Dobrizhoffer says of the Abipones that boys of seven pierce their
little arms in imitation of their parents. Among some of the
indigenous Australians it is quite customary for ridged and
linear scars to be self-inflicted. In Tanna the people produce
elevated scars on the arms and chests. Bancroft recites that
family-marks of this nature existed among the Cuebas of Central
America, refusal being tantamount to rebellion. Schomburgk tells
that among the Arawaks, after a Mariquawi dance, so great is
their zeal for honorable scars, the blood will run down their
swollen calves, and strips of skin and muscle hang from the
mangled limbs. Similar practices rendered it necessary for the
United States Government to stop some of the ceremonial dances of
the Indians under their surveillance.
A peculiar custom among savages is the amputation of a finger as
a sacrifice to a deity. In the tribe of the Dakotas the relatives
of a dead chief pacified his spirit by amputating a finger. In a
similar way, during his initiation, the young Mandan warrior,
"holding up the little finger of his left hand to the Great
Spirit," . . "expresses his willingness to give it as a
sacrifice, and he lays it on the dried buffalo skull, when
another chops it off near the hand with a blow of the hatchet.
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