Dried human heads. How to dry oily hair roots? Hence follows a life hack that could have saved a life.

The Jivaro Indians from South America know a lot about perverted fun, it is to them that we owe the appearance of dried heads in popular culture. You've probably seen them more than once in all sorts of TV shows like The Simpsons or in films like Beetlejuice. These dried heads are called "tsantsa" and, as you might guess, serve as a proof of bravery to a warrior and an amulet along the way.

The Jivaro Indians live in Ecuador and Peru. They are a stereotypical example of a tribe living near the Amazon, that is, hunters from the jungle with blowpipes, poisoned arrows and creepy customs.

At the same time, until recently, the Khivaro were incredibly warlike. Perhaps the most belligerent people in the world. The man had extremely little chance of dying a natural death: 60% died in battles, the rest - on the hunt.

But most of all they became famous precisely due to the creation of tsants - the dried heads of defeated enemies. The source of this strange custom lies in the Khivaro's rather strange ideas about the soul, which they call "arutam".

It is believed that the soul is able to fly at will and change the owner every 4-5 years. And if it behaves like a bird, then it can and even needs to be caught. The dried head is literally a cage for the soul that we managed to grab.

Tsantsa was made from a freshly killed enemy. The scalp was trimmed and carefully removed from the skull like a glove, and in this case the bone and meat remained on the victim. The rest went into action.

The scalp with hair was dried and subjected to special manipulations. Different craftsmen, apparently, did everything in different ways. For example, someone previously “marinated” it in brine, someone did not.

The head was then reduced by heat treatment. Hot sand and pebbles were stuffed into it. Along the way, this was done to dry and disinfect the future amulet. The resulting tsantsa was the size of an orange or a tennis ball.

Hence follows a life hack that could save a life. How exactly did the European missionaries determine that they were faced with a master of creating "satanic heads"? We looked at the hands - the man who was creating the tsants, they were in ugly burns from the constant work with hot stones and sand.

By the way, one of the reasons for such inaccuracy with red-hot material is that the master made dried heads in a semi-conscious state. The Hivaro Indians used in their rituals a rather powerful psychedelic ayauhasca, which caused visions with fractal snake-like images. The creation of tsants is no exception, they were not done on a sober head.

Before becoming a full-fledged cage for the soul, the dried head underwent a lacing rite: the mouth and eyelids were sewn up with ropes, and the nostrils and ears were plugged with corks. It turned out to be a kind of bottle for magical power, which you can always carry with you.

As you might guess, with the arrival of Europeans, customs such as massacres, abduction of women and the creation of dried heads were banned. Surely many old people now regret those wonderful times.

Now the creation of tsants is put on stream in the souvenir industry. Of course, not real heads are being used. You can even order a tsantsa with a portrait resemblance to a friend, so that he can evaluate how he would look if he got to the Hivaro Indians.

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Oily hair causes a lot of inconvenience to its owner. They quickly become dirty and therefore have to be washed frequently. A common occurrence is oily roots, the treatment of which is carried out with drying medicines. You can use a special shampoo with a drying effect for this.

There are many ways to fix this problem. If the hair is very oily, then the work of the sebaceous glands of the roots is disrupted. They create sebum, with the help of which the strands are protected from overdrying, brittleness, thinning. But if it is formed in large quantities, then the hair quickly becomes dirty. As a result, they acquire an unattractive shine and look sloppy. You will need a quality shampoo to eliminate this phenomenon.

Proper treatment will help prevent this phenomenon, eliminate hair loss and dandruff. What to do if the roots are fat? Before starting treatment, it is necessary to find out the causes of the phenomenon. In this case, you can quickly and effectively get rid of the fat content of the roots.

