Not to add to the brutality of this very vivid chapter, but I read somewhere that one of the peculiarities of scalping in ancient and North American traditions was that they made sure they sliced off the whorl at the back of the head. That was the only way of verifying one scalp per victim. Apparently there were “cheaters” who would remove multiple swatches of a scalp and claim these were from multiple victims. The whorl was the only source of verification. This is also why some Balkan tribes cut off noses as trophies instead.
Not to add to the brutality of this very vivid chapter, but I read somewhere that one of the peculiarities of scalping in ancient and North American traditions was that they made sure they sliced off the whorl at the back of the head. That was the only way of verifying one scalp per victim. Apparently there were “cheaters” who would remove multiple swatches of a scalp and claim these were from multiple victims. The whorl was the only source of verification. This is also why some Balkan tribes cut off noses as trophies instead.