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hell.* Tired at last with carnage, and meeting with no more resistance, the conquerors condescend to make prisoners of the few that remain. As soon as their work of death is done, they hasten to return to their own country. They delay no longer than till the victorious chief cuts, or paints on the handle of a tomahawk, which he leaves stuck in the body of a tree, or on the tree itself, some rude emblems of his success. An oval figure serves to represent the leader, in which are stained such characteristic marks as may indicate to his enemies who is the hero who has taken such vengeance on them. Some symbols he adds expressive of the nation to which he belongs. After these, very coarsely drawn fig-ures of men, or simply erect lines, point out the number of his warriors, and horizontal lines the number of the slain. These, or similar symbols left upon the spot form the rude record of his glory. Here we discern the origin of trophies erected on the field of action. We perceive also, how naturally mankind have recourse to hieroglyphic images or 

*This description is taken from an account of the sack of a town of the Hurons. 

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characters to express their thoughts before they are acquainted with alphabetical writing. 
This finished, they commence their retreat, which is always executed with the greatest rapidity. For they are sure of being immediately pursued with a superior force by the enraged nation ; and they have no means of securing themselves by fortifications, or waiting for succours from their own tribe. And it is the glory of the victor to retire with such speed as to preserve his prisoners and to save his own men from reprisals by the enemy. They hardly eat or sleep till they have reached their own territories. And even then, id they remit their pace while they are yet near the frontier, they are liable to be over-taken, and cut off by a foe burning with revenge. During these movements their captives are guarded with the utmost vigilance. And if any of them, either through fatigue, or by their wounds, are rendered unable to keep pace with them in the rapidity of their course, they are, with unrelenting barbarity, in-stantly dispatched.
When at last they have gained their own villages, they are every where received with shouts of tri-umph, with frantic dances, and the most flattering testimonies of the applause of their countrymen. 
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