Causes of the disease

Oily hair occurs for a variety of reasons. Some of them are eliminated by making changes in lifestyle, while others are treated with special means. But there are factors that require the work of specialists to eliminate them. They will help to prescribe the appropriate treatment to quickly get rid of the oily roots. The reasons for the fat content of the strands include:

eating disorders. Fatty foods should be consumed in moderation;
the use of hormones, antibiotics, antidepressants. If you stop taking them, the work of the sebaceous glands can return to normal;
hereditary factor. If the hair becomes very oily, then you need to use special products;
oily hair occurs due to improper care. It will require quality ongoing care. Then you can quickly and effectively get rid of the problem;
in winter, the hair is oily due to the wearing of a headdress made of synthetic fabrics. You need to choose a hat made of natural material, and it should be washed often;
hair quickly becomes oily due to hormonal imbalances. This occurs during puberty, pregnancy, menopause;
curls become oily due to regular stress. Therefore, it is necessary to normalize the nervous system;
digestive and endocrine system diseases can cause oily strands. In this case, only a doctor can tell what to do and how to carry out the treatment. It is necessary to undergo an examination to identify the causes and establish measures to restore the normal condition of the hair.

Greasy hair! For what? What to do, how to disguise?

Care features

To avoid the rapid contamination of the curls, it is necessary to follow the rules of care and constantly do medical procedures.

You need to purchase a medicinal pharmacy shampoo. Oily curls need to be treated with cosmetics with tar. But you should not choose a shampoo based on lipids, proteins, oils, silicones, as they contribute to the appearance of fat content. The shampoo should have a transparent consistency.
You should not use conditioners for oily curls.
The shampoo will help eliminate oily hair. Since the work of the sebaceous glands is more active at night, it is advisable to wash your hair in the morning.
Curls should not be exposed to high temperatures. Therefore, you should not wash your hair with hot water, cool water is recommended. It is harmful to often do your hair with a hair dryer, tongs and irons.
Hair health is negatively affected by tight hairpins, elastic bands. You don't have to braid your braids tightly.
Massage and brushing should be done in moderation.

If you follow these simple rules, you can eliminate the fat content of the curls. They also allow you to improve the appearance of the strands: they acquire a natural shine.

How I got rid of OILY HAIR / Life hack for 3 kopecks

Home remedies

Proven home remedies are used to restore hair. With them, you can prepare shampoo, broth, tincture. Treatment procedures should be done regularly.

It is necessary to brew medicinal herbs (2 tablespoons) with boiling water (1 glass). The remedy should be infused. Then you need to take 1 glass of such a medicine and mix with filtered water (1 liter). The composition is used as a rinse after shampooing. It is best to use products based on horsetail, aloe, butterbur, green tea, rosemary, mountain ash, hop cones, burdock, nettle, St. John's wort, oak bark.
You will need cosmetic clay (2 tablespoons), to which the same amount of herbal infusion is added. The ingredients must be mixed with apple cider vinegar (1 tablespoon). The product is used for rubbing into the roots. You do not need to wash your head before the procedure. The duration of the action of the agent is 40 minutes. It is washed off with a medical shampoo. You need to carry out the procedures several times a week.
A salt scrub has a beneficial effect. Edible or sea salt is rubbed into the scalp. You need to perform massage rubbing before washing your hair for a few minutes.
The pharmacy sells Sulsena paste without a doctor's prescription. The medicine is used to regulate the functions of the sebaceous glands. When the hair is washed, the product is applied to it and left on for 15 minutes. After that, it is washed off with warm water. The result will be visible after several procedures. The strands will not often get dirty, they will acquire a shine and become dry. You need to perform masks 2 times a week.
You need to make juice from potatoes and mix it with kefir (100 ml). The mixture is rubbed into the skin, and then the head is wrapped in a film and a towel.
Aloe-based mask dries strands. You will need a fresh plant leaf. It should sit in the refrigerator for a week. After that, it is crushed and mixed with brandy (1 tbsp. L.). The composition is used for rubbing into hair.
Improves blood circulation, nourishment of hair with medicinal substances kefir-mustard mask. Greasy strands will become more voluminous. For cooking, you need pepper tincture (20 ml), mustard powder (1 tsp), kefir (50 ml). All ingredients are mixed, and dry curls are treated with this tool. It can be washed off after 15 minutes. You can gradually increase the time of the procedure.
You can use a vitamin mask, thanks to which the hair will acquire shine, thickness and silkiness. You will need to mix the same amount of garlic, honey, aloe juice, lemon, yolk, vitamins A and C (5 drops each). The finished composition must be rubbed into the skin, and after half an hour you can rinse it off.

