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In what concerns war, their customs are the following. The Scythian
soldier drinks the blood of the first man he overthrows in battle.
Whatever number he slays, he cuts off all their heads, and carries
them to the king; since he is thus entitled to a share of the booty,
whereto he forfeits all claim if he does not produce a head. In order
to strip the skull of its covering, he makes a cut round the head above
the ears, and, laying hold of the scalp, shakes the skull out; then
with the rib of an ox he scrapes the scalp clean of flesh, and
softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a
napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps, and hangs them from his
bridle-rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man can
show, the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves
cloaks, like the capotes of our peasants, by sewing a quantity of
these scalps together. Others flay the right arms of their dead
enemies, and make of the skin, which stripped off with the nails
hanging to it, a covering for their quivers. Now the skin of a man is
thick and glossy, and would in whiteness surpass almost all other
hides. Some even flay the entire body of their enemy, and stretching
it upon a frame carry it about with them wherever they ride. Such are
the Scythian customs with respect to scalps and skins.
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