Monette, John W. History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, by the Three Great European Powers, Spain, France and Great Britain, and the Subsequent Occupation, Settlement, and Extension of Civil Government by the United States, Until the Year 1846, in two volumes, Volume II . New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1846. [format: book], [genre: history]. Permission: Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures, Aurora University
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with complacency and unconcern. At length, after this ceremony has continued half an hour or more, the victim, exhausted with suffering, becomes faint or insensible, reels to and fro, or falls upon the ground. To rouse his latent sensibilities, and to quicken his movements, the warriors, and even the squaws, step into the ring, and by the application of firebrands to his skin, or by piercing his body with blazing fagots of pine, endeavor to rouse him to renewed efforts.

If the victim be an Indian warrior, he is now goaded to perfect fury; he sweeps around the extent of his circle, kicking, biting, and stamping with inconceivable rage. As he sweeps around, the women and children fly from him with great merriment, and give place to fresh tormentors. At other times the warrior will bear all their torments without disclosing a single indication of pain, sullenly smoking his pipe, while he scornfully derides his tormentors by singing, or applying to them the most reproachful epithets, of which none is more degrading than the term of old women or squaws.

As the victim becomes faint and exhausted, the cap of clay is removed from his head, and burning coals and hot embers are poured over the head; at other times the scalp itself is removed with the scalping-knife, and hot embers poured over the bleeding skull. ^[30] At length some old warrior takes pity upon him, and with one blow of the tomahawk releases him from his agony.

2. The Gantlet. — This is likewise a severe ordeal, but not invariably fatal. This torture is likewise inflicted upon the prisoners who are deemed worthy such distinguished honor. The mode of conducting this torture is as follows: The inhabitants of one or more villages assemble near a council-house, and young and old, male and female, are formed in two parallel lines facing each other, and about ten feet apart, extending from three to six hundred yards in length, and terminating within fifty yards of the council-house, and comprising from one to five hundred individuals. The victim is taken to the remote extremity, and stripped of any clothing which might furnish protection from the blows and stripes aimed at his body, and thus he stands ready for sacrifice.

Each person in the lines has prepared himself, or herself, with some weapon or implement with which they intend to inflict

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