Healing shampoos and home remedies can help eliminate oily hair. The main thing is to perform the procedures regularly.

In addition to the usual ones that appear on sale at blacksmiths as you progress through Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the game has several unique samples - Seusenhofer's armor, the captain's sword and Spada Lung. But that's not all: doctors will eventually offer Ezio to make fast-acting poisons, artists will take up brushes to create a map of the Vatican's treasures, and tailors will start creating a large quiver for a crossbow. All of these things require special rare ingredients. Quests for creating unique items appear on the "Trader Quests" tab. It is enough to find the ingredients listed in the list and bring them to merchants from the Assassins Guild, which is located in the central region of Rome on Tiberin, to exchange for a unique item. It is important to remember that some ingredients in the game are very rare, so it is better not to sell goods from Ezio's inventory associated with tasks until they are completed, so that it would not be excruciatingly painful for the missed opportunity to get a unique item. Many valuable ingredients can be found in the pockets of slain bandits who appear at night in different parts of Rome. They are almost lifesavers in cases where the ingredient was sold ahead of time.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood merchants' task to create unique items:

Blacksmith's Quest - Vera (Reward: Captain's Sword)
- Terracotta pot(Terracotta Pot) - 3: baked clay vessels, usually red in color, used for storing liquids.
- Totem(Totem) - 2 pcs .: an item, often symbolized with a creature that guards a certain group of people.
  - In treasure chests in the central area of Rome, in Antico and in the Outskirts.
  - In the pockets of the pickpockets.
- Buddhist rosary(Buddhist Prayer Beads) - 2 pcs .: an item used to count the time during meditation and count the mantras recited.
  - In the treasure chests in the corridors under the Colosseum while searching for the keys to Brutus's armor ("Thrown to the Wolves" quest).
  - In treasure chests in the central area of Rome, in Antico and in the Outskirts.
Blacksmith's Quest - Exotic (Reward: Seusenhofer's Chestpiece and Shoulder)
- Shrunken head(Shrunken Head) - 2 pieces: a severed human head prepared in a special way for use in rituals.
  - In the treasure chest, in the corridor to the right of the altar, in the Lateran Palace during the search for the keys to the armor of Brutus (quest "The Sixth Day").
  - In the treasure chest in the Antico area.
- Ivory(Elephant Ivory) - 3 pcs .: Material for creating figurines and decorations.
  - In the pockets of the bandits.
- Indian diamond(Indian Diamond) - 3 pcs: high quality diamonds from India.
  - In the treasure chests, inside the Roman catacombs in the lair of Romulus, while searching for the keys to the armor of Brutus ("Wolves Among the Dead" quest).
  - In treasure chests in the Antico area and in the Outskirts.
  - In the pockets of the bandits.
Blacksmith's Quest - Blood Money (Reward: Spada Lunga)
- Vlad the Impaler's Coins(Vlad The Impaler Coins) - 7: Coins minted by the infamous Vlad the Impaler are highly sought after by collectors.
  - In the treasure chests, inside the Roman catacombs in the lair of Romulus, while searching for the keys to the armor of Brutus ("Wolves Among the Dead" quest).
  - In a treasure chest under the very roof of the Torre della Militia on the way from the Templar hideout at Trajan's Market (mission "Shopaholic").
  - In treasure chests in the Vatican and in the Outskirts.
  - Some assignments of recruits abroad.
Doctor's Quest - Poisons and Poisons (Reward: Fast Acting Poison)
- Tomatoes(Tomatoes) - 6 pieces: a delicious edible vegetable that became popular throughout Europe after the founding of colonies in South America by the Spaniards.
