; the number of war-hoops, the number of prisoners they have taken.
It is difficult to describe these cries, but the best idea I can convey of them is, that the former consists of the sound Whoo, Whoo, Whoop, which is continued in a long shrill tone, nearly till the breath is exhausted, and then broken off with a sudden elevation of the voice. The latter of a loud cry, of much the same kind, which is modulated into notes by the hand being placed before the mouth. Both of them might be heard to a very considerable distance.
Whilst these are uttering, the persons to whom they are designed to convey the intelligence, continue motionless and all attention. When this ceremony is performed, the whole village issue out to learn the particulars of the relation they have just heard in general terms, and according as the news prove mournful or the contrary, they answer by so many acclamations or cries of lamentation.
Being by this time arrived at the village or camp, the women and children arm themselves with sticks and bludgeons, and form themselves into two ranks, through which the prisoners are obliged to pass. The treatment they undergo before they reach the extremity of the line, is very severe. Sometimes they are so beaten over the head and face, as to have scarcely any remains of life; and happy would it be for them if by this usage an end was put to their wretched beings. But their tormentors take care that none of the blows they give prove mortal, as they wish to reserve the miserable sufferers for more severe inflictions.
After having undergone this introductory discipline, they are bound hand and foot, whilst the chiefs hold a council in which their fate is determined. Those who are decreed to be put to death by the usual torments, are delivered to the chief of the warriors; such as are to be spared, are given into the hands of the chief of the nation: so that in a short time all the prisoners may be assured of their fate, as the sentence now pronounced is irrevocable. The former they term being consigned to the house of death, the latter to the house of grace.
Such captives as are pretty far advanced in life, and have acquired great honour by their warlike deeds, always atone for the blood they have spilt by the tortures of fire. Their success in war is readily known by the blue marks upon their breasts and arms, which are as legible to the Indians as letters are to Europeans.
The manner in which these hieroglyphicks are made, is by breaking the skin with the teeth of fish, or sharpened flints, dipped in a kind of ink made of the foot of pitch pine. Like those of the ancient Picts of Britain these are esteemed ornamental; and at the same time they serve as registers of the heroic actions of the warrior, who thus bears about him indelible marks of his valour.
The prisoners destined to death are soon led to the place of execution, which is generally in the centre of the camp or village; where, being stript, and every part of their bodies blackened, the skin of a crow or raven is fixed on their heads. They are then bound to a stake, with faggots heaped around them, and obliged for the last time to sing their death-song.
The warriors, for such it is only who commonly suffer this punishment, now perform in a more prolix manner this sad solemnity. They recount with an audible voice all the brave actions they have performed, and pride themselves in the number of enemies they have killed. In this rehearsal they spare not even their tormentors, but strive by every provoking tale they can invent to irritate and insult them. Sometimes this has the desired effect, and the sufferers are dispatched sooner than they otherwise would have been.