  - In the chests at the exit from the sanctuary of Romulus during the search for the keys to the armor of Brutus (quest "The Halls of Nero").
  - In treasure chests in the central area of Rome, in Antico and in the Outskirts.
  - In the pockets of the pickpockets.
- Nutmeg(Nutmeg) - 3: A popular spice extracted from the seeds of the Myristica fragrans tree.
  - In treasure chests in the central area of Rome and Antico.
  - Some Recruit Missions Abroad
  - In the pockets of the pickpockets.
- Aconite(Aconite) - 1 pc .: a very poisonous alkaloid that causes cardiac arrest.
  - In the pockets of the couriers.
Artist's Writ - Emerging Trends (Reward: Vatican Treasure Map)
- Fragrance ball(Pomander) - 2 pieces: the balls were used to protect against disease during an epidemic or simply to mask unpleasant odors.
  - In the treasure chest, in the room in front of the exit from the sanctuary of Romulus at the Basilica of St. Peter, while searching for the keys to the armor of Brutus (task "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing").
  - In treasure chests in the central area of Rome and in the Outskirts.
  - Some assignments of recruits abroad.
  - In the pockets of the pickpockets.
- Ambergris(Ambergris) - 3 pcs .: a dull gray substance, synthesized in the digestive tract of the sperm whale. Once upon a time, perfumers used it as a fixing agent.
  - In the treasure chest after the murder of the Papal Guardsman in the Tivoli mine, access to which appears in the Templar hideout, at the foot of the aqueduct, in the southern suburbs of Rome (quest "Liquid Gold").
  - In treasure chests in the Vatican, in the central area of Rome and in Antico.
  - Some Recruit Missions Abroad
  - In the pockets of couriers and bandits.
- Wild poppy(Papaver Silvaticum) - 1 pc .: a plant that is a raw material for the production of opium.
  - In the treasure chest, in the general hall of the Followers of Romulus in the Great Sewer, while searching for the keys to Brutus's armor ("Leader of the Pack" quest).
  - In the treasure chests in the Antico area.
  - In the pockets of the couriers.
Tailor's Quest - Pulling Strings (Reward: Large Quiver)
- Silk(Silk) - 8: Elastic fabric produced by silkworm larvae.
  - In the treasure chests, inside the Roman catacombs in the lair of Romulus, while searching for the keys to the armor of Brutus ("Wolves Among the Dead" quest).
  - In the treasure chests in the corridors under the Colosseum while searching for the keys to Brutus's armor ("Thrown to the Wolves" quest).
  - In treasure chests in the Vatican, in the Outskirts and in the Antico area.
  - Some assignments of recruits abroad.
  - In the pockets of the bandits.
- Cardinal purple(Cardinal "s Purple Dye) - 5 pcs .: paint used to depict important persons and characters of religious subjects.
  - In the treasure chest, in a small room inside St. Peter's Basilica, while searching for the keys to Brutus's armor (quest "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing").
  - In treasure chests in the central area of Rome.
  - Some assignments of recruits abroad.
  - In the pockets of the bandits.

In 1976, the German lawyer Michael Roger, while passing through Hamburg, went to a souvenir shop. They sold small, fist-sized human heads. The craftsmanship was surprising: soft smooth skin, luscious lips, real hair. The eyes, however, were bony, with painted pupils, but this did not spoil the impression. The heads were as if they were alive.

These were mainly the heads of blacks, but among them the lawyer saw one European. Roger froze, amazed - the head's face clearly belonged to his son, who disappeared six months ago in Central Africa ...
Having examined her more closely, he almost fainted: two large birthmarks were visible on the crown of his head. Their shape and location clearly indicated that it was a real, but for some reason strangely shrunken head of his son!

He hurried to buy a "souvenir" and went with him straight to the police. But the guards just shrugged their shoulders. This is a souvenir, a toy. There are no grounds for opening a criminal case. However, they sympathized with the unfortunate father, who, out of grief, sees his missing son everywhere.

Roger hired a private detective. Former investigator Johan Dreyer first began to figure out where and by whom the head could have been made. It turned out that quite a lot of such souvenirs are sold in stores in Europe. This means that their mass production has been established somewhere. Almost all of them were Negro, but there were also whites, which were more expensive. A wholesale store selling them was located in London. That's where Dreyer went.

The secret of the priests of the Hivaro tribe came to Africa

In the English capital, a detective handed one of the black heads to an expert for examination. The conclusion he drew puzzled the detective. The head was created using the technology of the South American Indians from the Hivaro tribe. It lives in remote areas of Ecuador and is known for its barbaric customs that have survived since ancient times. The Khivaro hunt for human heads, which are then reduced and preserved in a special way.

In general terms, the method looks like this. From the soaked head, the skin is pulled together with the hair. Then this skin is boiled in a special herbal mixture. It becomes soft, elastic and at the same time decreases in size. It is rolled out, filled with small pebbles or sand, and then sewn up. The result is a head the size of a tennis ball, while retaining its features. It becomes, as it were, a reduced copy of the original. At the end of the operation, it is suspended over the hearth. The smoke completes the conservation process.

The hair on the head, keeping the same length, is decorated by the Indians with bird feathers, which makes the head look frightening. Only after this is it considered that the evil spirit in the severed head is subdued. The head becomes tsantsa - the sacred talisman of the tribe.
Headhunting is currently banned throughout South America. However, tsantsa are in great demand among collectors. And where there is demand, there is supply. The bounty hunt continues, although there are still very few real tsants on the market.

The Hivaro tribe still makes tsantsa.

The appearance of a large number of Negro heads created according to the "Ecuadorian" method caused bewilderment among the expert. The fact is that the process of making tsantsa is kept in the strictest confidence by the hivaro priests. Even the South American ethnographers, who have been studying the customs of the Indians for many years, the technology of their manufacture is not entirely clear. Where this method is known from in Africa (and the Negroid type of heads indicates that they come from there) is completely incomprehensible.

Dreyer learned that the heads were shipped to London from Harrar, Ethiopia. Arriving there, the detective found that there was only a staging post. The people who run the business are connected with some dubious organization that maintains contacts with guerrilla groups almost throughout the Black Continent. And the headquarters of this organization is located in the Central African Republic. That is, where the son of Michael Roger worked!

Colt against poison

Dreyer settled in Bangui, the capital of the CAR. Here he looked around, made acquaintances, carefully questioned the local residents.
In those years, the country was ruled by the cannibal emperor Bokassa. Crime raged and corruption flourished. Europeans working in Bangui on contracts did not risk poking their noses beyond the city's outskirts. The detective learned from them that people are really missing in the city. And not only Africans, but also whites. Most often, they leave for negotiations with some merchants and do not return. The detective was strongly advised not to get involved in dubious enterprises, even if he was promised mountains of gold.

Dreyer waited until they "pecked" at him as well. And once an unknown African showed him a gold nugget, saying that he wanted to sell two dozen of the same. We agreed to meet in the evening. At the appointed time, Dreyer showed up at a bungalow on the outskirts of Bangui. The owner, before starting a business conversation, offered him whiskey. The detective hesitated to drink, suspecting something was wrong. Seeing that the owner did not drink either, he snatched a Colt from his pocket and put it to the African's head. The frightened Negro admitted that he had been given the task of poisoning his guest. For the body, people must come from the villa across the river.

Night Carts

The detective could not trust the local police, he had to act at his own peril and risk. But in Bangui he had a like-minded person - a Belgian, whose friend disappeared here. She and Dreyer have established surveillance of the suspicious villa.
It was not an easy matter: the villa was well guarded, armed posts were already on the distant approaches to it. Friends found out that covered trucks accompanied by jeeps with armed guards often visit the villa.

On a rainy night, Dreyer and the Belgian spotted three trucks at once heading towards the villa. A jeep was driving ahead. The caravan stopped in front of the Mbomu River. Usually shallow, in the rainy season, it floods, and a ferry runs through it. While the trucks were waiting for the crossing, the friends ran up to the last of them and looked into the back. It was full of corpses.
Dreyer realized that this was a chance to break into the villa. He climbed into the back and pulled the curtains behind him. The Belgian never saw him again.

Amulet made from a woman's head.

Bloody scarecrow

Only after the coup in 1979, when the bandit villa was stormed by the military, did the white inhabitants of Bangui learn that African mafiosi had taken human corpses there from almost all of Africa. Corpses were always in abundance. The high mortality rate from interethnic conflicts and general epidemics did not leave bounty hunters without prey.

Now there is no doubt that even the bosses of this dirty business, which brought good income, did not know the technology of making heads. Only one person knew her, the main manufacturer - an Ecuadorian, known by the nickname King Coco.

This Koko managed to convince the bandits that the process of making heads is connected with magic, which means that they cannot do without it. The bandits valued the Ecuadorian worth its weight in gold. Coco was not allowed further than the villa, but he really lived there like a king.

It was said that he was the son of an Indian priest, but had long since broken with his homeland. He was described as a man of not the first youth, flabby, bald, with a large belly. He had a habit of walking naked, wearing many beads and bracelets. Young girls were constantly near him. He took pleasure in sticking his dirty nails into their bodies and laughing when the girls screamed in pain. He demanded that virgins be brought to him. Allegedly, while communicating with them, he took from them the energy necessary to create tsants.

Koko was killed under mysterious circumstances. With his death, the production of heads also ceased. They were no longer available from about the time Dreyer entered the villa. People familiar with this case are convinced that the bloody scarecrow went to the next world with the direct participation of the detective, but Dreyer did not go well either. The detective knew what he was doing when he stayed in a truck full of corpses ...

Later it turned out that Coco's products are worse than real South American tsants. In the early 1980s, the skin on his heads began to deteriorate and eventually they all rotted apart from a few specimens preserved in formalin. Experts attribute this to Koko's lack of the necessary ingredients to make tsants. Apparently, he replaced the South American herbs with local, African ones, which ultimately went to the detriment of the quality of the terrible souvenirs.

Let's find out more about this ...

In a picturesque area on the banks of the Pastasa, along the Cordillera de Coutucu mountains, not far from the border with Peru, a small tribe, called the Shuar, has lived since ancient times. Achuars and Shiviara are close to them in traditions and national characteristics. These ethnic groups today sacredly keep the traditions of their ancestors. One of them is making amulets from human heads.

The area known as the Transcutuca was once inhabited by tribes related to the Khivaro culture. Today, the nationalities that have chosen these lands are the most numerous. The Shuar originally settled in the province of Zamora-Chinchipe. But gradually they expanded their territories. This was largely due to the fact that the Incas and the Spanish conquistadors began to crowd out the Shuar from the west.

Despite the fact that the inhabitants of the Amazon have always been wild and ruthless by nature, the territory is clearly divided between different tribes. Until the middle of the twentieth century, the Shuar were a warlike people. The colonists called them "hivaro", which meant "savages." Often they cut off the heads of their enemies and dried them.

“They still cut their heads, although they hide it. Far away in the jungle. And dried, reduced to the size of a fist. And they do all this so skillfully that the head retains the facial features of its once living master. And such a “doll” is called tsantsa. Making it is a whole art that was once practiced by the Shuar Indians, who were reputed to be the most famous bounty hunters in Ecuador and Peru. Today, when the Shuar became "civilized", the ancient traditions preserve the Achuar and Shiviar, which are close to them in language and customs - their sworn enemies. And - no less sworn enemies among themselves. Nowadays, the old enmity has not disappeared anywhere. It's just veiled ... ”- these are the testimonies of eyewitnesses.

In ancient times, Europeans experienced a pathological fear of the ruthless tribes of the Amazon. Today, whites roam freely through the territories of the formidable Shuar, while the same only glance at the pale-faced with suspicion.

It is known that the heads sold in the shops of Ecuador are fakes. Real tsantsa are quite expensive and are in incredible demand among true collectors. Therefore, Europeans often specially come to the selva in order to acquire a real human head the size of a fist. After all, you can make pretty good money on this.

Before, every murder was answered with murder. Blood feud flourished. So any warrior who killed the enemy knew for sure that the latter's relatives would take revenge on him.

In fact, until the middle of the twentieth century, and in remote areas and later, Jibaro lived in conditions of constant sluggish military conflict. And their houses were closed with walls made of split trunks of the uvi palm tree: this is what they do when they expect an attack. However, these days, a person who has obtained a head can often pay off without risking losing his own.

They are paid off with cattle. Cows brought into the jungle by missionaries and mestizo colonists. The price ranges from eight to ten cows, each costing eight hundred dollars. Everyone in the forests where the Achuar live knows about the existence of such a practice, but it is not customary to advertise it. Thus, the white customer, having paid the ransom to the warrior, plus money for the work, can get the coveted tsantsa, which he either keeps for himself or resells on the black market with great profit for himself. This is an illegal, risky, very specific business, and it may seem dirty to some. However, it has existed for at least the last one and a half hundred years. Only the price of the heads was different at different times. And, at least, it is based on ancient military traditions.

How does the head decrease? Of course, the skull cannot change its size. At least today, the masters of the Achuar tribe are not capable of this, however, human rumor claims that once their skill was so great that it was possible to create such a thing. In general, the process of making tsants is rather complicated and time-consuming.

On the severed head of the defeated adversary, a long incision is made from the back, going from the crown to the neck down, after which the skin is gently pulled from the skull along with the hair. This is similar to how the skins of animals are ripped off in order to subsequently dress them or stuff a stuffed animal. The most responsible and difficult thing at this stage is to carefully remove the skin from the face, since here it is firmly connected to the muscles, which the warrior cuts with a well-sharpened knife. After that, the skull with the remnants of the muscles is thrown as far as possible - it is of no value - and the Indian proceeds to further processing and making tsants.

To do this, human skin bound by a vine is dipped for a while in a pot of boiling water. Boiling water kills germs and bacteria, and the skin itself shrinks and shrinks a little. Then it is pulled out and planted on the tip of a stake stuck in the ground so that it cools. A ring of the same diameter as the future finished tsantsa is made of the kapi vine and tied to the neck. Using a needle and a string of matau palm fiber, the warrior sews up the incision in his head that he made when he ripped off the skin.

The Achuar Indians begin to shrink their heads on the same day, without delay. On the bank of the river, the warrior finds three rounded pebbles and heats them in a fire. After that, he puts one of the stones through the hole in the neck inside the future tsants and rolls it inside so that it burns adhered fibers of flesh and burns the skin from the inside. Then the stone is removed and put into the fire again, and instead of it the next one is thrust into the head.

The warrior produces an immediate reduction of the head with hot sand. It is taken from the river bank, poured into a broken clay pot and heated over a fire. And then pour it inside the "head", filling it a little more than half. The tsantsa filled with sand is constantly turned over so that the sand, moving inside it, like sandpaper, erases adhering pieces of meat and tendons, and also thinns the skin: it is easier to reduce it later. This action is repeated many times in a row until the result is satisfactory.

The cooled sand is poured out, re-heated on the fire and again poured into the head. In between, the warrior scrapes the inside of the tsants clean with a knife. While the skin from the head of a killed enemy is dried in this way, it continuously shrinks and soon begins to resemble the head of a dwarf. All this time, the warrior corrects the distorted facial features with his hands: it is important that the tsantsa retains the appearance of a defeated enemy. This process can take several days or even weeks. At the end, the scalp shrinks to one fourth of its normal size, becomes completely dry and hard to the touch.

Three five-centimeter sticks of solid wood of the uvi palm tree are inserted into the lips, one parallel to the other, which are painted red with paint from the seeds of the ipyak shrub. A cotton strip, also dyed red, is tied around it. Then the whole tsantsa, including the face, is blackened with charcoal.

Naturally, during the drying process, the scalp shrinks. But the length of the hair remains unchanged! That is why the hair on Tsantsa seems disproportionately long in relation to the size of the head. It happens that their length reaches one meter, but this does not mean that tsantsa was made from the head of a woman: among the Achuar, many men still wear longer hair than women. However, although not so often, there are also reduced female heads.

Few people know the fact that the Shuars in the old days also sent women on "headhunting". It was a kind of gender equality. In addition, women could participate in numerous raids.

At the end of the 19th century, bounty hunters experienced their renaissance: tsantsa were in great demand in both Europe and America. The easiest way to get the dried heads was by raids on indigenous villages - and more of them were carried out every month.

European settlers were just beginning to move towards the Amazon lowlands. People came to this wilderness for quick money: here they got rubber and cinchona bark. Bark remained the main ingredient in quinine, a drug used for centuries to treat malaria. The missionaries made contact with the jungle tribes and established minimal trade relations.

At first, the Europeans practically did not exchange their firearms, rightly fearing to arm half-naked savages, who have a custom of chopping off enemy heads. But Tsantsa bewitched the settlers and workers: enterprising European traders began to offer the Indians modern weapons in exchange for an outlandish souvenir. Immediately in the district, tribal wars broke out, which, however, also played into the hands of the Europeans.

To satisfy the ever-growing appetites of the market, and at the same time to make easy money, some cunning people went to the production of cheap fakes. Heads of corpses were ransomed from morgues, even body parts of sloths were used. The counterfeiting business turned out to be so simple and brought in such profits that crowds of people began to engage in it. Europe has been flooded with fakes - in fact, experts say: 80% of the existing ones in the world are fakes.

In Europe and North America, heads were highly prized. The wealthy gathered on the walls of their living rooms entire private collections of tsansa, while museums competed among themselves for the most odious purchase. Nobody even took into account that we were talking about collecting dried human heads - everything was somehow not up to that.

Although Tsansa remains a unique cultural feature of the Amazonian Indian tribes, other peoples also had their own variations of the dried head preparation. The Maori called them toy moco - a European experienced an attack of interest in these skulls back in the 1800s. The tattooed heads of leaders were especially popular among merchants; the Maori, having learned about that, began to massively tattoo and kill slaves, passing them off as their rulers. The enterprising Maori even tried to expand the assortment: having tapped a dozen or two missionaries and made toy moco out of their heads, the Indians came to the next marketplace. They say that Europeans gladly bought up the heads of their fellows.

The same thing happened in New Zealand as in the Amazon. Tribes with modern weapons rushed to slaughter each other to meet the demand for dried heads. In 1831, the Governor of New South Wales, Ralph Darling, vetoed the toy moco trade. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, most countries have outlawed the hunt for dried heads.

The Khivaro carefully guard the tsantsa manufacturing technology, but the information leaked nevertheless. This is evidenced by the fact that at one time on the black markets began to sell Negroid "dried heads" made in Africa. Moreover, a channel has been established through which these talismans are sent from Africa to London, and from there to all European countries. Collectors from different countries vie with each other for the right to own another terrible tsantsu.